Secreted for length. I have commented thoroughly on all the holds.
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An Unexpected Vacation
Author: Chaco
Element: Waterskippers
Status: Mastered
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This hold was mine. I think it is awesome.
Score: 10
Artful Escape
Author: Ravon
Element: Disarm Tokens
Status: Mastered
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This hold had rather simple puzzles illustrating some of the uses of disarm tokens. The rooms were very simple, not including any superfluous details or monsters, but I felt they were a bit too easy as a result. Perhaps some more difficult rooms were in order, perhaps not. In any case, a solid level.
Score: 8
Buring[sic]
Sands
Author: tokyokid
Element: Hot Tiles
Status: Mastered
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There was a story. A somewhat believable story.
There were a lot of rooms in this. There were puzzles. However, the puzzles were kind of easy and all showcased two things:
-Kill unreachable monsters using hot tiles
-Don't kill yourself using hot tiles
Unlike the previous hold, there wasn't actually much divergence from these two ideas.
Twice North Twice East is really, really easy in fact - the line of four south-facing force arrows with hot tiles has a wall underneath it, so you can just wait below it and the roaches will all kill themselves.
In Twice North, you can reach the scroll in the lower right part of the room before the green door opens - you can step diagonally.
About the post-post master room: I disagree, because clearly the monsters were dying. Or, since mimics are clearly Beethro hallucinating and persuading monsters that they are dying, hot tiles are just Beethro persuading monsters that they are getting fried.
I dunno.
Score: 7
Contest
Author: Nenad
Element: Fegundoes
Status: Conquered
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The rooms here seemed sloppily put together. There were only two kinds of puzzle here, neither of which I enjoyed very much:
*Pilot fegundo around a course
*Kill things with the fegundo
And then there was a trapdoor puzzle and a small room with a scene that had briars... geez. I think there wasn't enough focus in this hold.
Score: 5
Elemental Entry Aneport
Author: techant
Element: On/Off Pressure Plates
Status: Mastered
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Something about this hold rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe it was the scattered-ness of many of the rooms. Maybe it was the way many of the rooms were dark and foggy and made it hard to notice whether something was a trapdoor or a pressure plate. But I didn't really like this hold as much as I did the previous holds.
There were some nice rooms in here, I'll say. Twice North Once East was quite a nice room. But Once East was just a bunch of random hack-and-slash, and Once North Twice East was just a few "don't wake the eye" moments and "kill the seep in an area with a lot of walls".
And, uh, then there were the rooms where a pressure plate built bridges. Those were sort of neat, but, as you said, detracted from the theme.
To be honest, I feel it would have been possible to rebuild the hold (well, maybe not Twice North Once East) without using the on-off pressure plates at all, which kind of detracts from the hold.
You did an okay job showing off pressure plates, but I think there's some areas for improvement.
Score: 6
Elemental Showcase Entry
Author: NoahT
Element: Tarstuff Switching Tokens
Status: Unconquered
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I really did not like how you introduced the tokens. The timing mechanism was okay and new. A simple room with just a piece of tarstuff probably would have sufficed, but you threw in an efficiency puzzle which demanded attention and optimization at the very start. Worse, the green doors then block off everyone who is inefficient and can't solve this puzzle from the rest of the hold, which is a bit of a downer.
So, I did what I naturally do every time a contest entry has a bottleneck that I really don't enjoy: I look in the editor. Luckily, this one was Anyone-Edit, so there was still a chance that the other four rooms would be better.
I actually had an idea similar to Once West a while ago, but I threw it out because it became obvious after playtesting that the room was not fun. This room is not fun. Not only is there switching of tar at odd intervals, but there is also a timer, which means you have to be really efficient. I tried to solve this one, but I stopped after a while because I really just did not like the room that much.
Once North has efficiency again. I tried this one out as well, but I stopped after reaching the top several times and being a spawn or so short of lighting the fuse, because I just did not feel like replaying the whole room over again looking for mistakes.
Once East has efficiency of a different sort. I tried it out for a while. I noticed the gimmick that "hey, you're switching which timer is active too" and "hey, you need to have gel on to clear this section" but I just did not look forward to clearing two huge rooms full of gelmud.
Once South was actually much better than the other rooms. It had efficiency, but of a different sort - make sure the babies don't go onto the arrows. I actually had fun figuring out which parts I should visit first, then coordinating the movement preference switch. Then I noticed that you had to get them all on the hot plates/pressure plates at the same time. I sighed, not very amused. I did complete this one eventually, but that extra condition just did not sit well with me.
