Kitten
Level: Goblin

Rank Points: 23
Registered: 10-16-2007
IP: Logged

File: Beethro and his growing.hold (87.2 KB)
Downloaded 93 times.
License: Public Domain

This my new hold "Beethro and his growing". I hope, you to like!

____________________________
Cockroaches and once again
cockroaches...
Big Journey to Home (100%)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/388440

Kwerulous
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 340
Registered: 05-15-2008
IP: Logged

By the looks of things, after Beethro has shrunk, the image used is a modified version of the normal Beethro. If this is the case, you need to obtain permission to do that.

Anyway:

Small Dungeon: The Entrance - A nice little starter room. Everything seems fine here.

Laboratory: The Entrance - Quite an easy guard room. Suggestion - Add more guards, it might give a more lively battle room.

Laboratory: Once East - I like the way youve made the tar/mud glow with lighting effects. Suggestion - Not really any puzzle here; to give a more tense battle situation add more roach queen hasslers so the player has to defend himself more.

Laboratory: Once North, Once East - Not too bad a room - but still, not much of a challenge here.

Laboratory: Once West - Fairly good room; needs a bit more to it though; add something else that the player has to do in the room as well as what is already there.

Laboratory: Once North, Once West - Basically a copy of 1N1E, but the green doors are the other way around. Slighlty more challenging as all the goblins come at you at once. In my opinion, duplicated rooms only work if you change something that really does make it more interesting/challenging.

Laboratory: Once North - Perhaps a bit too much lighting...?

Sorry if that sounds like I'm dampening your spirits; that's not how I intend to come across. But I'd rather be honest.

That's as far as I've got at the moment. Also, it appears there are a lot of problems with the English spelling/grammar here. I suggest that once the hold itself is finished you get someone to go around and correct it for you. I would say I'd do it, but I'm busy over the next couple of weeks so can't make any promises.

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[Last edited by Kwerulous at 08-30-2008 08:40 PM]

Jacob
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3752
Registered: 10-01-2004
IP: Logged

"Beethro and his growing" does not make sense in English.
Do you mean something like "The development of Beethro?" or something like that?

____________________________
New to DROD? You may want to read this.
My Holds and Levels:

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3692
Registered: 10-06-2005
IP: Logged

This hold's main premise is Beethro becoming smaller. Therefore a better title would be "Shrunken Beethro" or "Beethro's Tiny Adventures" or something like that.

I'll add that The Empire's Tower: Once West definitely needs checkpoints, and also a way to let the Stalwart out so he can kill the brain. I don't think the room is possible in its current state since nothing can kill the brain and I can't see how to open the door in front of the Stalwart.

In the next version, would you please change the hold's permissions from You and Masters to Anyone Edit?

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Quick links to my stuff (in case you forgot where it was):

Jacob
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3752
Registered: 10-01-2004
IP: Logged

Oh yeah. Played through some of it now.
The english needs a lot of work.

Small Dungeon 1S1E: Kill the queen immediately with the mimic.

____________________________
New to DROD? You may want to read this.
My Holds and Levels:

Kwerulous
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 340
Registered: 05-15-2008
IP: Logged

rman wrote:
You don't need to obtain permission to use images from AE!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but that is the Beethro from TCB. Which you do need permission to modify and use.

Kitten
Level: Goblin

Rank Points: 23
Registered: 10-16-2007
IP: Logged

This tiles from Mobile DROD, Kwerulous!

____________________________
Cockroaches and once again
cockroaches...
Big Journey to Home (100%)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/388440

Kitten
Level: Goblin

Rank Points: 23
Registered: 10-16-2007
IP: Logged

Chaco, yellow door opened, while all roaches destroyed!

____________________________
Cockroaches and once again
cockroaches...
Big Journey to Home (100%)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/388440

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3692
Registered: 10-06-2005
IP: Logged

Kitten wrote:
Chaco, yellow door opened, while all roaches destroyed!

Then you should put a scroll in that room that says that "the yellow door in front of the Stalwart will open when all roaches are dead". I shouldn't have to ask you how the room's scripting works - the room ideally should be solvable with all the information given in the room.

