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Red-XIII
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icon Deadly Choices of Death (+3)  
Hello everyone!

I decided to take a break from regular DroD and regular architecture (though I'll definitely complete what I started) to focus more on DroD RPG. After playing a lot and reading all the architectural handbook I wanted to try by myself to build a RPG hold and here's the result.

There are currently two levels so it's halfway complete since I'm going to build only four levels, they are relatively small.
I played it a lot and I found it medium difficulty but, since I'm not a great player and I arrived with pretty good status at the end of each level I'd like to know what you think about it.
Maybe some choices are pretty obvious but I tried to give the player as many choices as possible.

I'm not sure how important this is, but I didn't (and won't) use hot tiles or aumtlich in my hold since I don't really like them ^^'

Every feedback is appreciated, hope you like it!

HOLD PROMOTED

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There's just this one, just this rock.
-33th Skywatcher

[Last edited by Red-XIII at 10-12-2016 11:37 AM]
01-26-2014 at 03:38 PM
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Gordius
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icon Re: Deadly Choices of Death (+1)  
It's possible to get to the stairs to the third level with only one blue key and 40 greckles, by opening a blue door and then hopping on top of the first greckle door. Unless this is intentional (and I don't think it should be), I would recommend setting the greckle doors back one square further. I basically bypassed the entire level by buying the blue key in 1E with a green key and then just walking between the mad eyes to finish. This would no doubt leave me in terrible shape for the third level, but if I'd actually gone through the whole level and held onto two blue keys, I would be in great shape for having flexibility moving forward.
01-26-2014 at 05:15 PM
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Red-XIII
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icon Re: Deadly Choices of Death (+1)  
No that's definitely not intended, I fixed it right away, thank you very much!

EDIT: I just realized that you can skip lots of door by doing this, so I'll fix these in the next update.

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There's not some other world out there where everything's gonna be okay.
There's just this one, just this rock.
-33th Skywatcher

[Last edited by Red-XIII at 01-26-2014 05:23 PM]
01-26-2014 at 05:20 PM
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Nuntar
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icon Re: Deadly Choices of Death (+2)  
Very nice for a first RPG hold. There are certainly a lot of choices and interesting challenges here.

You should warn the player (in the first post of this topic and the eventual Holds topic) that this is a no-backtracking hold, as knowing this affects several decisions.

As you already noted, the second level falls apart because of doorwalking. However, if this were entirely fixed, I don't really like the way GR is handled in the second level. The gates between each room as well as necessary to get anything out of the rooms make the initial exploration stage extremely hard; then once you reach 72 ATK to defeat the mud mother boss with no damage, you get a huge amount of GR at once and everything becomes very easy.

With so many brains on the level, as well as golems and a high-DEF boss, every choice between ATK and DEF is a non-choice once the player is past the initial unbrained-roach stage.

In First job 2W, you can get both the large potion and the green key, since cutting all mud toggles every black door in the room. Unless this is intention, use red doors.

In the same room, the brain has no purpose, since you can kill it immediately after the two Spiders, and by the time the player reaches this room they should be one-shotting Spiders anyway.

The one-way system in First job 2N is harsh. I know you want both passages to be one-way so that getting to the end of one doesn't allow you to get the goodies from the other, but you could include a tunnel to allow the player to return.

My final stats (not that this is worth much, when you're going to take out the various doorwalking exploits): 1625 HP, 86 ATK, 72 DEF, 1118 GR, 2118 REP, 10/1/3 keys and Invisibility Potion.

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01-26-2014 at 06:50 PM
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Red-XIII
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Thanks for the comments!

I left Pilot as it was since I think it's ok even with the doorwalking but I changed a lot First Job.

I made the first part easier (though you have to kill mud mother with wooden sword and no brain to continue) and the last part a little harder so that even lots of greckles don't help a lot. I also lowered boss' DEF and raised his ATK and you don't have to kill rock golems to end the level. I also modified as you said 2N and 2W and some other things.

