Tscott
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 382
Registered: 02-10-2003
IP: Logged

File: Jigsaw Feeling.hold (3.6 KB)
Downloaded 145 times.
License: Other
From: Unspecified

Here's a very small, single level hold I've been working on. Only 10 rooms, 8 of which I'd consider to be a challenge. There's a small chance that I might eventually add one or two rooms, but right now I seem to have run out of ideas revolving around the central idea for the hold.

Let me know of any problems, needed checkpoints, likes/dislikes, etc. BTW, I already know that many of my rooms here do not allow you to backtrack, that's why the hold is very linear in design- thus no need to backtrack.

____________________________
And I can recall our caravel: a little wicker beetle shell with four fine maste and lateen sails,
its bearings on Cair Paravel. O my love, O it was a funny little thing to be the ones to've seen.
-Joanna Newsom "Bridges and Balloons"

joker5
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 607
Registered: 11-25-2003
IP: Logged

Great hold! A little on the tricky side, but still great! Keep up the good work. Please.

~joker5

____________________________
Criminals, like other people, dislike being shot. ~FBI study on guns

www.badgerbadgerbadger.com

"Two words: Beam Waffle!" -me

Scott
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 578
Registered: 02-12-2003
IP: Logged

That was fun. I thought I would never get some of the queens but finally managed it.

DiMono
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1181
Registered: 09-13-2003
IP: Logged

Once North, Quarce West almost ended up getting this hold put on my "wait for an editable version" list. Great puzzle, incidentally.

[Edited by DiMono on 01-09-2004 at 05:40 AM GMT]

____________________________
Deploy the... I think it's a yellow button... it's usually flashing... it makes the engines go... WHOOSH!

Schik
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5381
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

Nice hold - I really enjoyed this one.

I made 10335 moves in completing this hold (counting restarts), 2413 of which resulted in kills. I died 6 times along the way.

____________________________
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi

Tscott
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 382
Registered: 02-10-2003
IP: Logged

EDIT: Oops, I was counting rooms wrong in my head when replying to DiMono's post and started talking about 1N3W (see below)... You were talking about the first tar room, right? I think the hardest part of that room is realizing

As a bit of history, the top part of 1N,3W is ripped right out of my 7000+ move "longest room" entry. It was the only really tricky part of that room and as I figured most people wouldn't play that whole room, I wanted to feature that little discovery someplace else.

Another interesting thing I found while making this hold was the tar pattern in 1N. When that pattern grows it creates new, seperate and stable tar growths. I don't think I've ever seen that before.

Thanks for everyone's comments so far.

[Edited by Tscott on 01-09-2004 at 06:26 PM GMT]

____________________________
And I can recall our caravel: a little wicker beetle shell with four fine maste and lateen sails,
its bearings on Cair Paravel. O my love, O it was a funny little thing to be the ones to've seen.
-Joanna Newsom "Bridges and Balloons"

Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2936
Registered: 03-29-2003
IP: Logged

Schik wrote:
I made 10335 moves in completing this hold (counting restarts), 2413 of which resulted in kills. I died 6 times along the way.

Interesting, Schik...I assume that you didn't sit there and write this down, is that statistics thing that Mike was talking about working now?

Anyway, I finished your hold, TScott. I must say, I have enjoyed all of your holds, they are all very well done. Here are my comments:

4W: this was kind of annoying because the only hard part about it was realizing the direction you had to go, and you could get pretty far before realizing you screwed up in the beginning. But, it didn't take too much extra time, so no big deal.

1N4W:

1N3W:

1N2W: my favorite room. When I got halfway through, saw I was screwed, and then realized what I had to do...that was great. I thought it was a great puzzle, even though after that it was pretty simple.

1N1W: took me the longest, was just a pain in the tuckus. I died way too many times for my liking. The roaches just like me too much.

1N:

Good job, hope to see more in the future!

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

Schik
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5381
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

Oneiromancer wrote:
Interesting, Schik...I assume that you didn't sit there and write this down, is that statistics thing that Mike was talking about working now?

Can't slip anything past Onei, can I? Yeah, Mike added some statistics. It's pretty slick. I'd like to play all the way through Dugan's with statistics on - I wonder how many times I die or restart in all 25 levels?


____________________________
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi

Tscott
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 382
Registered: 02-10-2003
IP: Logged

Oneiromancer wrote:
4W: this was kind of annoying because the only hard part about it was realizing the direction you had to go, and you could get pretty far before realizing you screwed up in the beginning. But, it didn't take too much extra time, so no big deal.

