GerAvos
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 51
Registered: 05-28-2016
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File: Inspiration Unfinished.hold (8.2 KB)
Downloaded 52 times.
License: Public Domain

In contrast to my scripted hold Fegundo Escort, here's one that has no scripts at all. This is my other project and it's called Inspiration. It features various elements and puzzle ideas and is focused on puzzles. Most of this has been inspired by either the official DROD idea generator, the advanced techniques holds or other holds.

So far 2 out of 4 planned levels are done. I've tested them myself, but it would be nice to get someone else to play it too. You know how it goes xD Thanks for reading.

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[Last edited by GerAvos at 08-12-2016 01:39 PM]

Nuntar
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 4792
Registered: 02-20-2007
IP: Logged

This is really cool so far! Very nice puzzles, nothing too hard but they have all been fun to work out.

The biggest problem is checkpoints: 1S has one, but it's not conveniently placed when you are going between the central and north PPs, so another one or two would be welcome. 1S1E has one, but it's inaccessible during most of the puzzle. 2S1E requires a lot of fine manipulation in between the times you can use the checkpoint, so there should be another around (28,8). 3S1E has one, but

Other comments:

Entrance: Nice linchpin. I was a bit surprised at how lenient the timer is, but okay, maybe you wanted a gentle start.
1S: A bit laborious but reasonable.
1S1W: Easy but fun trapdoor/arrow puzzle.
2S: Fun interaction to play with. Easy room.
1S1E: Assuming you fix the checkpoint problem, this is an excellent room, very satisfying to solve.
1E: Some fun ways to kill seep. Thank you for avoiding the weapon token and arrow being on the same tile.
2S1W: Another good linchpin room.
3S1W: Simple WW manipulation, no problems.
3S: Very fun, solved itself when tackled one step at a time.
3S1E: Hardest room so far but an interesting challenge to find a good strategy. You could add a challenge to not regain the sword.
2S1E: Also a tough room, nice linchpin with some tricky manipulation as well. You could tone this down a little by making (21,14) a floor tile, but it's not essential, I enjoyed solving this.

Level 2:
1W: Easy starter room.
1S1W: Some of the manipulation was harder than it looked. Fun room.
2S1W: Very nice. One of the hardest levels in EP involves manipulating fegundos with a staff, so it was nice to have an easier puzzle on the theme.
1S2W: Nothing special, a golem manipulation maze that felt like it didn't need to be quite so long.
2W: Really interesting room, but was the north PP meant to open one of the room exit force arrows?
1N1W: Snake directional preference manipulation. Pretty easy.
1N: This felt a bit strange, but it's directly accessible from Entrance so it makes sense to put another simple room here.
1N1E: Really fun, I liked the variety of tactics needed to hit all the plates.
2N1E: Strange room. It wasn't hard to guess what to do, but I don't fully understand why it worked.
2N2E: Very fun, nice riddle of where to put the mirror. The force arrows don't stand out very well on this floor type.
1N2E: Simplified version of the nightmare room from Rapid Fortifications. This made it a bit dull as it was always easy to see how to take the next step. The second construct puzzle was more interesting, with a nice trick with the firetrap.

____________________________
50th Skywatcher

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[Last edited by Nuntar at 08-09-2016 11:51 PM]

bomber50
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 872
Registered: 09-18-2006
IP: Logged

Comments:

Overall, I liked it, but there's a lot of things that can be changed to improve it. I'd put difficulty around 4-5 brains. Looking forward to seeing the remaining levels.

GerAvos
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 51
Registered: 05-28-2016
IP: Logged

Thanks a lot both. I fixed all the unintended solutions and checkpoint issues and uploaded a new version of the hold. There are no new rooms yet.



As for spiders, this makes me wonder, why do they exist at all?

Anyway, thanks for the comments

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[Last edited by GerAvos at 08-10-2016 02:47 PM]

Nuntar
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 4792
Registered: 02-20-2007
IP: Logged

GerAvos wrote: As for spiders, this makes me wonder, why do they exist at all?

In KDD they were a "filler" extra monster so that every level in the first half could have a unique theme. Since then, the official holds have been kind of embarrassed about their existence; JtRH relegates them to a secret room. GatEB gives them a niche for the first time, as they are the only roach-like monster that can go on shallow water. Even so, in the official hold they are confined to a well-hidden "find at your own risk" level.

Personally, I didn't mind the use of spiders in this hold, as it was obvious they existed (the room showed as red) and pretty easy to guess where. They are easy to find with Puzzle Mode these days. Still, up to you whether to make changes.

____________________________
50th Skywatcher

bomber50
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 872
Registered: 09-18-2006
IP: Logged

L1 2S1W: Still seems to be broken. I kill two eyes in upper right with decoys, place decoy at (7,26) facing North, and use the eye on plate to kill roaches.

GerAvos
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 51
Registered: 05-28-2016
IP: Logged

Oh. I wanted the solution to be so that you place a decoy near the keg to get the eye out of its position. I'll think of something, maybe even redo the room. xD

Update: I'm pretty sure the room isn't breakable now. Updated the hold in the first post.
Update 2: You need only 5 decoys, not 6.

