geomatrx
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File: PictureSA.zip (60.3 KB)
Downloaded 66 times.
License: Public Domain

OK, so this is my first project I've posted here.

Technically, this is my forth attempt at a hold, as I have lost 3 other project due to being my usual clumsy self.

Objective of the hold: Ultimatly you dont have to clear every room of monsters! You just have to find rooms with codes in. You enter these codes into by finding the relevent yellow gate and and striking the correct orbs.

The hold is now in a finished state! Please test and asses if I could do anything different/better.

All feedback welcome as always!

I have posted a new version of my hold for you to try out.

If you are already using any version .99, its no big deal to get this one.

Here are the changes made to version.99c:

-3N5E: The yellow number changed from "6" to "5".

THIS WILL BE THE FINAL VERSION BEFORE RELEASED TO THE HOLDS FORUM! PLEASE FEEDBACK YOUR THOUGHTS OF THIS HOLD!

THANKS TO YOU ALL!

[Edited by geomatrx at Local Time:03-08-2005 at 08:29 PM]

____________________________
Get my holds:
MetDROiD AE
MetDROiD Prime
MetDROiD Echoes
Deadly Gold Mine of Death (Architecture)

---

[Last edited by geomatrx at 09-14-2006 10:54 PM]

Oneiromancer
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Wow! That's a lot of dedication for you there! Actually, at one point I wanted to do something similar for the final dungeon of Ultima IV...not sure if I will ever do that but I'm glad someone else out there likes spending days on totally useless homage projects!

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

Tim
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It looks and plays great!

Not that I can do a lot currently, since I can't guess which code fits which door, and some of the numbered rooms do not have scrolls yet.

Can you try give a bit more information about the codes and doors in your final version? Preferably on the beginning of level 1, so that people know what to go for. Or ask people to go to level 4 first. (If I remember well, you should start somewhere in level 4, as the original game also started there.)

And if I can add another suggestion, can you please explain in your final version a lot more about
1) what those yellow bars near the orbs mean
2) what you mean with the numbers on the scrolls (for example, I still do not understand what sequence mean, or the green numbers in the rooms)
And yes, I have already read many scrolls in level 4, but I still do not understand, maybe because english is not my first language... The challenge should be in getting the scrolls, and not understanding the scrolls.

[ I will not test this hold yet, as I can only understand how to open that first one in level 4. Although it looks pretty solid. ]

I also noticed that some of the rooms are one way only. If you leave it from one way, they you can never return (except by saving). (I can't remember having one way rooms in the original metroid.)

I am really looking forward to it! It looks great! Please finish!

-- Tim

geomatrx
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Hey! Thanks for the reply.

Yeah, I will need to explain the scrolls more in the final version, though this is very much a work in progress in terms of how it is laid out. The rooms should be tested, but not necessarily play it as if it was a completed hold.

Basically, I have 'edited' this version as I haven't finished all the scrolls and doors, but wanted you guys to test out a few of the puzzles.

In this version, you don't need to get the scrolls, as I have allowed access through the level for you (holes in some of the walls). You won't be able to get through the code doors as there isn't enough scrolls for you to collect yet

The rooms should not be 'one way' rooms (please give an example so I can see), but as I said, I've arranged this to give users a taste of what the hold is about.



[Edited by geomatrx on 09-03-2004 at 11:25 PM GMT]

[Edited by geomatrx on 09-03-2004 at 11:39 PM GMT]

____________________________
Get my holds:
MetDROiD AE
MetDROiD Prime
MetDROiD Echoes
Deadly Gold Mine of Death (Architecture)

Tim
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I am doing this from the top of my head, because I don't like testing holds with an unknown number of rooms (as I was not sure what rooms should be tested, and I don't like to use a lot of my telepathic abilities to just to find out where the rooms can be found I want to use that to guess if my solution is the same as yours.)

If I remember correctly, room 19 is one-way. (There might be more, but I have a very bad memory.)
Is room 21 possible?