There's a subtle clue in the way the queens are possitioned on entry here. Perhaps too subtle, but I didn't know how else to give a clue without making it obvious. Also, I toyed with the idea of making it possible to go both ways through the arrows, but the queens would run away at the start and give the game way if the arrows were so changed.

1N3W:

Click here to view the secret text

×when you finish the first part it is possible to time removing the last trapdoor to make the second part pretty trivial to solve. You can even go kill the brain before any roaches get to you, although it doesn't make it noticeably easier, if you are good at dealing with brained roaches. Did you care either way?

I guess it doesn't matter too much, the main challenge of the room is the top portion in my mind anyway.

1N2W: my favorite room. When I got halfway through, saw I was screwed, and then realized what I had to do...that was great. I thought it was a great puzzle, even though after that it was pretty simple.

Thanks, it took a while to get it exactly how I wanted it- and that reaction was exactly what I was looking for.

1N1W: took me the longest, was just a pain in the tuckus. I died way too many times for my liking. The roaches just like me too much.

Agreed. The roaches really like me too in this room. I just was replaying this room again today and it took me MUCH longer to solve it this time than before for some reason.

1N:

Click here to view the secret text

×I ran around the edge clockwise and blocked off 1 square on each passageway before entering from the South. I can't believe that I was able to make it through, but I did. Did your intended solution involve blocking off the corridors or did you just go straight in?

Hmm, Interesting solution.

Good job, hope to see more in the future!

Thanks.

____________________________
And I can recall our caravel: a little wicker beetle shell with four fine maste and lateen sails,
its bearings on Cair Paravel. O my love, O it was a funny little thing to be the ones to've seen.
-Joanna Newsom "Bridges and Balloons"

Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2936
Registered: 03-29-2003
IP: Logged

Tscott wrote:

Click here to view the secret text

×I just went straight in and started hacking away. I usually ended up with the tar growing into the south corridor. Hmmmm, maybe adding red doors with a single tar baby behind them to the north and south areas to force the player to stop the growth in those directions would be an interesting addition to the room?

Not quite sure exactly what you mean...I'd probably have to see an example. But I think the room was pretty good as it was, I don't think my way made it any easier, just different. That is, unless it was really hard for you the way you did it. Trust me, I died lots of times trying to get the solution. But, I shouldn't try to dissuade you from changing it, because there were lots of times in my hold that there was a trivial solution that I suppressed. Although the key word there is "trivial."

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

Tscott
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 382
Registered: 02-10-2003
IP: Logged

File: Jigsaw tar room test.hold (1 KB)
Downloaded 58 times.
License: Other
From: Unspecified

Oneiromancer wrote:
Not quite sure exactly what you mean...

Here's what my thought was... (see small one room hold attached)

I don't know if it really adds too much. I agree it's fine how it is as neither of our approches is trivial. This adjustment just adds a very slight twist to the room in that you NEED to keep the 2 square wide paths clear of tar.

____________________________
And I can recall our caravel: a little wicker beetle shell with four fine maste and lateen sails,
its bearings on Cair Paravel. O my love, O it was a funny little thing to be the ones to've seen.
-Joanna Newsom "Bridges and Balloons"

DiMono
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1181
Registered: 09-13-2003
IP: Logged

I just remembered a comment about 1N:

The checkpoints are too far away. Heading off to get a checkpoint costs you 8 moves, and I don't like spending time not killing tar when it's present.

And the easiest way to force people to clear the south corridor would be to change the green door to a black door when 1.7 comes out

Although, you could just add a 1x1 pit in each direction, so if the tar gets too far a monster spawns that you can't get to. I think this is a more elegant solution than adding more red doors.

[Edited by DiMono on 01-11-2004 at 06:53 PM GMT]

____________________________
Deploy the... I think it's a yellow button... it's usually flashing... it makes the engines go... WHOOSH!

Scott
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 578
Registered: 02-12-2003
IP: Logged

The test room is a bit harder than the original. But then I found the original one not all that hard.

levelthirteen
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 109
Registered: 02-20-2003
IP: Logged

Finished it.
1N3W has a solution that prevents any of the queens on top from passing the open door square.
The lower queen in 3W was pure evil.

____________________________
Fatel exception occurred. Post will terminate.

DiMono
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1181
Registered: 09-13-2003
IP: Logged

Unless you're very careful, the only reasonable solution to 1N3W is to keep the queens in the top section of the room. I found this one out the hard way...

____________________________
Deploy the... I think it's a yellow button... it's usually flashing... it makes the engines go... WHOOSH!