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File: Count Themes Dungeon.hold (100.6 KB)
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A 19 level hold which gets harder as you get deeper!

Count Theme's Dungeon originally started July 23, 2006 with
Luigi's Hotel, which was later abandoned. A level of Luigi's Hotel
would be included in CTD. Count Theme's Dungeon did not start
until August 19th, when I started creating some more puzzles,
working around the level from Luigi's Hotel.

The beta board soon followed on August 22, after I'd completed
some more levels, and the testing started! And CTD was born.

Now a beautiful, masterpiece hold has been published!

Thanks to the hard-working testers; Elfstone, Dolan42,
jbluestein, MeckMeck GRE, jjohn7418, Niccus,Pilchard VIII, Ezlo,
bomber50, Jason, bdwing, Kevin_P86, Hikari, and the HA!

This is also the 5th hold to be approved by the new HA!

Enjoy!

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3659
Registered: 10-06-2005
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Wow, nineteen levels?

That's plenty of rooms too.

Alright, I guess I'll give this one a try.

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UrAvgAzn
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 468
Registered: 04-15-2006
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Its finally out! 19 levels? Whoa. I'm definitely going to play this right now. A beautiful masterpiece, you say? Must be really good. Now I feel kinda bad I didn't offer to beta test...

Keep posting,

____________________________
"The leaf, still green, must someday fall.
Such grief, such joy, to live at all."
- T.A. Barron, The Lost Years of Merlin

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
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Yeah, it's a really big hold, looking at the H&S images.

...which is kinda sad because I'm stuck at the first real big trapdoor puzzle, which just looks tedious and eye-hurting. I don't much like big ones unless there's an extra element to them, such as difficult combat or some sort of trap you must also avoid.

EDIT:

Done, and now doing Roach Pit I - it's just one of those things you just have to grit your teeth and do.

____________________________
Quick links to my stuff (in case you forgot where it was):

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[Last edited by Chaco at 12-02-2006 12:14 AM]

UrAvgAzn
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 468
Registered: 04-15-2006
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While when I saw Lobby 2N, I quit out of DROD: KDD, and came back here. Some of these rooms are really tedious, and Lobby 1N, really needs a checkpoint.

Keep posting,

____________________________
"The leaf, still green, must someday fall.
Such grief, such joy, to live at all."
- T.A. Barron, The Lost Years of Merlin

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3659
Registered: 10-06-2005
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Count Theme's Island : 3 North, 5 East doesn't really look possible (a-sploding brained queens behind two large doors, brain is behind red door)

Looks like the red doors and trapdoors were an afterthought, since it's impossible to get the trapdoors at upper-right, but it's possible to get the trapdoors at lower-right. However, the fact that those two tiles needed are in checkerboard tile instead of dirt really shines, showing that it was a last-minute (and pretty sloppy) addition.

...I'm pretty disappointed, I'd go as far as to say most of these rooms are Roaches Revenge quality.

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eytanz
Level: Smitemaster

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This hold went through the review process, and has been confirmed masterable. I'd be very surprised if this changed since yesterday.

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I got my avatar back! Yay!

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
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Registered: 10-06-2005
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Wait, I see how to do that now. Guess I should have just posted in Hints and Solutions. Moving on...

It's like, a bunch of rooms where you just have to kill a bunch of monsters, and you're running. And then there's actually something where you have to think and you kinda trip and fall.

____________________________
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[Last edited by Chaco at 12-02-2006 01:43 AM]

tokyokid
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 453
Registered: 05-06-2006
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Hey, don't knock the hold out yet, just give it a little more of a chance. The better levels are coming up!

Blondbeard
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1486
Registered: 03-31-2005
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I really fail to see why you made a 19 level dungeon with not so good levels in the begining, and funny levels in the end. Wouldn't the hold as a whole have been better if you only used the better levels?

Tahnan
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2460
Registered: 11-14-2005
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So in the interest of "full knowledge", can you give some sense of what the heck is going on in Count Theme's Island: 1S1E? As far as I can tell, it seems to be "bombs explode whenever the heck they feel like it".

Syntax
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1218
Registered: 05-12-2005
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I agree with eytanz on this... the hold has met all standards including masterable.

[EDIT]

Blondbeard... not everyone is good at such puzzles as yourself I've yet to play this hold but will wait a few days.

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[Last edited by Syntax at 12-02-2006 10:57 AM]

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
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Actually, I think they explode whenver a monster enters some sort of range near the bomb. At least, that's how I ended up solving it.

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tokyokid
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Tahnan wrote:
So in the interest of "full knowledge", can you give some sense of what the heck is going on in Count Theme's Island: 1S1E? As far as I can tell, it seems to be "bombs explode whenever the heck they feel like it".

Yes, Chaco's right; they implode whenever a monster goes into their range.

