skell
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3844
Registered: 12-28-2004
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File: KDDL Room Template.hold (1.5 KB)
Downloaded 10 times.
License: Public Domain

Long time ago I made Flash DROD. Life happened and all episodes were never released.

Then a few years ago I ported it to Java Script, more was released but then life happened and I put it on hiatus.

Now is the time I am actually going to finish this project but I need help - the post mastery area in the final episode needs a few new puzzles. Difficult puzzles. And I haven't done any DROD puzzles in many years.

Can you help?

I need between 3 and 33 rooms to put into the final area. The rooms should be difficult, end of KDD level of difficult and maybe worse. They can be old school, KDD or JtRH style. Or more modern linchpiny TCB/TSS style.

I've attached a hold (for TSS 5.1.0) that's a template for the room size - 27x25. The first room contains all elements that are supported by the engine. The character contains all scripting commands that *should* work (they exist in the TCB build that's used for level development).

I'll be endlessly grateful for help with those, it's the only thing that's a true blocker for me, everything else is just a time investment .

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[Last edited by skell at 04-18-2025 10:13 AM]

Red-XIII
Level: Smitemaster

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I felt inspired today so I managed to build three rooms.

If this type of rooms is ok and there is no rush, I can build more in the following days/weeks.

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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

disoriented
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2495
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File: KDDL puzzles.demo (3.8 KB)
Downloaded 6 times.
License: Public Domain

Demos

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34th Skywatcher

Best to PM me, since I might miss your message on CaravelNet chat.

Somniator
Level: Delver

Rank Points: 35
Registered: 05-22-2021
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I couldn't get past the Architect's Board and came across to this thread.

For two or more hours, I tried to draw something vaguely resembling KDD or JtRH Puzzles.

I hope you'll like it.

Red-XIII
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 749
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Disoriented's solutions to my rooms are pretty much intended.

Feedback to Somniator's rooms:
Really liked the aesthetics and the overall appearance of the rooms. Are vision tokens allowed though?

1E: easier than it looks, I can immediately clear the tar in the middle chamber to prevent a baby to get trapped at (7,13), so that's not really an issue. Trapdoor puzzle is also quite easy but ok. Curious to see how harder the room would be with a brain.
1N1E: really liked this one, though I think there are some unintended solutions. I used the first mimic to strike the orb at (13,9), then manipulated him to kill the NW eye and roach. I used the roach at 6,14 to kill the snake at 15,11, then finally placed the last mimic at 1,13 (without striking the orb), went to a place where I had space, then killed the rest of the monsters with the mimic. I'm pretty sure there are different ways to solve this, given the nonlinear nature of the room.
2E: I can immediately kill the snake here and still clear the room, pretty sure it’s not intended.
3E: I still have to find a good strategy to handle all the goblins, but I’d say it’s pretty tough horde room.

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

skell
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3844
Registered: 12-28-2004
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Somniator rooms thoughts:
- 1N1E - love it but it needs a few tweaks for US
- 1E - not sure about this one. If I try to play it without clearing the middle section immediately it feels really strict
- 2E - I think what's required is an alive snake enforcing mechanism. And probably snake length enforcing mechanism.
- 3E - It's a fine horde room. There's a strategy for the goblins if you spot it but I think the final step after dropping the trapdoors is redundant - it's practically trivial when compared to the goblins.

Red's thoughts:
- 2N - Absolutely love it
- 1N1E - It's a fine mimic puzzle. A bit more waiting than I'd like though, do you think it could be somehow modified to not require so much spawning?
- 1E - I am of two minds about the flipped arrow. On one hand you should be able to notice that without a trick like that there is no way to reach the southern chamber. On the other hand after 10 seconds in the room I was like "nope, downloading demo, looks like an awful horde room". I think just adding additional S arrow above or below it would make it stick out more without really changing the horde aspect of the room (and by principle I am against "spot something hidden" puzzles)

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Red-XIII
Level: Smitemaster

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File: KDDL puzzles.hold (2.7 KB)
Downloaded 6 times.
License: Public Domain

skell wrote:
Red's thoughts:
- 1N1E - It's a fine mimic puzzle. A bit more waiting than I'd like though, do you think it could be somehow modified to not require so much spawning?
- 1E - I am of two minds about the flipped arrow. On one hand you should be able to notice that without a trick like that there is no way to reach the southern chamber. On the other hand after 10 seconds in the room I was like "nope, downloading demo, looks like an awful horde room". I think just adding additional S arrow above or below it would make it stick out more without really changing the horde aspect of the room (and by principle I am against "spot something hidden" puzzles)

1N1E: I made the SW chamber a bit smaller, this allowed me to reduce the number of spawns, but in theory I could reduce it even more.
1E: oh! I did not want it to be a "spot the hidden thing" puzzle, I did not realize it was tough to notice. As of now, I simply added some grass beneath the arrow, so it should be easier to notice. There is no issue as well if another arrow is added above the current one.
1N1W: I built this room.

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

Somniator
Level: Delver

Rank Points: 35
Registered: 05-22-2021
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Thank you all for the feedback! So, I took the time to edit the rooms.

The Entrance
I did it purely for myself so that I could record demos in the future.

Once East
Now I think the room works the way I originally intended it to. This crazy horde room is now teeming with brain.