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01-26-2014 at 08:37 PM
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Midootje
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icon Re: Deadly Choices of Death (+2)  
Indeed, very nice for a first hold!
First Job now really seems a lot easier than in the previous version. I ended with 4290 HP, 88/78/1303/7/2/0. This is a run in which the Invisibility Potion was not taken (for the obvious reason that there's no place yet where it can be put to good use). The yellow door in First Job 2N can still be skipped using greckles. 2N1E looks a lot better now though.
Keep it up!

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Don't worry, be happy, and slice monsters. You'll probably do better than me at all three.
01-26-2014 at 10:34 PM
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Someone Else
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Awesome hold so far! My stats on leaving First Job: 1656/86/74, 1606 GR and 5/1/0/0 keys. I have the invisibility potion.
01-27-2014 at 03:22 AM
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Red-XIII
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Thanks everyone for your status! And thanks again to Nuntar for helping me with a script, here's a new update.

This third level will be large as two levels and for now the first part it's done. I tested it and I managed to complete it but without taking the bomb because I had to use the invisibility potion somewhere else, so I'd like to know if it's possible to take the bomb and also beat the boss. This level should be harder than the others.



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There's not some other world out there where everything's gonna be okay.
There's just this one, just this rock.
-33th Skywatcher
01-30-2014 at 11:20 AM
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Midootje
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You're right, this Level is a tad harder than the rest (especially at the end). It is possible to get the Hand Bomb and beat the boss though. I ended with 892 HP, 167/154/13/3/1 keys. Had to leave the bonus in 1N2W behind because I didn't see the plate would toggle and you'd need the mirror :p
You may want to note that you can't move in 5N, because the bridge drops immediately (it's not attached to land).

Edit: by the way, the Invisibility Potion was not used in this run. It could have saved me 2K HP. So this makes the margin at the end a lot bigger.

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Don't worry, be happy, and slice monsters. You'll probably do better than me at all three.

[Last edited by Midootje at 01-30-2014 05:01 PM]
01-30-2014 at 04:42 PM
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Red-XIII
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Wow those are really great status, thanks! And I planned to use the invisibility potion on the Spectre :P

Anyway, I noticed that you have 13 yellow keys, should I remove them a bit and add more health or is the level well balanced?

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There's not some other world out there where everything's gonna be okay.
There's just this one, just this rock.
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01-30-2014 at 05:21 PM
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Midootje
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icon Re: Deadly Choices of Death (+1)  
Yeah, I figured. I'll get to that when the hold approaches completion ;)
Well, I only used keys in order to get stats (and only to save HP when it did so for 400 or more). Maybe a player who likes to preserve HP instead of keys would have less, so I think it's fine so far. Maybe reward the player later for having more keys left? Like a keydrain room?

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Don't worry, be happy, and slice monsters. You'll probably do better than me at all three.
01-30-2014 at 08:58 PM
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Red-XIII
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Back again!

After a little break I managed to complete the third level, it should pretty hard, let me know what you think about it.

Once again, I need to ask your help, I managed to complete the level but without taking the skeleton key (because I needed the bomb to take the Wyrm smiter) so I'd like to know if is possible to take the skeleton key and finish the level.
Thanks in advance!

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There's not some other world out there where everything's gonna be okay.
There's just this one, just this rock.
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02-23-2014 at 03:49 PM
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Someone Else
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7N1E should probably have an east-facing force arrow at (9,11).
The tunnel in 8N2W doesn't do anything.

Other than that, looking good!
I'll have my stats up later.
02-24-2014 at 03:13 PM
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Someone Else
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Okay, here are my (very non-optimal) stats!
Click here to view the secret text

I could trade the speed potion for 6 ATK 6 DEF and 600 HP. I could trade 1 YKEY for 600 HP 3 times, and 1 GKEY for 600 HP twice. The SKEY cost about 900 HP. I have the wyrm smiter.
02-24-2014 at 09:10 PM
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Red-XIII
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The final level is done!
I also changed some minor things on level 3 and some aesthetic stuff.

