The Castle Doctrine Forums

It is easily found in the stdout.txt file, and to a harder degree in the recorded game file.  It is saved at the start of a test, so even if you die you can still recover your house.

You can find your house design if you dig through the files.  Sharing map designs has been proven to be an enjoyable part of the game, and should be made more easier by the game.

I like that this is an in-game solution, and I was thinking more something which is out of game, such as a folder of saved house images.  The problem with using the blueprint code as is that you are only viewing one part of the house at a time, not seeing an overall map.  However, I imagine it would be quite simple to use the graphic tiles to generate a map image file along with the house code as text.

If the wife and children could open doors, then they can effectively be used as a part of a trap element by revealing pets behind doors and making areas unsafe or triggering switches.  Definitely would be an interesting idea to explore.

You know what would be REALLY interesting?  Instead of power supplies being passive 'batteries', they could instead be switch which when activated count down from a pre-determined number to zero, once per step taken by the player.  If you set a limit of 20 or so steps, then you end up with power supplies that can only affectively offer power 20 spaces away (although clever house design could work around this).  It would be great for the home owner to customise a few power supplies to different timing and design their traps around this, kind of like a race.  They would also effectively work like the old pet timers, but what makes it different is they are completely accessible to new players and also far more versatile and compact to use. 

Of course this would allow for incredibly simple one-way passages, but to compensate for that I thought the power-meter could make a comeback (yay!) and it could be used to tinker with the timings of the power supply or perhaps trigger it to be permanently on.

...so you have to kill robbers to make any money...  That sounds like a significant change.  As you said, it will now not be about keeping players out but creating deadly traps with which to kill them with.

Thematically it will be a bit different though.  Instead of being about a homeowner defending his wealth and family from intruders it will be a story about some crazy guy who invites robbers into his custom-made deathtrap house just so he can earn a living!

Pretty please.

I agree.  It needs to go, it does more harm than good.

That looks really interesting!

When you say you wanted it more 'psychological' than 'tricky' (or 'puzzle-y' for that matter) I was thinking about playing with the lighting, allowing the home builder to control what the robber can see.  The current robber sight would have to be dramatically dropped to perhaps a few squares away.  Then there would be placeable light objects such as a lamp or  an overhead light.  To compliment this there can be a new 'Torch' object, which when turned on, will increase the vision cone in front of the robber.  Each step the robber takes will lower the battery in increments until it finally is exhausted.

This will now allow the home builder to choose what the robber sees, unless the robber has torches.  This could also allow for completely dark houses, which is kind of funny.  The thought of robbing your own house in the pitch black, only having your hand-scrawled guide to refer to is hilarious.

Let me start by saying that I have a great respect for Jason and his commitment to this game.  I will outline my thoughts as to why this version of the game is no longer interesting to me and then offer up some suggestions as to how this could be improved.

1) House building options have become severely limited compared to prior versions.

TCD used to be a world of endless invention, where Rube Goldberg-esque traps could be created.  Not only has the cost for interesting house elements gone up to incredible prices, but the freedom of electronics and pet-movement options has been so badly nerfed that we are left with some very blunt options indeed.  This is combined with...

2) It is excruciating to create an effective house which you are interested in building.

Accruing wealth is now terribly time consuming and the house you may create from it (if you manage to) may not be so different from other houses you may try to rob which are...

3) [Trapdoor + Electric Floor + Dog] Houses

Limiting the house design suite has created a symptom of very dull trapdoor + electric floor + dog entrances ad nauseum.  Again, on its own this is not necessarily a bad thing, as we used to have endless supplies of electric floor traps (back when they were unstoppable), which were pretty dull in themselves.  The difference was that you could run into them again and again and throw yourself at the mercy of the random dice god.  In this version you get one attempt and then are booted out.  The time investment to explore a house with a series of trapdoor + electric floors is enormous and unfulfilling.

There were versions of TCD where there were many various house designs to be explored and created.  This isn't it.

Solution???

I genuinely don't know what to suggest should be done, as most of my ideas would dramatically change the game, but I do know that a sense of freedom needs to be brought back to the element of house building.  Perhaps this is by being more lenient with the rules of electricity and pet movement or by managing the players money differently.

I applaud the efforts that have been made to tighten up the gameplay, but I feel the game has been tightened so much that there is no longer any slack left over to have fun in.

Many versions ago I was stuck in this very situation where I was trying to spot the wife from a corner opening and make her run, but after spotting me, she moved one square out of my sight.

Yes this could be implemented with it saying 'scouting X's House', rather than 'robbing' if you haven't brought tools with you.  Players will then be able to see clearly that the houses they committed to robbing are the ones being chilled.

Also Jason, perhaps the 1 hour 'suicide' lockout should be in a different colour?  It could be something like 'locked out' rather than chills, and have a message like "You have been locked out.  Come back later."

Then perhaps it needs to be reverted back to tools not being dumped when you walk back out of a house.

On that note, any chance of the doorstep non-dump being implemented Jason?  As in, you don't even take a step into the house so you take your stuff with you?

I really like this particular part of the idea.  She is a loaded cannon once you rile her up, not some fleeing damsel.  She is backed into a corner and will do whatever it takes to fight back.  I would go even further and consider imbuing the wife with the gun as default, so the moment she is seen she will shoot at you if you try to draw a weapon.

Of course, as you mention she is immortal once spotted, but what if her shots weren't guaranteed hits?  Then you would be taking the risk attempting to assault her.  I guess in fairness you would also have to make the robbers gunshots inaccurate as well.  I mean this guy is a complete amateur who somehow blunders other men's houses and kills their dogs.

This would mean that you could have a shoot-out style fight with the wife, with you both continuing to fire and returning fire at each until one of you is killed.

And simply moving into a destroyed wall when robbing will allow a wife past you if she is protecting the vault.