luna1996
Level: Roachling

Rank Points: 13
Registered: 04-03-2024
IP: Logged

Good work! Keep it up, hope you all fine!

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Best reward for sovling a puzzle is more puzzles.

Quaker
Level: Roachling

Rank Points: 10
Registered: 01-19-2013
IP: Logged

I would like to buy it on Steam as DLC, similar to the Smitemaster's Selections.

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[Last edited by Quaker at 07-08-2024 03:36 PM]

Nuntar
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 4741
Registered: 02-20-2007
IP: Logged

It's going to be free. If you have CaravelNet, it will show up in the in-game list of holds when you select "Change Location". If not, you'll be able to download it from its topic in the Holds forum -- we'll post a link here

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50th Skywatcher

azb
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 490
Registered: 03-08-2014
IP: Logged

I am definitely excited for this hold - it's gonna be an epic beginner hold for sure, I can sense it, and not just a quick tutorial like the official in-game tutorial or my Elementary Dungeon hold is intended to be.

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Please feel free to test the ultimate arena: King Azb's Arena today!

Nuntar
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 4741
Registered: 02-20-2007
IP: Logged

Glad to hear it! Just to make sure everyone is on the same page (since I know the word about EP has started to spread), it's slightly misleading to call it a beginner hold. It's more like a training course that goes all the way from complete beginner to expert. It's designed to be fully accessible with no previous DROD knowledge, but as you progress through the hold, not only does the number of introduced elements grow, the difficulty ramps up as we expect that the player who's got through the hold so far will be more and more able to handle complex puzzles.

As a rough guide, each Chapter n (from 1 to 8) is roughly equivalent to an n-brain hold, and some of the optional postgame content hits 9 brains. (Chapter 6 is the last required chapter and unlocks the first ending.) We have nerfed a couple of rooms that were in danger of hitting 10-brain territory and in case that disappoints anyone, Dragon Fogel intends to release the original version of one of these as a standalone at some time after EP is out.

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50th Skywatcher

azb
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 490
Registered: 03-08-2014
IP: Logged

That makes sense too. I am definitely excited to see how the progression unfolds... it will definitely be something that progresses the understanding of newcomers in a very engaging way... ba dum tissss!

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Please feel free to test the ultimate arena: King Azb's Arena today!

TripleM
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1377
Registered: 02-05-2003
IP: Logged

Nuntar wrote:
(Just to clarify, that is a working title, and the hold will be given a proper title when we have more idea of the storyline.)

I know I'm quoting a post from 2014, but are you still planning to retitle this?

I haven't played DROD for many years, but still check back once in a while to see how this is going, and after 10 years am quite attached to Entry Point now Will definitely be playing it the whole way through.

Nuntar
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 4741
Registered: 02-20-2007
IP: Logged

Yup, we announced the final title back on page 3 of this thread. It is The Descent of King Hesper.

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50th Skywatcher

Nuntar
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 4741
Registered: 02-20-2007
IP: Logged

Time for a big announcement. We have finally finished the last of our "must-have" levels, so we are at the point where we technically could, if we had to, hustle this out the door at any time. But there are still seven levels not quite at the point we'd like them to be. One is about 2/3 done, the others are all just missing a room or two.

So we've decided to make a definite commitment to push this to HA in two more months at the most -- should be plenty of time to get those last rooms done, and to have a final look over the hold and make sure everything is functioning properly. (Also, as mentioned earlier, 14 September is a nice symbolic date, being the project's tenth anniversary.)

I've slightly adjusted the bar. It will now go up to 99.9% when the hold is entirely finished; then we'll nudge it to 99.95% when we have submitted it to HA, and of course, 100% when it's released.

We are enormously grateful to everyone who's helped us get this far. In particular I want to say thank you to Red-XIII and IQubic, who have been the testing hero and heroine of this final push. Without your help, we would be looking at much harder decisions at this point.

