admin
Level: Legendary Smitemaster
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File: The Palaces Drive.hold (52.6 KB)
Downloaded 1418 times.
License: Other
From: Unspecified

The story tells the king tar is waiting in the slime castel, and Beethro need to kill him!

jbluestein
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1670
Registered: 12-23-2005
IP: Logged

I don't have much to say about this hold. It's fairly straightforward and not particularly difficult.

While it has some rooms that are of a type that has fallen into disfavor (tar on wall maze, tar on trapdoors), the puzzles of these types are few and not very complex.

So it's OK. I give it a 5 for fun and 3 brains.

Josh

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

fratropea
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 87
Registered: 11-05-2005
IP: Logged

The good,old DROD. I love it!
It is very relaxing!!!

I give 8 and 3 brains.

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[Last edited by fratropea at 01-17-2008 11:10 PM]

JoMax
Level: Delver

Rank Points: 65
Registered: 12-28-2005
IP: Logged

I agree with fratropea

A nice relaxing hold, not difficult which can be a pleasant change

6 and 3 brains

Tahnan
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2459
Registered: 11-14-2005
IP: Logged

I'm glad y'all enjoyed this. 'cause as for me: not so much. Between rooms like Catacombs 1W, which ends around move 100 and then has another 270 mechanical moves; Lava Castel 1S, which required 250 tedious moves every time you have to cross it; Cliffs Palace 2S1W, which just involved holding down control-turn for 450 moves... I described it at one point as being like someone said, "I'm intrigued by this concept of 'holds', but the ones I've seen are just too interesting."

Add to that the misspellings, like "Castel" for "Castle", "Monsters's" for "Monsters'", and for that matter the missing apostrophe in "Palaces", and really, I found the hold more irritating than fun.

talund
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 95
Registered: 05-17-2005
IP: Logged

Too much meandering, pointless movements. All slash without the flash... This hold has little to no challenge to it. On the other hand, have I put up a hold for criticism? So while this is not my type of hold and it obviously works for others as a diversion, I have to give the creator credit for trying.

Nosdrah Circtrebla
Level: Delver

Rank Points: 30
Registered: 08-31-2004
IP: Logged

Not all holds have to be diffcult. I think they should be fun and enjoyable. I liked it. Thanks and keep up the good work. Even though it may not be diffcult, it still took time and you should be applauded for your efforts.

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My DROD Number is 679

noma
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1594
Registered: 11-22-2006
IP: Logged

In the spirit of the whole "increasing activity" thing, I am going to make more of an effort to comment on holds I play. And so...

The first few levels of this hold aren't too bad. A few rooms are kind of pointless but there are some okay puzzles and nothing is terribly tedious. As well, to echo what others have said : not every hold has to be really difficult or full of lynchpin puzzles. Sometimes it's relaxing to conquer a few straightforward rooms. It's also good to have some easy holds for new players or for players who want to play DRoD but don't enjoy having their brains leak out their ears.

However... it really looks like the architect started to run out of ideas before he ran out of hold. Some advice for your next hold : shorter can be better. If you have 10 good rooms, publish a 10 room hold. Don't add an extra 10 rooms simply for bulk. Or in this case, an extra 60. It's like adding breadcrumbs to hamburger: yeah it'll go farther, but it won't taste as good. Had this hold just consisted of about 45 of the better rooms, it would have gotten a 7 overall from me, instead of a 5. There are some seriously tedious rooms and most of them I didn't even bother to try and optimise because I could not bring myself to play through again. But there is also some good stuff here. Not hard, but good.

All that said, this hold can be finished quickly. It's really not at all difficult and if you're just looking for something simple to get a few more rooms under your belt, this hold won't tax you too much. Just walk carefully in some of those trapdoor rooms. A lack of checkpoints and puzzle will have you tearing your hair out if you misstep.

Rating: Overall 5; Difficulty 2

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[Last edited by noma at 03-11-2009 06:15 PM : sp]

slimm tom
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1228
Registered: 10-14-2006
IP: Logged

In the spirit of Noma's actions, I'm going to do the same: comment on holds I play.

First, I think this hold is way too long. Don't get me wrong, long holds aren't bad just because they're long. But unfortunately long holds tend to repeat things and have a lot of hack and slash rooms.

This hold has a few interesting room designs, but nothing special really. It's very easy, no real challenge is in it.

The thing that struck me as absolutely tedious is the backtracking in some levels. I hate to drop entire trapdoor puzzles again just to get to the exit.

A 4 for fun and a 3 for brains.

zex20913
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1721
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

I started playing through this one per noma's recommendation. It was pretty good at first--made me put my thinking cap on for a bit, but the last few levels seemed extraneous, with some hasty hold-filling rooms. Seemed to be no rhyme nor reason to monster placement.

Still, this hold let me put on my optimizer's hat quite a bit. For coming so late to the hold, I'm happy with the scores I've gotten. This is a good hold for a returning optimizer--knocks some of the rust off, and there's enough open space that there's room for improvement in many rooms. 5 brains, 5 fun.

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cbemom
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 36
Registered: 10-11-2004
IP: Logged

Just finished this hold. I enjoyed it overall - not too brain-busting, but not boring. i would have liked to see a little more challenge to the pit puzzles and a couple less hit-seven-orbs-to-open-gate.

I will play your next hold - any out yet?

____________________________
Turning dreams into plans
www.dreamrenovation.com

west.logan
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 608
Registered: 03-09-2011
IP: Logged

This is not a good hold.

Sort of along the lines of Noma's comment, the first few levels seemed alright (no puzzles, just slashing), but then it got really tedious.

You see entire rooms filled with trapdoor puzzles with random walls in the middle, not to make it hard but just to make it tedious.

You see entire rooms filled with a serpent that just requires waiting so you can kill a single roach.

You see long, tedious routes through breakable walls, just because.

I also had problems knowing what direction to go. The architect did do a good job letting you backtrack through everything, but I found myself backtracking a lot because I simply went up at the first room instead of down and had to go back to get some missed rooms to exit. There really was no order, the rooms just kind of branched out and wound around and you'd probably have to go back through a bunch of cleared rooms to get to other ones.

Toward the end I would enter a room and just want to quit because it was just more hacking without really any thought. If that's what you want then go ahead, otherwise, pass.

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-Logan