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A small hold with only 4 puzzle rooms (and an entrance/exit). Each room relies heavily upon scripting, but every puzzle is still in the DROD style, in that you can predict what is going to happen. This is meant to be a quick and fun little diversion that shows off what you can do with scripting.

Oneiromancer
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Very many thanks to Alneyan, eytanz, Jacob, Schik, and Stefan for their testing time. Enjoy, and I hope it helps people realize some of the additional puzzle potential for scripting.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

Doom
Level: Smitemaster

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Number of monsters: 54
Numbers can sure be misleading...

This was a great quality hold, although quite short. You can indeed do a lot with scripting, but as you can see in the editor after completing the hold, it often requires a lot of work.

Alneyan
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Oneiromancer wrote:
Very many thanks to Alneyan, eytanz, Jacob, Schik, and Stefan for their testing time.

Yeah, these chaps sure are cool. *Coughs*

Very fun hold, with a high ratio of challenges and such for the perfectionist, and sleeky scripting. Definitively recommended.

Short holds are good to have around, along with their much bigger siblings: you can finish this hold in a single sitting, and won't forget about it for a couple of months (one day, I *will* finish all these half-completed holds I have sitting on my hard drive).

Oneiromancer
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Doom wrote:
Number of monsters: 54
Numbers can sure be misleading...

Hehe, I noticed that too. Ah well...

This was a great quality hold, although quite short. You can indeed do a lot with scripting, but as you can see in the editor after completing the hold, it often requires a lot of work.

Thanks! Actually, 1S, being the first room I did, had a lot of unnecessary characters. I could have used "Appear at" instead of placing each character specifically and having lots of empty scripting space. (Unfortunately you can only choose one monster type per character, otherwise it could have been even simpler.) But I decided to keep the scripting as I left it because it could be a good template for someone who wants to do something similar but more involved. And I originally thought that I couldn't reduce the number of scripts in 2S because once a character turns into a monster, the rest of the script is gone. But now I realize that wasn't an issue, because of how the room is laid out. (Originally I think I did need a set of characters for each room.) But it would have taken enough time to make it more streamlined, and since it works, I didn't want to mess with it.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

Yellow_Mage
Level: Master Delver
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Registered: 05-19-2004
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Very interesting scripting ideas. I never thought 1S would be like that.

Very nice.

quote:
Doom wrote:
Number of monsters: 54
Numbers can sure be misleading...

Well, you can have one monster, with it being a tar mother producing 14 tar babies every 30 turns... or you can have puzzle room with a brain, which is only possible to kill after you've completed the puzzle. Or if the hold was made out of NPCs that turn into monsters when you enter the room. Just one of my thoughts.


____________________________
"Sit and daydream, and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

TripleM
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Very cool hold. 2S was definitely my favourite.

(Minor scripting error btw: After completing 1S1W, I exited via the top right and came back in, to be told I had done it 'perfect' with no doors dropped.)

Oneiromancer
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TripleM wrote:
Very cool hold. 2S was definitely my favourite.

Thanks!

(Minor scripting error btw: After completing 1S1W, I exited via the top right and came back in, to be told I had done it 'perfect' with no doors dropped.)

Argh! I thought I had taken care of that. The problem is that the "Perfect" script checks for whether or not the room is cleared. I then end the scripts if the player comes back in through the exit. I thought it would check the If...then statements in the order they were listed, but I guess it has a different set of preferences.

I think what I would have to do is have all the other scripts only run if you come in through the normal entrance. Then it can check for the alternate entrance separately. Or...I could make sure that the script ends no matter what on a clean room...I think it ends if you get perfect, but not if you don't.

I probably won't update the hold just for a small bug like that. Maybe if something more drastic turns up, I'll address this as well. Thanks for the report!

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

Sergenth
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 296
Registered: 05-04-2005
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1S 1E is my favorite, not for challenge, but because I like lots of active wierd doo-dads , and it also reminds me of 4E of The Choice

2S is my second favorite -- and it's funny, because I came up with an idea like that just last night, and BOOM, there's your hold for download an hour later! Thankfully, I can still make something original and riff off it.

Overall, a sweet tactical mini-hold (especially 1S 1W) and full of delicious evil trickery.

Chaco
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Nice work, Oneiro. I like what I see so far.

Unfortunately, speaking of 1S1E, I happen to be stuck there.



Very nice ideas I'm seeing here. I can't wait to see what the other two rooms are like.

____________________________
Quick links to my stuff (in case you forgot where it was):

Oneiromancer
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Well, Chaco, thanks for the compliments! It's okay to ask about it on the Hints and Solutions board. But the best hint I can give you is be a bit braver...there is a way into the 3rd area, the way brained roaches move is key!

