×MyScript Primer and Reference!

My First Hold, also the first published!
Persistence, a mini-hold about returning to rooms.
The Spacetime Kerfluffle, a mini-hold I made once.
Variations, a collab hold I'm managing.
Beethro's Awakening Preview, Zelda and DROD?!

Alphabet Stream info, about my stream thing I do sometimes.

×Entrance: Didn't need most of the orbs. Thankfully. I don't hate orb puzzles most of the time, but having to do one with mimics felt like it might have been a bit much, if the solution hadn't been so simple.

1S: Quick and easy introduction.

1S1W: A bit more complicated. Had to think about using the mimics' swords as leverage for each other. Coming back up the right-hand side was much easier, so I wonder if you could lengthen this side to make it more of a puzzle. Checkpoints in the mimics' area aren't necessary because you always have access to the one on the player's side, and they caused unwanted checkpointing when going through the room afterward clearing it.

1W: Had to understand I could use the player to transfer a weapon into the room. Other than that, another easy one.

1S2W: Some very interesting usage of aumtlich beam freezing. Not sure whether what I did was entirely intended!

2S2W: Okay but, like most platform rooms, it felt like it had a pretty high busywork to puzzle ratio. Didn't use the gentryii heads at all (not sure they could be used for anything, because of how they interact with the platform).

2S1W: Great, just had to realise that the mimics needed to be spaced properly instead of adjacent.

2S: Okay, interesting concept but the room turned out pretty simple. Could the eye have been one space further away?

×
Entrance: The solution is thankfully pretty simple. I'm thankful because orb puzzles are one of DROD's few puzzle types that require "outside" information. Note: since one of the scripts in this room teleports the player, rather than moving them, they can ratchet the mimics northward. It doesn't affect the solution, but it sure looks weird.

1S: I don't like constrained mimic puzzles, but this was bearably easy. That said, while it's a decent introduction, it's also a filler puzzle.

1S 1W: This was fun and easy. You could make it harder by requiring sword-leverage for mimics coming back north, too -- you'd have to bring multiple mimics across the south side -- but that might end up too finicky. And again, it's pretty fun as-is.

1W: I love this mechanic! So cool! Here's my thoughts on this room: you have a great linchpin, followed by cleanup. While the cleanup is by no means tedious, it doesn't add anything to the room, either. I recommend either you focus on the linchpin and simplify the right side of the room, or you develop the right side into an execution puzzle (or include a second linchpin there). Right now, the cleanup is superfluous.

1S 2W: I really liked this room! I'll have to check Nuntar's demo, but I'm pretty sure I followed the intended solution: park the aumtlichs on the pressure plates and stun the mimic in the right place.

2S 1W: Again, this puzzle doesn't tread new ground, but it's fun enough to add to the experience.

2S 2W: I may show my demo for this room, since I absolutely used the gentryii. (In fact, I can't think of how not to use them.) So I thought the room was quite clever. That said, since there's no difference between retrieving the first and second wubbas, you might be better off shortening the room by removing the second wubba. tl;dr: It's fun the first time. It's less fun the second time.

3S 1W: I almost forgot about this one! I'm not sure what the puzzle is. There's no linchpin and execution is light. Don't get me wrong -- I'm just as glad the constructs aren't moving -- but this feels more like an introduction room than a proper puzzle. Am I missing something?

2S: Short and sweet. Simple and effective. Good room!

1S 1E: I'm afraid I have to agree with Nuntar here. This room feels way harder than the rest, and I'm not inclined to work it out. Is there something I'm missing? Some trick that makes everything work out as smoothly as possible? If there is, you might want to give it a subtle signpost so players don't feel like brute-forcing it is the only option.

×
Cold Storage 1W: There should be dialogue for when a puff gets close to the stalwarts, or if puffs kill all three.

Facility Depths 1W: Seeing a master wall there is a little disconcerting. You might want to move it somewhere more central, or hide it behind some story-based puzzle like the Undercity in TCB.

×MyScript Primer and Reference!

