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File: The Searing Wastes.hold (21 KB)
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Beethro has been sent to clear out The Searing Wastes, owned by the Dungeon Master. There, he will choose one of two paths, and maybe help a stranger.If you want to see what's behind the master wall, you have to play both paths.

Thanks to testers: MeckMeck GRE, Stephen4Louise, jbluestein, Briareos, Jason, and Ezlo. And thank you for playing!

MeckMeck GRE
Level: Smitemaster
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Registered: 01-03-2005
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This is a great hold! It offers two quite different paths and lots of interesting puzzles. The rooms show a lot of variety, every puzzle focuses on another element.

"The Searing Wastes" are a kind of "The Choice" for beginners.

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[Last edited by MeckMeck GRE at 03-30-2007 07:47 PM]

noma
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Is 2E conquerable if you choose the "no help" path? Also, for some reason this holds shows as "unpublished" on the demo menu. Anyone else?

tokyokid
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noma wrote:
Is 2E conquerable if you choose the "no help" path? Also, for some reason this holds shows as "unpublished" on the demo menu. Anyone else?

Of course, but if you need more help, post in the H&S.

Jatopian
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Registered: 07-31-2005
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So, we have The Choice, A Small Diversion, and now this. I'm going to start calling this sub-genre "choice holds".

____________________________
DROD has some really great music.
Make your pressure plates 3.0 style!
DROD architecture idea generator

Tahnan
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Fairly solid hold. (Some scripting bugs, but otherwise, fairly solid--e.g., if you take the "low road" on the "with help" path after conquering the rooms, your helper is still advising you to go the other way.)

tokyokid
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Thanks guys!

It looks like Dolan42 has beaten this room with an unintended solution-big time!

Dolan42
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 195
Registered: 04-14-2006
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tokyokid wrote:
Thanks guys!

It looks like Dolan42 has beaten this room with an unintended solution-big time!

Yea, lots of dropped doors would have prevented that. I didn't even notice the unintended solution until I had beat it the right way and went back to read the scroll

Oh, and good hold, lots of pretty easy puzzles and lots of fun to optimize. Keep up the great work!

____________________________
-D
"To understand recursion you must first understand recursion."

Briareos
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Dolan42 wrote:
I didn't even notice the unintended solution until I had beat it the right way and went back to read the scroll

Exactly the opposite here - pulled up the demo screen, looked at my move count, looked at yours, looked a wee bit closer at the room... "D'oooh!"

Talk about not seeing the forest for the trees indeed...

np: Styrofoam - Safe + Broken (Nothing's Lost)

____________________________
"I'm not anti-anything, I'm anti-everything, it fits better." - Sole
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Banjooie
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well, heh, nice solution.



And so I did.

Dolan42
Level: Master Delver

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Stefan's solution for this room was even better.
How did I not see that? Especially after playing the room like 10 times to "optimize" it.

____________________________
-D
"To understand recursion you must first understand recursion."

Tahnan
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Dolan42 wrote:
Stefan's solution for this room was even better.

Oh good lord almighty, I swear, I shouldn't even be allowed to use mimic potions if I miss things like that.

Banjooie
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I'm still trying to find all the secret rooms. One left, damnit.

Briareos
Level: Smitemaster

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Tahnan wrote:

Dolan42 wrote:
Stefan's solution for this room was even better.

Oh good lord almighty, I swear, I shouldn't even be allowed to use mimic potions if I miss things like that.

S[h]ame here...

np: Death Cab For Cutie - Photobooth (The Showbox, Seattle 5.08.04) (The John Byrd E.P.)

____________________________
"I'm not anti-anything, I'm anti-everything, it fits better." - Sole
R.I.P. Robert Feldhoff (1962-2009)

tokyokid
Level: Smiter

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My, god! That's hilarious!

I knew Stefan was the master at finding back-tracking issues and unintended solutions.

Remlin
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 181
Registered: 04-28-2005
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It's hard to believe that this hold is by the same person that less than a year ago gave us Roaches Revenge. The difference is night and day - Tokyokid is an incredibly improved architect. Tokyokid, you deserve all the credit in the world for taking criticism constructively and not getting offended, learning from mistakes, and not getting discouraged.

As to the hold itself: Good hold, it rides the traditional Tokyokid line of a mix between puzzles and hack-and-slash, nothing too difficult. The scripting was right on - there was a lot of it, but never annoying, and never interfering. Secret rooms were well hidden, but fair. I was glad to see the two paths diverged pretty early on, since I hate having to replay rooms. I only wish the couple of early rooms that did need to be replayed could have been made to have significant differences under the two different paths. Instead they had pretty much the same solution both ways.