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Level: Legendary Smitemaster
Rank Points: 8
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File: Elusive Exhibitions.hold (672.1 KB)
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After a relatively long period of absence, I finally present a new hold, that has been in the making since late 2008. This piece of architecture consists of more lynchpin puzzles in the style of Artful Architecture. Most rooms have the same minimalistic feel and were designed to look aesthetically pleasing. There is no storyline.

Be warned though! This is yet again a very difficult hold, that explores some uncommon themes you may have never seen before. If you are a true puzzle connoisseur who is up for a challenge, this hold is definitely for you. However, feel free to take only a casual look at the puzzles. The hold has a fully accessible level structure, so you can roam around freely, without having to solve anything. And there is always the Hints and Solutions board.

Whichever way you like to play, I hope you will enjoy the content this hold has to offer.

Credit goes to the following people for thoroughly playtesting the hold:
CuriousShyRabbit, BoyBlue, larrymurk, Chaco, Tim, Blondbeard.
Thank you all!

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

At last, here is a great new hold from Jutt!

There are five themed puzzle levels here, plus a very special postmastery level. Some levels have particular monsters as their theme, such as Brains and Wraithwings. Others have themes that only Jutt would think of. If you remember An Architects Audition : Tarchitecture : 1 North, 1 West and Artful Architecture : Tricolour Trial : 3 North, 1 West, these ideas about snake and tarstuff parity have been expanded into an entire level in Elusive Exhibitions. There's also a level with an interesting movement order theme. The secret room in Artful Architecture : Minimal Art gives just the beginning of a hint of all the things Jutt has done with lines of monsters in Elusive Exhibitions.

As you would expect from Jutt's previous holds, each seemingly impossible puzzle has an elegant solution based on a different trick. No two puzzles use the same trick. You'll definitely need to dust off your thinking caps for this one!

This high-quality hold was going to be made into a Smitemaster's Selection, but ultimately, it seemed better to release it now for your enjoyment, than to wait another couple years. Lucky you!

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3648
Registered: 10-06-2005
IP: Logged

CuriousShyRabbit covered most of the main points, but I just have a bit more to mention:

The SmS creation process has been going slowly, and both Jutt and the Caravel Team agreed that Jutt would take "Hold 004" out of the lineup and go ahead and publish it as "Elusive Exhibitions" for all to enjoy.

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This hold has some very tricky lynchpin thinking in it, particularly in the Brains, Arctan(1/2) level and Formations
level.

Probably the easiest levels to tackle first, if you're serious about conquering the hold, are Parity Puzzles and Wraithwings.

There's a bonus level in a Mastery Section that can be accessed once the other five levels are mastered.

This hold is pretty tough, but doable. It only took me a year and a half to solve almost all of the rooms

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

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[Last edited by Chaco at 11-02-2010 01:56 PM : used the wrong level name]

Dischorran
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3414
Registered: 09-10-2005
IP: Logged

High scores are publicly available, dudelet - we know you haven't seen any of the solutions.

The hold has some very elegant puzzles! So far, I'm a particularly big fan of the parity mazes. I also appreciate the open layout; as warned above, solving one room of a given time tends to be enough to fry my brain, so it's nice to be able to go off and try another type of room.

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

Postmastered

Awesome hold with a lot of new puzzle ideas. I loved Arctan 1/2 in particular - So tricky puzzles are made using quite basic quirk of when aumtliches and guards turn. I liked Brains level, too, although it didn't show much new to me(on the other hand, I still have no idea how I solved 1S 1E - guess some tricky brain pathmapping). I also liked most of "Formations" level, though 1N 1W and 1S 1W weren't as interesting as other rooms on this level.

Wraithwings level is definetily the simpliest one. I'd recommend people to start with this one. Overall, I liked it, but 1N 1E was annoying, to be honest.

I've tried Parity Patterns level only after solving everything else, because at first, rooms there seemed not too friendly to me. I was wrong - it was much more interesting than I expected. I loved gel and mud mazes - they had so neat little tricks which allowed to escape. On the other hand, rattlesnake maze was pretty easy and not too interesting, and it was quite tedious to kill all rattlesnakes after getting to speed potion.

Secret rooms also impressed me. They had very elegant solutions. In some cases, they required a lot of planning as well.

