admin
Level: Legendary Smitemaster
Rank Points: 8
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Finally, after years of development, it's here! The Smitemasters' Selection Treacle Stew is ready for you to play.

My name is still George Wanfried, and I've now been playing DROD on-and-off for over seventeen years. It's incredible that a puzzle game can stay fresh and replayable all this time, so I hope this can help keep that trend going.

This hold represents my own initiative to help continue the tradition of the "Smitemasters' Selection" program. We may have seen the end of Beethro's story in DROD: The Second Sky, but there's still opportunities to see more of the middle of it, or perhaps other stories someday. This has been a labor of love from beginning to end, and although I've personally put a lot of effort into it in terms of both puzzles and story, I absolutely would not have been able to get it over the finish line without help from Mike Rimer, Matt Schikore and the community at large. The story is of my own design, but it's been given enough help and revisions from Mike that we can consider it canon to DROD's overarching saga.

Following the events of DROD: The Second Sky's endgame, Beethro needs to help the people of Dugandy move through the Great Beneath. Devising a plan with Halph and 1st Defense Coordinator, Beethro's mission is to help the tunnelling crew by getting access to large amounts of Forbidden Gel - and along the way, investigate the mystery of what caused the Gel to become Forbidden. What follows is a devious set of puzzles, all focused on the Forbidden Gel, gel babies and gel mothers. If you can make it all the way to the end, you'll be a premiere Gel Technician who can face Gel with confidence!

This hold could not have seen the light of day without an elite squad of beta testers, more numerous than I can count on my fingers. Huge thanks to Dischorran, disoriented, Doom, Insoluble, kieranmillar, Michael S. Repton, and skell for testing this hold in its early days, and special thanks to Dragon Fogel for checking the hold end-to-end multiple times through the development process. Thank you all for your incredible patience!

As usual, there is also a tremendous amount of voice acting, and some nice art too!

Voice Credits

averagemoe - Citizens, 100th Tar Technician
azb - Halph
George Wanfried (Chaco) - Citizens
Illusionist - 121st Tar Technician
Irashtar - Receptionist, 16th Tar Technician
LovaP48 - Hint Guy
Lucky Luc - 1st Tar Technician
navithmastero - 144th Tar Technician
RabidChild - Narrator, 18th Archivist
Sam Benner (Someone Else) - 1st Defense Coordinator, 729th Tar Technician
Meghan Pugh - Vonnifa
Logan West - Beethro
Xindaris - 169th Tar Technician, Guards

Artists

Edgar Iván Ramos Vallejo - Official cover art
peejle - Contribution to Post-Mastery art section

Now that the hold is published and the veil of secrecy is lifted, I'm sure I'll have plenty more to talk about in the future, but that's enough for now.

Go play, and have fun!

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[Last edited by mrimer at 12-02-2022 03:31 PM]

NoahT
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1138
Registered: 06-17-2003
IP: Logged

Looks like I found an unintended solution in one of the secrets:


____________________________
And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.

My stuff:

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[Last edited by NoahT at 12-06-2022 09:08 PM]

disoriented
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2394
Registered: 08-07-2007
IP: Logged

Brings new meaning to "going green".

____________________________
34th Skywatcher

Best to PM me, since I might miss your message on CaravelNet chat.

LovaP48
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 103
Registered: 05-31-2019
IP: Logged

I also found a solution of that secret
Moreover, not sure if it is an unintended solution, but in "Level Three 1E", I did not drink the potion.

Maybe a challenge to be added? "Slow and steady wins the race": Do not drink the speed potion.

navithmastero
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 617
Registered: 01-03-2012
IP: Logged

LovaP48 wrote:
I also found a solution of that secret

Click here to view the secret text

×that utilized just 2 mirrors, but realized I did not need the other two too late, so as it stands, I use all 4.

Moreover, not sure if it is an unintended solution, but in "Level Three 1E", I did not drink the potion.

Maybe a challenge to be added? "Slow and steady wins the race": Do not drink the speed potion.

