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Level: Legendary Smitemaster
Rank Points: 8
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File: City of Queens 02.hold (6.6 KB)
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The Ancient Royal Chambers, Beethro remebered, is the resting place for deceased Queens and their treasures.

It is not allowed to kill anything in the rooms, except on one occasion.

Custom says that when a new Queen has to be buried, all monsters have to be cleared, to make sure she is accepted as a new inhabitant.

And this time, Beethro has to do this job.

Tim
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1979
Registered: 08-07-2004
IP: Logged

Dear Exterminator,

I will give away 2 rank points for everyone who finishes this hold.
I still have a few mod points to give away.

1) As proof, you will have to PM me with the exact contents of the scroll of the very last room.
2) Reply here (but without the contents of the scroll) so that I can give you +2 in the post.

Have Fun!

-- Tim

PS. If you need hints, you can now ask them on the Hints and Solutions Board. No need to ask me now.

PS2. If you want to know what the playtesters say about this hold, please visit this thread.

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The best way to lose customers is to let little kids running loose on a forum with too many mod points.

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[Last edited by Tim at 06-26-2006 10:13 PM : Link updated.]

rowrow
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 432
Registered: 08-17-2004
IP: Logged

This is a very hard hold.

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techant
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 854
Registered: 06-08-2004
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I agree this is a tough hold with complex problems but very in..ter..rest..ing..

I like rooms that are hard but simple enough that I lay awake playing them in my head. Some of these I have gotton but some have me completely perplexed. This is not just your swipe and slash kind of hold.

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Tim
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1979
Registered: 08-07-2004
IP: Logged

techant wrote:
I like rooms that are hard but simple enough that I lay awake playing them in my head.

Oh no, now I'm keeping other people awake at night!
I'm not sure I should be glad about this or not...

-- Tim (who hasn't slept well recently...)

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The best way to lose customers is to let little kids running loose on a forum with too many mod points.

techant
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 854
Registered: 06-08-2004
IP: Logged

Don't worry it's better than counting sheep.

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DROD RPG Released!! You must try it out it is Great!!

stigant
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1182
Registered: 08-19-2004
IP: Logged

I did it. I did it... I finally got that last room!

A very nice hold. All of the rooms are hard to nearly impossible, but they all require logical reasoning and thinking ability rather than slashing ability.

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larrymurk
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1917
Registered: 12-09-2004
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Yup, another good hold by Tim with many good, fairly difficult puzzles using roach queens.

Hatlore
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 42
Registered: 10-13-2004
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I enjoy this hold. Although the puzzles are all quite hard, I find them enjoyable and puzzling.

Alneyan
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 622
Registered: 07-06-2004
IP: Logged

So, we get an "I've conquered City of Queens" badge of honour? Two of your holds down, I'm halfway there!

My vote is an 8 and 7 brains (challenging, but not frustrating). My favourites rooms are 2N 4E and 1E, even though I'm supposed to hate trapdoors with a passion. 2N 5E also deserves a mention, even though it's *supposed* to be an easy one by your own account: I've found it tricky enough with two mimics, and I haven't tried with one only yet.

I have found 2N 6E to be quite different from the other rooms in the level, resting more on slash-and-run or (light) horde management than a puzzle, and didn't care much for that particular room. I also disliked 2N 7E, but I suspect it has to do with my inability at solving a force arrow maze of any size without using brute force. Still, since brute-forcing does work pretty well in that room (if you don't mind having the worst demo on record), I shouldn't complain too much.

On another note, the URL for the Architecture thread links to DROD.net instead of forum.caravelgames.com; of course, being a silly one, I didn't quite get the fact, used the Search function instead, couldn't make a search on "Author is Tim" because your nickname is too small for the search engine, until I eventually came upon the advertised thread. Well, speak about reinventing the fifth well of a carriage.

Tim
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1979
Registered: 08-07-2004
IP: Logged

Thanks for your comments! I've edited the link.

As for your comment of some rooms being different than others... Well, this hold is meant as a "something of everything" hold, as back then there weren't a lot of roach queen puzzles at all. (Of course, now with Perfection and Beethro's Teacher this hold seems quite easy now...)

As for 2N7E, I agree it's a bit brute force, and I might change it if I ever do a remake. At this moment, I think it's not worth updating the hold (and resetting the High Scores) for it.

-- Tim

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The best way to lose customers is to let little kids running loose on a forum with too many mod points.

Alneyan
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 622
Registered: 07-06-2004
IP: Logged

A room standing out is not necessarily a bad thing; it did strike me out as being on the weak side, but it's true such puzzles are a good deal more common now (and I had just mastered the roach-queen only level of L M N O right before finishing City of Queens, so I guess it didn't help).

I agree about not updating the hold simply because of one particular comment about a room; it is not *exactly* what you would call broken beyond repair. The comment was mostly intended for any future hold you might be planning, as you have hinted in the Tunnel Vision thread... and to let the architect know I did like the hold.

jbluestein
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1670
Registered: 12-23-2005
IP: Logged

Finally finished this one -- my last Tim hold!

I liked some puzzles, liked some puzzles less. Overall this was a very good hold. I give it an 8 with 7 brains.

(Tim, I'll have to go back and dig up the contents of the scroll...will do so tonight.)

Josh

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"Rings and knots of joy and grief, all interlaced and locking." --William Buck

skell
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

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

This is a surprisingly good AE-era hold with actual puzzles with exception of one abomination.

Some more spoilery comments:

Fun: 7
Difficulty: 6

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