About the last level I'd like your opinion about something:
1) Are there enough yellow keys?
2) Is it too easy? If so, blocking the access to the really big sword with a blue door is a good option? (I didn't have the wyrm smiter)
3) Is it possible to beat the secret boss? Using a speed potion I almost killed him so I think it's possible but I don't trust myself that much.

About the hold, is the key system well balanced?

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There's not some other world out there where everything's gonna be okay.
There's just this one, just this rock.
-33th Skywatcher

[Last edited by Red-XIII at 03-01-2014 11:20 PM]
03-01-2014 at 11:20 PM
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Someone Else
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Okay, so I beat it. I beat both bosses in the same run, and ended with 4392/497/503, 1/6/2/0, and I could have had a speed potion or wall-walking at the end. (about 1700 hp difference) Overall, I think replacing a few yellow doors with green doors might be a good idea, but other than that it's good!

Trying again, I could beat both the bosses, ending with 465/501/503, 1/6/2/1, and that's with the speed potion from the previous level. I think it's in a fairly good place right now, but I think you'd want someone with a little less optimized stats trying it at this point.

Ooh, not taking the speed potion in the previous level, I can get up to 8496 health after beating both bosses...
03-02-2014 at 02:45 AM
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Red-XIII
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Thank you very much for your status!

I replayed the hold and this time I finished with medium status and beating all bosses so I'm pretty satisfied right now. In this tiny update:
-I added some green door on the last level and a weapon slot.
-I modified a bit "First job 1N2W" because wall walking was too helpful (though you can still do it but with a yellow key)
-Added a credit scroll in "Pilot".
-On "Green Sea" you can return twice to the Southern section. Also I added a force arrow on 7N1E as Someone Else suggested.

The only thing that needs to be changed is a scripting problem: on "Green Sea" the first time you meet the 5000 greckles wubba it actually cost 5000 greckles, but as soon as you enter the northern section the other character sets the variable = 200 greckles. How can I limit the variable to a single room? Should I just create a new variable?

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There's not some other world out there where everything's gonna be okay.
There's just this one, just this rock.
-33th Skywatcher

[Last edited by Red-XIII at 03-03-2014 06:39 PM]
03-02-2014 at 03:46 PM
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Nuntar
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Red-XIII wrote: The only thing that needs to be changed is a scripting problem: on "Green Sea" the first time you meet the 5000 greckles wubba it actually cost 5000 greckles, but as soon as you enter the norther section the other character sets the variable = 200 greckles. How can I limit the variable to a single room? Should I just create a new variable?
Have characters in both rooms that set the variable, and have them repeat script on entrance.

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03-03-2014 at 02:13 AM
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Red-XIII
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I already tried that but it still doesn't work. I also removed all the other characters since only one is needed to make all the others into 200 greckles citizien right? I mean, a new character setting the variable 'sink' in every room that has a greckle citizien was a mistake?

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There's not some other world out there where everything's gonna be okay.
There's just this one, just this rock.
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03-03-2014 at 06:55 PM
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Someone Else
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You could try using a different variable...
03-03-2014 at 06:55 PM
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Red-XIII
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Someone Else wrote:
You could try using a different variable...

Forgot to write that sorry, I tried that too but didn't work either, and that's odd... I'm definitely missing something obvious.

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There's not some other world out there where everything's gonna be okay.
There's just this one, just this rock.
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03-03-2014 at 06:59 PM
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Someone Else
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Don't put "End" in your scripts. It's really only useful if you've got an NPC that repeats each time you enter a room until you do something to stop it. In normal DROD, that's always the case so it is useful. In RPG, that's almost never the case so don't use it.
03-03-2014 at 07:08 PM
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Red-XIII
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Now eveything works fine, thank you guys!

Unless something big comes up this will be the final version and I may send it to HA next week.

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There's not some other world out there where everything's gonna be okay.
There's just this one, just this rock.
-33th Skywatcher
03-03-2014 at 07:26 PM
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