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50th Skywatcher

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[Last edited by Nuntar at 09-14-2024 05:25 AM]

averagemoe
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 490
Registered: 03-22-2012
IP: Logged

Perhaps someday, we'll do this again. For a long time, I've been outlining my own concept for a build of an Entry Point kind of hold. I even wrote a plot already, and prototyped some custom elements. But I won't start trying to organize it yet. There are still some missing pieces I'm waiting for.

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The internet is no place to act like a wild animal.

Pearls
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 774
Registered: 12-21-2009
IP: Logged

Hey.

Sorry I've been gone for so long. From the solitude of an impossible amount of grief and despair, it feels good to check in and see that this project is so close to completion. This makes my tired heart happy.

Nuntar and Team, you should all be very proud. I'm proud of you.

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Hey, w-wait, that's the guy who shamelessly promotes his own...

Jacob
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3749
Registered: 10-01-2004
IP: Logged

Cheering you on too!

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New to DROD? You may want to read this.
My Holds and Levels:

Nuntar
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 4741
Registered: 02-20-2007
IP: Logged

It's hard to believe we're at this point, but here we are. Four weeks to go. We're at 99.68%. All but three levels are completely finished, and of the last three, two are missing just one and two rooms respectively; the last one is finished but some rooms are still in testing. Still got some dialogue and hold structure to add, but that's relatively straightforward.

So yes. At this point, we are definitely going to be able to finish 100% of what we wanted the hold to be. And I am so excited and so looking forward to having this out there and knowing that people are playing it.

Let's hope the HA process doesn't take too long

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50th Skywatcher

skell
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3759
Registered: 12-28-2004
IP: Logged

I am sending Trans Neuroncia to the publisher for QA today so starting next week I'll have both more time and less time for other things and that's when I'll pick up my DROD Hold Tool again to work on the features you mentioned you'd love to have .

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My website

mauvebutterfly
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 767
Registered: 05-03-2015
IP: Logged

On the HA front, I suspect that this hold is one of the most extensively tested holds we've had yet, so the final HA check shouldn't have any issues aside from the sheer size of the thing.

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106th Skywatcher

PigmyWubba
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 156
Registered: 04-14-2012
IP: Logged

Hi, its been a long time, I kind of burnt out of this game a while back and vanished, but I was just checking up on this project and saw that its close to being released so I just wanted to come by and congratulate everyone involved.

This has been in the works for a long time, and everyone who worked on it has done a great job.

It's exciting to see this releasing after so long.

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790th Raft Complaint Clerk-

zzyzx
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 75
Registered: 02-02-2004
IP: Logged

Looking forward to this. Huge undertaking and very appreciated!

Nuntar
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 4741
Registered: 02-20-2007
IP: Logged

We still have three unfinished levels we are working on, but we are now down to just five unfinished rooms.

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50th Skywatcher

azb
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 490
Registered: 03-08-2014
IP: Logged

Awesome! I bet it's gonna be one of the best official holds, especially cause of how it introduces new players to DROD rather than giving you hard puzzles from the get-go like the official TSS hold does.

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Please feel free to test the ultimate arena: King Azb's Arena today!

komachi
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 163
Registered: 07-30-2012
IP: Logged

I watched some of the Fogel streams around a year ago when I catch up the project. It looked very promising already, good work everyone who was involved.

IQubic
Level: Delver

Rank Points: 84
Registered: 11-22-2015
IP: Logged

azb wrote:
Awesome! I bet it's gonna be one of the best official holds, especially cause of how it introduces new players to DROD rather than giving you hard puzzles from the get-go like the official TSS hold does.

Actually, Entry Point is an unofficial hold. We're releasing it for free for anyone who owns DROD: TSS to play. We're not working with Caravel to make this. It's entirely a community driven project.

