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File: 39th Guard -1- Silent Cliff.hold (165.3 KB)
Downloaded 1197 times.
License: Other
From: Unspecified

One of the Empire Runners accidentally dropped an important document. You, the Stalwart Army and many others will fight to get that scroll.

Various puzzles with custom graphics, a nice story and the first part of the series.

"Modified guard art used with permission of Caravel Games (247512)"

fratropea
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 87
Registered: 11-05-2005
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I cannot play on caravelNet:
When unloading the hold unloads the Beta version!
???

Doom
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3310
Registered: 07-05-2004
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Iirc that happens because you were a tester and the beta board hasn't been deleted yet. Can't think of good search words for looking at what happened with the earlier cases, but it should be working properly soon.

CuriousShyRabbit
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3170
Registered: 10-14-2006
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Here's a fine creative effort from Vittro. It's a set of player role guard puzzles, with a story and artwork to go with them.

The level design is interesting, with loose themes of "constant room template," races against time, wubbas. The puzzles are okay, with some very nice standouts. The custom sprites are a very nice touch, as they make it possible to distinguish the player from other guards. And the "final showdown" is deliciously confusing.

(And fratropea, the beta board has been deleted now. Just quit out of DROD and come back, and you'll be able to play for HS on CNet.)

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3659
Registered: 10-06-2005
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It's possible to get permanently stuck in this hold - if you play the second level (Old Dungeons), open the blue doors, head to Once North (where we get our protagonist's "Ha, I got rid of that Slayer, I must go to Silent Cliff" speech, then head through the Once North Once West series of rooms and head down to Once South again, the door won't open since the Aumtlichs will be dead. You'll then have to restore back some rooms.

I'm thinking this could be fixed with some sort of wubba, blue door, and pressure plate combination.

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Doom
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3310
Registered: 07-05-2004
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Chaco wrote:
It's possible to get permanently stuck in this hold --- I'm thinking this could be fixed with some sort of wubba, blue door, and pressure plate combination.

Yeah, I thought about that possibility earlier but when I went through that route quickly in the editor in my head after playing the hold, I missed the somewhat hidden yellow door in the aumtlich room.

A blue sister gate in 1N should fix it easily without a chance of affecting any solutions.

fratropea
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 87
Registered: 11-05-2005
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Hold very interesting with very good architecture and nice story.
Any rooms are very hard but very amusing and riveting!!!
GOOD JOB, VITTRO!!!

vittro
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 482
Registered: 04-17-2005
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Thanks everyone! I will try to fix that problem and re-upload, if the HAs let me do it. Also, the sequel is almost complete! 39th Guard's adventure has just begun!

____________________________
http://vittorioromeo.info

Blondbeard
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1486
Registered: 03-31-2005
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It seems to be possible to trap yourself in abandoned palace 1S1E also. No big deal.

CuriousShyRabbit
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3170
Registered: 10-14-2006
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Blondbeard wrote:
It seems to be possible to trap yourself in abandoned palace 1S1E also. No big deal.

Click here to view the secret text

×It's about the secret in 1S2E. If you go there without completing 1S1E.

This possibility is prevented by scripting, which worked properly when I checked it. Does it not work for you?

Blondbeard
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1486
Registered: 03-31-2005
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Oops! I just looked at the layout.

Anyway... I have conquered the hold now. I liked it quite a bit. Oh, and I hate wubbas

talund
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 95
Registered: 05-17-2005
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I may have found an unintended solution to Rocky Fields, 1S. So the timing portion of the final part of the room becomes irrelevant. Or was that intentional to be nice to people like me?

vittro
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 482
Registered: 04-17-2005
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talund wrote:
I may have found an unintended solution to Rocky Fields, 1S.

Click here to view the secret text

×If you do not kill the snake right away, the briar will shut itself off without blocking the lower exit and you can then kill the snake with the clone.

So the timing portion of the final part of the room becomes irrelevant. Or was that intentional to be nice to people like me?

Oh well, good job finding it, but I can't fix unintended solution, I think.

____________________________
http://vittorioromeo.info

Tahnan
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2460
Registered: 11-14-2005
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Mastered. There's a whole lot to like in this hold; it's not easy, but it's consistently interesting. (A "bomb maze" made of roaches!) Well worth playing.

vittro
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 482
Registered: 04-17-2005
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Tahnan wrote:
Mastered. There's a whole lot to like in this hold; it's not easy, but it's consistently interesting. (A "bomb maze" made of roaches!) Well worth playing.

Thanks! I also need lots of criticism, tell me what you didn't like.



____________________________
http://vittorioromeo.info

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

So I've mastered the hold but can't figure out how to reach the "Hall of Mastery".

Aside from that, I found this to be a consistently challenging and interesting hold that make good use of a variety of DROD elements.