Chaco was saying in chat that the speed potion is more there for convenience rather than as a core component of the puzzle:

level 3 1E, the original version of that room didn't have a speed potion but I added it for convenience to help stop the "you blow up a keg, gel babies immediately eat you" problem

____________________________
Member of the Snake Appreciation Society

One of your local HAs.

My stuff:

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[Last edited by navithmastero at 12-07-2022 11:11 AM]

disoriented
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2394
Registered: 08-07-2007
IP: Logged

You should play this hold.

____________________________
34th Skywatcher

Best to PM me, since I might miss your message on CaravelNet chat.

LovaP48
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 103
Registered: 05-31-2019
IP: Logged

navithmastero wrote:
Chaco was saying in chat that the speed potion is more there for convenience rather than as a core component of the puzzle

Go figure, that thought did cross my mind.

One more "challenge" bit like that, in "Level 12.5, 1 East", I used only 3 of the 4 tunnels. I am not claiming this to be "unintended" because of aesthetics.
Though, perhaps removing the bottom connecting tunnels is not that big of a damage to that.

If anyone fancies, have at the challenge

LovaP48
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 103
Registered: 05-31-2019
IP: Logged

Phew, that was a hold and a half!
I have just post-Mastered it about an hour ago, including the non-required rooms, some of which were very tricky.
Though, since I do not have CaravelNet at the moment, I cannot really upload the scores anywhere...

The hold is definitely on the harder and tricky side... Sometimes frustratingly tricky!!
Then again, I did not expect anything less from a veteran like Chaco.

7.5 on difficulty, maybe should have given 8...
10 on enjoyment, even if a few rooms frustrated me. Those were just bad apples I am willing to overlook in this kind of a project.

Thanks once more!!

Ezlo
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1224
Registered: 01-08-2006
IP: Logged

Finished the hold, working on secrets now.

The hold was lots of fun, and the effort put in by everyone really shows.

mxvladi
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 2505
Registered: 02-11-2008
IP: Logged

Conquered it yesterday. Overall pretty fun Chaco hold, with medium to occasionally a bit tricky puzzles. Seems to be mostly focused on execution difficulty - I don't think there were too many rooms with some devious lynchpin hidden inside it.

Nothing particularly new in terms of quirks/element properties used, but pretty decent usage of known tricks. I also always appreciate the modern trend of hiding secret rooms behind extra puzzles rather than secret wall passages.

enzi666
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 161
Registered: 01-05-2004
IP: Logged

I conquered the hold today. Yay!

My biggest problem with the hold is the lack of variety. Gel outstayed its welcome for me. However, the biggest downfall is also its biggest strength. No hold I played kept its scope so focused. I feel like having mastered gel (somewhat). It's still the scariest element in DROD but not as daunting as when I started.

One negative point for variety but the quality of puzzles make up for it and for the fact that we got a very lengthy official SmS hold in 2022, I think this deservers 10/10. As good as it gets. Thanks Chaco!

Regarding the difficulty. There are no easy rooms with an obvious solution. Obvious ones usually have a twist that make them harder. So, the baseline is quite high. Rooms range in the 7-9 rating. But there were no soul crushing 10 brain rooms that kill the enjoyment. (I don't think these type of rooms belong into official SmS)
Overall I'd give it an average 8.5 brains.

____________________________
58th Skywatcher

DROD AE: Finished - KDD2: Mastered
JTRH: Mastered
TCB: Mastered - RPG: Finished
GatEB: Mastered - TSS: Mastered

Rabscuttle
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2488
Registered: 09-10-2004
IP: Logged

Is there a stealth pun in 1st DC's plan?

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3642
Registered: 10-06-2005
IP: Logged

Rabscuttle wrote:
Is there a stealth pun in 1st DC's plan?

Click here to view the secret text

×they need an explosive, and it seems like tarignite and mudignite are unsuitable...

____________________________
Quick links to my stuff (in case you forgot where it was):

Camwoodstock
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 117
Registered: 07-02-2014
IP: Logged

Became the 13th Gel Authority tonight and conquered the hold, WHOW that was a doozy, but man it's good to be back to playing DROD stuff! Congrats to the team! We'll be taking a break for a bit before trying to go after the secret rooms. Hopefully those are merciful! Fingers crossed!

