admin
Level: Legendary Smitemaster
Rank Points: 8
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Smitemaster's Selection, Summer 2005

Beethro is faced with a difficult choice. A choice that will affect him more than he realizes...

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[Last edited by mrimer at 03-28-2007 03:43 AM]

Jacob
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3749
Registered: 10-01-2004
IP: Logged

Mastered it. A great hold, good job. Shame it was over so quick.
Btw, I HATE Wubbas.

____________________________
New to DROD? You may want to read this.
My Holds and Levels:

Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2936
Registered: 03-29-2003
IP: Logged

Thank you, thank you.

It was tough to come up with the number of rooms I did that conformed to my chosen theme...especially when I was trying to meet the June 1 deadline. I was also working on KDD2, secret rooms and scripting and whatnot, so within that timeframe I felt that what I had was good enough. If I had known we'd have had the delays we did, I would have probably tried to get some more rooms in there...maybe even try to get some forks in the road, to alleviate the linearity, but I was kind of leery of that, because I wanted it to work right and not introduce anything that could break the hold.

As for the wubbas...the story of the secret rooms is actually kind of interesting. At first I only had 1 of each...the first ones...but while they were interesting, there just wasn't any challenge, especially for secret rooms. So Adam suggested I make them a lot harder. I tried many things before deciding that the wubbas and the timer combined made for a good challenge. I left the original rooms in because I felt that they were good rooms for people to compete for high scores on...they were easy to beat by themselves but getting them perfect...that's not so easy.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2936
Registered: 03-29-2003
IP: Logged

One more thing: this hold was originally titled The Eightrix, a play on The Matrix. The storyline had references to the Chosen One and other things from the movies. (Although I should mention that I didn't really like the first movie and still have never seen the sequels...I was just going off of hearsay and the general artistic license you have with satire.) When we decided that it would be a good idea to have an additional hold to go alongside KDD2, and since mine was mostly finished, it was decided that we didn't want to have an SS hold, which was part of a service that people pay money for, be derivative of a copyrighted work. So the scripting and storyline stuff was all modified to the present form.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

agaricus5
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1838
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

Oneiromancer wrote:
One more thing: this hold was originally titled The Eightrix, a play on The Matrix. The storyline had references to the Chosen One and other things from the movies. (Although I should mention that I didn't really like the first movie and still have never seen the sequels...I was just going off of hearsay and the general artistic license you have with satire.) When we decided that it would be a good idea to have an additional hold to go alongside KDD2, and since mine was mostly finished, it was decided that we didn't want to have an SS hold, which was part of a service that people pay money for, be derivative of a copyrighted work. So the scripting and storyline stuff was all modified to the present form.

Game on,

Interesting. Was the red/blue path idea then originally based on the red/blue pill that Neo had to choose near the beginning before he discovers his true identity?

In any case, I've just completed all the rooms up to 8E, and I really like some of the puzzles I've seen so far; they're actually quite inspiring, while the red/blue theme through the first part was pretty well done.



Keep up the good work!

____________________________
Resident Medic/Mycologist

Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2936
Registered: 03-29-2003
IP: Logged

agaricus5 wrote:
Interesting. Was the red/blue path idea then originally based on the red/blue pill that Neo had to choose near the beginning before he discovers his true identity?

Yeah, that's pretty much it. The scripting even said "pill" instead of "path".


Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

TripleM
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1377
Registered: 02-05-2003
IP: Logged

Nice hold.

I'm nearly finished (both ways, that is), but just one question:

In 8E, did you leave out an invisibility potion for the top entrance? Kinda ruins the symmetry a little, so I don't think it was deliberate.

(Not that invisibility/no-invisibility really changed anything.)

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[Last edited by TripleM at 07-26-2005 02:32 AM]

Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2936
Registered: 03-29-2003
IP: Logged

No, the single invisibility potion was intentional. It does make a small bit of difference when clearing out the main section's mothers, and if you aren't careful it can get you trapped when clearing out the brain areas. And it was the only thing I could think of to differentiate the two areas. (I had originally thought of a mimic potion for the blue path...blue vs red potions too...but mimics just make it too easy to jump paths. The one room that has mimic potions had to go through tons of revisions in order to prevent jumping paths.)

