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#276 Re: Main Forum » Fortress Theory Mod - Version 3 » 2014-03-24 17:14:42
I hope that wasn't you again, iceman. You trying my... um... "permutation-based entrapment button array" repeatedly until you get through isn't much fun for either of us. If so, what happened to chills? I though that they were 30 minutes now.
Blip wrote:so you have to go through the commit gate correctly to get to the rest of the house
Is there any chance I could see how he went through incorrectly? I'm currently experimenting with different ways to go through commit gates, even in the wrong direction...
He used one of my wife-protection dogs to get through a dog commit gate, instead of using the C.A.D. provided for that purpose. I don't see why he did it when he was just as trapped either way.
#277 Re: Main Forum » Fortress Theory Mod - Version 3 » 2014-03-24 16:46:04
Yeah, I decided to prevent your dog shenanigans! I told you, you have to solve my house correctly now, or it won't work. And your cardboard box won't get you anywhere when it's blocking vision of something you need!
I'm surprised how well my house has held up under the scrutiny of multiple attempts by the mod's creator, especially when I just whipped this place up to see how the C.A.D worked. 
#278 Re: Main Forum » Fortress Theory Mod - Version 3 » 2014-03-24 16:30:57
An individual known as Herbert Anthony Benham and clearly skilled with the new tools just nearly made his way to my vault, stopped only by my final trap. Was that you, iceman? If so, thanks for exposing a weakness in my house! It's fixed now, so you have to go through the commit gate correctly to get to the rest of the house. My weakness to another certain tool still remains, unfortunately.
Also, it seems that I have one of only three houses up right now! I wonder if Mr. Ragan (Kimenzar?) might give my house a go at some point; a nice high bounty and some tools might give me the cash to start my own art collection. Or I can just wait for regular bounties, as the foyers of my neighbors are far less inviting than mine.
#279 Re: Main Forum » Fortress Theory Mod - Version 3 » 2014-03-24 13:34:34
I've really been liking the mechanic where C.A.D's can walk over activated electric floors. It means that you can have them follow you past a doggie commit gate (power, button, grid, trapdoor) without them dying! My current house is mostly a large commit gate right now, followed by some other stuff hidden behind it. It's pretty secure, but I haven't had many serious attempts yet. The weakness it has is pretty surprising; in building it to counter tool use, the later part seems to be pretty vulnerable to a tool that might seem useless at first...
Also, I was wondering, what's the purpose of the cardboard box? Does it act as a wall to block animal movement? What are the advantages to hiding in it?
And I'd like to mention something that may be a bug: mousing over a poison gas/smoke emitter before it's on tells you which one it is. Is that intentional, or not? For example, in the current top house, I know that the gas is poison gas because I moused over the emitter before the gas was formed.
#280 Re: Main Forum » Fortress Theory Mod - Version 3 » 2014-03-23 17:48:57
Yay, update! Glad about that C.A.D. fix, I just died to exactly that. Just wondering, what does C.A.D stand for?
#281 Re: Main Forum » Stupid self-test fails... » 2014-03-23 17:04:32
My best house ever fell due to my forgetting that powered doors don't conduct. I can't believe that I was so dumb; I had put so much effort into that place, and killed myself so swiftly and easily.
#282 Re: Main Forum » People who keep their values intentionally low » 2014-03-23 17:03:10
i'm not going to name any names here, but this thread is bordering on immature. the majority of everyone's forum posts have been enjoyable, but something about this thread brought out some bad qualities in people.
1) if you are going to make a post, griping about someone else's behavior, its now fair game to have your own behavior examined.
2) the person who is doing well or in first will be subject to harassment and whining, it's just the way people are. regardless of how spotless one's behavior is. deal with it, but dont escalate.
3) i think it's fine to use the forum for coordination. this allows people who don't have alt accounts to communicate and work together. in the forum, it's even a little bit more legitimized, because the target knows it is coming. (IMO)
4) its known that there's a variation in skill level in this game. referring to other players with belittling names does not make one a better player. but it may make you feel better about yourself at others expense.
