admin
Level: Legendary Smitemaster
Rank Points: 8
IP: Logged

File: Super Dungeon Deluxe 4level pack 1.hold (27.2 KB)
Downloaded 996 times.
License: Other
From: Unspecified

there are roaches, queens, eyes, wings, serpents, tar and brains.
try to conquer this hold without dying. and try your best!

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

Here is an easy hack-and-slash hold from mathewpd.

I'd particularly recommend this hold to DROD newcomers, who would like to spend some time getting used to the AE elements (excluding goblins, which is probably a good thing for the newest newbies). Each floor is populated by a few different types of monsters. The player will find plenty of practice smiting them as they come around corners and through opened doors. The player does not need to know when mothers spawn or how snakes move. Even though this hold is easy, it's presented as a challenge, and that's another reason why I think it will be fun for novice players.

DROD veterans will also play this hold, of course, and create challenges for themselves by optimizing it. And a little mindless hacking and slashing is always a good break from the other brain burners out there on the holds board. However the seemingly endless running from orb to orb to orb to orb got really tiresome for me.

This is a fine hold. It's not stellar, but it's a long long way from bad. I'm giving mathewpd tons of karma for such a huge improvement over his first hold.

matthewpd
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 62
Registered: 01-18-2010
IP: Logged

this is good thanks to chaco and curioushyrabbit for testing this hold had good work guys im proud of you 2 testers.

____________________________

Dear cnet members i dont intend to be annoying i just wanna learn. sincerely, mattpd.
and if you mod me down your a Meanie

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

It looks like da rogu3, Elfstone, and west.logan did a fine job testing this hold in Architecture, too. We need more people like these who help out in Architecture.

Penwielder
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 628
Registered: 09-12-2009
IP: Logged

This is indeed a big step above matthewpd's first hold.

I didn't notice your challenge above--I died 38 times in the course of my conquest. My goal (decided upon as of the second level) had been to finish it as fast as possible, and I did that reasonably well: it took me 1:01:53.

Hack'n'slash it is. Unlike many such holds, though, it maintains a good degree of organization. The level layouts and decor are certainly nicer than some; I never felt like I was just running through a bunch of 38x32 rectangles. There's a good bit of "seemingly endless running from orb to orb to orb to orb," as CSR put it, but one positive aspect of the way the rooms are designed is that you rarely ever have to worry about making them impossible. Floor 3: 2N1W comes to mind--I didn't realize until the last moment that I needed to drop all the trapdoors, but the room turned out to be rather forgiving on that point.

The text in this hold is minimal enough that grahmirz lyek ths didn't annoy me nearly as much as such often would. I can't figure out what the hold description is supposed to mean, and the ending was left blank, but the level descriptions and scrolls were generally coherent.

All that said, I second CSR's assessment that this would be a good hold for DROD newcomers. At times it's strangely as if it were made to be that way. The large level layouts are also likely to appeal to younger players.

One question remains: will it live up to its name? Shall there actually be more parts? Personally, I won't hold my breath until then ...because if I did, I might never know.

____________________________
Penwielder's Palace, Detention Complex, Archipelago, Cube of Memories

12th Archivist
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 789
Registered: 12-07-2008
IP: Logged

I will agree with everyone else and say that this hold is loads better than his previous. In fact, I found nothing especially wrong with this hold. It has good checkpoint placement, good aesthetics, and a good dungeoney atmosphere I feel that DROD has been missing lately. My only complaint is that the repetitiveness of running to orbs and hacking and slashing away at roaches is rather boring, but I found great joy in trying to beat Penwielder's scores with my own optimization techniques. (I still need to go back to the first two levels and optimize those.)

This hold might not be all the rage because it features doing and not thinking, but for what it is, this is an excellent hold. Perhaps I am blinded by relative grading (the concept that X gets a much better score than Y simply because it is better than Y and not because of any standardized rules, which would be absolute grading), but I am willing to give this hold a great recommendation for the aforementioned reasons, despite it not being another Gigantic Jewel Lost or Elusive Exhibitions.

This hold is good for anyone wanting a simple dungeon romp while their brain is on cooldown. Plus, one can find great treasures in this hold, like me with the optimization epiphany, if they look for them in unexpected places.

