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This is a fairly easy hold based on the Missing Pieces competition at http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=28528

The original hold had a set of rooms, each with a missing tile. The task was to replace that tile with something that would allow you to complete the room (barring orbs, pressure plates and pre-placed mimics/decoys/clones).

I came up with 3 solutions for each and TFMurphy, Chaco, mxvladi and Rheb came up with more.

This hold displays them in a playable, and hopefully enjoyable format...with a few bonus extras.

Enjoy. See if you can come up with anymore solutions we missed.

CuriousShyRabbit
Level: Smitemaster
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Registered: 10-14-2006
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I'm still sad that I totally missed this entire contest one weekend when I went home to sleep. This was a great idea for a contest. I really hope Jacob does it again sometime.

As a hold for people to play through afterwards... it has both good and not-so-good points. The most interesting rooms to play have the widest variety of nontrivial solutions with different game elements on the Xs. I felt that the 1W rooms and the regular Entrance rooms best succeeded in this regard - very enjoyable - these showcase Jacob's talents at their finest. I also enjoyed the 1S1W rooms, even though the roach queen solution is very similar to the tar mother solution. The 1N solutions felt somehow "too easy" to me, like I totally missed the point and broke someone's room. And I'm sure many players will like the 1E rooms better than I did. To me they seemed to force the intended contest solutions with a heavy hand, and thus weren't as much fun to "explore" when solving.

As for the additonal Entrance variations... well everyone who frequents the in-game chat knows what I think of those rooms...

mxvladi
Level: Smitemaster
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I liked the contest and the hold. The secret level is too difficult for me(well, except the entrance room of the secret level, which is actually my idea of solution ), the others are pretty easy, but there're some neat solutions there.

1N solutions were very easy.

1W solutions were also quite easy.

1S 1W was medium-to-easy difficulty with tar/mud/roach mommas. Easy with stalwart and speed poiton.

1E was easy-to-medium difficulty with all the solutions. My favourite solution there is aumtlich one(it was so neat!)

Entrance has the hardest solutions.

Overall, I give it 5 for difficulty(+1,5 difficulty because of hard secret level) and 9 for fun.

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[Last edited by mxvladi at 04-08-2009 11:30 AM]

Jacob
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I am grateful for CSR for plodding through the difficult secret rooms.

I guess the only point I'll make in my defense is that the hold itself is fairly easy (hence the 3.5 brains). None of the entrance variations in the hold proper require complicated goblin manipulations. It's with the secret level that I've let the hold down, with the problems CSR describes.

I included this only for interest and completeness's sake, and as an additional challenge - but there's no need for anyone to play that level. It's all unrequired.

I hope people enjoy the hold proper, and don't judge it based on the secret level I tacked on.

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noma
Level: Smitemaster

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Well I'd love to play this hold but I'm completely at sea. How we go about placing anything on the checkpoints? What am I missing? I even tried going into the editor (which is not a place I've spent much time in at all) but the hold doesn't seem editable. As well, what's with the "Green Door Removed" and "Wall Removed..." etc scrolls? Do I need to place a green door there too? Help please for someone who's feeling like a total noob.

Jacob
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This hold comes from a competition where people were invited (in the editor) to replace the relevant tiles in the template to allow the rooms to be completeable.

(You can follow the link in the first post, for more info.)

Since the original rooms are (by design) not completable I have taken out green doors etc (hence the scrolls). The template level is there for you to see the original puzzles as I set them and to give you a chance to come up with your own solutions, before playing the later levels.
You are correct - you can't edit them.

The levels themselves are the playable rooms themselves (i.e. possible solutions for the missing tiles).

Hope this is clearer now.

N.B. for those struggling with the secret level - see "Watch Demo" demo, and the thread (and demos in architecture).

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slimm tom
Level: Smitemaster

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You can't conquer any of the rooms in the first level except for the entrance. (And maybe another one in a way I do not know of.) The first level is to show off the template on which the other levels are based. Just exit to the south and you will find stairs to the first levels, in which there are elements placed onto the checkpoints.

Syntax
Level: Smitemaster
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Registered: 05-12-2005
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noma wrote:
Well I'd love to play this hold but I'm completely at sea. How we go about placing anything on the checkpoints? What am I missing? I even tried going into the editor (which is not a place I've spent much time in at all) but the hold doesn't seem editable. As well, what's with the "Green Door Removed" and "Wall Removed..." etc scrolls? Do I need to place a green door there too? Help please for someone who's feeling like a total noob.

I was as confused as you were... explored the whole level trying out various rooms which seemed impossible. Eventually I ventured downstairs and found some replica template rooms. That's when things started making sense...