Another general remark, you might want to retune the difficulty of some of your rooms. May be it is because I was starting from level 1 to 4, but I feel like that the the harder rooms should be placed later in the game.

(If it is possible, can you make a copy of the hold and remove all the rooms that you don't want us to test, and remove all orbs, and put it to anyone edit?) I like testing with anyone-edit, as I don't want to test every room, and I don't know which rooms I've missed. (Or at least tell us how many rooms are in each of the levels that is available to us.)

-- Tim

[Edited by Tim on 09-04-2004 at 09:31 AM GMT]

geomatrx
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I don't like to use a lot of my telepathic abilities to just to find out where the rooms can be found

This "development edition" has been mapped into 4 levels, and are quite linear from start to finish so the rooms you can play can be found easily. There should be no trouble finding the end of the levels.

If I remember correctly, room 19 is one-way. (There might be more, but I have a very bad memory.)
Is room 21 possible?

Thanks for "testing" this! Yes, it is 1 way. I'll probably edit this so you can go back if necessary.

Room 21 is possible. The rooms with a higher number in, the more difficult they tend to be.

Another general remark, you might want to retune the difficulty of some of your rooms. May be it is because I was starting from level 1 to 4, but I feel like that the the harder rooms should be placed later in the game.

In the final version, there won't be any level numbers. You will start in one place and have to navigate round the entire hold from room to room. I have placed Levels in this version with starts and finish points to keep this element of the game until its finished.

(If it is possible, can you make a copy of the hold and remove all the rooms that you don't want us to test, and put it to anyone edit?)
(Or at least tell us how many rooms are in each of the levels that is available to us.)

I was thinking about releasing as anyone edit, but I think there just isn't enough there for you to see.
I have mapped out all the rooms that will be in the hold, but about half are empty and closed off. The ones you can test are the ones I have supplied here.

I might release a different layout to test when Iv'e done a bit more.



____________________________
Get my holds:
MetDROiD AE
MetDROiD Prime
MetDROiD Echoes
Deadly Gold Mine of Death (Architecture)

KevG
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I've played through pretty much all that I can play through so far. No real comments other than you're doing a great job. All of the rooms I encountered (including 21) were solvable and most were at least somewhat tricky.

I'm with Tim in that it's going to be hard to do any serious beta testing until the hold is more or less finished. The issue of one-way rooms for instace is going to depend on the final lay-out. In some cases you may want to make the player take the long way back.

I'll be glad to look at any pieces you want feed-back on, especially specific rooms. However, the real testing is probably going to have to wait until you have all the rooms ready and in their final lay-out.

geomatrx
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Thanks KevG.

I wanted to post this now as I'd been working on it for a few months, and just wanted some users to test what i'd done so far.

As soon as more is completed, Ill update it here.

____________________________
Get my holds:
MetDROiD AE
MetDROiD Prime
MetDROiD Echoes
Deadly Gold Mine of Death (Architecture)

Tim
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As an hold maker, I know how hard it is when you've got something great that you want to show, but cannot show because it is unfinished.

What you might want to do, is to start finalising the first 20 rooms, then publish, then receive some results, then do the next 20 rooms. This will give you a point to look forward to, and us a complete set of rooms to test with. And we don't have to wait for a long time to see any change in this thread.

If you need any help, just ask.

-- Tim

[Edited by Tim on 09-04-2004 at 08:26 PM GMT]

geomatrx
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Cool idea Tim.
I'll see what I can do.

____________________________
Get my holds:
MetDROiD AE
MetDROiD Prime
MetDROiD Echoes
Deadly Gold Mine of Death (Architecture)

geomatrx
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Just to update you all here.
I am sorry to say to all those that gave this a try. I had a major DROD crash last week. I had to re-install it as my data files had become corrupted. This then resulted in losing all my progress to this hold.

I had got alot done since my last post, and was more or less ready to upload a new version too.