____________________________
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

Ezlo
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1224
Registered: 01-08-2006
IP: Logged

Mastered. Not sure how hard I'm going to push on the post-mastery challenges, but I feel like I've completed enough to give it a fair rating of 10 with 7.5 brains.

Might be behind the wall on the post-mastery level, but I do have one lingering question with potential plot related spoilers:

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[Last edited by Ezlo at 12-28-2022 12:19 AM]

disoriented
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2394
Registered: 08-07-2007
IP: Logged

It's a floor wax and a dessert topping!

____________________________
34th Skywatcher

Best to PM me, since I might miss your message on CaravelNet chat.

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[Last edited by disoriented at 12-28-2022 12:29 AM]

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3642
Registered: 10-06-2005
IP: Logged

Ezlo wrote:

Click here to view the secret text

×Why is it called Treacle Stew? I was hoping that the secret origin of Gel was that it was just a botched desert recipe, but that ended up not being the case. Is there any reasoning behind it?

I think it's fun to leave such things to the reader's imagination.

But, if you want my story on the matter...



Also, nice find disoriented, that's the first time I heard that one

____________________________
Quick links to my stuff (in case you forgot where it was):

Rabscuttle
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2488
Registered: 09-10-2004
IP: Logged

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

Conquered, amazing gel-based hold where nothing felt really hard but I had a tough time with the execution in several rooms but thanks for H&S could solve all of them.
I think I did an unintended solution because

Problably will go for the secrets to see the juicy post-mastery.
10 for fun and 7.5 brains.
ED: Finished secrets and the post-mastery non-optional rooms, a bit challenging but pretty fun for sure.

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[Last edited by komachi at 02-01-2023 10:58 PM]

Spleen
Level: Goblin

Rank Points: 24
Registered: 09-24-2021
IP: Logged

Postmastered, challenges done - great hold, happy to see a new SMS, and especially one that has gotten me over my gel aversion!

Two questions about development of rooms:

robin
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 844
Registered: 09-01-2004
IP: Logged

Post-Mastery and All Challenges done!!

Great Hold, at first it was a struggle, but once I got my DROD feeling back, it was a lot of fun.
Definitely learned some great things about gel.

Many thanks for creating this fine piece of art!

____________________________

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[Last edited by robin at 02-28-2023 10:39 AM]

Tahnan
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2460
Registered: 11-14-2005
IP: Logged

I'm glad to see that reactions to this hold have been positive. I think they offer me perspective on my own reaction, which was that in spite of myself, I honestly didn't like it very much.

It's already been noted in this thread that, well, the hold unabashedly focuses on gel. By the time I got about halfway through Level 2, I was already pretty tired of gel puzzles, so I found that focus to be more of a weakness than a strength. There were a number of rooms that not only focused on gel, but focused on some of its more esoteric properties: rooms where you really needed to understand brained gel movement, rooms where you had to leave yourself with cuttable gel, that kind of thing.

Possibly my biggest problem with the hold was how hard it was, in many rooms, to experiment. Level 4: 1W required setting things up, trapping yourself, waiting to see how you did; resetting, setting more things up, trapping yourself... Level 4: 3S1W was particularly egregious in this regard: set up what you think is a solution, and then wait 150 turns to see if it worked. This felt like a recurring theme.

And, well...the voice acting wasn't great. Mostly in terms of sound quality--it frequently just sounded tinny. The on-screen dialogue that went with it was broken into very short lines, which I found made it harder to read: I spent more time in this hold skipping dialogue and clicking the portrait to read what I'd missed than I think I've ever done.

It wasn't all bad. To pick one room that stood out, I thought the last level's 2E was an interesting challenge (perhaps not coincidentally, one much more amenable to experimentation) with a very clever setup. I don't regret playing the hold, overall. I just, you know, didn't particularly like it.

Tahnen
Level: Goblin

Rank Points: 15
Registered: 04-28-2012
IP: Logged

TAHNEN SMA--

nah, this is entirely fair