Rabscuttle
Level: Smitemaster

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Registered: 09-10-2004
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eytanz wrote:
This hold went through the review process, and has been confirmed masterable. I'd be very surprised if this changed since yesterday.

It is still masterable.

This is a pretty fun hold. Quite easy and the hardest room (a variation of an earlier room in the hold) wasn't required. Low point were the bombs that went off for no obvious reason. I didn't really like the Hook rooms for the same reason - some indication of where the monsters were going to appear would have been nice. Otherwise, nothing else bothered me enough that I still remember what it is.

tokyokid
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Thanks for comments. BTW, what is the hardest room?

Rabscuttle
Level: Smitemaster

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I found it to be Bottom of the Dungeon: 1N

tokyokid
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That's what I thought. I also thought it was too hard (some of the testers complained), so I made it non-required.

Tahnan
Level: Smitemaster

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Registered: 11-14-2005
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File: Random Explosions.demo (1.9 KB)
Downloaded 84 times.
License: Public Domain

tokyokid wrote:
Yes, Chaco's right; they implode whenever a monster goes into their range.

Uh, really? What "range"? Attached is a demo in which:

* The northernmost bomb goes off when a snake is four spaces south, three spaces west of it;
* The southeasternmost bomb doesn't go off even when a snake has come one square north, two squares west of it;
* The southernmost bomb doesn't go off until a snake is diagonally adjacent to it.

Is the "range" different on each bomb? Are we required to guess? That's exactly the sort of random scripting that makes me vote holds lower than I otherwise would (see, e.g., my comments on Tokyokid's entries into the Al Dente contest).

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3659
Registered: 10-06-2005
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The problem here is that the ranges are pretty small and the characters can't appear in an area that has a monster (or Beethro) in it.

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Tahnan
Level: Smitemaster

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The problem here is that there's unpredictable scripting.

eytanz
Level: Smitemaster

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Several rooms have been marked as unhighscorable for no particular reason (for example, Count Theme's Island 4N, which while very easy as a room, is not trivial to optimize)

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Tahnan
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That's exactly what inspired me to post this request.

Go ahead, ask me what I thought of the scripting in the Courtyard. (Such as the "looks like a complex" comment every time you go into 7N4E, from any direction; or the joy of the unpredictably appearing monsters in 7N2E.)

Ezlo
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1227
Registered: 01-08-2006
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After playing through the hold a bunch for testing, I rather enjoy this hold. I gave it 4 brains with a 7 rating.

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Call me Citrus.

selotte
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 22
Registered: 01-13-2005
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I like the first eight levels, but must give up at Rocky Road. I miss hold that´s not to hard to play. A quistion; When you look at the levellist, Rocky Road comes before Count Themes´s Island , but aften when you play?

tokyokid
Level: Smiter

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Registered: 05-06-2006
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selotte wrote:
A quistion; When you look at the levellist, Rocky Road comes before Count Themes´s Island , but aften when you play?

Probobly when I was in the editor, I accedentally dragged Rocky Road before CT Island. It doesn't really matter, I think.

Syntax
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Well, I'm just over half way through so I won't vote yet but may I just say you have a great way with trapdoor puzzles. And I mean puzzles. I tend (as a lot of people here) not to enjoy them much but when they're designed like this, it's a pleasure

Stephen4Louise
Level: Smitemaster

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Registered: 04-06-2005
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Syntax wrote:
Well, I'm just over half way through so I won't vote yet but may I just say you have a great way with trapdoor puzzles. And I mean puzzles. I tend (as a lot of people here) not to enjoy them much but when they're designed like this, it's a pleasure

I agree, the trapdoor puzzles here were great. Too many holds have trapdoor "puzzles" where a quick glance reveals the solution.

Overall, I liked the hold. Not too difficult, but not so easy that it was boring.

Keep up the good work tokyokid.

Steve.

Tahnan
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2460
Registered: 11-14-2005
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OK, I'll admit: I rated this hold somewhat low. In part because of my (oft-admitted) dislike of unpredictable scripting, as well as occasional bad scripting, and (another pet peeve) open-edged rooms with obstacles in the next room stopping you from leaving from certain squares.

And in part because I went through a number of rooms thinking, "Ah, I see, instead of killing the delver with monsters, we're trying to bore him to death." (For instance: Courtyard 8N2W, Roach Pit I 3N3E, Roach Pit II's secret room, Count Theme's Island 4N1E, Deep Pits Entrance and a few other rooms on that level, the whole of the Cave of Time...)

I'm not being entirely fair (in fact, I'm about to go bump by ranking up a point), because there are a good number of nice rooms in here: some perhaps fun only from an optimizing standpoint, but at least some that are quite interesting. I only wish that there were far fewer of the "filler" rooms.

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
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Registered: 10-06-2005
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I'm not sure, I liked the concept of the Cave of Time, but it probably could have been expanded a bit - in it's current form it was rather boring, I agree.

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