My First Hold, also the first published!
Persistence, a mini-hold about returning to rooms.
The Spacetime Kerfluffle, a mini-hold I made once.
Variations, a collab hold I'm managing.
Beethro's Awakening Preview, Zelda and DROD?!

Alphabet Stream info, about my stream thing I do sometimes.

×1S1E: "lol nope"? It's a pretty easy room, it just looks worse than it really is (as the Negotiator says, the "enforcement mechanism" was "broken" a bit by the briar). My solution is under 200 moves.

1S1W: Maybe I'll remove the mimic-side checkpoints, then, and see how folks feel about it. I'm happy with the the first three rooms being pretty easy since they sort of gatekeep the rest of the level behind green doors anyway.

1W: I originally had machinations of using the fact that a weaponless citizen player role can "carry around" weapons in some later room, thus requiring this "tutorial" of that fact that only requires you to realize that and is free afterward, but I never really came up with anything great for that idea. I still want to keep this room in, though, since I feel like it's a neat thing to discover if you haven't already and maybe it'll inspire somebody to make more serious use of the idea.

1S2W: Really, I'm okay with any solution that at least involves the player intentionally freezing-then-unfreezing the mimic with an aumtlich at some point to keep him in place for a bit and make it down the corridor. Your demo looks fine to me.

2S2W: It's only as tedious as it is for you because you did it an unintended way that doesn't use the gentryii. I think the problem is that you can use both wraithwings at once, but I thoughtlessly included "The puzzle twice" for symmetry aesthetic reasons; I'm wondering if maybe I should lock one of them behind a door requiring 3 of the 4 buttons be pressed at once (i.e., one wubba brought up but not both), and make your solution a secret room without any gentryii heads available for use.

2S1W: My demo actually does get the mimics adjacent for part of it, but unsticks them later.

2S: I assume you mean "queen" when you say "eye", since it serves basically the same purpose here. In my demo I have only one turn to spare when I reach the safe spot after stabbing her, which means moving her one space farther would leave me -1 turn (losing 2 per tile). So I can't verify that moving her farther out would remain solvable, although it's certainly possible.

×FD--
Entrance: Yeah, I don't want a player stuck on the first three rooms so they're supposed to be really easy. This was more or less haphazardly put together as far as "being an orb puzzle" goes.

1S: Well, it's a first introduction to "bonking mimic against unmoving monsters" which as you may imagine is an important technique to know for this hold. With what you say about your room tastes I may have to apologize to you for a few later rooms though x_X

1W: I agree there's a bit of cleanup to this room, but this is a place where the puzzle design kind of gets diluted by the aesthetic concerns a bit? I want it to feel like the depths are a neglected, overgrown mess so a bit of messy tarstuff/briar in this location rather than a super neat single pile of 2x2 tar surrounded by the stuff feels more right even though I agree it makes the latter portion of the room a tiny bit more fillery? I would argue that on the balance the room is just not overall long enough for me to justify messing with it, unless a lot of people are annoyed by it.

1S2W: I'd probably have to see your demo to know whether you did it the intended way or not. But you can read my comment to Nuntar on this room also.

2S2W: Maybe I should refer you to my comment to Nuntar on this one too. An alternative change I could make is to scrap the symmetry (maybe make it look like some more damage to the level "destroyed" the symmetry being necessary?) and also the secret room thing.

3S1W: Yeah, it's pretty simple with only 4 constructs. I'm just going to say that maybe this prepares the player a bit mentally for a room a couple of levels in the future, as well as maybe gives some wish fulfillment of me for being a "free" construct room (just compare what you'd have to do in this room without stealth, ugh).

1S1E: Well, the shape you need the mimics in is fairly simple, and there's lots of broken wall you can carve out to help you make that shape. Also the doors close when the mimics first walk in, and that can be taken advantage of to turn some shapes into slightly different ones. I suppose if this generally seems disproportionately hard to people then I could think of making it a secret or revising it or something.

Other: Comment on CS is a good point, I'll consider it at least.

The master wall/entrance to postmastery was placed haphazardly at the last second in an "oh, I should probably put this somewhere" as I was getting ready to put the hold out for testing. Maybe I could stick that somewhere in the final level instead or something.

