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"The Spiral" is a short hold featuring 15 medium puzzles which all require you to get the trick (some of these might be a little mean...) or the lynchpin of them. With a playtime of 30-60 minutes the Spiral is an Al-Dente hold, which means that it's suitable for a quick play and for a small diversion from the big and hard holds. The most used elements in the Spiral are the sister gates.

The following people helped me to find trivial solutions: Hikari, Tokyokid, Ezlo, jbluestein, vittro. Thank you, guys!

Tahnan
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Just finished 1S2E. It took me just shy of 1400 moves, and I was thinking, "I probably could have been a little faster", so I checked the high scores.

Best score so far: 87. So yes, clearly I could have been faster. (I bet I was supposed to go inside there...so much for thinking outside the box.)

Enjoying the hold so far, in any case.

jmpava
Level: Delver

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Registered: 04-12-2006
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So, started playing this in the current 3.1 build (3.1.0.45), walked into the very first room and thought, gee, that was trivial. Then I tried it in 3.0.0 just to check. It appears this room is completely different depending on which version you use. In 3.0.0, if you walk in facing right and immediately kill the tar mother, the reverse black gate rises. In 3.1.0.45 it doesn't. So, you walk into the room with your sword facing right, the tar mother is killed and you can walk right on to the babies and out the door.

I noticed there were some changes to tar door behavior on start of room conditions for 3.1, so that probably caused this - not sure if this particular aspect is a bug or not so I'll mention it on the 3.1 thread but figured I'd give you a heads up also.

Edit: Sounds like it's a bug, not an intentional change, so it should be ok in the final.

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This space intentionally left blank.

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[Last edited by jmpava at 09-13-2007 01:43 AM]

Syntax
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Great hold so far. Lot of interesting and unusual puzzles

Just one thing: 1S1E is not backtrackable so I'd recommend completing all the rooms prior to this before continuing or you may have to redo some rooms.

[EDIT]

And completed. Excellent hold!

7 brains, 8.5 fun

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[Last edited by Syntax at 09-12-2007 10:20 AM]

jbluestein
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Syntax wrote:
Great hold so far. Lot of interesting and unusual puzzles

Just one thing: 1S1E is not backtrackable so I'd recommend completing all the rooms prior to this before continuing or you may have to redo some rooms.

Note that with one exception, the hold is entirely linear. You can't go on to the next room without solving the current one, barring possibly unforseen clever methods of self-sabotage.

So non-backtrackability of rooms is sort of a non-issue.

Josh



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

Syntax
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Woops... you're absolutely right. I misread the room and thought it was possible to exit it to the right without completing it. Just thought we'd missed it in HA. Apologies.

larrymurk
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Yuppers, fun hold. Nice job MeckMeck.

schep
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An update from over on Bugs.

Yes, the bug affecting 1E has been fixed in the latest 3.1 so that
However, 1E will still need an update to work with 3.1. You now can't backtrack through the room after conquering it. If the Entrance is the only way to end the hold, this means the hold won't be beatable. The change is:

CuriousShyRabbit
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schep wrote:
However, 1E will still need an update to work with 3.1. You now can't backtrack through the room after conquering it. If the Entrance is the only way to end the hold, this means the hold won't be beatable. The change is:

Click here to view the secret text

×that the one square of tar which was under the tar mother is considered invalid and removed when the room is reentered. So the sister black gate pops up, leaving the player no way out the west.

I don't think this will be a problem. Check the direction of the force arrow.

schep
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CuriousShyRabbit wrote:
I don't think this will be a problem. Check the direction of the force arrow.

Bwa-ha! Okay, that's one of my more interesting thinkos in a while. This is still a slight problem if the player clears the room and then exits to the west before clearing the level, though.

calamarain
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This is looking to be a cool little hold so far. Tricky enough to keep the attention - an excellent palate cleanser while you're working on other holds and need a break

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Briareos
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schep wrote:
Bwa-ha! Okay, that's one of my more interesting thinkos in a while. This is still a slight problem if the player clears the room and then exits to the west before clearing the level, though.

Well, it's the very first room with monsters in it in the hold - I don't think restarting in that case is *that* problematic...

____________________________
"I'm not anti-anything, I'm anti-everything, it fits better." - Sole
R.I.P. Robert Feldhoff (1962-2009)

Danteslives
Level: Delver

Rank Points: 48
Registered: 11-16-2006
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That was really fun! I must say that 1 south 2 east made me feel like a complete idiot. Thank you!

calamarain
Level: Smitemaster

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OK, just completed it



I have to say that it's definitely a good little hold. An excellent palate cleanser, tricky but not that hard. There is a slight thing with the last room that I'd mention - you don't actually have to have conquered all other rooms first - there's a way to do it and get out that doesn't involve the blue doors at all.

I really quite enjoyed this. Quick and good.

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Syntax
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calamarain wrote:
I have to say that it's definitely a good little hold. An excellent palate cleanser, tricky but not that hard. There is a slight thing with the last room that I'd mention - you don't actually have to have conquered all other rooms first - there's a way to do it and get out that doesn't involve the blue doors at all.

Good point I didn't actually use the blue doors in my solution either. At least that gets rid of the only potential backtrack issue...

schep
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Briareos wrote:

schep wrote:
Bwa-ha! Okay, that's one of my more interesting thinkos in a while. This is still a slight problem if the player clears the room and then exits to the west before clearing the level, though.

Well, it's the very first room with monsters in it in the hold - I don't think restarting in that case is *that* problematic...

Ah, but if you solve all rooms except one, then wander back to the Entrance, you need to Restore and possibly redo one room. Just pointing this out. I wouldn't object to leaving this as is and calling it "so don't do that".

Briareos
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schep wrote:
Ah, but if you solve all rooms except one, then wander back to the Entrance, you need to Restore and possibly redo one room. Just pointing this out. I wouldn't object to leaving this as is and calling it "so don't do that".

If you exit the room I talked about above to the west into the starting room you're definitely trapped (as the black sister gates will stay up), so there's no way you could get further than the first room, never mind be missing a room at the end because of it...

np: Nicole Willis - Siesta (Soul Makeover)

____________________________
"I'm not anti-anything, I'm anti-everything, it fits better." - Sole
R.I.P. Robert Feldhoff (1962-2009)

Insane
Level: Master Delver

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Great Hold! I absolutely loved it! (I love lynchpin holds anyways)
Nice for a short, fun hold.

Some comments: (Might contain spoilers)


4.5 Brains
9/10 Overall

-Insane

Neather2
Level: Smiter

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Double post, insane!

Anyway, great hold! Lot of funny and hard puzzle, but easy for me. Good the idea, all.

I give it 7 fun e 3.5 brains

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Nothing to say. I just play the game. And you, sir, should play it too.

Conspiracy, my new hold, has just been released.

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[Last edited by Neather2 at 11-14-2007 07:41 PM]

martz
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Registered: 08-19-2005
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This is a clever little hold where each room has a trick or lynchpin although some of the rooms do have multiple solutions.

The level is laid out as a spiral as the hold name might suggest. I feel the rooms could have benefited from a bit more decoration as they were mostly squares with the puzzle in the middle, but for a hold of this size that's not a major issue.

As for the puzzles themselves, some of them are clever, some mean, a few I spotted immediately whereas a couple of them left me stumped (2E in particular).

This is definately worth a play, although less experienced players might find some of the rooms a bit too tricky.

My Verdict:

Difficulty: 5.5
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

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[Last edited by martz at 11-18-2011 09:05 PM]