Ben Miff
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 18
Registered: 10-19-2008
IP: Logged

File: King Ashlockes Gauntlet.hold (22.7 KB)
Downloaded 81 times.
License: Public Domain

Right, so having been playing DROD for a while (only the demo's, although I recently got a hold of the full version of TCB) I've been hit by a creative streak. (This happens sometimes.) Aaanyway, as a result I've got the first level of what looks like it might become a decently long hold, but I'd rather not sit on it until it's hyooge and then finally release it. As a result, I'm lumping the first level up here.

I suppose I should probably elaborate it a bit further. This is going to be a pretty much anything-could-turn-up hold, so no themed levels or so on. I'm hoping to cover most, if not all, of the DROD elements at some point. However, I am putting the puzzles above storyline or prettiness or anything of that ilk; I'll happily admit that at the moment the hold is a bit sparse in terms of decorative merit.

So, anyway, beside the obvious "look at the shiny" impulses, I'd be grateful for any feedback to make it better. Or the next level better. Or so on.

-o-

Update Edit : The hold has now been updated with a second level. The same criticism / responses / feedback appeals apply. Also, for those of you have already finished the first level, the broken walls in the entrance room lead to a shortcut room. Currently, it's only got stairs to the start of the second level in it, but as the level increases in number of levels it'll fill up to prevent you from having to replay all of the previous floors each time.

Update Edit 2 : Third level now available. (Edited first post to have the 3-level hold attached, as well as this post.)

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[Last edited by Ben Miff at 11-06-2008 04:15 PM]

Ben Miff
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 18
Registered: 10-19-2008
IP: Logged

Right, fixed those problems.

Also, 1N 2W does have a checkpoint, right up in the top-left just below the pressure-plate and roach.

The Architest
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 255
Registered: 05-25-2008
IP: Logged

Welcome to forums and have fun!

This is fun hold!

It contains some easy/medium puzzles and I want see that you will finish this!

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

Welcome to the forum!

I haven't conquered all the rooms yet, but I've seen them in the editor so I'll give a few comments:

-Once North, Twice East; I like this room, and I think the bombs were placed very cleverly (whether or not intentional ). However, it definately needs more checkpoints. It would probably be better if you put a checkpoint in Beethro's chamber, as it is smaller.

-I like the non-linear layout, such that you can do the rooms in any order. And it doesn't look like there's any back tracking issues.

-I would say that most of the rooms need more checkpoints, and some don't have any at all (Once East and Once North, Once West EDIT: and the secret room).

The rooms are presented well, and I like the mixture of difficulty, too.

Overall, it is coming along really well. Good job!

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[Last edited by Kwerulous at 10-19-2008 02:35 PM]

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3659
Registered: 10-06-2005
IP: Logged

So far, you've done a good job. I haven't finished up yet, but I'd like to mention one thing before I write more detailed comments after the level's done:

After solving First Level: Once North Twice West, the yellow door can't be opened on subsequent visits. Given that this is the room with the blue door, and that this blue door is behind the yellow door, I don't think that's good. If you added a green door that allowed the player to get past the yellow door, then all would be well again.

More comments when I finish the First Level.

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Ben Miff
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 18
Registered: 10-19-2008
IP: Logged

Replies taken on board, and the hold has been edited and re-uploaded to solve said problems raised.

zwetschenwasser
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 200
Registered: 05-22-2007
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I wield my official Recognizer power and officially welcome you to the forum with my official seal:




I'm enjoying your levelset, by the way, though I'm not done with it...

____________________________
Currently working on GaTEB and KDD (never finished the silly thing).

Ben Miff
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 18
Registered: 10-19-2008
IP: Logged

Right, this is a vaguely important declaration type thingy, so I'll be putting this in the first post as well.

The hold has now been updated with a second level. The same criticism / responses / feedback appeals apply. Also, for those of you have already finished the first level, the broken walls in the entrance room lead to a shortcut room. Currently, it's only got stairs to the start of the second level in it, but as the level increases in number of levels it'll fill up to prevent you from having to replay all of the previous floors each time.

Jeff_Ray...
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 962
Registered: 05-16-2005
IP: Logged

Heh, that's a rather good hold you have here! Much above my expectations for a first hold! You've got some real brain stumpers here...

I'll try level 2 later tonight when I can.

____________________________
I make Let's Plays too!
Click here to find out my LPs' progress, and find out what I plan to tackle next!

Currently playing:


My Holds:
-Completed:

-Work in Progress:

Ben Miff
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 18
Registered: 10-19-2008
IP: Logged

Third level now available. (Edited first post to have the 3-level hold attached, as well as this post.)

Ben Miff
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 18
Registered: 10-19-2008
IP: Logged

Oops. Anyway, fixed now.

larrymurk
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1917
Registered: 12-09-2004
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I like!

Comments on first 2 levels.

Level 1:
1W- Unsolved. Looks sort of long, glad it's secret.
1E- quite easy.
1N2W- fun gel room.
1N1W- very easy.
1N- ok roach queen room.
1N1E- ok.
1N2E- ok bomb/mimic maze.
2N1W- ok snake maze.
2N- ok rock giants.
2N1E- ok, a bit tedious tar room.
2N2E- Good rch queen room.

