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Caravel Forum : DROD Boards : Holds : Master Locks Expert (2006 Summer/Fall Smitemaster's Selection)
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8.4/10 (28 votes)
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Author Name:Larry Murk
Submitted By:larrymurk
Hold Name:Master Locks Expert
Theme:2006 Summer/Fall Smitemaster's Selection
Author's Difficulty:
Number of Levels:5
Number of Rooms:40
Number of Monsters:180
Version:DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold
High Scores:View High Scores
Hold Karma:6 (+6 / -0)
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admin
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icon Master Locks Expert  
2006 Summer/Fall Smitemaster's Selection

About Master Locks/Master Locks Expert-

I created two difficulty levels so that more people can enjoy the hold at a level they enjoy. If you prefer high difficulty you might want to play the Expert version first since the normal version will often give hints as to what needs to be done in the Expert version.

Credit goes to-

Testers AlefBet, Briareos, Doom, Eytanz, michthro, wallu

Matt(Schik): What can you say, the monkey has a hand in everything.

Mike(mrimer): The man is busy on TCB yet he still put unending effort into this hold.

Erik(ErikH2000): Without Erik there'd be no story, actually there'd be no DROD.

Larry(larrymurk): I'm the architect.

Further credit-

Lock 3: 3E is a rework of one of Doom's creations.

Voice acting-

Beethro: Sten Ryason
Receptionist: Elfstone
Journals: Abbyzzmal
02-20-2007 at 03:42 AM
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Ezlo
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icon Re: Master Locks Expert (0)  
Yes! If I do say so myself! Downloading now.

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02-20-2007 at 03:51 AM
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jemann
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icon Re: Master Locks Expert (0)  
Master Locks Expert + Master Locks + larrymurk = ...
If I hadn't already been told that Sten Ryason was providing the voice of Beethro, I would be a little scared about now.
02-20-2007 at 03:58 AM
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Rabscuttle
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icon Re: Master Locks Expert (+1)  
Conquered.
:D
Just that secret room to go... hrmmmm...

(The entrance rooms should be marked trivial, because 2 move demos are dumb.)


02-20-2007 at 09:31 AM
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Rabscuttle
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icon Re: Master Locks Expert (+2)  
Mastered.

Comments:

Click here to view the secret text




[Last edited by Rabscuttle at 02-20-2007 04:41 PM : first post was updated!]
02-20-2007 at 10:15 AM
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Doom
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icon Re: Master Locks Expert (+1)  
A random observation:

The standard deviation of 4.24 with 3 votes reveals that the given votes are: "10, 10 and 1".

Someone has something against this hold...?
02-20-2007 at 06:03 PM
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Schik
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icon Re: Master Locks Expert (+1)  
Doom wrote:
A random observation:

The standard deviation of 4.24 with 3 votes reveals that the given votes are: "10, 10 and 1".

Someone has something against this hold...?
Hmmm... and the person who gave it a 1 doesn't even have CaravelNet, and thus hasn't tried this hold. I think at some point I need to make it so that if you clearly don't have access to a hold, you can't vote on it.

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02-20-2007 at 06:19 PM
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eytanz
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icon Re: Master Locks Expert (+1)  
Is this a regular forum person? Not that I want to know who it is, but I'm just concerned it's a random vandal in which case perhaps the vote should be removed.

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02-20-2007 at 06:26 PM
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Syntax
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icon Re: Master Locks Expert (0)  
I'd personally like to know who it is. I see this as malice.
02-20-2007 at 07:25 PM
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Schik
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icon Re: Master Locks Expert (+2)  
Syntax wrote:
I'd personally like to know who it is. I see this as malice.
Well... no. I'm not going to open this guy up for some vigilante justice or anything. I'm going to remove the vote, PM him and just ask "Why??!!?", and put "don't allow votes for SS holds from those who don't have access to them" on my todo list.

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The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi
02-20-2007 at 07:30 PM
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Syntax
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icon Re: Master Locks Expert (0)  
That's why you run these forums and not me ;)
02-20-2007 at 07:39 PM
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Albert
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icon Re: Master Locks Expert (+1)  
That may well be the reason for the vote.
Random forumer decides that they want to play this hold, discover that they can't because it's an SmS, and vent their frustration in the form of a low vote.
02-22-2007 at 07:47 PM
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Blondbeard
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icon Re: Master Locks Expert (+1)  
I kind of agree with everything Rabscuttle said :) I would say this is a bit easier than most SMS holds, and it was the perfect difficulty for me to pass through it quite quickly and higly amussed. For most parts I felt it made the easy rooms a bit more complete, and I have to say it's really nice to first play an easy version of a hold, and then a harder.

I am really impressed by how you can make even the tedious rooms very awarding. The Master Lock 4E meant a lot of work, but it was higly satisfactory to complete it. I just wish I could have beaten Rabscuttle :P

[Last edited by Blondbeard at 02-23-2007 05:41 PM]
02-23-2007 at 05:40 PM
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Remlin
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icon Re: Master Locks Expert (+1)  
A very good hold, with some extremely clever puzzles. Always amazing to see how rooms with so few monsters can be so hard. Lock 2 in particular was great, I thought, very original rooms there.

I was a bit disappointed by lock 3. Where were the puzzles? It was just a series of "do you know the rules for snake movement" rooms (excepting 3E). 1N in particular was long, boring, and not at all challenging.

Overall, great and engaging hold. Not as difficult as some past SMSs, but plenty of real stumpers, especially for someone who doesn't play the sister hold first (I would imagine).

