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File: Stalwart Academy.drh (30.6 KB)
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Join Tendry's first days of learning to become a Stalwart as he enrolls at the Stalwart Academy.

Someone Else
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1305
Registered: 06-14-2005
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This has quite a bit of room for optimization - skip both of the secrets for an easy hold, get both of them for a moderately hard hold.

Definitely worth a look!

Red-XIII
Level: Smitemaster

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Registered: 08-05-2012
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Did I make a mistake playing it in v1.3? I defeated queen vermin but nothing happened upstairs on level 1, and if I test it in the editor it seems that a lot of monsters appear and the setting changes entirely.
Should I replay it in v1.2.8?

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

kieranmillar
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 2670
Registered: 07-11-2014
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This was mostly built around 2015, and I edited it in 1.2.8.398 for the release. The 1.3 alpha shouldn't, in theory, have polluted the hold in any way, and I'm not aware of any change that would have broken this hold. What version of 1.3 alpha do you have? The latest one?

EDIT: I have played it in both the non-alpha and alpha and it seemed to work fine in both cases, so not sure what happened for your scripting to mess up. Entirely willing to assume it is an issue with the version of the alpha you have, just because it's an alpha.

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[Last edited by kieranmillar at 07-04-2023 10:25 PM]

Nuntar
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 4596
Registered: 02-20-2007
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This is a very nice bitesize hold with very simple gameplay – just stats, greckles and keys, with one equipment upgrade and some trapdoor passages; there are no accessories and no other DROD objects. Cleared on my second try with this score:


In this hold, Kieran follows the guidelines set out in his own Guide to Making Good RPG Holds. At every step, there are interesting choices and seldom any that are obviously correct; what's more, the hold succeeds in something that's very hard to achieve in RPG – there is a clear increase in difficulty throughout the hold. This is done mostly through excellent use of custom monsters with carefully balanced stats (a Kieran specialty, and thoroughly covered in the above-linked guide). The final boss is a hefty stat block and may seem impossible at first, but since the hold is so short, it felt engaging rather than tedious to start from the beginning and notice how much better I was doing at each stage.

Highly recommended for RPG players at any level!

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50th Skywatcher

Red-XIII
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 623
Registered: 08-05-2012
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kieranmillar wrote:
This was mostly built around 2015, and I edited it in 1.2.8.398 for the release. The 1.3 alpha shouldn't, in theory, have polluted the hold in any way, and I'm not aware of any change that would have broken this hold. What version of 1.3 alpha do you have? The latest one?

EDIT: I have played it in both the non-alpha and alpha and it seemed to work fine in both cases, so not sure what happened for your scripting to mess up. Entirely willing to assume it is an issue with the version of the alpha you have, just because it's an alpha.

I tried it again in the latest build (I was using 1.3.0.368) and now it worked. So yes, no idea what happened, but happy to solved it since I'm liking the hold so far!

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

Red-XIII
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 623
Registered: 08-05-2012
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Conquered!

This was a fun and easy hold to play. I only did one run and ended up with a score of 416 but it is heavily non-optimized, which reflects the variability in the difficulty of the hold. Definitely harder if one seeks to optimize everything, especially, IMO:

One thing I didn't enjoy particularly, though, is the use of greckles. In the first level, it felt weird that all monsters gave the same amount of greckles. In addition, towards the end greckles are not a problem anymore, so the choice of taking the blue key with 60 greckles is obvious compared to spending 3 yellow keys.
It took me around 3 hours to complete it.

Definitely recommended!


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

Midootje
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 109
Registered: 03-05-2011
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Tiny remark: the intro text says 'punshment'. Haven't played the hold yet but it caught my eye as I started.
After you clear the infestation, one of the citizens says 'induction days', where I get the feeling it's supposed to be 'introduction days'.

Alright, nice and short hold. Got both skeleton keys, had to use one to be able to kill the Pirate. The only pickups in the entire hold I didn't take were one yellow key behind an Albatross and one behind a greckle door in Inauro Canyon, and 80 HP behind a greckle door in the Basement.

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

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[Last edited by Midootje at 07-14-2023 08:12 PM]

kieranmillar
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 2670
Registered: 07-11-2014
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Yeah there may well be typos, not worth updating the hold to fix though.

Induction is correct, this might be a british thing. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/induction

Gordius
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 91
Registered: 12-16-2008
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kieranmillar wrote:
Yeah there may well be typos, not worth updating the hold to fix though.

Induction is correct, this might be a british thing. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/induction

Not just British, "induction" is American English for being brought into a group, too. Think "Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame."

Midootje
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 109
Registered: 03-05-2011
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Oops, my bad. TIL a new word!

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