slimm tom
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1264
Registered: 10-14-2006
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File: entrypoint.jpg (59.6 KB)
Downloaded 3810 times.
License: Public Domain

Fixed this for you.

Congrats!!

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[Last edited by slimm tom at 09-25-2024 06:25 PM]

Nuntar
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5280
Registered: 02-20-2007
IP: Logged

As promised, The Descent of King Hesper has been submitted to the Hold Admins today.

Now we just have to wait until they're done with it

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50th Skywatcher

Dragon Fogel
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 2760
Registered: 06-21-2014
IP: Logged

Big congratulations to everyone who put in time on this, even if it was only running through a couple of levels and leaving feedback.

I would not recommend making a project this big, and there were certainly a lot of problems along the way, but I'm very pleased with the end result.

Pearls
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 777
Registered: 12-21-2009
IP: Logged

A cheer from the sidelines. I'll be playing this as soon as the HA's say "this is surely good enough."

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

larrymurk
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1918
Registered: 12-09-2004
IP: Logged

Surely by playing this, you mean let's playing this I hope :-)

Pearls wrote:
A cheer from the sidelines. I'll be playing this as soon as the HA's say "this is surely good enough."

Nuntar
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5280
Registered: 02-20-2007
IP: Logged

Going well so far! Both HAs have gotten through more than 1/8 of the hold, which may not sound like much, but that's already the size of a large hold in itself! No serious issues yet, just a few small fixes. I am expecting the pace to slow down as they reach the harder later tiers, but I'll keep everyone posted with a rough account of our progress.

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50th Skywatcher

averagemoe
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 526
Registered: 03-22-2012
IP: Logged

You think they could speed things up a little by getting the solutions from Fogel's Let's Play?

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

Dragon Fogel
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 2760
Registered: 06-21-2014
IP: Logged

HAs already have tools that allow them to speed through, (I think they can skip through any room if they have a working demo) so that would just be a more inefficient way of doing what they already have the means to do.

Of course, I'm not going to discourage people from watching me play. It's up to them if they want spoilers for the puzzles or not.

Camwoodstock
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 120
Registered: 07-02-2014
IP: Logged

well, we know what we'll be playing during out downtime for the forseeable future...

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Camwoodstock - The Epic Blunder, Dugan's Best Janitor, Rooted Hold Runner, Lowest Point Watcher, and 132nd Skywatcher (and 13th Gel Authority)
Mastered all of GatEB, KDD 2.0, JtRH, and TCB! | Saw The Second Sky! (lots of secrets left!)

Her/him | & | Steam | Backloggery

navithmastero
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 631
Registered: 01-03-2012
IP: Logged

averagemoe wrote:
You think they could speed things up a little by getting the solutions from Fogel's Let's Play?

As Dragon Fogel says, we have tools that allow us to go through rooms without needing to solve them. It's important to note though that Nuntar did this as a part of the internal testing procedure and it still took 4 hours or something like that, plus we need to make sure that rooms and challenges etc are solvable, look for any backtracking issues and so forth. While the team has done great work to make sure this is as friendly to the HAs as possible, on a hold of this size it will still take a little while!

____________________________
Member of the Snake Appreciation Society

One of your local HAs.

My stuff:

luna1996
Level: Goblin

Rank Points: 24
Registered: 04-03-2024
IP: Logged

How's the progress of the HA currently?
I'm waiting patiently.


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Best reward for sovling a puzzle is more puzzles.

Nuntar
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5280
Registered: 02-20-2007
IP: Logged

Both HAs have completed more than 30% of the hold (over 700 rooms).

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50th Skywatcher

Zaratustra00
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 111
Registered: 11-12-2004
IP: Logged

set the bar to 99.99XX% where XX is the percentage of the hold cleared by the HAs

Mecejide2
Level: Roachling
Rank Points: 12
Registered: 01-08-2021
IP: Logged

Alright, it’s been 10 days since the last update. What has happened since then?

Pinnacle
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1138
Registered: 06-10-2004
IP: Logged

HA review is still ongoing. It's a 2,480 room hold, it's inevitably going to take some time.

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Once (adv.): Enough.
Twice (adv.): Once too often.
~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

xpym
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 89
Registered: 03-28-2010
IP: Logged

Crude arithmetic suggests that it's still weeks away, so people probably shouldn't be holding their breath.

Nuntar
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5280
Registered: 02-20-2007
IP: Logged

Thanks to everyone for being patient! We're making great progress -- one HA has completed over 50% of the hold and reached the first ending; the other has completed over 70% and reached the second major ending. This does mean that both are in the part of the hold where rooms get a lot more difficult, so it's perhaps not very fair to try to make guesses based on raw percentages.

Don't worry, we are still committed to getting this hold out there as soon as possible, and it's really touching to know that there are still a lot of people waiting for it

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50th Skywatcher

Nuntar
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5280
Registered: 02-20-2007
IP: Logged

One of the HAs has completed 95% of the hold The other is further behind at 55%, but we have discussed this among the team and decided not to ask him to start skipping rooms, it's better to complete a thorough check. In addition, several of the non-HA members of the team are continuing to test, and we are still finding numerous small things that we're glad to have the opportunity to fix.

