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File: Hold Anonymous.drh (50.7 KB)
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A result of the first RPG Hold Anonymous forum game. It is somewhat more difficult then Tendry's Tale. Also, there are three distinct endings you can reach in the hold, depending on how you optimize your route.
Have fun.

TFMurphy
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EDIT: This hold originally had an unbounded score exploit that was only discovered shortly after promotion. This issue has since been fixed. As such, I have removed the warning and replaced it with something better fitting.


The result of an architectural forum game, Hold Anonymous is comprised of six levels with a great diversity in challenges and a brutal level of difficulty.

Frustration is likely early on: not only must you plan your route carefully, but it is very easy to enter a new level only to find that you simply have not kept enough resources left to proceed. And of course, you will not know these requirements until you get to them. The third level in particular is a major bottleneck in this respect, and many will get that far only to find they should restart the hold from the very beginning to repair their mistakes.

The hold is unforgiving, and due to the nature of the forum game, is largely unstructured, with some particular choices available that no player in their right mind would make (and in some cases, *could* make). On the other hand, however, this makes the hold feel quite non-linear, and the variety of room designs make exploration rather entertaining. In particular, the second half of the hold will likely see you constantly switching between the last three levels as you search for the next easiest room to tackle.

Despite the level of challenge, there is still quite a bit of leeway for extra optimization, especially when you consider that it is possible to fully complete the hold without using any of the myriad of accessories you can find in its depths. And this is where Hold Anonymous really shines. Whilst the story is mostly confined to the start and end of the hold, it is excellently scripted and provides a very interesting hook... as well as three different endings depending on your actions in the dungeon. You are unlikely to see any ending but the standard one upon finishing the hold for the first time, but subsequent replays are much more fun than fumbling in the dark.

Of particular note is the Pacifist ending, which challenges you to reach the bottom of the dungeon with as low a REP as possible. This requires a thorough knowledge of the hold and very careful decisions, but it makes for a significant departure from your first playthrough, and allows you to enjoy the results of your exploration in a new way.

The difficulty may be a problem for some players, but once you have enough experience with DROD RPG, it's worth perservering. And if things get too bad, remember that you can always request help at the Hints and Solutions board.

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[Last edited by TFMurphy at 09-08-2009 02:35 AM]

Tahnan
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TFMurphy wrote:
EDIT: Actually, I'll clarify -- you can play as you like, but be warned that if the hold is updated, scores may be affected by the change. (Though if all goes well, only scores that abuse the exploit should be deleted)

Does it make sense to tell us what the exploit is, so we don't accidentally use it? (I don't know whether it's possible to accidentally use this exploit, but that's because I don't really understand RPG very well at all.)

TFMurphy
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Tahnan wrote:
Does it make sense to tell us what the exploit is, so we don't accidentally use it?

I want to avoid going into details in this particular thread to avoid spoiling parts of the hold for people just interested in playing it as a newly released level set. However, it is fair to say that it is not possible to accidentally use the exploit -- you need to know exactly what you're doing to even get the opportunity to see it.

Essentially, if you discover a way to get an essentially infinite amount of powerups, then you've discovered the exploit.

blorx1
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I think you made a mistake when creating the kobold, if my HP is low enough that it could kill me when I step in front of him he will not attack me


scratch that it only seems on the north eastern kobold on first level 2n 2w while my sword if facing south west


scratch that too it only happens if my sword is orthogonally adjacent to the kobold and it has nothing to do with my hp

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[Last edited by blorx1 at 08-30-2009 06:27 PM]

Nuntar
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That's correct, kobolds have the "Attack when back turned" behaviour, so their attacks can be avoided if you can step past while keeping them in front of you. Goblins in the main hold, Tendry's Tale, have the same behaviour.

____________________________
50th Skywatcher

TFMurphy
Level: Smitemaster
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Schik has now updated the hold, and the previously reported 'infinite score' exploit is finally fixed. Thank you, Schik! And thanks to eb0ny and Nuntar for providing the fix.

Also, there has been an addition to the HA's Bold Note to cover this type of exploit in the future. Thanks for your patience. Now go have fun ^_^

eb0ny
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TFMurphy wrote:
Thanks for your patience. Now go have fun ^_^

No. Thank you for your patience. Without your insight and dedication, this hold could have been much more broken.

Keep up the good work

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kinetic
Level: Roachling
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Registered: 05-03-2005
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I just played through this and managed to achieve all the different endings, and I must say, DAMN what a hold! Just incredible work, a very hard, but very rewarding play, with some great ideas like the different endings, which adds so much to the exprerience as you have to go at it from totally different angles. This hold set quite a high standard for future holds.

navithmastero
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I just played through this hold for the first time. In terms of difficulty, the hold is fairly tough but definitely not unmanageable. At least for the ending I got, I had at least a bit of leeway, though this hold is certainly significantly tougher than TT for example.

I think this hold could have been really fun but is kneecapped by a couple of design choices which I shall list in no particular order:
- A lot of the time it is unclear what your next goal is as a player. This is never the case in TT as it is always obvious that you need to be getting a blue key, or killing a particular boss or getting a weapon/shield etc. This is made worse as for most of the hold keys and health is limited and so exploratory runs are pretty hard to make.
- Slightly separately, there is absolutely no guidance as to what the different endings are and how to achieve them right up until you get to the end of the hold. This just feels like being purposefully obtuse.
- I disliked the way accessories are used in this hold. Mainly that for 90% of the hold it is entirely unclear about how and where to use the accessories and so you're left wondering whether you missed something.

Overall, while aspects of this hold were fun, and surprisingly the levels were fairly coherent despite the different architects doing them, this hold fell short of what it could've been.

Fun: 7
Difficulty: 7

As a sidenote, I was planning on doing a blind LP of this, and in fact even started doing so on this runthrough. However, my frustrations and having to do lots of replays through sections multiple times meant that I don't think these videos are particularly enjoyable to watch. However, I think I will still do a video series on this hold, particularly looking at one of the endings I did not get.

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mobius
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I know this is incredibly old so the creator(s) may not be around but; had to comment with praise. I haven't finished this yet but been playing for a while now and just have to say; it's a huge challenge but tons of fun. Seems mind-boggling difficult at first but slowly unraveling it and enjoying myself

Referring to the above commenter: I understand all those points but honestly none of those things bother me. I genuinely enjoy a game where you enter as clueless as possible; if that is; you're able to figure things out reasonably as you go along.

Are there more holds like this one?

navithmastero
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There are two other community RPG holds as far as I can tell - Nameless Fortress and RPG Anonymous 3.

One of the reasons I find these design choices annoying is because when I play RPG holds I try and optimise sort of as I go. Having clearer objectives helps to be able to inform where is best to use resources since you're able to play with some foresight. Making that more difficult doesn't actually make the hold any more difficult since you still have to optimise a certain way, it just means that you need to restart more since there is a thicker'Fog of War'. It's sort of like how people found Tinytall Tower very frustrating since the architect made parsing rooms purposefully difficult. That doesn't actually make the puzzle any better or harder, it just means the process of gathering information is more tiresome.

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