The Castle Doctrine Forums

Very interested here!! It might be that this game is best played with some accountability, as in people know each other, invitations and all that. I always got the impressions that the dickery was due to people playing anonymously. I felt alright raping the houses of random people (the few times I did it) but knowing it's only going to be four or five people I know (and knowing THEY know I did it would change that...).

I had this suggestion of introducing a circuit-blueprint-tool that I liked. Meaning: Plug that thing into ANYTHING connected to a power source and get a reading of all electronics connected to it. That would mean that a.) you have to carry it and b.) labyrinths etc. are invulnerable to the tool but carry other restrictions (weaknesses of doggies etc.). But that's probably the most annoying solution to implement. [edit: And I loved the notion of having to guess the walls! Combined with restricted animal movement it would be highly pleasing to guess some electronics without knowing the walls etc.]

I'm a bit reluctant towards v8 since I'd be anybody's bitch for lack of electronic or logical thinking, but it was the most polished the game got.

Idk, I really REALLY felt v15 was almost there and only needed some minor balancing with the electronics. We had gotten to a point were among three houses, I got by very well with a house that relied on deceit and multiple paths instead of brute force security, I got broken less frequently than other top houses that took a lot more cash to take down. This is the kind of forced creativity I was looking forward to in the game, always with the restrictions of scarce cash and the thrill of having to make it past your various levels of security every self test if you build a house in various stages.

AND the robberies were getting better and more predictable (each animal you "activated" meant something could happen, but you always had a choice and it was your own choices that killed you. I had really gotten back into robbing people since I could be sure that I could get out of any house alive if it wasn't for stupidity.

I always supported a building voucher system (4k build only plus 2k to build or rob with or similar) to adress some imbalances since it seemed to make more sense than tweaking tool prices because of scaleability. But I don't think that's what broke it.

The time consumption was tough, but it was an awesome experience how this game could give you real considerations of "should I spend the night at my girlfriend's place or rather go home to check on my house and make sure it gets through the night". This, also, would have had to be solved at some point but so far I was enjoying it.

I quit because the change to electronics means I don't feel I can do interesting houses anymore. (I figured out the kittie-bit-lock thing in the first 10 minutes and then didn't feel like even expanding upon that house until it was completed.) I keep checking back here to see if things change but the "show me yours..." thread shows me only ugly things I wouldn't want to either play or build.

So far, the highlights have been v8 (different game but very playable - I'd definitely play a fork of that every now and then, even though it's a puzzler instead of an adventure!) and v15 (ALMOST there, but went to crash and burn...).

Well, but it would only mean it had to be designed the other way around. Make a house so that getting to the safe is easy but you need all the steps and stuff to get out and drag along a line of pitbulls. Same shit.

Idk, the problem now might be that there is basically no complexity possible without at least 10k I'd say if you're not going for v8 type electronics and I don't think that's the most interesting thing to deal with. Something that used to be possible in a square of 5x5 will now take up half the house space.

Most houses are safe next to the door thingees. At the moment, or one-time-things. (I mean, with current tool prices just string a few chase combos together and it's practically unbreakable.)

The sad thing is that I find it hard to build an INTERESTING house. I robbed something simple, found out the best thing to do was a bit-lock (and afterwards realised that somebody else had made a much better bit-lock based on the same principle (cat runs out of sight)). That's a bit sad since I never thought I'd be doing bit-locks.

I still think all we needed was limited range of electronics. A magic dance behind max three deep walls isn't that much of a problem in the end.

Oh well, at this stage the game seems unplayable for me. You need 30k or so to even get started designing something hideous and uninteresting. Idk, some kind of bit-lock with combined electric-floor-pitbull-wiring or so. Yuck.

Kudos!! Actually implementing a breaker switch surrounding the entire house was a brilliant thing to do and probably the only reason why I didn't kill your wife despite having enough cash and tools in the vault after you had come for me.

Yeah, I think I'll sit out v16. I can't for the life of me imagine anything remotely interesting happening, and I really don't want to get into the deeper electronics of how to wire something according to new rules so it's still impenetrable. I might check in occasionally to see if I was wrong, but all this sounds more like I was right...

edit: I enjoy playing this http://castledraft.com/editor/tOsT8L , not this http://castledraft.com/editor/lfrzL5 (no offense!)

Last few hours before the reset and I'm off to a BBQ so the spoils are up for grabs: go get them: http://castledraft.com/editor/82K4t9

Interesting and odd thing to do, but why not. (Not ALL that more elegant than say different kinds of money. )

I really wonder though if this won't dry up the cashflow in the game. Simply since it makes a lot of sense to bring your house down to zero rather than be a target, so that source dries up. Or even worse: after there has been a robbery and all the houses are only stacked with about 10$, you're left with 0 cash and no chance of getting any apart from 2k jackpot houses.

edit: this of course makes it A LOT more important to keep your wife alive!

I'm really looking forward to what will happen now.

Didn't somebody (Josh?) post that same thing a bit earlier? Something where the client and the server are mismatched in calculating visibility, thus your client game and the server side simulation don't match and you get killed (to prevent modded client cheating...).

Thanks mate.

Yeah, there was one house with an openly accessible wife carrying 5k or so and another similar one which I didn't want to take since I just logged in to blow some of the accumulated cash. But those get snatched up quickly I guess. I'm all with you on the exploit house and Johnson front. Both are problems. Johnson still has a wife which could have been killed using about 10k or so. I might have done that instead of building. Well, next time. It's a shame he doesn't repair it because it looks interesting and I almost got to the safe once I think between houses.

Either way, it's sad that the creativity seems to have gone from the game somehow. Little tidbits strung together are a perfectly viable house now. E.g. do something like this by blip http://castlefortify.com/c/1c4b775 in a 2k fashion as a first step into a house, followed by something else etc. The climate for this is more or less perfect, but it doesn't happen...