admin
Level: Legendary Smitemaster
Rank Points: 8
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File: Puppet Master.hold (14.6 KB)
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Holding his trusty sword in one hand and a shiny ticket in the other, Beethro wandered into the Theatre of Puppetry with a wide grin drawn across his face. Why the Puppet Master had sent him a personal invitation Beethro could not fathom, but a free show was a show worth attending in any case!

Dischorran
Level: Smitemaster

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

So. Normally this is where I say "This hold is awesome! Come play it!" In fact, this is very likely a true statement.

Thing is, when I "tested" it, I got through all of seven rooms - and that's only if I count hub rooms. What can I say? It's a larrymurk hold. Fortunately, mxvladi was on the case and gave it a proper testing.

Anyway, what other architect can make an interesting room with just a single roach and a few walls? The H&S board's been quiet lately - give the new interface a workout!

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Syntax
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1218
Registered: 05-12-2005
IP: Logged

I used to have a lot of respect for larrymurk.

This hold also shows what's wrong with the HA process - impossible holds such as this should not have made it through the process as all rooms are clearly not completable.

Please clean up the testing process.

Thanks.

(absolute masterpiece so far!)

Panther
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 402
Registered: 03-19-2006
IP: Logged

I must admit that I haven't gotten very far with this yet, but I do want to say that thus far the rooms I have played are brilliant.

I was especially enamored with level 1, 1N. I found it an especially fun puzzle - twice. Fun to find a workable solution, and then fun again to find a way to make that solution efficient.

(Warning label: I needed graph paper and pencil for this puzzle both times.)

I echo previous sentiments - if you love a good puzzle, come play this hold.

(Second warning label: This hold may not be suitable for beginners. May contain small, loose parts. The contents of this hold should not be fed to fish, ferrets, or other small pets; however, your cat may enjoy the roaches.)

PMIT
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 159
Registered: 02-08-2010
IP: Logged

The theme is Monster Manipulation, and that is certainly what you'll get in this hold, along with a strong dose of lynchpin-based rooms that range from not-too-bad to puzzles you may spend hours on.

The main focus is manipulation of basic roaches and other monsters with the 'beeline' movement type, both brained and unbrained. In fact, the best part of the hold for me was seeing how many varied and legitimately interesting rooms could be made with just a few of the basic DROD monster. This goes especially for the trapdoor-path rooms found past the blue gates, which I typically find somewhat tiresome, but ended up all being enjoyable here. There are puzzles based around manipulating brain paths, getting monsters to pressure plates, keeping monsters on/off them, a few minor movement order puzzles, and more. I would definitely recommend it, especially to veterans looking for some satisfying - if difficult - puzzles. However, if you want to try this and you're relatively new, I would also recommend checking out the Simple Sword Tricks and Brained Roach Movement sections of Advanced Concepts beforehand if you haven't, because the information within are the sorts of things you'll probably need to figure out a good number of the room strategies.

There are a few other rooms that require some knowledge of other monsters, but none of those require such exhaustive knowledge as you will with roaches (and I'm reasonably certain that the one room with a snake can be completed without knowledge of their movement patterns).

Before I go though, I thought it was amusing that (Minor Spoilers)

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aka VioletPumpkin

Ivcha Pivcha
Level: Delver

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

I found that I can do this hold larrymurk's way or Ivcha Pivcha's way. Unfortunately, I am the one who find those trapdoor-path rooms past the blue gates somewhat tiresome just like Mr. Murk find somewhat tiresome orb puzzled rooms. That didn't discourage me to play the rest of the hold passing them by. Yes, they are optional. You may find ask yourself how to avoid them, if you share the same feeling with me. Here is the answer: That's right; it would be much more satisfying if you can freely roam within the hold. But I guess that Mr. Murk leave it that way intentionally for impatient ones. So, credits for him and some karma for his hold, because of it.

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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 04-16-2012 10:07 PM]

skell
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3764
Registered: 12-28-2004
IP: Logged

Finally managed to break through this evil monstrosity. Personally I think that perfection was easier than this one, but still it is way behind the Dungeon of the Broken Orbs.

This hold is an absolute masterpiece, out of all 40 puzzle rooms, I think I used H&S 4 or 5 times, and three times I asked people for help (thanks Pearls, PMIT and Schik).

The bad sides:

Also, the checkpoints placement was awful. Most of the times I felt they were placed that way on purpose, to make players more miserable .

Nevertheless, 10 for Fun and 8.5 Brains from me!

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