×MyScript Primer and Reference!

My First Hold, also the first published!
Persistence, a mini-hold about returning to rooms.
The Spacetime Kerfluffle, a mini-hold I made once.
Variations, a collab hold I'm managing.
Beethro's Awakening Preview, Zelda and DROD?!

Alphabet Stream info, about my stream thing I do sometimes.

×MyScript Primer and Reference!

My First Hold, also the first published!
Persistence, a mini-hold about returning to rooms.
The Spacetime Kerfluffle, a mini-hold I made once.
Variations, a collab hold I'm managing.
Beethro's Awakening Preview, Zelda and DROD?!

Alphabet Stream info, about my stream thing I do sometimes.

×MyScript Primer and Reference!

My First Hold, also the first published!
Persistence, a mini-hold about returning to rooms.
The Spacetime Kerfluffle, a mini-hold I made once.
Variations, a collab hold I'm managing.
Beethro's Awakening Preview, Zelda and DROD?!

Alphabet Stream info, about my stream thing I do sometimes.

×First off, you broke every room that I'm fixing in the update listed below.

FD:
2S: I'm not sure what's "too simple" about this one, I found it pretty tough and at least one or two other testers liked it alright.

CB: The hourglass is more than just putting time token where you want it+using it right away, although the challenge in 1N does require the use of that property. The fact that it acts as a numerical supply that's actually on the map is pretty relevant too (used in 2N1W, for instance). At any rate, once I had gotten partway through this level I made the commitment that hourglasses would be the only source of time travel in the hold for thematic/plot reasons, so here we are. I don't think it's always necessary to use every aspect of a new thing just to show it off and make interesting puzzles with it anyway.
3N: Yes, more checkpoints in the update. Forgot them here.
4N1E: I admit this one's pretty mind-bending. Not entirely sure whether this one or a certain timeclone-based room in the final level is harder.

FE: I went into this knowing the stalwart rooms would be some people's least favorite. It's an assumed risk, but I feel like this is an important kind of puzzle to address in the theme of "stealth", besides being an important turning point of the plot.
3N: Bad case of "solution tunnel vision" on my part. Maybe I've fixed it now.
1N1W: I guarantee you that the order you form the babies (i.e., the only move order you have any control over) is not important to the solution, so long as you leave behind the right ones.

×MyScript Primer and Reference!

My First Hold, also the first published!
Persistence, a mini-hold about returning to rooms.
The Spacetime Kerfluffle, a mini-hold I made once.
Variations, a collab hold I'm managing.
Beethro's Awakening Preview, Zelda and DROD?!

Alphabet Stream info, about my stream thing I do sometimes.

×MyScript Primer and Reference!

My First Hold, also the first published!
Persistence, a mini-hold about returning to rooms.
The Spacetime Kerfluffle, a mini-hold I made once.
Variations, a collab hold I'm managing.
Beethro's Awakening Preview, Zelda and DROD?!

Alphabet Stream info, about my stream thing I do sometimes.

×Facility Depth:
Some trivial rooms and some more difficult rooms.

Entrance: Add a conquer token (or an arrow), to make sure the scored solution solves the room. The room itself seems like it should be solved by random movements and rotations.

1S1E: Surprisingly fun. I wonder if it is possible to get the mimics into all the passages. (I don't think the room would be solvable from that state.)

2S2W: I don't think my solution actually required moving the gentryii. I also don't think it required the second wraithwing.

[Added after reading thread:]

2S: Very simple, though my solution didn't have extra time. I also didn't really use both mimics. The solution would work (almost) as is with either mimic missing.

1W: I think it's fine.

Clockwork Basement:
1N1W: The mimic and gentryii didn't play any part in the solution.

2N1E: Seems too easy.

1N1E: Didn't use the mimic or the token.

(Reached the secret, but didn't do it yet.)

Facility Entryway:

2N: I had a general plan, but the actual solution found by guessing.

1N2E: Nice concept.

2N2E: Another room where finding the actual solution was guesswork.

3N: Completely broken.

2N1W: Most of the room is just a show.