So yeah, a bit of a letdown for the diversity of that room, but I hope the other ones make up for it.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

Tscott
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 382
Registered: 02-10-2003
IP: Logged

Fantastic hold. Very clever, challenging and tons of fun.



____________________________
And I can recall our caravel: a little wicker beetle shell with four fine maste and lateen sails,
its bearings on Cair Paravel. O my love, O it was a funny little thing to be the ones to've seen.
-Joanna Newsom "Bridges and Balloons"

Doom
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3303
Registered: 07-05-2004
IP: Logged

Just mastered the hold. The concept is original and well done! None of the rooms were boring (Well, maybe 8E was a little repeating, but that's it) and there was lots of interesting scripting.

The biggest drawback is propably that both sides are very much like each other in many rooms. You could say "twice the fun", of course

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[Last edited by Doom at 07-30-2005 12:53 AM : grammar]

larrymurk
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1917
Registered: 12-09-2004
IP: Logged

I think the theme/concept was very original and the strongest aspect of this hold.

Scripting scares me because I like to solve puzzles knowing the puzzle element characteristics. Luckily the scripted behavior was pretty clear so I had no problem with its usage in this hold.

Negatives: rooms not too exciting, paths not too different, 8E fine idea but becomes repetative

jjohn7418
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 161
Registered: 08-24-2003
IP: Logged

Am I missing something? Where can I download this hold from? I would like to try it.

Thanks,
JIm

____________________________
"Know what I mean? Know what I mean? Nudge, nudge! Know what I mean? Say no more!" - Monty Python

Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2936
Registered: 03-29-2003
IP: Logged

It's a Smitemaster's Selection hold, so you can only download it in-game if you have a full CaravelNet subscription.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

Insane
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 154
Registered: 08-06-2005
IP: Logged

Oneiromancer wrote:
It's a Smitemaster's Selection hold, so you can only download it in-game if you have a full CaravelNet subscription.

Game on,

Aaaaaaaaaargh!!!!!
I hate CaravelNet.....
I would like to play all these holds BUT I CAN'T !!!!

-Insane

agaricus5
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1838
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

Insane wrote:
I hate CaravelNet.....
I would like to play all these holds BUT I CAN'T !!!!

Well, why don't you just buy a 1 year subscription to Caravel.net then? It only costs $12.00 (that's about £6.50 or €9.70), which is actually reasonably cheap compared to what you can get out of it. Basically, it allows you access to Caravel.net exclusive holds, the ability to submit scores on-line, the ability to download and view demos from the game (F6), the ability to download holds from the game without having to go to the Forum, and also the ability to create special private beta testing boards for holds you don't want to release publicly right now. In fact, £6.50 wouldn't even be enough to buy many reasonable PC Games (or even any other type of game) in England, and DROD + Caravel.net probably have a much larger total gameplay and usage time (maybe even approaching thousands of hours) than many of those.

In short, if you really like DROD (and spend a lot of time playing it), the subscription is probably worth its total value many times over compared to what's currently on the gaming market.

____________________________
Resident Medic/Mycologist

Syro
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 15
Registered: 08-24-2005
IP: Logged

Great concept! My favorite room is 2E (also is one of the most different from red to blue I think). I also enjoyed 6E.

-Syro

p.s. Caravel.net is definitely worth it.

MeckMeck GRE
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 594
Registered: 01-03-2005
IP: Logged

Played it today and conquerd it. Its really cool and not too difficult (If you play the blue path, which looks far easier than the blue one).
The choice between red and blue was a original idea.
Now I am looking whats behind the yellow door above the master walls....

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[Last edited by MeckMeck GRE at 10-15-2005 07:10 PM]

Azsedcf
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 27
Registered: 04-05-2005
IP: Logged

In the room with the red snake, 4 Wubbas and 4 Goblins. How the heck did you get the mimics to use speach simultaneously? I have tried to do it in a dungeon of mine but the game seems to refuse to do it properly

Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2936
Registered: 03-29-2003
IP: Logged

Azsedcf wrote:
In the room with the red snake, 4 Wubbas and 4 Goblins. How the heck did you get the mimics to use speach simultaneously? I have tried to do it in a dungeon of mine but the game seems to refuse to do it properly

Use the Speech Delay on the Add Speech script dialog. One of them can just have 0 delay...the others should have non-zero delays, and also different numbers. Basically, only one character can speak on a specific time slot per turn. So by delaying each character by 1 millisecond, it looks like they're all speaking simultaneously. If you had 2 character with a 1 ms delay, then they also wouldn't speak at the same time, and would have the game-induced pause between them (based on the order in which they're created, I assume).