Level 2:
1W- diabolical fun/tricky tar growth room.
Entr- ok tar/mud room
1E- ok hot tile room
1S1W- good gel/rch queen room.
1S- ok mud skipper rm
1S1E- unintended solution? kill roaches and go backwards. Timer doesn't matter. Maybe put arrow at entrance to rch area.
1S2E- ok seep maze.
2S1W- unsolved, glad this is secret. ERROR- can't backtrack through 1W.
2S- good aumtlich/rch queen room.
2S1E- ok skipper/slayer room.

larrymurk
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1917
Registered: 12-09-2004
IP: Logged

Level 3:

1W- Wubbas on trap doors looked like it might be difficult but was actually pretty easy.
1E- unsolved. Seems like an ok room, but I got stuck w/ the wrong aumtliches at the end a couple times.
1S1W- Queen roaches- pretty easy/boring.
1S- Unintended solution? Send one clone around to all the available pps, then simply place the rest of the clones at the destinations.
1S1E- I like this room. The doors/pps next to the 5 sets of hot tiles are not needed.
2S1W- Guard killing tar, ok.
2S- Pretty long/tedious mud killing room. First try I blew up the bombs and destroyed all the tar just to find out blowing up the bombs closes a door making the room unsolvable. Arghhh. Maybe a note could mention this'll happen. Also, the green door could just be a normal wall since the mud baby will exit the west side of its chamber when the black door is dropped.
2S1E- unintended solution? I started to the south to become unsworded then went to the NE to become sworded, then killed the aumtliches and golemns pretty easily.
3S1W- wraithwings ok.
3S- unintended solution? The only pp needed is on the fare east of the maze. It opens the only door needed to kill the roach and exit. The green door, other doors, pps, and briar are all unused!
3S1E- unsolved. Another secret room that i'm glad is un required. ERROR- I don't think you can make it to this room since you can't destroy the secret wall in 1S1E being unsworded.

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

I've played through this hold, and found it quite enjoyable. As Larry mentioned, there are some backtracking problems associated with the secret rooms. In Second Level 1W, you need to rotate the tunnel at (23,8) so it points south instead of north, so I can return from the secret room. In Third Level 1S1E, when I return from the secret room, I'm stuck behind the yellow doors (and possibly also the green door). I'm not sure how you could fix that within the existing puzzle. The entrance to the secret room needs to be moved elsewhere.

Level 1
1N - Works fine, it wasn't too hard to avoid the eyes' gaze. A vision token would be helpful.
1N1W - I ran around the room once, clockwise, to arrange the seep before entering their area.
1N2W - Very nice! I like how you have to both avoid and use the brains and mothers.
2N1W - It was pretty easy to get the snakes in dead ends early, and then finish cleaning up the seep. I wonder what this room would be like with a brain (and maybe only one snake). Then I'd have to use the diagonal moves available to get enough ahead of the snake to turn my sword.
2N - Works fine. I killed the golems in all the appropriate places.
2N1E - Works fine. I cut all the tar and killed all the roaches.
1N1E - It's pretty easy to keep the tar trimmed while sending the roach queen to her destination.
1N2E - The bomb/mimic maze works fine.
2N2E - Works fine. I killed all the roaches.
1E - I suspect you wanted me to kill the last wraithwing against the snake, and I didn't. I killed it against the force arrow instead. To prevent the player from going back west, perhaps you could use a trapdoor.
1W (secret) - Shuffling all those platforms around took me forever. It works fine, but I can't say I much enjoy block puzzles in DROD. Moving Beethro around is clunky and tedious in these cases. I'd rather click and drag the blocks themselves.

Level 2
Entrance - Works fine. It's not too hard to reach and remove the two mothers.
1W - Nice! I used only the NE pressure plate to keep the mother contained, and blew her up on turn 80. After that, the remaining tar was cuttable.
1S1W - Getting through all that gel while avoiding roaches was tedious.
2S - It's an interesting puzzle idea (where can I stand to defend against roaches and manipulate the fegundo at the same time) that, in practice, makes a rather long puzzle.
1S - I killed a lot of waterskippers in here. The trick was figuring out which nest to attack next.
1S1E - Relatively quick and easy compared to the rest of the level. Works fine. I killed a roach every turn after stepping on the pressure plate.
1E - Despite some missteps, I still beat the snake rather easily.
1S2E - Force arrow mazes aren't my favorite, but this one works fine.
2S1E - It was easy to beat the slayer to the nest area, but rather slow work picking off enough skippers to get to the nests.
2S1W (secret) - Very nice! It's rare to see a trapdoor maze with a lynchpin. I looked at how many arrows led in and how many arrows led out of the two islands.

Level 3
1W - Works fine. I trapped all the wubbas on the pressure plates.
1S1W - Works fine. I killed a lot of roaches.
2S1W - The guard removed all the mud well ahead of the timer.
3S1W - It was very easy to kill all the wraithwings.
3S - Not sure what I was supposed to do here. I stepped on one pressure plate, killed the roach and left. The green door and the timer are unnecessary.
2S - I cut a lot of tar, and it took forever. As Larry mentioned, the green door is unnecessary. I never lit a fuse.
2S1E - More unintended solutions. In my case, I avoided the arrow rotators, and stepped on the NE disarm token twice in a row. Then I killed all the monsters.
1S1E - A similar unintended solution. I stepped on the lefthand disarm token twice in a row so the righthand disarm token gave me a sword. Then I killed all the giants wherever, and used the sword to get past the aumtlich.
1S - I bet this room can be solved without using all the clones... but I'm too tired to try it right now.
1E - Rather tricky figuring out the correct order to blow up the aumtlich.
3S1E (secret) - I already said how I feel about block puzzles in DROD. I liked this one a little better than the one on the first floor.

Jacob
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3749
Registered: 10-01-2004
IP: Logged

Level 1: 2N1W. As alluded to before, the room is trivially easy. You can head straight for the exit next to the cauldron/viewing device thingy and kill the 2 snakes against the orb.

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