5) there's no such thing as honor among thieves. why do people care so much about whats "right" and whats "wrong"? you cant enforce 'honor', nor can you verify someone else's honor, so it is all bravado and braggadacciio, as far as i'm concerned. i'm sure most people in this thread have walked into a defenseless house and clubbed an innocent child. how can honor exist after that?
This.
Thanks you for expressing my annoyance with this whole thread really well and saving me from ranting.
#283 Re: Main Forum » People who keep their values intentionally low » 2014-03-21 13:53:25
I do this because I don't have all the time in the world to check on my house. When the value gets too high, more people will die and drive up the value of your house. Eventually, there will be a good chance that someone will brute force his way to your vault. By keeping your values low, you can wait until you commit a successful robbery to improve on your house. This helps if you know you won't return for a few days.
I do this too, but not once I have a strong house that's nearly complete. The house in question seems pretty secure; 15 paintings staying safe is an indicator of some very good defenses. I don't see why they have a house that could hold a high cash value, but keep it low instead.
#284 Re: Main Forum » Looking for feedback on my house » 2014-03-20 19:19:16
I agree with dustman here. The large, first part of your house is too easy to brute force to stop well-tooled robbers, and takes up too much room to be justified as just a ways to kill the poor. There are smaller and more effective ways to kill 2k robbers without letting a brute-forcer bypass such a large area in your house easily. Also, a 50/50 chance is not good odds to gamble your money on at the end of your design.
Overall, though, this is a great first house. Just remember to always keep in mind not just how you will solve your trap, but how people with lots of tools will try to solve it.
#285 Re: Main Forum » Fortress Theory Mod - Version 3 » 2014-03-20 19:12:35
This isn't working for me; it says it wasn't able to load the library @rpath/SDL.framework/Versions/A/SDL.
Could that be due to the fact that I'm on Snow Leopard? Are the libraries I have just really old?
Also, just wondering, while I'm still waiting to get in and play, what's a C.A.D., and what does it stand for?
#286 Re: Main Forum » Fortress Theory Mod - Version 3 » 2014-03-20 09:38:23
I'm super excited! The new mouse art should be done by tomorrow; I just need to do the shade maps and destroyed sprites. Also, may I request a Mac/Linux version? I run CD on both, but don't have Windows except for an emulated *shudders* Vista, which is super slow and terrible.
#287 Re: Main Forum » The Builder Challenge #1 - $1000 House! » 2014-03-16 15:32:00
StefanLindskog- Non-tooled Score: 10/10
Wife Defense Score: 8/10
Tooled Score: 8/10
Tricky Score: 5/20 (Unexpected Solution: Third electric floor is harmless, only the last two are deadly)
Total Score: 31/50
42dustman - Non-tooled Score: 10/10
Wife defense Score: 8/10
Tooled Score: 9/10
Tricky Score: 0/20
Total Score: 27/50
As for the discrepancy between CastleDraft and in-game prices, its okay to just go by the CastleDraft values.
#288 Re: Main Forum » The Builder Challenge #1 - $1000 House! » 2014-03-15 16:53:51
OK Blip, I've got a new design that I think will score much higher.
I like this design, it's really clever. I may borrow some of it for my own starter houses.
Lord0fHam- Non-Tooled Score: 8/10
Wife Defense Score: 10/10
Tooled Score: 6/10
Tricky Score: 15/20 (Hidden Trap, Unexpected Solution, Wife-Killer Trap)
Total Score: 39/50
#289 Re: Main Forum » The Builder Challenge #1 - $1000 House! » 2014-03-15 15:33:49
Lord0fHam: A robber only needs one meat and one club to kill your wife, and doing so is very simple. Anybody looking to kill your wife armed with those two tools would succeed.
Nakula: There's no path for the family to take to leave! Remember, they can't step on electric floors.
