Clock
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 18
Registered: 10-20-2019
IP: Logged

File: Dungeon Excavation.hold (7.7 KB)
Downloaded 65 times.
License: Public Domain

Technically, this is not my first hold I've started to create, but it's the first hold I've posted here in any way. I'm uploading the first floor of what I have so far to get it out there and to maybe help keep myself motivated to keep working on it. For the first floor, I'm aiming for a very manageable difficulty with a tricky room or two. There are no secrets to find in the first floor. I hope it's at least fun to play!

Insoluble
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1639
Registered: 09-04-2014
IP: Logged

File: Dungeon Excavation.demo (22.1 KB)
Downloaded 41 times.
License: Public Domain

Here's a bunch of demos. I'm not a huge fan of gentryii manipulation so I'll refrain from making subjective comments about the rooms, but I'm sure you'll find one or two folks on here who will really enjoy these rooms. Instead I'll mention that the aesthetics here are really nice and the difficulty was not to bad. Seems like these were mostly monster manipulation rooms for which the difficulty can vary a lot depending on how familiar the player is with the tricks for dealing with the monsters in question.

Checkpoint placement seemed good in some rooms and a bit sparse in others. In general it's good to place the checkpoints right before a potion or plate instead of on them, but the one in 1S if probably fine since the first chunk of the room is mostly forced and decoy orientation doesn't matter anyway. For 2S Id suggest a checkpoint in the upper left side of the room (past the ormites) and down by the bottom for folks trying out the challenge. I did the challenge but it looks like it hasn't been scripted yet, were you planning on making these scripted challenges? For 3S1E I'd suggest putting a checkpoint in the area with all the wubbas, perhaps right after the tunnel? For 4S you mention that there are multiple solutions to the room, but one of them (entering from the east) makes for a trivial score. You may already be aware of that and fine with it. If so, just make sure to mark this one as non-high-scorable once the hold gets published. Oh, lastly, in The Entrance it looks like you should be able to exit to the North, but there's no room there. Would you mind putting force arrows or something there to make it obvious that there isn't a room there?

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navithmastero
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 626
Registered: 01-03-2012
IP: Logged

File: Dungeon Excavation Navi.demo (5.3 KB)
Downloaded 44 times.
License: Public Domain

Just played through. I've also attached my demoset.

I'm not going to comment on checkpoint placement and stuff like that as Insoluble seems to have done a good job of talking you through checkpoints and challenges.

I really liked the level design and layout. It's quite linear but I don't think that's a bad thing here as all of the rooms are pretty forgiving and so I doubt many people will get stumped on an early room and be forced to kind of give up. I didn't find any backtracking issues and nothing felt unintended. I'm also not the biggest fan of Gentryiis but the manipulation here was very reasonable so nothing felt unfair or frustrating. Overall, an impressive 'first' hold! Looking forward to seeing more of your work.

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KituU
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 221
Registered: 07-02-2014
IP: Logged

File: Dungeon Excavation- KituU demos.demo (5.9 KB)
Downloaded 41 times.
License: Public Domain

Hi, played it. Demos
Very interesting as puzzle is involved in how to handle gentryiis. A lot of fun!
2S: awesome
It is not clear to me what your second solution is in 4S , to reenter the room from the east, the red snake must be left alive, which is possible, then that would be the real challenge.

Backtracking : could not go through 4S2E if entering from east, is it possible?