This sucks big time, and apologise all who gave their time to test this and comment on the contents.

I'll remove the attachement this evening, as am working now.

However, I will be working on another new hold along the same lines.

At the moment, I have re-mapped the hold, and got all the codes in place, ready to start creating it in DROD.

I may post a map of the hold if anyone is interested?

____________________________
Get my holds:
MetDROiD AE
MetDROiD Prime
MetDROiD Echoes
Deadly Gold Mine of Death (Architecture)

geomatrx
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OK, so I've decided I'll keep this first project running. Even though i lost alot of new stuff. It was annyoing cause I done a lot of work all at once. But now I've accepted the loss, I refuse to let die incomplete.

Im going to edit what I've managed to salvage, and post a work in progress here. It will be 'anyone edit', as future updates will not be easy to access right away.

____________________________
Get my holds:
MetDROiD AE
MetDROiD Prime
MetDROiD Echoes
Deadly Gold Mine of Death (Architecture)

geomatrx
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OK! So I've attached the latested version of my hold!

See the first post, and details of what is completed.

Latest changes include:

> Actually letting you access all the rooms via 'anyone edit' and the exclusion of all yellow gates that hinder progress

[Edited by geomatrx at Local Time:12-19-2004 at 07:49 PM]

____________________________
Get my holds:
MetDROiD AE
MetDROiD Prime
MetDROiD Echoes
Deadly Gold Mine of Death (Architecture)

Tim
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Hi,

Let's see...

Wow! This hold is a lot more interesting than the four levels.

General comments this time:

The rooms are more difficult than it used to be.
The path to room 3 is actually a lot harder than room 3 itself. (Or may be it's just me hating snakes...)
The numbers on the rooms have been changed.
There are more rooms with green doors, and without numbers.

Overall: I still think it's great!

-- Tim

PS. I notice there are a lot of differences between this hold and the first one. Is that on purpose, or do you had a problem copying and pating the rooms?

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geomatrx
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Thanks for the comments Tim.

I havn't changed many of the rooms from the previous hold at all - in fact, I thought I had made some of the rooms easier!

I'll re-visit the path to room 3. I might save this room a little later in the hold.

The numbers in the room have changed as there are now going to be less codes to collect overall (I think 40 was a bit much! to collect for this hold)

There are morre green doors to compensate for the above comment. There are less codes to collect, and therefor, more regular rooms to solve before progressing through the hold.

What do you think of the 'Brain' idea? Do you think this adds to the hold, in having to 'back-track' through areas and killing monsters again, or will this become tiresome, and a clear path would be more satisfactory?

Glad you like it so far. Its been a little slow over Christmas, but it will definatly be finished soon.

P.S. A few of the rooms have undergone a little re-working, but nothing major. When I released the old 'level' version, I just had a copy of the same hold for times, and just added different start points - it was the same hold though.

____________________________
Get my holds:
MetDROiD AE
MetDROiD Prime
MetDROiD Echoes
Deadly Gold Mine of Death (Architecture)

Tim
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geomatrx wrote:
Thanks for the comments Tim.

I havn't changed many of the rooms from the previous hold at all - in fact, I thought I had made some of the rooms easier!

I'll re-visit the path to room 3. I might save this room a little later in the hold.

Just for clarity, I was not talking about the room with the 12 roaches, but the central column where the brained serpents are. In the end I just skipped those rooms, and is probably too hard since those are among the first rooms you have to visit.
[PS. About the difficulty retuning, I would advice you not to worry about this after all the rooms have been made. We can retune the rooms later.]

What do you think of the 'Brain' idea? Do you think this adds to the hold, in having to 'back-track' through areas and killing monsters again, or will this become tiresome, and a clear path would be more satisfactory?

