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File: Uncle Mikes New Place v7.hold (14.6 KB)
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Beethro is hired to clear out an estate recently purchased by a contractor.

CuriousShyRabbit
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3170
Registered: 10-14-2006
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Here is a new hold from Brian_S, filled with new ideas, mostly about monster manipulation.

My favorite puzzle is Villa 1N, which has very interesting solution(s).

My favorite level is Clockwise. I'll let you guess what that means... who else but the architect of Directions of the Compass and Directions of the Compass 2 would think of a level like this.

Difficulty varies, from easy to medium to a couple pretty serious goblin manipulation rooms.

mxvladi
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 2505
Registered: 02-11-2008
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Pretty fun, medium-difficulty hold. First two levels contain various manipulation puzzles; third one has a very interesting concept and various easy-to-medium puzzles which use it(also, despite the concept used there, that level is totally unlinear! If you're stuck, you can run through problematic room and try the next one, thanks to lack of green doors).

Admittedly, second level, aside from two rather neat puzzles, seemed quite weak for me(and it's not totally unlinear, either). First and third ones, though, are very fun.

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[Last edited by mxvladi at 08-16-2011 04:10 PM]

Pekka
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 302
Registered: 09-19-2007
IP: Logged

I enjoyed this hold. I had some difficulties here and there, but could overcome them on my own by thinking carefully and trying things out. The goals I needed to reach were clear, but sometimes it took a few tries and runs into dead ends to find the way. I learned some new techniques I hadn't needed anywhere yet.

The last level's extra requirement was fresh and interesting. It was about the right size for such a level, too, so I never became bored with it. So, all in all, a fun selection of puzzles, and not too big or repetitive.

I rated this hold 8 for fun and 6.5 for brains.

EDIT: Removed extra 'yet' word. Wanted to add that my favorite rooms were Villa 1N1W and Bridges 2N2W, and the last level as whole.

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[Last edited by Pekka at 08-18-2011 07:28 PM]

Rheb
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1211
Registered: 08-04-2006
IP: Logged

A fun medium difficulty hold!

There are many well executed puzzles and plenty of fun hack 'n slash rooms.

Recommended.

____________________________
Voligner is my very own DROD-like game. Please check it out!

larrymurk
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1917
Registered: 12-09-2004
IP: Logged

Fun hold indeedy!

The clockwise level definitely scores bonus points for originality. Fun hold.

martz
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 416
Registered: 08-19-2005
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This is a very nice hold containing 3 short levels with a slightly different feel.

The first level mainly focuses on evil eyes and their various uses including mirror interaction. 1N1W seems a bit out of place since it's the only room without eyes.

The second level sees you restricted to passages with a width of 3 or 4 tiles. All the rooms here are quite different - you'll be manipulating a number of different monsters in different ways and there's also an interesting room where you have to handle a goblin with only 90 degree sword turns allowed.

The final level sees you travelling in a clockwise loop with only clockwise movement allowed. Again, there's a different variety of puzzles here.

Overall this is a very well polished hold - there are a nice mixture of puzzles with a medium difficulty. Although I wouldn't recommend this hold to beginners, everyone else should find something to their liking here.

My Verdict:

Difficulty: 6
Fun: 8

____________________________
Without struggle, there is no progress, so get up, get out, and go make the rest of your life the best of your life; you deserve to live the life that YOU want to live...

Progress - Gavin G

brian_s
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 587
Registered: 05-27-2004
IP: Logged

martz wrote:
1N1W seems a bit out of place since it's the only room without eyes.

Actually, the original version of that room did have evil eyes instead of brains - all the eyes diagonally faced the center of the room. I changed the eyes to the brains for two reasons, first is that moving the platforms around became too tedious while dodging the eyes' lines of sight, and second is the potential for breaking the intended solution by deliberately waking the eyes.

12th Archivist
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 789
Registered: 12-07-2008
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This is really a lovely hold. There is a nice variety of puzzles here, and all of them seem to be just the right difficulty; not spending too long on a single puzzle, but just long enough to make you appreciate them.

Like martz said, this hold is broken into three levels. The first level is mostly about manipulating the sights of evil eyes through mirrors. The second is about movement restriction. The third about solving the rooms a certain way so you can get out of them and keep going (going in circles).

My personal favorite was the first level. I never really stopped to ponder the uniqueness of the evil eyes until I was stomping through those puzzles. It helped me to see the puzzle potential in many otherwise boring DROD concepts, and was darn fun, to boot!

It has been quite a long time since I played the other two levels, and since neither particularly stuck in my mind, I will refrain from mentioning more than a "neat concept, good puzzles" for them.

8 for fun
7 for brains
90/100 recommendation rating.
An excellent piece of work! Well done, brian!

(Note that I have not played the hold in its present version; I played it when it was on the Architecture board, so my scores will not show up for this hold.)

____________________________
It was going well until it exploded.
~Scott Manley

Check out the DROD Wikia project here!

OneMoreNameless
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 131
Registered: 07-31-2010
IP: Logged

Villa: There's a few neat evil eye puzzles alongside a couple of generic-feeling rooms.
Bridges: Doesn't actually feature bridge dropping, only simple narrow manipulations (plus a tricky goblin room).
Clockwise: This hold's highlight and worth sticking around for. Inventive puzzles based on movement restrictions.

I guess you could call it a ... Mike's bag.