It will be a while, but the end is definitely in sight at last

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50th Skywatcher

Citrus
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1239
Registered: 01-08-2006
IP: Logged

Excited for release! I still have access to the beta board from back when I was trying to work on it... five years ago? I forget. But currently attempting to renew my CaravelNet subscription so I can get the beta and play a little early. Hopefully the code will come quick! It took a couple of days back when Treacle Stew came out for it to appear.

EDIT: Also it's so weird coming back to a place where my username is Ezlo. Ezlo was three "Generic Online Handle I Use Everwhere" ago and one gender change too. Feels like putting on a coat that doesn't fit anymore.

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Call me Citrus.

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[Last edited by Ezlo at 10-31-2024 07:10 PM]

Camwoodstock
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 120
Registered: 07-02-2014
IP: Logged

Ezlo wrote:
EDIT: Also it's so weird coming back to a place where my username is Ezlo. Ezlo was three "Generic Online Handle I Use Everwhere" ago and one gender change too. Feels like putting on a coat that doesn't fit anymore.

could always be stranger. back when we first started playing DROD, not only did we think we had a rigid gender, we not only also assumed that there was a single one of us, but didn't even know of plurality being like, A Thing, just at all!

...funny how that works out. ;P

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Camwoodstock - The Epic Blunder, Dugan's Best Janitor, Rooted Hold Runner, Lowest Point Watcher, and 132nd Skywatcher (and 13th Gel Authority)
Mastered all of GatEB, KDD 2.0, JtRH, and TCB! | Saw The Second Sky! (lots of secrets left!)

Her/him | & | Steam | Backloggery

Mecejide2
Level: Roachling
Rank Points: 12
Registered: 01-08-2021
IP: Logged

99.975% now

Nuntar
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5280
Registered: 02-20-2007
IP: Logged

The first HA has completely finished the hold and the second one has reached the second major ending and completed over 60%. Yes, that's less completion than the first HA had at the same point, but that's because they've taken different routes regarding when to tackle optional content, so as to make sure everything was working properly either way. This means that although the last 10% has been slow as he's been going through some of our hardest levels, he still has a lot of relatively easy content left

I should also mention, although we have a pretty long list of issues to fix, they are almost all a matter of changing just one or two elements in the room, and fixing them is not expected to take long at all.

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50th Skywatcher

Citrus
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1239
Registered: 01-08-2006
IP: Logged

Camwoodstock wrote:
could always be stranger. back when we first started playing DROD, not only did we think we had a rigid gender, we not only also assumed that there was a single one of us, but didn't even know of plurality being like, A Thing, just at all!

...funny how that works out. ;P

Nope, I wasn't 'spared' that either, figured it out around September of last year. People are shocked when I say it's vastly improved my/our mental health.

A discussion for another topic though, feel free to DM me if any of you lot wanna catch up. Could always do with more plural friends.

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Call me Citrus.

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[Last edited by Ezlo at 11-21-2024 02:42 AM]

Nuntar
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5280
Registered: 02-20-2007
IP: Logged

Our second HA has reached the third major ending and completed over 72% of the hold Less than 700 rooms to go!

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50th Skywatcher

luna1996
Level: Goblin

Rank Points: 24
Registered: 04-03-2024
IP: Logged

More good news please! I refresh this thread several times a day to check new progress. Since the first time I knew this game back in 8 month ago. I had 100% all official holds and some user made holds. Eager to witness this epic masterpiece hold to come out.

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Best reward for sovling a puzzle is more puzzles.

azb
Level: Disabled
Rank Points: 502
Registered: 03-08-2014
IP: Logged

I am too. I bet it's gonna be a masterpiece cause of the previews as well as how long they've spent polishing it.

Nuntar
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5280
Registered: 02-20-2007
IP: Logged

Over 80% done, less than 500 rooms left!

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50th Skywatcher

Nuntar
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5280
Registered: 02-20-2007
IP: Logged

Less than 350 rooms left (one KDD's worth!)

Unfortunately we won't be able to release the hold straight away when the HA process is done, because there are some issues that need fixing. But fixing them should be a relatively quick process, as we have kept a thorough list of exactly what needs changing, so it's just a matter of going through and implementing the changes, then re-recording some demos. Probably just another few days, no more than a week.

It's impossible to say how the coming Christmas period is going to affect things. Everyone working on this is a volunteer doing so in their own time, so please be understanding if things slow down. We are really close now, and we are all really looking forward to knowing that people are playing our hold at last!

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50th Skywatcher

luna1996
Level: Goblin

Rank Points: 24
Registered: 04-03-2024
IP: Logged

Take your time and enjoy Christmas!

____________________________
Best reward for sovling a puzzle is more puzzles.

Nuntar
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5280
Registered: 02-20-2007
IP: Logged

Less than 200 rooms to go!

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50th Skywatcher