GotABigTrap - Non-tooled Score: 10/10
Wife Defense Score: 10/10
Tooled Score: 8/10
Tricky Score: 5/20 (Unexpected Solution - Part of Dance not on Floors)
Total Score: 33
*Note: I made a mistake when adding up tool values for the tooled run. The correct tool amounts are posted.*
#290 Re: Main Forum » The Builder Challenge #1 - $1000 House! » 2014-03-15 14:54:01
Scoreboard update!
LiteS- Non-Tooled Score: 9/10
Wife Defense Score: 8/10
Tooled Score: 7/10
Tricky Score: 10/20 (Hidden Trap, Unexpected Solution)
Total for LiteS: 34/50
Lord0fHam- Non-Tooled Score: 10/10
Wife Defense Score: 1/10
Tooled Score: 7/10
Tricky Score: 5/20 (Hidden Trap)
Total for Lord0fHam: 23/50
As for prizes, I'm not sure yet. I may have a final prize for the person who does the best after, say, 10 weekly challenges, summing up scoreboard wins with 3 as first place, 2 as second, and 1 as third. (Say, a free painting?) However, I'd rather not have weekly prizes, as that would be a lot of work.
#291 Main Forum » The Builder Challenge #1 - $1000 House! » 2014-03-15 12:36:44
- Blip
- Replies: 41
I'm always impressed with the ingenuity of you guys, my fellow players, when it comes to crazy house builds. It seems that whenever somebody posts their design, I learn some new tactic that I had never seen before. I wanted to try putting your building skills to the test with a series of weekly builder challenges! Here's the first one:
The Challenge: Build a house with a maximum budget of $1000.
The Rules: Your house must cost 1k or less to build.
It must contain a full family.
It should feature entirely functional traps - not just incomplete ones to build off of later.
How to WIN:
All houses will be judged based on four things.
How likely a non-tooled run is to succeed - 10 points
How likely a wife-killing run is to succeed (5 meat, 1 club)- 10 points
How likely a tooled run is to succeed (2 saws, 3 meat, 3 water, 1 brick, 1 wire cutter) - 10 points
How well the trap tricks robbers - 20 points: 5 points for a hidden trap, 5 points for an unexpected solution, 5 points for a psychological trap, 5 points for wife-killer trap
Here's an example house and how it would score:http://castledraft.com/editor/wFx5xB
A non-tooled run has a low chance of success. The robber must avoid the doors, backtrack, then select the correct door. 7 points
A wife killing run armed with 1 club and 5 meat has a low chance of success. The robber must first drug the bottom dog, go up to drug the top dog in front of the wife, then go down, past the vault, to spot the wife, go back to the main passage, and club her. 9 points
A tooled run has a high chance of success; the robber must decide to brick one of top set or bottom set of doors, and then drug that dog. 2 points
Robbers are tricked well, because none of the doors lets them live. Instead, they must go forward, than backtrack - (Unexpected solution). Wife killers are faced with being sandwiched between two pit-bulls in a small corridor - (Wife-killer trap). 10 points
So that house scores a total of 28 points, out of a possible 50. Can you do better? 
Scoreboard
1. Lord0fHam: 39/50
2. LiteS: 34/50
3. GotABigTrap: 33/50
4. StefanLindskog: 31/50
5. 42dustman: 27/50
#292 Re: Main Forum » Do you wanna rob me? » 2014-03-14 15:25:04
So I thought it's kind of boring sitting in my house and went out robbing. I tried to play it safe, but as soon as I saw the cat I knew I went one step too far.
My house lasted for about a month with only two people who made it to the vault: JoshWG and LiteS. Some of you might have been in my entry hall, so I wanted to share the whole thing with you. It's not very complicated, but I tried to make some nice puzzles instead of having a bitlock or something.
http://i.imgur.com/YOLPVG3.jpg
The solution was quite simple: you had to send the cats across the commit gate in order to open the powered doors and close the pits, then get the chihuahua and the pitbull and go to the vault. My solution to the powered pit room had two leaps of faith but people figured out much easier ways to get through with the pitbull, so kudos for those. I have an animated gif of my solution, but it seems to be too big for image upload sites.