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Trans Woman (She/Her Pronouns)
119th Skywatcher

Nuntar
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 4741
Registered: 02-20-2007
IP: Logged

Well, the 14th is here. It's been a really hectic week; I've played through the entire hold with a cheat script to check that all connections and flags were working properly, we've all been very busy testing and offering suggestions for fixes, and I've written all the hold ending texts. We're all caught up in the excitement of finally wrapping this up.

Unfortunately, we're not going to be ready to send the hold to the HAs today, and I know that's a bit disappointing, but at this stage it's much more important to make sure that we're satisfied we've looked at everything that needs looking at than it is to make an arbitrary target. We are absolutely committed to getting this done as soon as possible, and I think if things continue at their current pace, that should just be a matter of a couple more days.

Thanks again to everyone for all your support and encouragement -- it's really helped us to know how much people are looking forward to this hold!

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50th Skywatcher

kolbesag
Level: Delver

Rank Points: 41
Registered: 02-02-2021
IP: Logged

Really excited for this. Haven't played Drod for real for like a good year or two. I guess downloading and bouncing between 100+ drod holds after second sky contributed to an accelerated drod burnout.

My own stupidity aside, it gives me great joy to check in on the forum from time and see people still care enough to work on a big community project like this. I'll be here waiting with baited breath

kikuchiyo
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 115
Registered: 04-01-2012
IP: Logged

Will the hold be playable with the 5.1.0 engine?

Nuntar
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 4741
Registered: 02-20-2007
IP: Logged

Yes. The hold was mostly made in 5.1.0, but we moved to 5.1.1 when it came out. However, all 5.1.x versions have data compatibility so the hold is playable in any of them. It is not playable in earlier versions (5.0.x).

I should note that new features added in 5.1.1 include the ability to click on Halph and citizens to view their currently intended path. Not having this feature will make some rooms (not many) harder than we intended them to be, so we advise upgrading to 5.1.1 if at all feasible.

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50th Skywatcher

Suwako
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 146
Registered: 04-29-2011
IP: Logged

Great work to everyone involved! I come back from time to time and checked what the bar meant, just wow, a project of this size being so close to be completed is impressive, eager to play but take as much time as you need

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A moment last forever, an eternity passes in an instant, the time I spent here was inevitable...

Nuntar
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 4741
Registered: 02-20-2007
IP: Logged

It's done.

From Silent Woods all the way to Azure Haven, this mammoth hold is finally complete. There are still a few last things to do, though: testing on the last finished block, and some aesthetic touches, and just generally looking over the hold now that it's done and making sure we're ready to send it on its way.

At the moment we haven't decided on a new target date for the HA submission, but it will be very soon. However, please bear in mind that the hold does have to go through the usual HA process after that; we've done everything we can to help the process run smoothly, but it's bound to take some time to look over a hold this size!

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50th Skywatcher

luna1996
Level: Roachling

Rank Points: 13
Registered: 04-03-2024
IP: Logged

congrats！

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Best reward for sovling a puzzle is more puzzles.

Nuntar
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 4741
Registered: 02-20-2007
IP: Logged

Happy birthday, Dragon Fogel! (At least, it's still Fogel's birthday where he is, although not here.)

I'm sure many here already know this, but a few years ago Fogel took over leadership of the project and kept it running for a while when I wasn't here, and he's also worked extremely hard on testing and room design, and making suggestions to help the rest of us. The whole team have been awesome to work with, but there's no doubt that Fogel has been the glue keeping everything together.

So it's only fitting that it's today that we announce that we are done. We've finished putting together the hold, looking over everything, and all those little last-minute tasks that keep popping up just when you think you're done.

We've agreed between us that we will submit the hold to HA at 10pm today (by UK time). I don't know how long the HA process will take, but that's in their hands. Our part in this long adventure is finished.

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50th Skywatcher

42 car
Level: Roachling

Rank Points: 10
Registered: 08-11-2021
IP: Logged

Amazing work, guys. This is everything I've been waiting for and it's the meaning of my life!