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[Last edited by GerAvos at 08-12-2016 01:38 PM]

Insoluble
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1639
Registered: 09-04-2014
IP: Logged

File: Inspiration Unfinished.demo (19.3 KB)
Downloaded 46 times.
License: Public Domain

I'm playing the updated hold from the 12th. This is a nice mid range difficulty (probably 5ish brain) hold so far. Demos are attached. I didn't try super hard to break rooms, but I found at least one unintended solution. The hold is currently marked "Only You can Edit". It's good form to set it to "Anyone Edit" for testing purposes. I don't have super extensive comments for every room since it looks like at least a couple of other testers have made it through the hold so far. But here are some thoughts on a few things.

Level 1:

The Entrance: The first room in a hold gives the player an important impression of what to expect. This room is nicely pegged at about a 4 - 5 brain level. It's a decent order of operations puzzle that isn't too heavy on the execution. I feel like this gives a good impression of the hold in general. making this backtrackable for the delve foolish enough to clear the room then make gel babies to unclear it before exiting is a nice touch.

1S: The second room that players will see. Not bad, but it felt a bit redundant by the end. All three parts of the room pretty much rely on knowing that fegundos can fly over active fire traps, so being able to get past the first bit pretty much guarantees you'll be able to figure out the rest. Not a bad room, just slightly less polished than the first.

2S: Thank you for not making the platform manipulation too tight! These kinds of rooms can be super annoying if you have to spend too much time juggling the platforms around. This seemed to be just the right level to keep things fun and not tedious.

1E: and 1S1E: These were fun rooms. I don't have much else to say about them.

1S1W: I didn't really get the point of the mass of seep that you can kill at the start of the room. I'm not sure that it really adds anything interesting to the room.

2S1W: I specifically tried to break this room given the comment about it above. I think it's fixed and free of unintended solutions now.

3S1W: I feel like this one stood out as being a lot easier and more straightforward than most other rooms in this hold. Very standard wraithwing manipulation. It's not a bid room, but it feels like it could use some elaboration maybe?

3S: I liked this one a lot. possibly my favorite on the level. It's a nice order of operations puzzle with some neat linchpin at the end.

3S1E: This one also seemed a bit easier than the rest of the rooms.

2S1E: This was a lot more manipulation heavy than just about anything else in the hold. Not a bad room or anything, it just stood out as having a very different style.

Level 2:

1W: Straightforward demo of the fact that power tokens allow disarmed Beetrho to hit orbs.

2W: I think I broke this one? I didn't use the dagger at all at any rate. Unless that was just a red herring.

1N1W: Since this room essentially involves counting tiles to make sure the snake is on the correct preference, it would be really nice to have a floor type under the snake that is easier to count (like Floor for instance).

1N: Nice room.

1N1E: Some fun brain manipulation tricks here. I think the linchpin of using the clone to get at least the plate at (21,19) is necessary. The others can all be gotten just switching between the two pathmaps and unbrained, though I probably could have used the clone to help out with some of them too. Really nice room.

2N1E: Some briar tricks that make me thing I should go back to the briar level in Advanced Concepts 2 so that I can remember how all this stuff is supposed to work

2N2E: Nice use of the squad horn here. That element is really underappreciated and I like how you used it in a way that it's mechanics actually come into play here.

1N2E: I'm again not sure if the horde of roaches in the beginning actually adds anything to the room here. they seem completely unrelated.

1S1W: The manipulation for getting the skippers out in the end was a bit tricky, but pretty fair. I liked this one.

1S2W: This was nice as golem mazes go.

2S1W:[/b Seems solid. not much to say about it.

____________________________
Links to neat forum tools that I always have trouble finding:

Click here to view the secret text

×Skell's idea generator: http://forum.caravelgames.com/ideasGenerator/view
Challenges Scoreboard: http://forum.caravelgames.com/challenges.php
Level map viewer: http://forum.caravelgames.com/map.php
Tactical DROD game: http://forum.caravelgames.com/tsspreview.php
(Note: Requires Flash)
Room Element Search tool http://forum.caravelgames.com/roomsearch.php
(Search through all published holds for rooms with various elements.)
Room position Heat Map http://forum.caravelgames.com/heatmap.php
DROD has a wiki! http://drod.wikia.com/wiki/Deadly_Rooms_Of_Death_Wiki
Skell's super cool list of turn sequence stuff https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QS9Vk3xsd4jlGF23J8p7c2IM5cmhwmoe6eCEaaAn8jY/edit#heading=h.ocovx14zokm4

It's not listed in "help", but [attachment] will embed the whatever image is attached to a post.

uncopy2002
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 431
Registered: 07-28-2014
IP: Logged

File: Inspiration Unfinished_P.demo (30.3 KB)
Downloaded 49 times.
License: Public Domain

More feedback time! I just finished the latest version of this hold. Demos are attached. I'll just note the notable things.


Overall: Your architectural style is quite interesting - many of the rooms are best described as "there are several things you can choose to fiddle with, and the puzzle is to figure out how to fiddle with them correctly, which is usually very roundabout". It's like working with a complex combination lock except this lock is not a boring orb puzzle, but actually nicely made rooms.
I especially liked L1 2S1W and L2 1N, because they're what I'd call anti-lynchpin puzzle: The seemingly "dirty" way to solve the room is actually the correct one over the apparently more lynchpin-y ones. Especially L1 2S1W threw me off for quite some time, so good job on that.

The only notable thing is that L2 2W, as it current stands, is horribly broken. There are at least 3 ways to finish the room, all of which are quite different from each other. You can look at my demos for them. You might want to enforce just one of them.