My least favorite rooms were Old Dungeon 1N (very frustrating because you had to both trap the slayer and plot a course that results in all of the tiles being dropped) and Abandoned Palace, 1S (similarly but different frustration - kill the various roaches while not getting trapped required similarly careful path plotting).

That being said, the rooms were consistent with the level of challenge posed by the rest of the hold. Really, no big complaints here.

CuriousShyRabbit
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3170
Registered: 10-14-2006
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talund wrote:
So I've mastered the hold but can't figure out how to reach the "Hall of Mastery".

If you'd like to check it out, the master door is in Rocky Mountains : The Entrance.

talund
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 95
Registered: 05-17-2005
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Thanks.

captainzakku
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 77
Registered: 07-15-2006
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vittro wrote:

Thanks! I also need lots of criticism, tell me what you didn't like.

Not quite mastered, and great so far.

My one gripe is with the force arrows when entering a room. For 90% of people this won't matter, but if you optimize, it means having to replay from previous rooms just to change your orientation, or starting square. For Rocky Fields 1E, that meant restoring back to 1N 1E just to change which way I was facing. There were several other examples in Old Dungeons. I just don't see how it adds anything to either the hold, or story.


____________________________
"A problem worthy of attack, proves its worth by fighting back." Paul Erdös

Jatopian
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1842
Registered: 07-31-2005
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captainzakku wrote:
My one gripe is with the force arrows when entering a room. For 90% of people this won't matter,

Actually, in my experience, this annoys everyone, because they can't start on the square they want to without restoring.

____________________________
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jbluestein
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1670
Registered: 12-23-2005
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Mastered!

This is certainly vittro's best hold to date, and it contains several really excellent puzzles.

Also, only one example of overuse of the Slayer, which you can choose to ignore if you want to.

So overall, I gave this hold an 8 for fun and 6.5 brains.

(My favorite room, by the way: Abandoned Palace 1S1E. Once you know what to do, it's actually quite easy to accomplish. Figuring out what to do is pretty tricky, though.)

Josh

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mxvladi
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 2505
Registered: 02-11-2008
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Apparently, at least one room in this hold, Rocky Mountains: 2N, is broken in 4.0.

Player needs to use tunnels to clear it and doesn't get to step on power token until doing so. Previously, it was possible to use tunnels after stabbing one of the monsters, but in 4.0 it doesn't work.

I guess that this bug was fixed in 4.0, and it broke this room.


A warning to anyone who wants to play it - use 3.0 engine for now.

EDIT: I've read though the whole topic of this tunnel bug, and HAs are aware of this room being broken. Still, a post about it in the hold's topic won't hurt, especially since it's *still* not updated.

The room is updated. Yay!

---

[Last edited by mxvladi at 02-16-2013 08:55 PM]

vittro
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 482
Registered: 04-17-2005
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mxvladi wrote:
Apparently, at least one room in this hold, Rocky Mountains: 2N, is broken in 4.0.

Player needs to use tunnels to clear it and doesn't get to step on power token until doing so. Previously, it was possible to use tunnels after stabbing one of the monsters, but in 4.0 it doesn't work.

I guess that this bug was fixed in 4.0, and it broke this room.


A warning to anyone who wants to play it - use 3.0 engine for now.

EDIT: I've read though the whole topic of this tunnel bug, and HAs are aware of this room being broken. Still, a post about it in the hold's topic won't hurt, especially since it's *still* not updated.

Never updated a finished hold before, what's the procedure?

____________________________
http://vittorioromeo.info

mxvladi
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 2505
Registered: 02-11-2008
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vittro wrote:
Never updated a finished hold before, what's the procedure?

Ideally, HAs should have contacted you long ago(right when GaTEB got released, to be exact) about this issue and provide you with some info about what to do. Doesn't seem to be the case here.

But, as far as I remember, it's something like this:

First thing you need to do is to actually fix the issue (without changing anything else, that includes hold ID; I sure hope you still have the .player file you used to make this hold!), preferably in a way which leaves all scores valid. TF has suggested change for that room which will leave all scores valid in a thread about tunnel bug(which I linked to in my post above): adding power tokens at 3,13 and 25,13; if you don't have anything against it, I suggest that you change room that way.

Then, you attach the fixed version here, Schik uses it to update the hold. Then, everyone's happy and can play it in 4.0.

---

[Last edited by mxvladi at 09-09-2012 10:28 PM]

martz
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 416
Registered: 08-19-2005
IP: Logged

This was an enjoyable hold.

I liked the level designs (interesting backgrounds and aesthetics) - levels were small enough to not get boring, and playing the guard role adds the additional puzzle element in some rooms of when to activate the monsters.

I couldn't pick any particular room out as an outstanding puzzle but I found the quality to be fairly high throughout. The only room I didn't really enjoy was Abandoned Palace: 1S as it felt a bit trial-and-error trying to extract the last few roaches from the wubba horde, but I would still highly recommend this to everyone:

Difficulty: 6
Fun: 8

____________________________
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