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File: Korvaks Keep.hold (139.6 KB)
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Even though this hold came from Life to be Lived, it doesn't resemble it in the slightest. That hold was a story, with a few hack n' slash rooms. Now this, well, is a bit different. It is all medium difficulty puzzles! But I feel much better about this hold than its predecessor. Thanks so much to Tokyokid for testing all the way through with great comments!

Have fun!

- Jason

tokyokid
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 453
Registered: 05-06-2006
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After playing though this many times, I must give it my full compliments. Jason has really evolved from the early hold-maker as you knew him before.

Here is his masterpiece, fresh from testing. I award this hold with 7 brains, and a 9 overall. Keep up the great work!

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[Last edited by tokyokid at 02-25-2007 06:36 PM]

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3659
Registered: 10-06-2005
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At first I was like "Whoa, the guy who made this hold came back and posted it!!!"

But it's just Jason. Oh well, I guess I'll go play it and comment.

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

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3659
Registered: 10-06-2005
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Okay, a few things.

Introduction Once West was actually pretty nice. It looked like an "omg omg omg gotta do this but not die because of roaches" room, but I actually had to time things properly in order to make the room solvable.

But, then I hit the Unknown Tunnel.

Augh, I thought Once North was ridiculous, but then I hit Twice North...

Not having a lot of fun so far.

EDIT:

Oh. You cruel, cruel person.

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

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[Last edited by Chaco at 02-25-2007 10:00 PM]

Tahnan
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2460
Registered: 11-14-2005
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Chaco wrote:
But, then I hit the Unknown Tunnel.

Augh, I thought Once North was ridiculous, but then I hit Twice North...

Not having a lot of fun so far.

Kind of my reaction; 1N seemed a little grueling. But, er, Chaco...even in secret tags, don't you think it a bad idea to give away the solution to a room?

Stephen4Louise
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 548
Registered: 04-06-2005
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Those couple of golum rooms in Unknown Tunnel were tough, but wait til you get to the next level. Some great rooms, but some killers. 4N nearly had me asking for help, but I managed it eventually. I'd say the hold is off to a great start.

Steve.

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3659
Registered: 10-06-2005
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I think I was justified in revealing that. The room almost looks solvable, but in fact is not, unless you happen to notice the part that does make it solvable. And, the previous room really puts you into the mindset of "okay, I've got to try this over and over and over again until I get it right", so I naturally figured the next room was like that too when I saw it.

I will, however, remove the tags, since you asked nicely and I don't want to make a big fuss about it.

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

Tahnan
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2460
Registered: 11-14-2005
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Having just solved Sence North in the tunnel, I have to say I found the room not much fun at all. You could either step slowly and backspace a whole lot, or keep clicking eyes to figure out where you could go next; but basically, it was just walking around while you did that.

Not all of the rooms have been like that, but there's a certain amount of 'well this is no fun' that I've been feeling here. We'll see how I feel by the end of the hold.

[EDIT: If I make it that far. Now in 9N1E, I'm thinking, "I'm starting to get really tired of trial and error."]

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[Last edited by Tahnan at 02-26-2007 12:32 AM]

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3659
Registered: 10-06-2005
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Huzzah, I broke the hold.

In Korvak's Chase, Tonce North, you can kill the slayer, then take the secret passage into the northern passage and end hold prematurely.

Now to actually go into the garden and do stuff.

Tahnan - surprise surprise, there's a trick in that room that makes it, well, possible.

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

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[Last edited by Chaco at 02-26-2007 02:57 AM]

Tahnan
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2460
Registered: 11-14-2005
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OK, I did indeed find the trick in that room. (It wasn't a particularly new or innovative trick, which of course didn't make me feel any better about not having seen it.)

The fact that I didn't see the trick, but instead kept trying to plod through a series of trial-and-error solutions--and, I kid you not, I seriously considered trying to write a room-solving program to run through the possibilities for me--can be attributed to the fact that there are rooms in the hold where that seems to in fact be what needs to be done. I'm currently beating my head against Korvak's Corridor 5N, which is another lure-the-golems-to-the-non-trapdoor-squares room, and the back of my mind is going, "That room solver might be worth writing here, too..." Because there's just so much "Try this move? No. This one? No. This one? No."

I mean, there have been rooms I quite enjoyed. The entrance to Korvak's Corridor, for instance. (Well, I would have enjoyed it more with another checkpoint or two. I got really, really tired of inputting the same initial 75-move sequence before facing the roach horde.) It's just that there have also been, well, the other kind of room.

We'll see where the chips fall once I've finished the hold.

Stephen4Louise
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 548
Registered: 04-06-2005
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Done!

It was a bit of a mixed bag really. Some great rooms and some not so great. If never see ortho squares again it will be too soon! Some of the scripting threw me which wasnt so good. But for everything bad, there was much more good. Lots of gems hidden away in here.
Now just two rooms left til mastery.

Mastered! Pity there wasn't more to see behind the master door. All in all I enjoyed the hold and I'll give it an 8.

Keep up the good work Jason (less ortho squares next time! )

Steve.

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[Last edited by Stephen4Louise at 02-26-2007 08:22 PM]

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3659
Registered: 10-06-2005
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Mastered, finally. The Mosaic Pressure Plate room was a little much, but I got it done.