1N1W: There is the reasonable trick of leaving the roach alive, but choosing the right combinations of monsters to leave to the left is guesswork.

2N1E: There is a method to designing the path and timing for the first batch of roaches with the construct. I guess there is also a method for designing the trap for the rock and goblin. The rest seems to be just trial and error with the timing, which somehow worked. (I think is the room I like least in the first levels.)

Main Laboratories: Mostly nice rooms.

1N1E: Do the letters and numbers in this room mean anything?

2S1W: It is much easier to just get rid of one of the mimics.

1E: I kept the golems alive until they reached the target.

2S1E: Probably broken, since I only used the clones to open the doors, without resolving the maze.

Cold Storage:

1W: I killed the last eye with the mimic, though with correct timing I can probably get them all with puff. [After reading thread: Ah. So I was supposed to release the stalwarts. Maybe add a secret room with eyes and no stalwarts.]

1S2W: Another random sequence.

3W: Also a magic sequence, but still satisfying.

1N1W: I'm still not sure how I managed to solve it. (I think it is a fair room.)

×FD:
Entrance: The player can't leave except to the south (thanks to a cutscene), so a conquer token hardly seems necessary. While you can solve it with random movements, I wouldn't say "should".

2S2W: Again, I'd need a demo to see for sure.


CB:
1N1W: I can almost guarantee I've fixed this. Try again or I could at least see your demo to check, though.

2N1E+1N1E: Maybe you found the same leaks as Aquator, and it's been fixed?


FE:
2N: I don't guarantee that you can find a solution to this one through careful analysis anyway, but it should be quite doable by just trying things to see what works, IMO.

2N2E: This is intended to feel like a combat room where the player is the "shield" rather than the "sword". I wouldn't exactly call it guesswork, but again, I'm perfectly happy with not knowing exactly what to do until you try here.

3N: Probably fixed now? I had some bad "solution tunnel vision" when I built this, or else meant to put in some force arrows and just plain forgot.

2N1W: Sure, space-wise at least it's mostly a big, showy "timer". I thought showing off the stalwarts fighting a few monsters half-competently couldn't hurt too much.

1N1W: My solution does not leave the roach alive and isn't really guesswork either.

2N1E: I don't think it's realistic to look at this room and expect to know precisely what the stalwart will do in it, sure. But I wouldn't really call it guesswork either? In my opinion it's about setting up the mirrors to protect the stalwart from getting surrounded early on, and understanding that is basically enough to successfully solve the room. Again, this one kind of "half-cinematic", with the feeling that the Negotiatior is setting everything up so the stalwart can succeed, which he would never have done without her unseen help.


ML:
1N1E: It's a reference to the song "Jenny". You know, the one with the phone number everyone knows about?

2S1W: That's fine by me; I'd consider that "being given more tools than you absolutely need". I suspect optimizers will want to keep them both around for most of the room, at any rate.

1E: Neat, although they don't exactly move anyway even while alive

2S1E: That sounds impossible--you can't place a time token anywhere except the firetraps, and then the recording clone is stuck in the hot tiles until the green door opens. I'd have to see a demo.


CS:
1W: I'll consider that secret room idea, although I may not be able to solve it myself x_x At least this leak I managed to anticipate ahead of time.

3W: I don't consider this magical, just a different kind of combat room: Fighting against the stalwart's natural, stupid inclination to get himself stuck. To me at least, "magical" would mean that there's no clear reason for why you make the moves you do, but in my opinion it's quite clear what your goals are and what you need to do to achieve them (block his path with mimics/their swords) at every step along the way.

1N1W: It does feel like a bit of a juggling act, I'll admit, but at least the thing you're luring around only moves once every five turns?

×MyScript Primer and Reference!

My First Hold, also the first published!
Persistence, a mini-hold about returning to rooms.
The Spacetime Kerfluffle, a mini-hold I made once.
Variations, a collab hold I'm managing.
Beethro's Awakening Preview, Zelda and DROD?!

Alphabet Stream info, about my stream thing I do sometimes.

×
Facility Entryway:
1N1W : gave me a headache, predicting movement of this 3 stalwarts is very difficult for me, used trial and error, no joy in solving this puzzle at all.
3N : maybe still too easy ?