Liked postmastery area as well, rooms there were little fun diversions - except one particular rock giant puzzle, which I didn't like...

Overall, definetily one of the toughest holds in a long while. Most of time, it was hard to figure out the trick, and it was hard to implement it in solution as well. And certainly one of most unique holds.

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[Last edited by mxvladi at 11-06-2010 11:00 PM : postmastered]

Ivcha Pivcha
Level: Delver

Rank Points: 80
Registered: 08-02-2010
IP: Logged

OK, enough for today. Downloaded yesterday and so far I was able to solve 8 rooms. I cannot say ONLY 8 rooms. These are easy ones in this sadistic hold, I guess. Find that Parity Patterns and Brains are easier than other levels, at least for me. Maybe I can solve couple of rooms more but other than that is just delusion (that I will be able to do it on my own).
I can tell you that this is another masterpiece by Jutt. In terms of quality this hold deserves pure 10 / 10 but when it comes in terms of fun it is very difficult to rate it because is aimed for the most experienced and patient players; also there are rooms clearly made for experienced architects. Much observation and calculation is needed to pass them. I’m talking especially about geometry problems that need to be solved.
So, if you think that you are hardcore enough and if you want to put your sanity to the test you should definitely play this hold.

One week later…
OK, enough for this week. I managed to solve 22 rooms. Whole lotta more than I expected. So that means that I’m left with 8 more rooms. I’m loosing my nerves slightly, so I think that I’ll soon start searching for help. Oh, did I forget to mention that I annihilated Arctan(1/2) level. I destroyed it with (MAJOR SPOILER ALERT)

Second week…
I finally conquered this hold. Last week my progression in this hold was hindered by real life duties and just before finishing it my computer started malfunctioning and in the very last moment I managed to back up DROD data. All of my hard work would be lost in the moment. I think that this is a good opportunity to advice you to save all your progress on some disc from time to time; but let’s talk about this hold. Very, very hard work in this one I tell you. I guess that without some help I could never beat it. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Some of the greatest players ask for help often. You don’t want to spend your life in some rooms, feel free to ask. This community has some invaluable members that will gladly help you.
I enjoyed every single room, love that kind of concept, and I’m very glad that Jutt didn’t made bigger hold because it would exhausted me completely.
I never ever had such experience; this is truly one of the greatest hold of all time.
10/10 for fun and 8,5 brains.

DO THE IMPOSSIBLE
SEE THE INVISIBLE
ROW! ROW!
FIGHT THE POWER!
TOUCH THE UNTOUCHABLE
BREAK THE UNBREAKABLE
ROW! ROW!
FIGHT THE POWER!

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

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Never read books you aren't sure about . . . even supposing that these bad books are very well written from a literary point of view. Let me ask you this: Would you drink something you knew was poisoned just because it was offered to you in a golden cup? ~ St. John Bosco

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[Last edited by Ivcha Pivcha at 12-03-2010 01:47 PM]

Dischorran
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3414
Registered: 09-10-2005
IP: Logged

File: Booyah.png (612.4 KB)
Downloaded 1047 times.
License: Public Domain

OK, so maybe this isn't a huge deal to some of those guys above me, but I feel like bragging anyway. So proud of myself, and it's only taken a month!


Five more to go...

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[Last edited by Dischorran at 12-03-2010 03:54 AM]

disoriented
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2401
Registered: 08-07-2007
IP: Logged

I'd love to see a video of someone playing this hold. I'm apparently not going to be able to solve most of these on my own.

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34th Skywatcher

Best to PM me, since I might miss your message on CaravelNet chat.

adS
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 214
Registered: 05-02-2010
IP: Logged

This is a fabulous hold. "Unfortunately" is is very difficult and I'll probably not be able to solve many rooms.

I give it a 9 for difficulty and a 9 for fun.

adS

PS a few additional checkpoints would be nice

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pauca sed matura

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

A very difficult hold but with some great puzzles, you'll need to master some difficult gameplay concepts to solve most of these. I enjoyed the formations and arctan levels the most, wasn't so keen on the parity patterns level as I found it a bit repetitive.

Play this hold if you want a challenge and to try some high-level manipulation, the less experienced will struggle with it but at least all rooms are available from the outset so you can always move on to another room if you're having problems.

Difficulty: 8.5
Fun: 8

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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