To be honest, I mostly agree with Tahnan's review. Korvak's Inner Wall: Once South, Twice East is actually a really fun room, but there are a lot of trial-and-error rooms throughout the hold, including unfortunately the room right after the one Tahnan's playing.

I'm probably not going to replay this one.

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

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3659
Registered: 10-06-2005
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The removed hint was for Twice North, not Once North, sorry.

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

Rabscuttle
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2495
Registered: 09-10-2004
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Introduction: 1N needs to be explicitly marked unscorable as the master door in the Entrance blocks exit from the room.

Overall, a good hold, challenging in places. I didn't like the final room too much, the scripting was unclear. Why does the door close after you leave the Slayer's exit area? I used that to stop him escaping at first and couldn't work out why nothing was happening.

There were some very nice small puzzles that I quite enjoyed. Inner Wall: 1N was nice, and Corridor 3N had me scratching my head for longer that I should have been.

Tahnan
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2460
Registered: 11-14-2005
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Chaco wrote:
Huzzah, I broke the hold.

In Korvak's Chase, Tonce North, you can kill the slayer, then take the secret passage into the northern passage and end hold prematurely.

"Can"? I thought you were supposed to. There's another way to make it out of that room? (Oh, there it is. Huh. Somehow I tried that and couldn't get it to work, so I just went up and killed the slayer. I wondered what was up with that "I always escape" line. Of course, I'd already killed the slayer once earlier in the hold, in another "is there supposed to be a way to do this room without killing him?" room.)

Meanwhile, in spite of my last-ditch effort to like this hold, I'm now in Garden: 5N and the scripting is so bad that I literally cannot figure out what I'm supposed to be doing. In particular...



So in part, I'm frustrated because I don't see how to solve the room; but in part, I'm irritated because what I'm doing should be right, and isn't. (Like, imagine taking a trivia quiz and they ask, "What element starts with Z?" and you say "Zinc" and they say "Wrong: it's zirconium." OK, sure, zirconium starts with a Z; but what was wrong with your answer?)

[EDIT: By using Chaco's break--i.e., by exiting prematurely, and thereby enabling myself to master the hold--I was able to edit the hold, look at the scripting (which didn't help), and then copy it and start messing around with the room (which did). You mean, you're supposed to



...and not at all obvious from my point of view as a player.]

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[Last edited by Tahnan at 03-01-2007 06:38 AM]

Jason
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1076
Registered: 05-05-2006
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Yeah, I'm very sorry about that room. You have to block his way at 2 with something

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jbluestein
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1670
Registered: 12-23-2005
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I've now mastered this hold. I have some compliments and some criticisms.

Compliments first:

There are some very good puzzles in this hold. Several that take careful consideration and planning.

Jason clearly has a good understanding of the game elements and is able to put them together in some very complex patterns.

Criticisms:

While there are many good rooms in this hold, there are quite a few that I didn't enjoy. Weird scripting is a minor concern for me. There seem to be a lot of rooms that you just have to try a lot of different patterns until you find the one precise one that works. Probably my least favorite room in the entire hold is Korvak's Tunnel: 6N. Trapdoors, wraithwings, and eyes you can't trigger -- with no visual cue as to which trapdoors you can't afford to step on. I would love to see a lot fewer rooms like this, and more like Korvak's Inner Wall: 1S2E, a desperately frustrating room until you figure out the trick.

Checkpoints -- several rooms really could have used some earlier checkpoints. Or any checkpoints at all.

That said, my overall experience with the hold was positive, but not as positive as I would have hoped. I think it's clear that Jason is growing as an architect and I look forward to seeing more holds from him. After careful consideration, I give this hold a 6 for fun and 6.5 brains of difficulty.

Josh

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

Dolan42
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 195
Registered: 04-14-2006
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Great hold. There were a few rooms that I'd hate to play through again(even though I did, several times(darn unexpected #1s(that wont last but make me feel like I have to try to optimize them more so they might last longer...))), but overall it was very enjoyable . I give it a 9 with 7.5 brains. Keep up the good work.

____________________________
-D
"To understand recursion you must first understand recursion."

Danteslives
Level: Delver

Rank Points: 48
Registered: 11-16-2006
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This hold holds a special place in my heart. It is the hold where I finally started to feel that I am not a completely horrible DROD player anymore, and am now becomming a semi-horrible-approaching- bad player. The puzzles had me suffering for long stretches of time, but I was finally able to beat all of them without help, except for Corridor: The Entrance. Thank you, I found this hold very enjoyable!

Ezlo
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1227
Registered: 01-08-2006
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After a while and asking for one hint, I've finished the hold. Okay rooms, nothing too special besides.

7 fun and 8 brains. Mostly for Tunnel 6n

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martz
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 416
Registered: 08-19-2005
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This is a decent hold - contains some good things and some bad. A lot of the puzzles are minimalist and require specific movement sequences - this can tend to be annoying when you've repeated the same steps over and over again... Other issues have already been mentioned, a lack of checkpoints (one particular room comes to mind - Korvak's Corridor: Entrance), unintuitive scripting in the final room, but overall I liked this hold - the secret rooms were good providing a small separate story to the main hold.

If you don't mind rooms which require a specific sequence of moves to complete, then you'll probably enjoy this hold.

Difficulty: 6.5
Fun: 7

____________________________
Without struggle, there is no progress, so get up, get out, and go make the rest of your life the best of your life; you deserve to live the life that YOU want to live...

Progress - Gavin G