To be honest, the current way you are building it, no backtracking is necessary. What I would do in this kind of hold, is to play it to a scroll room, finish it, read the scroll, and restore the game a few rooms back, and carry on with it
The trick Metroid was doing was actually to make the "in-between" rooms hard but not too hard the first time you enter them, and because Samus was getting stronger in the meantime, those "in-between" rooms will become easier. Which is obviously something you can't do in the current DROD. But I'm sure you can come up with something. (If you really need some ideas, just ask.)

Glad you like it so far. Its been a little slow over Christmas, but it will definatly be finished soon.

I definitely hope so! Just ask when you need more help.

P.S. A few of the rooms have undergone a little re-working, but nothing major. When I released the old 'level' version, I just had a copy of the same hold for times, and just added different start points - it was the same hold though.

For your information, I've finished Metroid Zero a few months ago... So I kinda remember the map layout

-- Tim

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geomatrx
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Tim wrote:
To be honest, the current way you are building it, no backtracking is necessary. What I would do in this kind of hold, is to play it to a scroll room, finish it, read the scroll, and restore the game a few rooms back, and carry on with it

Well, I was going to make the hold so all rooms don't need to be cleared, with the exception of those scroll rooms. That way, restoring the game won't work, as the rooms will remain incomplete, even if you know the code, thus, cheating (yes, im aware restoring in DROD is NOT cheating, but using it in this hold to try to obtain a scroll early IS!).

[Edited by geomatrx at Local Time:01-04-2005 at 09:41 AM]

____________________________
Get my holds:
MetDROiD AE
MetDROiD Prime
MetDROiD Echoes
Deadly Gold Mine of Death (Architecture)

geomatrx
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Ok. I have uploaded the latest version of the metDROiD hold for you to test for me. See first post.

The hold should be considered complete up until the 'lava' area, so any bugs you find, please report them

Points to note:
- There are still no codes in the scrolls yet
- Any room without a code scroll in does'nt need to be completed!

Thanks very much.

EDITED 30-JAN-2005.

The hold is now in a finished state! I have amended a few unpassable rooms, and checked all the rooms that are not required. Please test so i can release the final version with the code doors in.

[Edited by geomatrx at Local Time:01-30-2005 at 05:16 PM]

____________________________
Get my holds:
MetDROiD AE
MetDROiD Prime
MetDROiD Echoes
Deadly Gold Mine of Death (Architecture)

geomatrx
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EDITED 30-JAN-2005.

The hold is now in a finished state! I have amended a few unpassable rooms, and checked all the rooms that are not required. Please test so i can release the final version with the code doors in.

Thanks.

[Edited by geomatrx at Local Time:01-30-2005 at 05:17 PM]

____________________________
Get my holds:
MetDROiD AE
MetDROiD Prime
MetDROiD Echoes
Deadly Gold Mine of Death (Architecture)

Tim
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Rank Points: 1979
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Haven't really testing this lately, but I was just trying starting the southern area to rooms 19,20. It is getting really cool!

Just some very small details (I will try to do the room later, when I do feel a bit better...)

* The room that previously was named as room 19 is still one-way. Is that intentional?
* The last few rooms at the end with only brains and red doors, some of those rooms does not need the red doors to be dropped.

By the way, in your last version, has the lava area already been populated?

-- Tim

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geomatrx
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* The room that previously was named as room 19 is still one-way. Is that intentional?

Is that the most top-right room with the roaches and trapdoors? If it is, then this is intentional.

* The last few rooms at the end with only brains and red doors, some of those rooms does not need the red doors to be dropped.

The last trapdoor room was suposed to be like that, but not the one before that (the one with a lot of red floor). I have re-written these rooms for the final release - they are a bit more tricky

By the way, in your last version, has the lava area already been populated?

Yes

Thanks Tim. Really appreciate you looking at this for me. Hope you feel better soon

[Edited by geomatrx at Local Time:02-04-2005 at 09:24 PM]

[Edited by geomatrx at Local Time:02-05-2005 at 01:45 PM]

____________________________
Get my holds:
MetDROiD AE
MetDROiD Prime
MetDROiD Echoes
Deadly Gold Mine of Death (Architecture)

Tim
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Rank Points: 1979
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geomatrx wrote:

By the way, in your last version, has the lava area already been populated?

