Red-XIII wrote:
I continued to play, here's some comments:
Previous broken rooms:
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RF 1N1W: I'm afraid I broke it again, the southern queen didn't serve a purpose. But I love this room!
FC 1S1E: Now I use both plates, neat room.
FC 2S1W: I used only one EE here, intended?
FC 3S1W: Fixed.
I think I need to give the Southern part of level 1's secret room a total rethink as I now see what the main problem is that causes you to keep breaking it (although it was obvious in hindsight) and need to think about what I'm going to do about this.
Unfortunately it looks like you attached the wrong demo for FC 2S1W so I can't see how you only used one eye, which amazes me that it's possible. I know two eyes only can be done, but one? Blimey.
Red-XIII wrote:
Mud caves:
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I don't think you should change the main solution to 1S3E, it's true that I didn't find it particulary tricky but all players are different so someone else might enjoy this more than I did.
1S2E: I thought it again and it's actually a good room!
Perhaps I'll wait and see if I can get an extra person's opinion on 1S3E before I do something drastic.
Red-XIII wrote:
The chasm:
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Overall, my least favourite level mainly because in some rooms it was obvious what needed to be done but doing it was a bit tedious for me, but optimizers will love these rooms IMO.
I repeat, other players might enjoy this.
Entrance: Good introduction!
1N: Ok room.
1E: Best room in the level, but I didn't use the bomb, intented?
1S1E: Good room!
1S2E: There are actually several stragies here to shorten the snake so I can't really complain about this.
2S1E: Urgh, couldn't do it, really hard. Maybe move this to post master and replace it with an easier version?
2S: Ok room.
1S: First of all, there is no way to exit the room but to take the stairs that lead to mastery level, I don't think it should be like this. Maybe the stairs will lead to another entrance of this level when the hold will be completed? About the room, I know that there is a strategy, which is temporarily park the snakes while I go back to the platform but doing this was a bit frustating. Also, is red door really necessary? Since there is a platform here this is not a trapdoor puzzle since it's trivial dropping all trapdoors.
3S: Well, I have mixed feelings about this, but it is not a bad room, but the original version (as you said in the scroll in the postmaster level) is way better to me.
2S1W: Easy room but not bad.
1S1W: Another hard room, I couldn't do it :/
Click here to view the secret text
×I am sorry to hear that you didn't enjoy this level as much.
1E: Wow you completely demolished this room, almost every single part of your solution was not intended haha. I need to think about this for a while. Glad that you really liked it though, it has similarities to level 1's secret room in a number of ways including how I designed it and how much you totally broke it :p Looks like I need to think about making more rooms like these.
2S1E: I was actually worried about this room in particular after making it that it would be too hard and that appears to be the case. As you are confirming something I was already thinking I'll look to see if I can change it to make it easier or replace it entirely. Moving it to post-mastery sounds like a good idea yeah.
1S: In the mastery level's entrance room there is a big staircase on the left that takes you back to this level, I think you should go try walking up it to see where it takes you and your concerns will disappear. However maybe it's a good idea to either add in an "escape hatch" to this room or allow access to the stairs without clearing the room. Unfortunately due to how this room is hidden its not really possible to let the player walk back out the way they came, and I think you're right that that should probably be addressed. Removing the red door is a good idea. For what it might be worth there's a particular solution to this room that makes it not frustrating by creating loops in particular places that allow you to park the snakes with no risk or reliance on snake movement preference in setting them up, but if people will naturally try to solve the room in frustrating ways then maybe its my job as level designer to help make them not do that. This is another room I'll need to think about.
3S: Good to know that you prefer the post-mastery version. It's very easy to swap them around so I'll keep that in mind.
1S1W: Yeah this one is pretty tough, sorry. If it proves too difficult it could easily be another candidate for making post-mastery and I'll look to replacing it. Getting a good overall difficulty curve and avoiding the occasional enormous difficulty spike room is proving to be quite tough with my restrictions of making these levels so thematic.
Red-XIII wrote:
Illegal chemistry:
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Overall, me favourite level in the hold so far, I really liked it even though I couldn't clear all of it. There are easy and hard rooms here:
Entrance: Nice introduction!
1E: Good horde room, I managed to kill 2 mothers without the speed potion so I'm not really sure if is possible without it.
1W: Ok room.
1S1W: Liked this one.
2S1W: Really good one but I broke the NE part by putting a decoy at (28,1) as soon as I released the roach. Also, I entered the secret room with a clone from the 5 tile entrance. Intended?
3S1W: I couldn't clear the speed potion part, even with a decoy in there to help me. Am I missing something?
3S1E: Old school manipulation, not bad but not easy.
2S1E: Liked this one.
1S1E: Easy but good.
1S: I coudn't clear the NW and SE zone and I have 4 decoys left, hard room.
2S: Definitely broke this one.
Click here to view the secret text
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2S1W: Hahaha doh! Can't believe I missed that one. And the unintended way to access the secret room is embarrassing. I try not to put force arrows right on the border of rooms but obviously I need to do that here.
3S1W: You're actually not missing anything, it can be done with only the secret potion it's just really hard, which is the main reason why this room in particular is the secret one. If you end up struggling too much I'll look to making that bit slightly easier.
1S: It's funny, I thought this was one of the easier rooms but I guess not. Given how much you love breaking my rooms with sneaky roach spawns I'm surprised you're having so much trouble :p
2S: Noooooo I knew someone was gonna come along and break this and you totally destroyed my poor room. I can see a way of fixing this though maybe. Hopefully.
Red-XIII wrote:
Frigid depths:
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I arrived here by chance (from the chasm) so I played it:
1E: Definitely harder than the original.
1N1E: Broke this one too, and I could have also used the strategy I used in FC 2S1W too.
1S1E: Liked this one! Is it intended that I can start from south too? If it reflects the original room you should put a green door.
2S1E: As I said in "the chasm" I liked this more than original.
Click here to view the secret text
×Given the manner in which you broke 1N1E I think I will just get rid of this variant room. I tried for a long time to make a setup that would force you to only use two eyes but its obviously not working and only relying on the other not-using-shallow-water part of the room isn't enough to make me want to keep the room by itself.
Being able to start 1S1E from the South was noticed but I don't see it as an issue, unless it's just an added pain for optimisers in which case I'll happily add a green door.
I'm afraid I don't have a new version of the hold for you just yet and with the things I need to think about there may not be another for a while.I'm excited that you're ready to try level 6, I warn you that the level is quite hard but I'm extremely happy with it and I hope you enjoy it too. I think it's the highlight of this hold honestly. Now to watch you break it horribly :p
By the way I know it's getting old me saying this now but I really do want to thank you for your hard work in playing through what is essentially the worst version of this hold so you can help me make it as good as possible. I am extremely grateful for your comments and ability to break my rooms. I'm so grateful that I want to buy you a three month CaravelNet membership as a way of saying thanks, I mean it. If you want to take me up on this offer please PM me your e-mail address.
My to-do list is now ever growing:
*Finish post-mastery level
*Come up with a better room for RF 1N1E
*Maybe come up with a replacement room for FC 1S and move the current one to the post-mastery level because its difficulty is unsuitable for the second level?
*Consider replacing MC 1S3E with something else if a better idea strikes me
*Level 1's secret room - reconsider the southern room.
*Rethink The Chasm 1E.
*Make The Chasm 2S1E and 1S1W easier.
*Think about ways to make The Chasm 1S better.
*Fix IC 2S1W and 2S.
Fixed. Thanks!