7 for fun
2.5 for brains
85/100 approval rating.
Great job, matthew! I would enjoy seeing more from you!

____________________________
It was going well until it exploded.
~Scott Manley

Check out the DROD Wikia project here!

Blondbeard
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1486
Registered: 03-31-2005
IP: Logged

A solid, easy hold. Perfect for the new player, or the experienced player looking for a mild challange that will go easy on the brain. My only complaint is the tendensy for needlesly tedious rooms, with long coridors you are forced to traverse. There could also be a bit more conections between rooms (it felt a bit mazelike at times to walk across the levels), and some more checkpoints.

Good job!

west.logan
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 608
Registered: 03-09-2011
IP: Logged

Matthew. This is a really good hold.

A lot of it was going from one orb to another but since there were roaches spawning during this time it didn't feel like completely wasted effort. The levels were certainly not boring and had a nice feel to them. I loved that it was made in AE, and the addition of the checkpoints made things a lot easier, generally. There were a few times when I thought there were too many in some rooms and not enough in others, but for the most part they were well-placed and balanced. I'm very glad you listened to your testers!

I had a very fun time playing and hope you complete the other three parts. I certainly didn't finish as quickly as Penwielder. That guy's a speedster!

____________________________
-Logan

noma
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1594
Registered: 11-22-2006
IP: Logged

Echoing most of the above: solid effort and enjoyable. Very easy hold with some fun hack and slash. I didn't find anything terribly tedious and there is lots of room for optimizing still in there. Good work.

adS
Level: Master Delver

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

This is a fairly simple hold but quite enjoyable.

However, I can't see how to solve floor II, 2N1E.
When I press the orb in the SE corner I get entrapped.

I seem to be missing something...

adS

____________________________
pauca sed matura

adS
Level: Master Delver

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

adS wrote:
This is a fairly simple hold but quite enjoyable.

However, I can't see how to solve floor II, 2N1E.
When I press the orb in the SE corner I get entrapped.

I seem to be missing something...

adS

Erm - I am an idiot...

Rainer

____________________________
pauca sed matura

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

This is a reasonable hold, clearly aimed at beginners. There's nothing new here, and nothing particularly taxing.

I personally found it a bit of a chore but I'm sure the less experienced player would find some benefit and enjoyment from this.

There were too many rooms of the "hit this orb to open this door, then hit this orb to open this door" variety, the tar level provides more of the same with the addition of monsters trapped in tar, and the brain puzzles are straightforward enough with you only being subjected to one corridor of brained enemies at a time, and the snake rooms having convenient dead ends to trap them in. Some of the levels were a pain to back track through, but then with this being an AE hold you couldn't have tunnels to help here anyway.

This hold did remind me a bit of some of those JonhSoft/Jonhy holds from a few years back but there's no harm in that. Sometimes the experienced player can get enjoyment from a simple hold like this but on this occasion, I didn't.

Hopefully your next hold will provide a bit more variety and a few more puzzles than this one but it's still a worthy entry for a novice architect.

My verdict:

Difficulty: 2
Fun: 4

____________________________
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

da rogu3
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 491
Registered: 04-06-2011
IP: Logged

Finished this a long while back, but never got round to writing a review.

First thing worth mentioning is that the puzzles are extremely basic. Many consist of walking inside, killing all the roaches/queens/tar scattered around the room, then proceed to the next room.

Normally this isn't very exciting, but what made this hold enjoyable for me was that the rooms were very optimizable. I had a great deal of fun trying to complete rooms in as few moves as possible. My favourite rooms (to optimise) were Floor 2: 1N1W, 1S2E, 1N1E, 1S3E, and 2N1E.

I think that the 4th level was a bit of a let down, the long, pointless winding paths just to kill a few monsters got boring very quickly, and the rooms themselves didn't leave much room for optimisation compared to previous levels.

Overall, if you are an experienced player who doesn't care much about highscores, then skip. If you are a beginner, then this hold is okay, but there are better easy hack & slash holds already released. If however you're an optimiser, then this hold is a must-play. (a note - only around 5-6 of my current 1st places have been perfectly optimised, so there is definitely room for improvement, particularly on the 3rd tar level)

Good work, I'll be looking forward to part 2, matthewpd

---

[Last edited by da rogu3 at 10-11-2011 04:17 PM]