Yes

Should I play your last version, or should I just test this one?

-- Tim (almost fit again, after 4 weeks)

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geomatrx
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No. I have a new version I have to upload, which I have played from start to finish and fixed some minor bugs along the way.

Im at work now, but when I get home ill upload this one.

But, as its the FINAL version, with codes and secrets and all, should i still upload it as anyone edit?

____________________________
Get my holds:
MetDROiD AE
MetDROiD Prime
MetDROiD Echoes
Deadly Gold Mine of Death (Architecture)

Tim
Level: Smitemaster

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geomatrx wrote:
But, as its the FINAL version, with codes and secrets and all, should i still upload it as anyone edit?

You can ask for private testing, and send e-mails with the final version of your hold to anyone who wants to test

What you definitely want to ask though, is whether the room difficulty is set up correctly, since as I mentioned before, you might want to tune the difficulty in some of the first rooms...

-- Tim

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geomatrx
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Nah,

Actually, i'll post it as anyone edit. This is a testing forum after all.

If anyone wants to get the test version to complete quicker, wheres the challenge in that?

The FINAL version is uploaded now (check first post), and can be played either start to finish, or from the edit screen, to pick specific areas.

Ideally, feedback should point out any flaws I still have, and any improvements I can make to the hold (i'll also learn this for my future holds too).

Thanks Tim, and to the rest o' y'all!

____________________________
Get my holds:
MetDROiD AE
MetDROiD Prime
MetDROiD Echoes
Deadly Gold Mine of Death (Architecture)

Greebo
Level: Goblin
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Ooooo I'm almost there!

1N 3E is giving me a REAL problem!

go on... gizza clue! lol

I have to say that this is an amazing concept - just goes to show what is capable in drod with a vivid imagination! Hats off!

RoboBob3000
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I just started playing it and I have to say, this is a pretty sweet hold. My first thought was that there was going to be a ridiculous amount of repitition after looking at it in the editor, but so far, at code #6, I haven't experienced too much of it. Speaking of which, why is it required to get #6 before #5? That seems a little odd to me.

Anyhow, awesome work! I'll be playing this one all through the night.

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RoboBob3000
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Is the door next to the brain in 3S8E unassigned? I ask because I've hit every orb except the inaccessable one from the left, and none have opened it. If it is that orb on the left, well, it seems that there's no way around to the other side, if I trace back the crumbly wall.

Watch, in three minutes or so, I'll have figured it out.

Excellent hold so far!

Edit: Yup, I figured it out. I'll jsut keep my mouth shut from here on out.

[Edited by RoboBob3000 at Local Time:02-16-2005 at 09:27 AM]

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geomatrx
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Hey, thanks for all the cool feedback peeps!

Greebo wrote:
Ooooo I'm almost there!

1N 3E is giving me a REAL problem!

go on... gizza clue! lol[url=http://www.drod.net/forum/viewtopic.php?TopicID=3622&page=0 http://www.drod.net/forum/viewtopic.php?TopicID=3622&page=0

Im working now, so I have to kind of work from memory without any DROD.

RoboBob3000 wrote:
...Speaking of which, why is it required to get #6 before #5? That seems a little odd to me.

Yes, it is. I did start making this with ALOT of variation, but thought it my be too confusing.




____________________________
Get my holds:
MetDROiD AE
MetDROiD Prime
MetDROiD Echoes
Deadly Gold Mine of Death (Architecture)

---

[Last edited by geomatrx at 07-11-2005 12:51 AM]

RoboBob3000
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In 2N2E, if you exit to the left after finishing the room, there's no way to go north. Maybe make a green door solution to fix this or make the entrance on the left a trap door.

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