Overall, you definitely had tarstuff switching puzzles in here. I liked how you used the movement preferences and cutting ability switching, but I really did not like the bottlenecking and the efficiency needed.
Score: 6 (would have been 5.5 but I rounded up)
Elemental Showcase Fire
Author: coppro
Element: Hot Tiles
Status: Unconquered
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I'm pretty sure an entrance full of goblins and no obvious way to get rid of them all is an unfun way to start the hold. I did not even try to finish that room, and promptly went to the editor.
Once West was much more interesting than the Entrance, because I had to actually think about where I wanted to put the golems. It took a while to solve this room.
The following room was just a bunch of guard action with hot tiles. No puzzle at all, somewhat entertaining, but not very satisfying.
And then the next room. I understood the idea of the room after a while, but I can't say that I found it very fun either.
Overall, there were some efforts at puzzles, but I was rather disappointed with the way you presented the element at hand.
Score: 3
Elemental Showcase Jason
Author: Jason
Element: Oremites
Status: Mastered
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Oremite Training was rather simple, I enjoyed it somewhat. I imagine Thrice North might not be fun for some people, but the oremites did sort of indicate the way you were supposed to go.
Quarce North was very easy because all you needed to do was stand on the force arrow and wait around, and the rattlesnake killed itself. A bit unintended, I think.
Quince North: It was somewhat unobvious (although possible to figure out) where the decoy should go, so I think a pre-placed decoy would have been better. Still, nice puzzle and simple illustration of how to turn yourself relative to a mimic.
Oh, wait, we can't clear the Oremite Castle. Oh well. I was rather satisfied with the training anyway. The rooms were simple and demonstrated distinct, clear concepts that were fun and interesting. My only complaint is the linearity, but I don't think it was as much of a bottleneck as it could have been.
Score: 9
Elemental Showcase The Plumbing
Author: Someone Else
Element: Stalwarts
Status: Unconquered
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I knew from the minute I read the contest description that someone was going to showcase Stalwarts. Instead, someone else did.
The puzzles were somewhat interesting, although the hold was very linear. I stopped at Once West because the room was /so fracking random/, and how could you possibly expect us to save /five/ of those guys. :O
In Deeper: Once East, you can just kill the Stalwart before he offs the goblin; you can kill the roach in the roach-trap in the upper right yourself.
Overall, some nice uses of Stalwarts, but also some rooms in which I felt I had no control, and was very annoyed.
Score: 5
Entry 2 Building and destroying
Author: Lst6
Element: Builders
Status: Mastered
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There was a rather spoon-fed introduction to builders in here. It did touch upon some of the finer points, but I thought the quiz on the movement preferences was unneeded.
Why, oh why, did you stick a fegundo-piloting room in here? There's no reason for it. It's not a builder puzzle.
Congratulations, you've implemented the memory game in DROD! I'd rather not play it though. Or, rather, I beat this room by taking a screenshot of it and then doing it. How is this one relevant to builders again?
And the method of reaching the secret room is rather absurd - there's no hint in the entire hold that you are supposed to reach the secret room by:
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×going to the uppermost tip of the N in "END" in the final room
And that was just a long and boring wait. Some good qualities, but overall, I was not impressed.
Score: 6
Hell's Kitchen
Author: Ptanzoricis
Element: Hot Tiles
Status: Unconquered
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Again with the bottlenecks! A room full of hot tiles and brained tar babies that must be completed in order to progress with the hold! Several rooms with hot tiles everywhere and /trapdoors/ so you can only turn your sword X number of times!
There were puzzles in the rooms to the west when I escaped that mess, but geez I was not having fun in here. This hold just did not appeal to me very much. On the plus side, there was choice in which direction to go, but it was pretty much "pick your poison".
Score: 4
Lst6 hold for Elemental Showcase
Author: Lst6
Element: Platforms
Status: Mastered
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This was a short hold. Yes, it showcased platforms, but it got sidetracked into builders a lot. Somehow I think you probably had more fun building your other entry than this one.
This hold didn't have any puzzles apart from "move the platform from point A to point B". I was keenly disappointed. And then you even threw in a tarstuff token at the end. For me, this hold just did not do what it was supposed to do very well.
Score: 2
PoPS
Author: voyager
Element: Speed Potions
Status: Mastered
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This was rather humorous. The dialogue upon room re-entry and the reaction to attempting to "steal" drinks added to the hold's value.
