Scattercatt
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 36
Registered: 05-15-2016
IP: Logged

File: A World.hold (2.7 MB)
Downloaded 49 times.
License: Public Domain

DISCLAIMER: The point of this hold is to look cool. NOT PUZZLES. So if you're looking for good DROD puzzles, you have come to the wrong place, sorry!

I have been working on this for about a week now and i think it's big enough that i can at least show off what it is. It might not be the greatest, but remember, its WIP and will be MUCH bigger in the future. I'm completely open to criticism and suggestions. You can check it out for yourself.

Happy exploring!

EDIT: I will try my best to update this DAILY. I will have a version to not lose track of updates here: (Version 0.156)

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[Last edited by Scattercatt at 11-16-2016 05:10 AM]

Nuntar
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 4590
Registered: 02-20-2007
IP: Logged

Holds should be "Anyone Edit" while they're in architecture, so that if testers get stuck they can look ahead in the editor. Especially as there doesn't seem to be a way to conquer the hold? At least, I've explored 63 rooms (2 secrets) without finding one.

Anyway, I enjoyed exploring the hold -- you've taken a lot of care with the aesthetics, and the darkened combat rooms are a novelty without being too annoying. Even though they are very simple, all combat rooms should have checkpoints just in case the player makes a slip-up.

1S2W: I liked the little mirror puzzle. There should be more rooms like that

1S2E seems to be non-backtrackable, which is an issue that will block the hold from being promoted. It means the player has to take care to explore everything in the western area before crossing over, which isn't much fun.

1N: What is the point of the seeding beacon?

1N and 6W are the only rooms with "open" edges that look like they have a room beyond, but I haven't found a way to reach that room yet. This isn't an issue, just letting you know how far I've got with exploration.

In 1N2W, you can cut the crumbly walls to reach the west room edge, but it doesn't let you into the adjacent room.

6N4W has a visible character on top of one of the house obstacles.

Finally, I'm not sure where you are going with this, but I guess it would be nice to give it a bit more of a story, have some interaction with characters, give the player a goal beyond "explore as much as possible".

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50th Skywatcher

Scattercatt
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 36
Registered: 05-15-2016
IP: Logged

Nuntar wrote:
Holds should be "Anyone Edit" while they're in architecture, so that if testers get stuck they can look ahead in the editor. Especially as there doesn't seem to be a way to conquer the hold? At least, I've explored 63 rooms (2 secrets) without finding one.

Anyway, I enjoyed exploring the hold -- you've taken a lot of care with the aesthetics, and the darkened combat rooms are a novelty without being too annoying. Even though they are very simple, all combat rooms should have checkpoints just in case the player makes a slip-up.

1S2W: I liked the little mirror puzzle. There should be more rooms like that

1S2E seems to be non-backtrackable, which is an issue that will block the hold from being promoted. It means the player has to take care to explore everything in the western area before crossing over, which isn't much fun.

1N: What is the point of the seeding beacon?

1N and 6W are the only rooms with "open" edges that look like they have a room beyond, but I haven't found a way to reach that room yet. This isn't an issue, just letting you know how far I've got with exploration.

In 1N2W, you can cut the crumbly walls to reach the west room edge, but it doesn't let you into the adjacent room.

6N4W has a visible character on top of one of the house obstacles.

Finally, I'm not sure where you are going with this, but I guess it would be nice to give it a bit more of a story, have some interaction with characters, give the player a goal beyond "explore as much as possible".

Thanks a bunch for the feedback.
1N:
1S2E: Yea that was intentional but if that will prevent it from getting promoted, ill take it out.
1S2W: I'll do more of these then! Thanks for the feedback on it.
6N4W: That is supposed to be there. The citizens there are going to have a different color of hair just to indicate where they're from. Since that area is a cold, high elevation area, i figured that would be fitting. I can understand how you saw that.
-One more thing, those secret walls were going to be a secret waaayy earlier in the making but i had different plans later. Completely forgot about those!

I don't know if i'm gonna add a story. I might, but I don't think I'm the best storyteller . If it did have a story, it would be cool to collaborate with someone else to do it.

Also I set it to anyone edit now.

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[Last edited by Scattercatt at 11-02-2016 11:58 PM]

uncopy2002
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 431
Registered: 07-28-2014
IP: Logged

This... this is beautiful. Totally speechless. And I especially like the darkness fighting rooms very much.

A little particular things to point out since there isn't really much to say:

2S7W: The "Surprise attack!" speech is repeated even after room clear. Suggested fix: put a "If Wait For room cleared, End" in front of the script.

Underground 1E: Currently it's non-backtrackable, but I guess it's okay since the rooms below are still unfinished.

Insoluble
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1638
Registered: 09-04-2014
IP: Logged

This is really interesting so far. You should check out the "A Cheap World" Level of the Cheap Trick Contest Compilation. It's very similar to this although I think what you've made here so far has a much more interesting variety of locations. I feel like there's a story begging to be told here, but probably not a straightforward linear one. It has a mysterious, almost eerie feel to it (especially that bit with all the beds!) I feel like this could easily be turned into a non-traditional hold in which the player has to puzzle out what the story is from bits and pieces of dialog and context clues in order to progress.

I'm also going to have to completely disagree with the comments about about the darkness. If you are going to make rooms that dark, please don't put puzzles in them. Even simple ones are made annoying by the fact that I need to do something special to see where everything is. This has been commented on before and it's pretty much almost always a bad idea to make a puzzle harder by hiding information from the player. This is why mazes with tar over walls are frown upon. That's not to say you can't drown some rooms in darkness, just be considerate of the player (keeping in mind that there will be people competing for high scores in this). If you're asking the player to do much more than traverse a room in pitch black you're going to annoy some of them.

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Links to neat forum tools that I always have trouble finding:

Scattercatt
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 36
Registered: 05-15-2016
IP: Logged

Insoluble wrote:
This is really interesting so far. You should check out the "A Cheap World" Level of the Cheap Trick Contest Compilation. It's very similar to this although I think what you've made here so far has a much more interesting variety of locations. I feel like there's a story begging to be told here, but probably not a straightforward linear one. It has a mysterious, almost eerie feel to it (especially that bit with all the beds!) I feel like this could easily be turned into a non-traditional hold in which the player has to puzzle out what the story is from bits and pieces of dialog and context clues in order to progress.

I'm also going to have to completely disagree with the comments about about the darkness. If you are going to make rooms that dark, please don't put puzzles in them. Even simple ones are made annoying by the fact that I need to do something special to see where everything is. This has been commented on before and it's pretty much almost always a bad idea to make a puzzle harder by hiding information from the player. This is why mazes with tar over walls are frown upon. That's not to say you can't drown some rooms in darkness, just be considerate of the player (keeping in mind that there will be people competing for high scores in this). If you're asking the player to do much more than traverse a room in pitch black you're going to annoy some of them.

The eerie feel was exactly what i was going for! . The reason I made this hold is because I'm not into unbelievably hard puzzles. The funnest part of drod, in my opinion, is the story, and that is what I'm trying to do with this hold. I might add a story. I would really need help because to be honest... I'm not that good at telling stories. Thanks so much for the feedback

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[Last edited by Scattercatt at 11-10-2016 03:46 AM]