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

Azsedcf
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 27
Registered: 04-05-2005
IP: Logged

Thanks Oneiromancer! That worked!

NiroZ
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1302
Registered: 02-12-2006
IP: Logged

Nice hold, i definatly like the premise, although i found it quite hard the first time because i chose the blue path rather than the red path, Thus the red path felt like a breeze.
Thats not to say i didn't enjoy this hold, t'was a lot of fun.
I definatly liked the ending, and what is beyond the master door.

jjohn7418
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 161
Registered: 08-24-2003
IP: Logged

Oneiromancer wrote:
It's a Smitemaster's Selection hold, so you can only download it in-game if you have a full CaravelNet subscription.

Game on,

Okay, now I have a subscription. How can I download this hold? Is there a seperate section?

Thanks, Jim

____________________________
"Know what I mean? Know what I mean? Nudge, nudge! Know what I mean? Say no more!" - Monty Python

eytanz
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2708
Registered: 02-05-2003
IP: Logged

If you just got a full Caravelnet subscription, you won't be able to get this particular hold since it's too old; you'll have to buy it seperately. A Caravelnet subscription bought now should give you access to Beethro's Teacher, which you should be able to download in-game like any other hold, or from the "purchases" tab in your forum profile.

____________________________
I got my avatar back! Yay!

jjohn7418
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 161
Registered: 08-24-2003
IP: Logged

I did download Beethro's Teacher already. Still trying to get through it.

Thanks, Jim

____________________________
"Know what I mean? Know what I mean? Nudge, nudge! Know what I mean? Say no more!" - Monty Python

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3648
Registered: 10-06-2005
IP: Logged

...as well as the next three Smitemaster's Selections released too.

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

Tahnan
Level: Smitemaster

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

For some reason, this hold is far and away the one on which I have the lowest average rank. (48th!) So I've been going back and trying to optimize it, and can I just say what an incredible pain it is to try to optimize a room when you don't even know which entrance to use...

eytanz
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2708
Registered: 02-05-2003
IP: Logged

Can't you just load up a top-8 demo and check what entrance they use?

____________________________
I got my avatar back! Yay!

Tahnan
Level: Smitemaster

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

eytanz wrote:
Can't you just load up a top-8 demo and check what entrance they use?

But that's cheating!

(Er, I suppose I could, but I'm so much in the habit of not downloading demos except in cases of extraordinary frustration.)

jbluestein
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1670
Registered: 12-23-2005
IP: Logged

OK, I finally mastered this hold. This was the first SMS that I ever tried (unless you count KDD 2.0), and while the hold itself was not too hard, the secret rooms gave me no end of trouble.

The room behind the master wall was cute.

This puts me where I want to be, though: I've now mastered every official Caravel hold, so I'm ready for TCB to be released. I guess I'm also going to retire this signature (Displaying Caravel Holds progress) as it no longer conveys any particularly interesting information.

Josh

____________________________
"Rings and knots of joy and grief, all interlaced and locking." --William Buck

tokyokid
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 453
Registered: 05-06-2006
IP: Logged

Conquered! Ug, I don't even want to try the secret rooms... I'm tared tired of tar and mud. I totally agree with Beethro: "I hate both equally". I choose the mud path, and I didn't regret.

When I first tried this hold, back in may 2006, I thought to myself, "this is a really hard hold." Now, when I come back to it, I pretty much breezed through it in a day and a half. Now if I thought it was that easy, maybe I should go back to the harder sequel.

Now, for scoring. Most of the rooms were very fun, like the 'guard/mimic path' rooms. The scripting and story was pretty good, too. It was excellent for the first SmS. (And it's only one of two that I've beaten.) The last room, 8E, was one hell of a cleaning!

Individual room comments:

I gave this wonderful hold 5 brains, and an 9 overall.