The Castle Doctrine Forums

http://castlefortify.com/?id=9a43a76
Chase the timing cat to the corner, then he stays there until you step on the doormat. If the robbers are stepping back and forward between just two squares, they might never activate the switches.

One of the main reasons I like the idea of maps is because I look forward to seeing how you're going to design them.

My experience with posting a map of my house for people to look at is:
Before anyone who had seen the map could figure it out, someone else had solved it in game - without ever seeing a map of the whole house - by coming in 100 times and figuring it out trial-and-error style, one section at a time.
What I would like, assuming we do get maps or something similar to make brutish designs unfeasible, would be some way to keep people from essentially brute-forcing houses that are supposed to be puzzles.
Basically, I just think it's really unfair that when I have 50k in my house I have to scare myself half to death each time I leave the house, but someone else can come in with hundreds of characters whose deaths will be meaningless and explore the place with impunity.
When you can save time by clicking suicide (to get $2000 free) rather than walking back to the exit (to return to your house with $0 in it), I'm pretty sure it means that death is too cheap.

The suggestion I have, then, is to start new characters with no cash, but with $2000 of credit in building supplies, and needing to earn another $2000+ (without anyone stealing it from them) to pay off their debt before they can start buying tools or get access to any maps.

Ok, it turns out that my house didn't get deleted. When I saw the error message, I exited immediately without clicking anything, and sent the report in straight away. In Jason's reply he said that what happened is that the client checked back in with the server, but the response was incredibly slow and the client sent a second check in message, but then the response from the first one finally arrived, causing an error, so I suppose that the server maybe didn't realize that I'd even had an error. So I'm not sure what happened to your house then.

Anyway, what I'm saying is that I finally got to see your tape. Here's the record: http://pastebin.com/vZZx3hLL. I still don't know how you got that electric floor lit: as you can see from my run, how it's meant to work is that you chase the cat across the entire screen, and then the cat steps on the switch one turn after you fry the dog, which is supposed to disable it. Edit: ok I see the problem now - turning on that last pair of switches bypasses the middle rail entirely. I was trying not to break the pattern . Someone bypassed an earlier version of the same design (where I'd left a clear path straight through the maze) by setting up the correct combination and then backtracking across the maze itself to kill the dog.

That's really cool that you solved it without the map. I remember shortly after I posted the map I saw some tapes (which I now think would have been some of your earlier attempts, based on the times you've told me) where the burglar seemed much more confident than others had been - stepping into that nook with a switch behind an electric floor, for example - and I remember worrying that I might have shared too much, that it might be less fun if you already knew the entire layout.

Ok, that's quite interesting. I checked into my house this morning (about 14 hours ago now - I'm in NZ) and realized that someone was pretty close to cracking it, went into the house and made some changes, tested them, back out the front door, and when I got back to construction mode I saw the "You have died due to inactivity" screen. If I'm understanding this right that means that you were robbing my house while I was fixing it, and when the server found out its mistake it killed us both in an attempted cover-up.
I suppose it might help if we let Jason know that our crashes might be related.

Anyway, I'm really glad you liked my maze, and I'm pretty glad you solved it, too. Whenever I get rich I start feeling like Henry Jones Jr.
I mean: I do love curating my deathtrap, but I still sometimes itch to be out there playing Indiana.

Just to check: you did make use of the info that I posted here to solve it, right?

Yeah, a wire connecting the lower right sticky switch. The map had 50k in it when I posted it, so while I didn't make any intentional mistakes, understand that I didn't have a lot of motivation to be meticulous.

http://castlefortify.com/?id=d7b7bd7

This map also (hopefully) fixes the bug where you could power the traps without visiting the 4 dogs.

Edit: Thanks, Matrix. Seth any chance of adding the ability to import that type of text grid to the tool? It's easier for me to do a line-by-line transcription into a skinny notepad window next to the game client than to input it using mouseclicks.

http://castlefortify.com/?id=487162b
Yeah there was a pretty major error above the entry area where I'd forgotten to show how the power supply was connected to the actual maze, and a couple of other small things.
Here's what I transcribed from in-game, which should be quite accurate, in case there are any other mistakes:

C - Child
▓ - Wall
Z - Power source
. - Wire
░ - Wired wall
0 - Starts off
1 - Starts on
S - Sticking
| - Rotary
& - Voltage triggered
~ - Inverted
d - Door
D - Powered door
# - Electric floor
T - Trapdoor
P - Pit
b - Pitbull
c - Cat
V - Vault

▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓
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▓#░0░b▓#▓░░1░▓░▓░░S░▓ ░ ░▓░▓Z~░▓
▓ db.D▓ ░0Db░c▓.++~+. ░ .  T▓D░▓
▓Cd ░░▓ ░░▓▓░0░.▓░▓▓░▓░▓░░░T▓bb▓
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▓ d ░▓░░░ ░▓░░▓ ░ ░░S▓░ ▓T░░░░░▓
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▓ ▓░░ ▓ ░ ░ ░░░░S░░ ░b░.S▓▓▓░  ▓
▓ Z1  ▓ 1#░    .~+++░ . ░.. . P▓
▓T▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░&░░▓▓▓░.&░░▓
▓T▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░. ▓▓▓▓
▓T░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░. ▓▓▓▓▓
▓T▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓  ▓▓▓▓▓▓
▓T▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓  ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓
▓T▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓  ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓
▓T▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓  ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓
▓TTTT                 TTTTTTTTT▓
▓dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd▓
▓b # SS.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.0c▓
▓.+.+~~+~~+&&+~~+&&+~&+~&+~~.~Z▓
▓S.+.+.. ...................0 V▓
▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓

If you can find a way to bypass the maze using tools, please do let me know though, so I can fix it. I really do want to see someone solve it properly.

http://castlefortify.com/?id=fa1438b

To be able to put myself first in line to enter my own house when someone's robbing it and they take more than 30 minutes (!) and somebody else starts robbing it straight away before I get a chance to replace that chihuahua with a pit bull.

I think it would be super hard to make a difficult maze without conductive walls - both hard to fit enough excitement in when all wiring has to run along the paths, and tough to dissuade robbers from cutting through the walls.

The premise of my current design is that robbers need to explore the entire maze to find the switch that powers the trapdoors that allow access to the vault, and wherever possible I've run the power lines through the walls so if they try to skip part of the maze they risk locking themselves out of the vault. It was designed to be tough to solve even if you start with a map of it - I don't think I could solve it just by looking at it.

My suggestion: wiring diagrams instead of full maps. I mean, you've got to assume that the type of electrician who's going to be wiring deadly electric floor traps is going to be a bit of a shady character. And gameplay-wise, I think the tradeoff of knowing that for every wire you place, you give away a bit of information about your house might be interesting too.

I always feel like building around the door makes it hard to expand the level into a good dungeon though.
I have this dream of being able to become rich entirely through dropped items.

http://castlefortify.com/?id=1a009a6 is what I use when I'm trying to build a maze and I don't want to get robbed while I'm farming small houses to fund construction. It's vulnerable to suicide spam, obviously, so it's not going to protect much more than the starting cash, but it's small size means that you get plenty of space left for deathtraps.

And on the subject of making a narrow window for success: if make it so there's only a single turn window like [disable-trap wire][off switch][on switch][power], and put electric floors on 3 sides of your exit tile and the safe on the 4th side then you can only ever be robbed once. It's annoying to come home to a bunch of shorted electric floors and not even have enough money to fix them.

If dogs could kill, it would be enough to place a couple of pit bulls two steps away from the door such that a burglar would be forced to make a beeline for a door to close behind themselves while your family escape.