Main Laboratories : the best so far, enjoyed so much
2S1E : do not understand : the timeclones used only after killing nests, to open doors?

Cold Storage :
nice puzzles ! does test patience though...
all but one room lack checkpoints

×Sorry about the forgotten checkpoints! I wonder if I really should change FE 1N1W somehow, but I'm not entirely sure how to preserve the "concept" without the room still being disliked for essentially the same reason.

Glad you liked ML! I was honestly a little worried that "mimic platform shuffling" would be even more reviled than the stalwart stuff.

I was interested to see that your "shape" for CS 1N2W was different from mine, and also that you made a different configuration for 2S1W. Honestly I'm not entirely sure I like that one since the idea is to require that the gentryii hold down the buttons, not the briar--which I could enforce. Particularly I want to force the player to use the "diagonal blocking" property of the fluff in this room, but your solution basically just made a wall. It still isn't trivial, though, so I'm wondering if it'd be better to allow your kind of solution and put the thing I originally wanted as a secret/challenge/something else.

×MyScript Primer and Reference!

My First Hold, also the first published!
Persistence, a mini-hold about returning to rooms.
The Spacetime Kerfluffle, a mini-hold I made once.
Variations, a collab hold I'm managing.
Beethro's Awakening Preview, Zelda and DROD?!

Alphabet Stream info, about my stream thing I do sometimes.

×MyScript Primer and Reference!

My First Hold, also the first published!
Persistence, a mini-hold about returning to rooms.
The Spacetime Kerfluffle, a mini-hold I made once.
Variations, a collab hold I'm managing.
Beethro's Awakening Preview, Zelda and DROD?!

Alphabet Stream info, about my stream thing I do sometimes.

×so i did it in editor, send image. Find this version a little more difficult, but not necessarily more fun. Maybe it is repetitive doing the room 2 times. Anyway, it was't obvious to me the first "wall solution" , struggle a bit to find it.

FE 2N : nice! new version is more fun (although it can't be cheating if different entries are available, imo)

Still find FE 3N a bit too easy , are you supposed to wake the eye ? only used sleeping eye to get mimic to northen pplate

CB 3N : maybe placing a checkpoint near the pplates? where 1 time clone ends

Now playing Temporal Summit, having so much fun !!

×I hadn't made any paths to the "new" CS 2S1W yet because I hadn't made any concrete decisions. If I were to make that room a secret, I would probably do what I did with "similar secret" rooms in my mix and match contest entries, where the player is offered the choice to solve the secret room instead and, if they did so, can push special command in the normal room to autosolve it after a cutscene long enough to make optimization of the room meaningful (with the excuse of the rooms being "entangled" or something). So no player except an optimizer (who would see the rooms differently) would ever really need to do both. But I still haven't decided whether to fix it or add the secret separately.

I'll add the suggested checkpoint; it's possible by now that you're finding FE 3N easy just because it is (even when intended) but as usual I'd need a demo to be sure. My solution doesn't wake the eye.

×MyScript Primer and Reference!

My First Hold, also the first published!
Persistence, a mini-hold about returning to rooms.
The Spacetime Kerfluffle, a mini-hold I made once.
Variations, a collab hold I'm managing.
Beethro's Awakening Preview, Zelda and DROD?!

Alphabet Stream info, about my stream thing I do sometimes.

×Temporal Summit has great puzzles!
Was very much amused with the introduction to the level: i was surprised to suddenly have a sword, and had a good laugh after killing the brain.
TS 2W was my favorite, so creative

So, had a lot of fun playing your hold !! Thank you for making it!
(Master wall : i stepped on it , but couldn't go anywhere)

×MyScript Primer and Reference!

My First Hold, also the first published!
Persistence, a mini-hold about returning to rooms.
The Spacetime Kerfluffle, a mini-hold I made once.
Variations, a collab hold I'm managing.
Beethro's Awakening Preview, Zelda and DROD?!

Alphabet Stream info, about my stream thing I do sometimes.

