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Level: Legendary Smitemaster
Rank Points: 8
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File: Nameless Fortress.drh (87.2 KB)
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License: Other
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The result of the second iteration of the collaborative hold-building game. As with eb0ny's "Hold Anonymous", each architect was assigned rooms to build, with no knowledge of what would be in adjacent rooms. This iteration contains further experimentation with level structures; a bonus boss who can only be found with the aid of certain accessories; and the choice of playing the hold in Normal or Hard difficulty. Hard is the hold as it came out of the collaboration process; Normal was added to make it more accessible. To reward the player for choosing Hard difficulty, all score checkpoints are multiplied by 3/2.

The last part of the building process was done in 1.2.0.56, so you need this version or later to play it.

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3659
Registered: 10-06-2005
IP: Logged

Well, it's finally published and ready for the public to optimize. This hold came out pretty well - in my opinion, this hold is more accessible than Hold Anonymous, because the first level of this hold is a relatively easy warm-up compared to some of the very tricky and constricting choices of Hold Anonymous' first level.

The level layouts, by coincidence, strike a nice balance where there are some constrictions on route and movement, but there are still plenty of options and different ways to get from point A to point B, and furthermore it might not be completely obvious which equipment to get first.

Another thing that I will mention is that Normal and Hard difficulties have some changes that might make playthroughs drastically more different - for example, one of the first changes is that a particular door in a boss room is a green door on Normal and a blue door on Hard.

Finally, here's a hint for prospective players: There end up being more blue keys and skeleton keys than are completely necessary to progress. Spending those extra keys might help you. On the other hand, extra blue keys and skeleton keys count for score, so as always it's up to you to figure out how to proceed.

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

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[Last edited by Chaco at 02-16-2014 07:33 PM]

Doom
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3310
Registered: 07-05-2004
IP: Logged

A worthy addition to the RPG releases. It's huge and has tons of choices along the way, many of which aren't just traps but actually viable options for getting through the levels.

Some points will have to be reducted for very frequent use of hot tiles and aumtlich. There's some in just about every level, which means you're constantly running back and forth to collect skipped potions if you want to be efficient. Same for carrying the low level wooden equipment into every oremite corner of the hold.

I jumped into the hard mode blindly and it certainly lived up to its name. I think I replayed the first half of the hold about three times until I got good enough stats to proceed further. Expect to spend a lot of hours if you hit the orb in the first room.

A few words about score points for optimizers:

Red-XIII
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 651
Registered: 08-05-2012
IP: Logged

(Half) conquered! I finished it in easy mode.

I have to start by saying that this hold is terrific, I really enjoyed it.

There were a couple of things I didn't love but compared to all the hold it's nothing. One thing I'd like to point out, the skeleton key under the "Lost soul" on "The disused sewers 1N3W" become a green key after entering level 6, maybe a scroll would have been useful. Same thing on "Nameless fortress 3W" you don't need the pickaxe once you defeated the giant golem. Maybe the architects put these things as secret but in my opinion the player should know them.
Last thing, I loved that once you entered the final level every monsters became twice as powerful but you can immediately go for the really big sword and oremite shield and after that the whole level become really easy (though I'm not sure what will happen in hard mode there). I managed to beat the final boss with only a wooden shield and nothing more; I chose a defense route (ended up with more than 1000) but even if I had the chance to fight against the secret boss ( couldn't do it because I had only 1 portable orb) I had no idea you needed so much attack.
This is just my opinion but I'd like to know what the architects think about this

Aside from those details I loved this hold, there were tons and tons of choices and even if there was only a shortcut, many hot tiles and aumtlich I didn't bothered much because every level was really big and I needed my best equipment to clear them at 100% and I really like when an hold makes me think "What now? What's left there? What if?"

I definitely want to try hard mode (in the future) because right now I gave 6 for difficulty (mainly for the middle part) but if is possible it would be cool to have two difficulty bars. What do you think about it?

Well done to all who worked on this hold!

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There's not some other world out there where everything's gonna be okay.
There's just this one, just this rock.
-33th Skywatcher

Gordius
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 95
Registered: 12-16-2008
IP: Logged

If it helps, Red, the secret boss is killable under a defense path, at least in easy. I actually had a better time dealing with it under a defense path than attack.

Blondbeard
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1486
Registered: 03-31-2005
IP: Logged

I really like this hold! And I'm very pleased with the secret boss. Felt like a good challange. And really good idea to have a hard and an easy mode! The one thing I don't like (or like a bit, but mostly not), are the hot tiles and aumtlichs. There is a needless amount of trying to keep your HP as low as possible at all times... Hard mode felt well balanced, and I'm sorry I wasn't part of the final testing.

Everything is beautiful, and polished as well I ended up never using the hand bomb, for reasons Doom have already covered. Kinda wish I had read that before playing...

YungVenuz
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 17
Registered: 07-08-2014
IP: Logged

Howdy! I'm reviving this thread, first to say that I completed this hold's secret boss on hard mode and found it to be one of the best holds I've played so far, but more importantly to ask for help finding the last secret room.

There's 8 total, I've got seven so far:


Where on earth is the last one? I've scoured the map for breakable walls without luck, and started trying really silly things like breaking into the one unconnected sewer duct with the pickaxe, and using wall walking to get into the rep store's staircase (incidentally, this counts as completing the hold). I'd be happy with even just the floor the secret shows up on, so I can narrow my search. Mostly I just want hold mastery so I can go into edit mode and check out the scripting that went into some of the rooms.

Nuntar
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 4764
Registered: 02-20-2007
IP: Logged

You are missing one in
There is a clue in the adjoining room as to where to look for the secret -- though it will also open if you

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50th Skywatcher

YungVenuz
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 17
Registered: 07-08-2014
IP: Logged

Thanks! I really should have suspected something was going on with that room from the get-go.

Fantastic hold overall. I'd say the difficulty peaks around the first sewers visit, and I'm still not sure I got the timing on the claymore pickup right. the rest of the hold isn't too shabby either, though, and I appreciated the first level being a mostly self-contained tutorial to the hold's style.

mobius
Level: Roachling
Rank Points: 13
Registered: 08-22-2023
IP: Logged

First of all; I'm immensely enjoying this hold, very challenging but very fun!

But I'm running into a game breaking glitch; I don't know why this happens, and it happens consistently with this pirate. Unlike other times I experienced this glitch (usually with a mimic, when I was about to kill a mimic the game would crash, it didn't happen consistently.