Although I realise the first level was meant to introduce the templates, I think the scrolls should be changed to further explain just what is going on, or at least have an intro level added to explain the original contest idea.

noma
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1594
Registered: 11-22-2006
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Thanks. I probably should have explored more, but when I saw all those notes, I thought I was supposed to do something.

fratropea
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 87
Registered: 11-05-2005
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I have had a good time a lot with this hold!
The variations of the rooms are all very pleasant,
but the secret rooms are too much hard...

I give 9 for fun and 6 brain

JoMax
Level: Delver

Rank Points: 65
Registered: 12-28-2005
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A very enjoyable hold - 4.5 brains, 9 for fun

Must admit I'm stuck on Entrance Variations though - movement order is definitely a problem when stuck in a corner with those goblins

jbluestein
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1670
Registered: 12-23-2005
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OK, so I went back and conquered this hold. Once I started thinking properly about the rooms, very few of them were much of a challenge.

The rooms I had the hardest time with were Level 5: 1W and Level 4: Entrance (the one with the gel mother, I think).

My favorite room was Level 5: Entrance, which I'm assuming was designed by Rheb.

I have little to say about the Entrance Variations, as I tried them out and then had to go lie down.

Excluding the Entrance Variations, I'd say the hold is a 7 for fun and about 3 brains of difficulty.

And I'm excluding the Entrance Variations, at least for now.

Josh

____________________________
"Rings and knots of joy and grief, all interlaced and locking." --William Buck

Absolutis
Level: Roachling
Rank Points: 10
Registered: 09-05-2009
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How the fegundo 1e can be completed?

mxvladi
Level: Smitemaster
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Absolutis wrote:
How the fegundo 1e can be completed?

Please ask help for rooms in H&S board

noma
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1594
Registered: 11-22-2006
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After receiving guidance on how to begin, I finished this hold pretty quickly but forgot to post a review. So here it is now.

This is a short hold of varying difficulty that exposes you to different architects' ideas and gives you an idea of how much a puzzle can change with just a few alterations. I played this on and off over a couple a days and quite enjoyed it. Yes, some rooms were very easy, but they balanced out those that required more thought and planning. Some rooms had a lot of room for optimizing, which was fun, and none of the required rooms are terribly hard. And though this may say something about my psyche, I will admit I enjoyed the challenge of working through the Entrance Variations level. (And I look forward to someday solving Sence South. ) Something I would have liked to see: scrolls that indicated who designed was responsible for which room puzzle. EDIT: I know I could check the original contest thread to find out, but the amount of effort that would require is more than I'm willing to expend. It's not that big a deal anyway; I just thought it would be interesting to know.
Fun 8 ; Brains 4

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[Last edited by noma at 09-22-2009 08:23 PM : corrected/clarified as per TFMurphy's post below]

TFMurphy
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I think it should be stated that the variations were not *designed* by different architects. Jacob created all the rooms himself and set the challenge that there were three different objects that could be placed on the template version's checkpoint to make them solvable.

Obviously, some of the rooms ended up having a lot more than just three types of object or monster that could make them possible. The Missing Pieces hold is a compilation of those solutions and challenges the player to find out in what way the changed object can be used to complete each room. Any attribution to other architects is simply whoever found a solution that worked first.

You can get an idea of who found what solutions by looking through the Contest thread linked to in the first post.

===

Also, a small warning: it seems that the Watch Demo function for this hold has two demos linked to it, but the first demo that plays is essentially for the wrong room and leads to death. The second demo is much more informative.

martz
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 416
Registered: 08-19-2005
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So, I decided to start playing DROD again after a couple of years absence. I had completed this hold before, but not the extra rooms - probably not a good place to start when you've been away so long!

I've not previously rated holds as I thought it would be unfair on holds I have played but forgotten about, but I figure now is as good a time as any to start rating.

This hold is an interesting concept on how the same room can be solved in different ways by changing one element. A similar-ish idea was used for the Collection of Constant Room Templates AE hold although that did allow for a lot more changes per room than this one.

The actual rooms themselves are fairly straightforward although some of the solutions can be quite different with just one element changed.

I would tend to agree with some of the previous comments that the first level doesn't clearly explain the concept of this hold but if you've read the posts on the contest itself it makes things clearer.

As for the extra rooms... a little bit tricky, although in most cases it's just working out the first few moves to get yourself into a corner - then it's just a case of goblin horde manipulation. My only small gripe is that I would have preferred these rooms to be unrequired so you can get the 100% without having to clear them although that would then require removal of the blue door from the entrance - I'm sure some scripting could have been used to replace that though.

My rating:

Difficulty: 5
Fun: 7

____________________________
Without struggle, there is no progress, so get up, get out, and go make the rest of your life the best of your life; you deserve to live the life that YOU want to live...

Progress - Gavin G

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[Last edited by martz at 03-10-2011 10:49 PM]

adS
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 214
Registered: 05-02-2010
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Two minutes ago I have "solved" Level1:The Entrance.

This is the funniest room I have ever seen

adS

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pauca sed matura