You can beat the "EXTREME!" section of Once North without using the speed potion.
There were lynchpins in many of the rooms. I wasn't stumped by anything, but I couldn't skip the "stop and think" stage, even in the secret room (which took a while to find!)
Overall, a small, but solid hold. I enjoyed playing it a lot. I can't think of anything I would do to improve this.
Score: 10
Showcasing: Hot Tiles
Author: John
Element: Hot Tiles
Status: Mastered
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Meh. Aside from the consideration that "turning one's sword leaves one on the same tile and thus kills you" and "rock golems leave rock piles" this didn't really present anything new. Also, it was rather linear. It was sort of a big "meh".
Score: 5
Steam Vents
Author: Henri
Element: Hot Tiles
Status: Mastered
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This was a pretty interesting hold from Henri, as always. The rooms were clever, required experimentation, and usually had one central concept that it was important for you to understand if you wanted to succeed. There was a secret room that, while it seemed simple at first, ended up being quite challenging.
The script in The Entrance does repeat if you backtrack to there for some reason, but otherwise the hold was almost flawless. There were also no backtracking issues at all - you can even backtrack out of the exit room and back if you want, without repeating the puzzle in Thrice North.
A solid, solid hold from Henri that really explored many new ideas. I never would have thought of the idea he used in Twice North, Once East! I liked this a lot and had a lot of fun playing through it.
Score: 10
The Beach
Author: Daniel Stitt
Element: One-Use Pressure Plates
Status: Mastered
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This was a nice hold. The puzzles were rather interesting and took advantage of the fact that the pressure plates pretty much became regular floor after they were used. The rooms required a bit of thought and some experimentation, but could be conquered given enough DROD skill.
My only complaint is that finding the secret room took a while because secret walls in City are somewhat hard to see. However, this did not detract from my enjoyment of the hold. Also, perhaps a secret room that had a bit more of a challenge would have been appropriate as well as the current room with the DAA seal. I finished the hold pretty quickly.
Score: 8
The Lighthouse
Author: boyblue
Element: Lights
Status: Mastered
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Wow. Uh, lights /can/ actually be used for interesting puzzles. And, indeed, the puzzles actually take that realization that "Oh, /that's/ what I have to do." And then you do it and think "Whoa, boyblue came up with this idea /first/.
I think this is a real winner, not only because of the puzzles involved, but also with the imagination to use what people thought of as decoration for actual puzzle material.
Score: 10
The Path
Author: Dex Stewart
Element: Uh, stalwarts, I guess.
Status: Unconquered
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There is no explanation how to do the first room. I suppose you're supposed to kill the four Slayers with the help of your buddy the Stalwart, but honestly I don't really see how. That, combined with the fact that you can't edit this hold, gives me a pretty low opinion of this hold.
Score: 1
Tokens
Author: Owen
Element: Tokens
Status: Unconquered
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Okay, the scripting in the first room is pretty unobvious. The only thing you can really do in the room is kill the Slayer, and indeed that's what you're supposed to do, but some sort of formal announcement of this would be nice.
And then the next room has a simple demonstration of the "go over trapdoors swordless without dropping them" theme and... four mirrors and five pressure plates.
Okay, maybe on further inspection one of them /opens/ the door instead of toggling it, but I'm still not very pleased at this hold.
Score: 1
Trouble in the Basement
Author: Kevin
Element: Gel
Status: Unconquered
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The maze-ish quality of the hold got kind of grating after the second room, especially since you can't get back to the Entrance after going to Once West. You also can't get back through Once West after going to Twice West.
And aaaargh, it just doesn't stop after Once North Twice West. I had an interesting time trying to figure out exactly how to get to point B properly without blocking myself out, but geez.
After looking in the editor, and seeing that "this is what gel could do on its own" I was somewhat disappointed. The way gel was used in this hold, I did not find it very fun. There were a few points where I had to use some knowledge gleaned from Martin Jacobsen's article on gelstuff, but I was just not in the mood for a big ol' maze.
Score: 4
Vipul's Elemental Hold
Author: Vipul
Element: Water Skipper Nests
Status: Mastered
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This hold contained a lot of hack and slash. Really. That's it. Maybe Once North had a bit of interest in that you needed to drop one trapdoor, but that was it. Yawn. I've already seen this in TCB repeatedly. How about some new stuff?
Score: 3
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I have no excuse for spelling that wrong, so I'll just say: 'oops'! 