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

Banjooie
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I got into the third area. How? I'm not entirely sure. I pretty much just kept toying with movement and whatnot and suddenly slammed straight through them all. It was pretty awesome.

larrymurk
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FUN, FUN, FUN, & FUN.

Yup 4 FUNS 4 the Fouth.

1S scared my vision of fun because I generally don't like battling the ame room multiple times, but in this caese the scripting made it fun every time (I wish it could keep high scores/demos) for them all.

1S1E scared my vision of fun because random scripting things can be a bit questionable, but this room proved to be fun.

2S took a minute to figure out what was going on, but was fun.

1S1W Not my type of thing having to watch Beethro & 2 mimics all at the same time, but it was pretty much the only really hard room and having a hard room is a good thing

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[Last edited by larrymurk at 10-28-2005 01:48 PM]

Tim
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This was a really nice hold

Is it just me or am I just the only one who thought it was hard? I think I have played many sessions (grrr...) to be able to go to the next room, but that's probably just me.

I have not tried scripting yet in a hold, so reading those character scripts were actually even more enjoyable than playing it. I think I've learned a lot from it. Thanks!

Oh, and I still can't believe that so much code is needed to just make sure the mimics look at the correct way. Well done! (Now I just need to read that script again...)

-- Tim

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Oneiromancer
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Thanks for the compliments, guys.

Tim, it's definitely easier to make harder rooms than easy ones. 1S 1E used to be a lot easier but testers thought it wasn't as much fun, so I increased the difficulty a bit.

I'm glad you were able to learn something from the scripting! I pretty much avoided anything but speech with JtRH, and let the other guys do more involved stuff, but after it came out and I started fooling around with KDD2 and The Choice, I realized that there was a lot of potential there for actual gameplay elements instead of just story scripting.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

Jacob
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Not much to add really. Definitely a very clever hold. Recommended.

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

Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

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Ah, if anyone is looking at the script for 1S 1E and wonders why the labels don't match up with the directions...it's because that room use to be at 1S 1W and so when I swapped the rooms I had to flip it twice. So all the commands flipped appropriately, but the labels didn't...and I didn't even notice at first. Blech. Obviously the room is unaffected but it's sloppy "coding" on my part to not have noticed.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

Pinnacle
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(*********-) 9/10
Perfect example of puzzles that involve scripting but aren't cheap or ambiguous.
Excellent hold.

____________________________
Once (adv.): Enough.
Twice (adv.): Once too often.
~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

NeonElephant
Level: Goblin

Rank Points: 25
Registered: 05-11-2005
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I'll nth the "excellent"s that this hold has already received. In some ways, it reminds me of some of the better ZZT worlds to be found many years ago (around the heyday of Gregory Janson, for those to whom that will mean anything): while I'd been amused by the various hack-and-slash (for want of a better term) worlds put together by a couple of friends, some of the ones to be found on the Internet showed off things that could be done with the editor and scripting language that were jaw-dropping.

(OTOH, I haven't played all that many custom JtRH holds, so perhaps much of this has been done before :-)

[Edit: Radio buttons on the left. Check]

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[Last edited by NeonElephant at 11-16-2005 09:14 PM]

larrymurk
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This sounds like a thumbs up. You might want to edit your post icon?

NeonElephant
Level: Goblin

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You are quite right. Thank you for pointing it out!

jbluestein
Level: Smitemaster

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Finished this hold the other day. Awesome.

I started it some time back and got caught in 1S1W, a room of surpassing nastiness.

As usual, though, I'm very impressed by the theme and the clever design of the rooms.

I give this hold a 9 for fun, and 7 brains because of 1S1W (otherwise it would probably only be 5.5).

Josh

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

bobkberg
Level: Goblin

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Registered: 11-27-2006
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Ok, I'm confused. I've played 1S a number of times from different directions, seen the monsters change location, but I've never been able to kill the brain or exit to any other rooms except for 1S 1E.

Could some kind soul provide a hint?

Thanks,

Bob

Kevin_P86
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You will only be able to clear 1S the last time you go through it. This time will be after completing 1S1W and entering 1S from the west.

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+++++[>+++++<-]>[>+++>++++>+++++<<<-]>.>+.>-------.<++++.+++++.

Citrus
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Well... it only took around 3 years but I have finally completed that one trapdoor/mimic puzzle I was having issues with and have now gone on to finish the hold.

It had been so long since I had played the other rooms that I went back and did them just so I can give it a valid rating =P

8 fun and 7 brains.

____________________________
Call me Citrus.