I really, really like this design! It's well-modularized and features good puzzles that are actually difficult to solve. The bit with the rotary switches is cool; it reminds me of something I built way long ago, but with electric floors and no dogs. My only suggestion would be passing power to the three pits from the end of the electric floor lines, so that if people water their way out of those corridors, the pits close.
Overall, I think this is the type of house that the game needs more of; hard puzzles all the way through, but solvable with enough scouting, thinking, and lucky guesses.
#293 Main Forum » Can we please add a regular captcha to the register page? » 2014-03-13 10:00:20
- Blip
- Replies: 11
Don't get me wrong, I like what's in place right now to make sure people are actually TCD players. However, a regular captcha should clearly be added as well so that bots answering the forum "security question" can't just make automated accounts to sell us ripped Russian movies and TV shows.
#294 Re: Main Forum » THE RUSSIANS HAVE LAUNCHED A FULL SCALE FORUM INVASION » 2014-03-13 09:19:29
They're back! Are the CD forum servers located in the Ukraine, because the Russians sure want to invade!
#295 Re: Main Forum » not sure if this is a bug, exploit or intended behaviour... » 2014-03-10 18:42:52
Another issue: what happens when there is no empty spots on the map? Will the wife disappear? Delete a random tile? If so, could you make her delete the safe?!?! Just conjecture (I'm guessing deleting the safe won't work
How would this happen? The wife takes up one tile already, and there is no way something else can take up that tile without moving from another tile, making that one empty instead. The wife might teleport around, but there would always be a spot for her.
#296 Re: Main Forum » Bluescreen while robbing. FUN. » 2014-03-10 18:38:19
I have a solution: Linux! It's free and better than Windows!
#297 Re: Main Forum » It's possible for a robber to get to this Chihuahua using brick? » 2014-03-08 19:40:14
The range of a brick is 4, so the robber can't break the window. He would have to use a ladder, then a brick, to break that window.
#298 Re: Main Forum » Slow servers » 2014-03-08 17:26:58
MazeHunter wrote:I believe that most of the increase traffic may be from bots that are searching for 0/0 houses. I been tracking certain players that immediately try to rob your house after you update date it and I have noticed a pattern. I noticed this with James Henry Calvin on 3/1/2014. I used an empty house with a vault in a corner and he would scout it out as if he did not know where it was. I took a screen shot of his many attempts and steps taken. Anyone know how to post a screen shot here?
A bot searching for 0/0 untouched $2000 starter houses actually seems really feasible and easily possible (unless there was something put in place to stop them appearing on the list, I can't remember), but I'm pretty sure there are no bots that would search out other houses or appear to look like they didn't know where the vault is. Normal players will also be actively looking for 0/0 houses.
There's a system in place to prevent 2k, 0/0 house from showing up. Your house doesn't appear on the list until 5 minutes (maybe more?) after you create it: this means that people going out to scout and leaving their 2k behind have it protected for at least 5 minutes. This essentially quells the main source of 2k, 0/0 houses, which is why you don't see them much these days.
#299 Re: Main Forum » Paradox circuit » 2014-03-08 15:35:07
I've been playing with it and cannot get it to work from both sides. Anyone know if it is even possible?
I had something similar to this, where cutting in either direction killed you, but I'm not sure how to adapt the design to what you're looking for. The main problem with this design is that the grid in the corner, the one that actually kills you when attempting to cut, can actually be cut itself before stepping onto it, ensuring safety. That's fine in this scenario, when it's just one grid that's not part of a loop and you know that it's that grid on which people will be standing when cutting other grids, and then power whichever side they don't cut using paradox circuits. However, it wouldn't suit itself well to magic dances.
#300 Re: Main Forum » Paradox circuit » 2014-03-08 14:39:35
http://castledraft.com/editor/gNF5op does this work? Am I doing anything that doesn't need to be done or am I missing something?
That works fine. Note: That design activates from the far side, passing power towards the entry. Thus, cutting in the middle yields this.
If, instead, you want it to activate from the near-side, hook it up like this