×The theme of TS , not being able to kill with sword, is so creative and fun, wonderful
Could not see the cut scene in TS , although finding out when trying to kill the brain, was so much fun, ...maybe add the cutscene after the room is cleared ??

TS 1S: Beethro can still push Temp Statue to the east, and enter TS 2S

TS 2W : don't know why "timeclones aren't supposed to be allowed sticks in that room" , but given the difficulty to record sworded timeclones to get to orbs, seems like many players will work out with a stick option . One timeclone is easily given a stick. I loved the puzzle so much !

FE 1N1W : maybe make it optional room ?

×To make the TS Entrance cutscene work, you'd need to restore to back before you ever entered the level. I dummied it out by setting the variable that says "this cutscene already happened" to the "yes" value, so re-entering after that value had been set won't activate it now. As for removing it, well, there's really no way to do that? I need to have something to explain why Beethro is present at all, and how the character-swapping works, which is all in that cutscene. If a player wants to see the results of stabbing the brain after being warned, then they still can, of course.

I'll add another 'statue' in 2S to hopefully really fix the problem. This one at (19, 28) facing west. Before I even post such an update maybe you can tell me whether there's still some way to get around that.

As for 2W, the entire intended challenge is to find a way to stave off the constructs, kill the bundle of roaches and eyes in the center, and have each timeclone record movements that will get him past the unmoving monsters without stabbing any of them in the final timeline, and then to push the timeclones into the east/west trap areas once the recordings are done. I didn't find the last part terribly difficult once a consistent way to handle the first two is worked out. Letting a timeclone use the stick totally defeats the originally intended idea of the room, but since you seemed to like "cheating" your way out of the original idea (which presumably means it isn't trivial and boring), perhaps I could make the original idea a challenge or secret version instead.

I think I conflated the complaints about FE 1N1W with those about 2N at some point, and wound up remodeling the latter thinking it was the source of all the complaints. As 1N1W goes, I still feel like it's not really that difficult. I mean--sure, it's a room where you can't know what exactly to do as you walk in, but I don't think it's that hard to see what minor adjustments you can make to make it work after trying something. Your solution even proved to me that more than one configuration of tar babies will solve the room, and I'm convinced that leaving the roach alive longer didn't actually change the stalwarts' behavior in your demo, since you killed him as soon as they beat the last tar baby anyway (which is when they would've started targeting him).

×MyScript Primer and Reference!

My First Hold, also the first published!
Persistence, a mini-hold about returning to rooms.
The Spacetime Kerfluffle, a mini-hold I made once.
Variations, a collab hold I'm managing.
Beethro's Awakening Preview, Zelda and DROD?!

Alphabet Stream info, about my stream thing I do sometimes.

×TS 1S : adding another 'statue' at (19, 28) facing west. This seems to work.

FE 1N1W : leaving the roach alive longer is needed , because Stalwart that kills last baby moves first. So the other 2 Stalwarts move towards the roach

TS 2W : it can't be "cheating" if player doesn't know original intended idea and uses resources available. Once created, rooms have a life of their own, and different solutions will come. It is your decision , but i do not see how to reinforce your original idea though

×MyScript Primer and Reference!

My First Hold, also the first published!
Persistence, a mini-hold about returning to rooms.
The Spacetime Kerfluffle, a mini-hold I made once.
Variations, a collab hold I'm managing.
Beethro's Awakening Preview, Zelda and DROD?!

Alphabet Stream info, about my stream thing I do sometimes.

×MyScript Primer and Reference!

My First Hold, also the first published!
Persistence, a mini-hold about returning to rooms.
The Spacetime Kerfluffle, a mini-hold I made once.
Variations, a collab hold I'm managing.
Beethro's Awakening Preview, Zelda and DROD?!

Alphabet Stream info, about my stream thing I do sometimes.

×MyScript Primer and Reference!

My First Hold, also the first published!
Persistence, a mini-hold about returning to rooms.
The Spacetime Kerfluffle, a mini-hold I made once.
Variations, a collab hold I'm managing.
Beethro's Awakening Preview, Zelda and DROD?!

Alphabet Stream info, about my stream thing I do sometimes.