This tiles from Mobile DROD, Kwerulous!

You might want to mention that somewhere in the hold, then, so you can thank the Mobile DROD team (person) for the image and the permission.

____________________________
Quick links to my stuff (in case you forgot where it was):

Dischorran
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3419
Registered: 09-10-2005
IP: Logged

Kitten wrote:
Chaco, yellow door opened, while all roaches destroyed!

Shaka, when the walls fell. Mirab, his sails unfurled!

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BoyBlue
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 547
Registered: 03-25-2006
IP: Logged

I agree. This is an amusing hold, but it doesn't have enough obscure Star Trek references.

The demos included with this hold seem to be broken. You probably ought to delete them and record new ones.

The invisible obstacles are kind of annoying. I guess they're predictable enough to be tolerable -- maybe.

Goblin's Town 1N and Unknown Laboratory 1E: These rooms won't play nice with CaravelNet high scores, because a conquer token can be touched near the start of the room. That's okay but it's not ideal.

Golem's Cave 3N4E: It's easy to get here with the blue sister-gate still open, but there's apparently nothing to the north.

The Library 2N & 3N: If you wait for the character to exit north, then exit south, the character will be gone forever, and you'll be stuck.

Jungle 1N2E and 2N2E could use an explanation of how the scripting works.

Unknown Laboratory: After clearing the Entrance, you may be stuck and never be able to get to the required room at 1W.

Tunnels Of Goblin King 1S1W - If you drop the green doors, then create a new mudbaby and leave the room unsolved, you'll be stuck.

Suggestion to testers (possible spoiler alert):

CuriousShyRabbit
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3170
Registered: 10-14-2006
IP: Logged

I've played through this hold too, and agree with many of the comments posted above.

I like Chaco's suggestion for the title of the hold. Either "Beethro's Small Adventure" or "Beethro's Tiny Adventure" would be good. A player reading the title will first think that "small" refers to "adventure", and will be surprised when they find out it refers to Beethro.

Good things about this hold:
* Interesting, original story idea.
* While the puzzles are easy, many of them are still interesting. We need more good easy holds.
* Interesting use of player roles.

Problems with this hold:
* Backtracking problems. A player should not be forced to use Restore when playing your hold. You need to fix all the backtracking problems that BoyBlue found.
* Invisible obstacles are very annoying. If I can't step in a certain square, I would like to know that at the start of the room. Bumping an invisible obstacle and consequently dying in the middle of battle is not fun. Perhaps you'd like to try lightposts instead? They block the player, but you can still see the floor underneath, and evil eyes can see through them.
* Unpredictable scripting is also very annoying. As Chaco said, if scripting is going to help me conquer a room, or exit the room afterwards, I would like to know that at the start of the room. You can add this information on scrolls. (Rooms with this issue include the previously mentioned Empire's Tower 1W, Unknown Laboratory 1W, Jungle 1N2E.)
* Small Beethro's sword. I can't see when the sword is on and when it is off. It looks like he should always be able to use it, but apparently not.
* Filler rooms should not be used. If you can't think of a good puzzle, please don't give me mindless busywork to do instead. Rooms that seemed like filler to me include: Empire's Tower 1N2W, Goblin's Town 2N2E, Desert 1N2E, Unknown Laboratory 2E.

The postmastery room doesn't seem to be a puzzle either, but that's fine for a postmastery room. I'd suggest giving some sort of reward for mastering the hold. Perhaps these goblins should be talking. Did they, by any chance, see a really tiny guy running through the level earlier?

Here are some rooms with unintended solutions:
* Small Dungeon 1S1E. As Jacob mentioned, you can kill the queen with the mimic on turn 1.
* Goblin's Town 1E. You don't need the hot tiles.
* Slayer Traps 2W. You don't have to go through the maze. Most of the roaches die while you wait in the entrance.
* Desert 2W. You don't need the hot tile. The guard can be killed with the mimic.
* Jungle 2N2E. Blow up just one bomb, then stand next to the one exposed hot tile while all the wubbas cook themselves.
* Growing Center 1E and 1W. Ignore the slayer and solve the rooms with Beethro's sword. At the end, he can use the platform to go around the raised red door.