ZiomASek
Level: Roachling
Rank Points: 12
Registered: 11-12-2008
IP: Logged

File: Astrale.hold (7.8 KB)
Downloaded 84 times.
License: Public Domain

its my new hold people.
i was doing it 2 hours so...
just play it and comment.

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zwetschenwasser
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 200
Registered: 05-22-2007
IP: Logged

I sent you a PM...Just click on the red PM icon underneath the big CaravelNet logo.

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

zwetschenwasser
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 200
Registered: 05-22-2007
IP: Logged

Oi! This one is SOOOOO Much Nicer! You made much nicer puzzles, you added nicer elements, variety, and beautiful obstacles! Heck, you even took care of every single possible backtracking problem you could think of! I loved this hold. For a new architect, your hold is most definitely masterful. (Why wasn't RePuZla as nice as this one?)
Edit:

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

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[Last edited by zwetschenwasser at 11-16-2008 02:04 AM]

ZiomASek
Level: Roachling
Rank Points: 12
Registered: 11-12-2008
IP: Logged

HOW DO I PROMOTE IT?

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mxvladi
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 2505
Registered: 02-11-2008
IP: Logged

zwetschenwasser wrote:
Promote it quick!

I hope you was kidding...

ZiomASek wrote:
HOW DO I PROMOTE IT?

Wait... you shouldn't promote it so fast. Wait for a couple of days(even better, wait for a couple of weeks ), and after a lot of people will comment, then promote it. Promoting is only for COMPLETE holds. You can't update it when it's promoted. It can be updated only through difficult process of retesting new version by HAs... and, yeah, we update holds only when it has playability issues. Unintended solution isn't playability issue. You was warned.

And yeah, this your hold is much nicer than those previous two.

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[Last edited by mxvladi at 11-15-2008 04:38 PM]

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

I agree, you should really wait to get some more feedback before submitting.
If you can make the hold better before submitting, why not do so?

Here are some things you can improve:

There's no clear reason why the hold's called "Astrale" (what does it mean?) or why the level's called Mutations. Is there some underlying story?

You can add speech, or scrolls to give some kind of story and add some colour.

There is no hold description, level entrance description or ending text.

1W does actually have back tracking problems. If you clear the room and leave to the east, you can't then come back in and open the door leading to the south.

4S: Just stand in the entrance until the briar kills all the monsters, then leave. Easy.

A lot of the rooms are "hack-and-slash" rooms - they just involve going in and clearing some monsters, with no challenge or thought involved.

In general there's nothing particularly wrong with rooms that just revolve around killing monsters. But you can make it more challenging or interesting by arranging them in more complex ways, or adding in other elements (e.g. the monsters are coming at you from various directions at once, or you have to kill them before a timer runs out or without stepping in certain tiles etc).
Better still, add in some puzzle elements.


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

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

I would definitely agree that this hold is NOT READY to be submitted. It's a good start, but making a good short hold is a project that requires a few days or even a few weeks, not just a couple hours. Your level layout is good, but you don't have good puzzles in your rooms. Take some time to read and respond to your testers' suggestions before jumping to hit that submit button. Remember that it takes time for people to come to the forum and see your project. It may take a day or two for people to try it and comment. Maybe work on 2 or 3 rooms every day, until all of your rooms have good puzzles in them.

You should start with Jacob's suggestions, which are very good. You absolutely have to fix the backtracking problem he found in 1W. Taking his other suggestions would also improve your hold greatly.

As an example, I'll give you an idea for improving 1S3W. (This is just an idea, you don't have to use it.)

Right now, 1S3W is a very easy room that you can solve without thinking. Just walk in, kill 3 giants and a golem and leave. But what if there were a second golem in the room, in the corner at (19,1), behind a yellow door. And what if that door could only be toggled by stepping on an on-and-off pressure plate in the far NE corner at (36,1). Oooh, not so easy any more!

Beethro couldn't be the one to step on the pressure plate, because then the trapped golem wouldn't move out of his trap. You'd have to put a monster on the pressure plate. You couldn't use a golem for that, as there is no way you can ever get a golem to move into a room corner. So you'd have to use a giant. And you couldn't kill the giant in that corner, or you'd be trapped. It would have to be a live giant. But how to make the giant go in there? That also requires the player to do some thinking. You'd need to kill a golem at (34,11) or (34,12), so Beethro could lead a giant into the passage to the corner, but then escape through an opening too small for the giant.

Now it's a puzzle.


EDIT:
So, ZiomASek actually did submit this hold to HA just milliseconds after zwetschenwasser told him to on 11/15/08 (wish you hadn't done that, Mr. Plum). Promotion was blocked because of the backtracking problem Jacob found in 1W. The hold was rejected today 12/1/08, because ZiomASek never responded with a fix. If ZiomASek ever does come back to work on his hold, he'll find that he can't delete or replace the attachment on the top post. So you'll all need to forgive him for starting a new thread.

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[Last edited by CuriousShyRabbit at 12-01-2008 10:57 PM]