Twice East
I removed the unnecessary trapdoor puzzle, but it doesn't seem to have become more difficult.

Thrice East
Removed unnecessary trapdoor gates.

Once North, Once East
Added new yellow gates and red ones. Now, this room seems more linear, although I do not exclude the possibility of an alternative solution.

Once North, Twice East
A brand new room. Based on wraithwing manipulation.

skell
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3844
Registered: 12-28-2004
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1N1E - There are still some ways to break it. The top Eastern eye can be woken up because the mimic will be going there anyway; I used the top mimic to hit the orb protected by the top-eastern eye completely skipping the orb in the top right. I think the idea is that the first mimic will hit the top-right orb, then you can hit (13,9) orb from the right; then use the roach to kill the serpent; then use mimic to kill the W eye and kill the Eastern eyes and drop all the remaining trapdoors. Then use EE to kill serpent. Some more restraints might need to be added.

1E - I can't really get myself to like this room. I think it's fine until red gates are dropped, at which point the goblins are released and everything turns into an unmanageable chaos. The tar clock can be trivialized by killing the tar (wait next to it during the first span to turn it into a cuttable shape).

1N2W - intimidating but ultimately very reasonable, I liked it.

3E - good after the changes.

2E - All good except I don't understand the purpose of the two open yellow gates in the eye chamber. Are they to ensure you can flip the direction of the serpent if it starts by going north? If such I think it would be better to rearrange it so that it always goes south (eg. by adding yellow gate above it that opens later). Also you can time the serpent so that when you open the way out out of the EE chamber it goes East giving you a bit more time. Could be tweaked with the same gate.

Good job so far . If you're fine with this I can make the adjustments myself.

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Somniator
Level: Delver

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File: 0x0485s KDDL Rooms 1N1E final_edit.hold (5.4 KB)
Downloaded 2 times.
License: Public Domain

In this hold file, I've only fixed 1N1E room (although I'm still not sure for US, but it'll be fun if anyone finds). You can adjust the rest of the rooms as you wish, I don't mind.

Once North, Once East
New force arrows, new yellow gates, orbs and green doors...
I didn't forget about the second potion.

Small digression: I am not a fan of mimic puzzles and this room is my first attempt. But still, it was very exciting for me to adjust it.

skell
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3844
Registered: 12-28-2004
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Just a heads up - I've got enough room to feel like the final hold's post mastery area is sized appropriately. If you already started working on a room or a few or have an idea you want to try developing to get into the hold the time is ticking.

Unfortunately due to the nature of things the real deadline is the day my ADHD once again tells me to abandon the project for a few months years. So if you need a specific point in time:

- Before the end of this week, that is May 4th, I want to publish a public beta version of testing.
- Then, before the end of the week after that, that is May 11th, I want to have the whole source code of the project available on Github.
- I'd like to have the whole project wrapped up by the end of May.

So the deadlines are:
- If you haven't started anything by May 4th, please don't start.
- If you already have something started by not finished, please get it done by May 11th.

That will leave some time for testing, fixing UUs, adjusting difficulty. Of course I am not your parent or your boss, I can't check if you haven't actually started anything by May 4th. But if I don't see any message here saying something along the lines of "Smelly don't be too fast, I am working on a room that should not be last" I am going to assume there is nothing to wait for .

But if you want to create a completely new hold and have it added to the game next to the six KDDLs and The Ancient Palace don't let me stop you - but those will be added only once the game is released in full .

____________________________
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[Last edited by skell at 04-28-2025 09:11 PM]

skell
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3844
Registered: 12-28-2004
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Somniator - Thanks for the rooms again . I added all of them though tweaked some. And if that mimic puzzle was your first ever mimic puzzle I say you should be proud, I think it was pretty darn good!

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Jacob
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3757
Registered: 10-01-2004
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Skell, are you porting the flash version of Aurora's Palace too?


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New to DROD? You may want to read this.
My Holds and Levels:

skell
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3844
Registered: 12-28-2004
IP: Logged

Jacob wrote:
Skell, are you porting the flash version of Aurora's Palace too?

Yes! The Ancient Palace is part of the package, I even managed to come up with a few, hopefully decent, challenges.

I can send you a TSS-compatible version of the hold if you want to take a look and see if you want to make any changes to it.

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skell
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3844
Registered: 12-28-2004
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My scope has slightly exploded and there is a bunch of changes I want to do so there'll be at least one more week before I am ready to do the first stage (host a build of the game for testing) so there's more time for everything!

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skell
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3844
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Deadlines:
- Tomorrow morning for saying that you're working on something
- Monday 19th for getting it done

Btw, a thought I had, if you have a clever idea for an easier puzzle that would fit into earlier episode's Mastery Level in terms of difficulty (and introduced elements) I see no problem in expanding those a little bit.

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Kalin
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 273
Registered: 01-25-2016
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Is Ancient Palace:Tutorial conquerable? Clearing the Entrance and 1E does not drop the blue doors, and without those doors opening you cannot exit nor reach the secret room.

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~170th Skywatcher

skell
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3844
Registered: 12-28-2004
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Kalin wrote:
Is Ancient Palace:Tutorial conquerable? Clearing the Entrance and 1E does not drop the blue doors, and without those doors opening you cannot exit nor reach the secret room.

In the latest update, 1.6.4, it's been fixed .

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