[Last edited by Remlin at 02-28-2007 10:52 AM]
02-28-2007 at 10:51 AM
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Banjooie
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icon Re: Master Locks Expert (0)  
Larrymurk sorta holds on to serpent movement in the same manner that a fellow in a knife fight might hold on to, say, a pistol.


02-28-2007 at 10:38 PM
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Chard
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icon Re: Master Locks Expert (+1)  
Wonderful set of rooms. Not too easy, but I didn't crack my head against it for weeks either.

The secret room was very interesting, I notice though that I solved it in a completely different way to everyone else on the leaderboard.
03-02-2007 at 05:25 AM
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Ezlo
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icon Re: Master Locks Expert (+1)  
Great hold! Just the perfect amount of difficulty if you played Master Locks first. Everything was just the tiniest bit harder.

10 with 7 brains.

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[Last edited by Ezlo at 03-04-2007 09:12 PM]
03-04-2007 at 09:12 PM
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jbluestein
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icon Re: Master Locks Expert (+1)  
Another excellent larrymurk hold.

I give it a 9 and 7.5 brains. I haven't figured out the secret room yet, but I do have a few ideas.

Josh

[EDIT: Aaand...mastered. That secret was something else. Cool stuff.]


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"Rings and knots of joy and grief, all interlaced and locking." --William Buck

[Last edited by jbluestein at 03-05-2007 11:42 AM]
03-05-2007 at 12:41 AM
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robin
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icon Re: Master Locks Expert (+1)  
Mastered

cool hold, and it's fun to have an easy one, so the experd one becomes fun for people like me.

Thanks

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03-13-2007 at 05:44 PM
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Chaco
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icon Re: Master Locks Expert (+2)  
Mastered.

This hold (and its easy version) was a very fun jaunt through four levels (yes) of larrymurk puzzles that were all loosely themed around monster manipulation and "locks", whatever the room interpreted that to mean. Even in the pre-pressure plate period, larrymurk had me sending rattlesnakes, tar babies, and goblins into specifically marked areas for later use.

Although several spots in this hold (especially some of the expert Lock 3 rooms) did require fairly tight serpent timing, I'd say that given fairly good knowledge of monster movement and okay serpent manipulation skills that this Expert hold has a reasonably tough-as-nails difficulty of seven and a half brains, instead of a ridiculously tough-as-nails difficulty of nine brains or a not very tough-as-nails difficulty of three brains.

Playing through this hold was very interesting, since I had the experience of playing through TCB and getting its story before playing this hold at all. If the reader is interested in the TCB story elements in the secret tags following, then I would recommend he play this hold and see a small glimpse into the canonical relationship between those powers.

Click here to view the secret text


So, overall, I was quite satisfied by this set of holds, and think it was a fine Smitemasters' Selection. :)

[/advertisement]

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10-26-2008 at 02:39 AM
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da rogu3
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icon Re: Master Locks Expert (+2)  
Was going to write a review for this a while ago, but somehow forgot. Anyway, here are my thoughts (mainly aimed at people who haven't got the SS)

When I completed Master Locks a few months ago, I thought it was brilliant. However, after playing several more holds, my opinion has changed from very good to just good. This expert version however, isn't that fun. Personally, I felt that many of the rooms were simply more frustrating than their non-expert counterparts, rather than more difficult. This was especially true of the Lock 3 rooms. No challenge, just repetitive serpent manipulation rooms (which are nowhere near as good as the ones in Slitherin). And I disapprove of movement order puzzles being used as a challenge (since in 2.0 you can't easily find out the movement order).

So, now that I've mastered all 3 holds, I can answer the question - is this Smitemaster Selection worth buying? Unfortunately, the answer is no. Larrymurk has released over a dozen excellent holds, and Award Ceremony is probably the closest to this. Want to get Smitemastery 101? I'd recommend DROD Tutorials and Advanced Concepts instead. Storywise, you don't really miss out on anything. Overall, unless you're a completionist or want more high scores, you can probably give this SS a miss.
07-03-2011 at 02:45 PM
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west.logan
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icon Re: Master Locks Expert (0)  
Might I recommend "In the Research Facility" instead of "DROD Tutorials"? I thought it was better done as a tutorial.

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[Last edited by west.logan at 07-03-2011 02:56 PM]
07-03-2011 at 02:56 PM
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Blondbeard
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icon Re: Master Locks Expert (+1)  
Smitemasters selections are excelent ways of supporting the DROD franchise, though. Plus I really liked Master Locks, partly because of the story, mainly because of the puzzles.


07-03-2011 at 04:06 PM
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da rogu3
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icon Re: Master Locks Expert (0)  
Blondbeard wrote:
Smitemasters selections are excelent ways of supporting the DROD franchise, though. Plus I really liked Master Locks, partly because of the story, mainly because of the puzzles.
I agree with the first part. But I think that there are better Smitemaster Selections to get, namely, Perfection, Beethro's Teacher, Complex Complex, etc. And puzzlewise, Master Locks is very similar to Award Ceremony.

[Last edited by da rogu3 at 07-04-2011 01:31 PM]
07-03-2011 at 04:13 PM
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Jatopian
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icon Re: Master Locks Expert (+1)  
Personally I found Smitemastery 101 to be a fun Jacob hold. I've never completed Master Locks, though, so I can see how one might not be getting one's money's worth for the bundle, I guess?

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07-03-2011 at 08:26 PM
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