The Castle Doctrine Forums

Haha, that's sweet. First thing I did was check if the paintings got back into auction. (In most cases they will since few people actually rob to keep with functioning houses...) I'll improve upon the house tomorrow (fingers crossed for self-test), since there is now somebody who knows how to reach the safe. Then again, if I die I can build a better house, so it's fine either way.

And yeah, I like the title of "protect me from what I want", but I don't find it that aesthetically pleasing.

I think we  all know what the new animal should be - an Oddjob. He is activated like any dog and can throw his hat as far as one can throw a brick. His weakness is that he dies if his hat lands on an electric floor. If he steps onto a burglar, he will encase him in gold and you now have a lovely statue to be displayed anywhere in the house.

I'm just realising that the whole difference in perspective between Germany and the US might be deeply philosophical.

For me, what makes guns special (and incomparable to cars) is that they are meant and designed to kill. That is their prime function, while cars, knives in general etc. have other prime functions that are non-harmful by design (transportation, cooking etc.) and to me that makes all the difference.

This way of thinking fits neatly with Kantian / enlightenment ethics of intention. This is still probably the most important general undercurrent in the thinking of most people I know. Of course, the Anglophone sphere has had very different philosophical forefathers, past and more recent. The difference between ethics of intention and pragmatism or utilitarianism would neatly explain the difference in views on guns.

I don't expect that's interesting to anybody here, but it was a small realisation for me, so here we go.

No worries!

Well, there have also been quite a few cases of crashes through something else than the game (I'm not the only one who had the win 8 fullscreen crash issue), so in that case it would be brilliant for the game to remember what was the case.

"Please kill yourself before logging out" is actually a brilliant message I would like to see.

Indeed!! I was going to go for Callahan, I was just building up tools since his house looked like it might take something along the lines of 30k in tools (you never know what you'll need after all, and once you've been three ladders short to a safe, you end up to rather bring 30k to be safe than waste 20k...). But just as I wanted to go, the painting had made their way to you. Since the tools were already bought, and since I wanted to release the paintings into the wild, that was worth it. 

Yeah, I put the safe next to the door and used an account I bought for a friend (who isn't really using it sadly) to do the Robin Hood since I didn't really want some other well defended house owner to just take them and for the hoarding thing to start over.

That thing with Montoya is odd. Still, the funniest  possibility might be that he was going to enter another house and clicked on yours by mistake. It does happen, and it's hilarious when done with too many tools.

Finally, I have my paintings back. Paired with lots and lots of ugly shite, but still.... I WISH there was a way to throw paintings to the curb somehow.

Maybe I'll just put my safe next to the door for a minute for some Robin Hood to find and liberate all the paintings. I don't want to monopolise 2 thirds of all the paintings in my house, that sucks.

Also, stupid enough to forget that one can't come back for the rest of the tools any longer. Only needed about a third of what I brought, shame that all went to waste. Lucky Mr Desai...

It's a rough neighborhood at the moment, that's for sure. And I think everybody can feel with the people being really frustrated as newcomers to the game right now. Even with lots of experience, it's quite tough to get started at the moment.

Still, I imagine Jason is not all that unhappy with the feeling of "Jesus this is a horrible neighbourhood I have moved to". It's part of the mentality of the game that it's rough and frustrating at times, even terrifying. Balance is of course the key here and right now it's leaning towards the harsh side.

Just a little something to get you started: http://thecastledoctrine.net/forums/vie … 3343#p3343
Many houses work like this at the moment, starting from somethign rudimentary and quickly building lots of security stuff around it, adding new stages etc.

Make the cat corridor longer and you have to do a few steps back and forth until you can cross it etc. The same techniques are used for patterns of trapdoors and electric floors, where the dog keeps the power up and a cat breaks it for one or two steps so you can cross the electric floors. Nothing much to do there but try and try again if you have died anyways, most of those patterns are forced to be fairly easy because of space restrictions etc.

And most importantly: Don't get sucked into a feeling of security. Houses can be broken, you'll break some, some will break yours. But in the meantime you might end up having lots of interesting Tapes of players taking a wrong step in your maze and getting mauled, fried or trapdoored. That's always worth a chuckle.

The starting cash v robbing cash issue has been discussed a lot.

I think it is still there the way it is because it creates a sense of urgency and vulnerability / the option to vulnerate others. Say you are frustrated because your best efforts have been destroyed by somebody with the 2k starting cash for no reason. So you put those 2k into tools yourself and try to pass on the destruction onto some others, who cares if they're innocent or not?! Just go for them!!

These kinds of psychology are MEANT to occur in the game. And it is a game about violation, after all, in a very real sense.

You can go for safety, but there is no "safe early building phase" as in AOE. It's always Shark Week in the Castle Doctrine.

Wow man.

Being German and not believing in guns-for-all, I have had some close encounters with dogs (though NOTHING of your kind except for one narrow escape on a farm abroad), and those were the only cases that made me seriously consider a defensive weapon, especially when imagining I might have children with me. Then again, in the community you describe, I guess shooting a dog might get you shot by the owner. Crazy places...

I, too, would consider myself a pacifist, in that I think war and fighting are pointless , and in that I believe there is no such thing as a "military success" etcetera. Yet I have reached a position where I'd say that all kinds of aggression for motives of power etc. is wrong, but this conviction itself entails having to defend against just this kind of aggression. This may mean standing one's ground when inevitable, it may even extend to the defence of nations.

It is somewhat bleak since it's kind of a nuclear-stalemate-is-a-good-thing world-view, but at least in personal life it seems like that if all people are meek, the dicks take over. And considering Chamberlain vs. our not-so-recent national history this might be true even in global politics.

But on a general note: some people are being silly and lots of video games get pointless criticism. My favourite story is that if I'm not mistaken, AOE II was meant to include dolphins that could be fished but they were taken out after Alpha because people might object to dolphin fishing. This from a game where the first strategic move is to kill the other player's villagers, men and women, just to destroy his economy. In that sense, I hope you can keep your head above the clouds of silly that abound on the internet and elsewhere.

Yeah, there are a lot of uninteresting houses and for the less well defended ones, there's usually too many experienced players in "robbery mode" for them to stay around for a longer period of time I guess. Natural selection leaves us with all trapdoor-dance-houses.

I'll give you three dollars if YOU take it. And my broken pitbull. It's nearly mint condition except for one bullet hole. Must pick it up yourself, behind the three powered doors inside the Castro residence.

Haha, well, what can I say... My video games career started with a NES but it has been spotty. There have been times where I haven't played for years, and then I played excessively again. But since I was always either into city builders (Caesar, Zeus, AOE, ...) or 1st person shooters there weren't much Indie things around if you don't count Mods. TCD ties into the city builder aspect of things I guess. Fez and Spelunky I heard of, but I'm not that much into things that sound platformish. Hotline Miami I read about as well, but it seemed stressful. I'm not into stressful. Googleing the games you mentioned I realise that I heard of almost all of them but (for various reasons) decided against each of them. It's probably really the "stressful" aspect. I dislike most things that rely on doing something quickly and the right way. If I want that, I'll just go for something sporty outdoors. With a game, I prefer turn-based or slow any day. Gives you time to think.

I did go for a bit of Unmechanical. And I do like Adventures, so the Deponia franchise or Blackwell or anything by Wadjeteye for that matter might count as Indie (Primordia was brilliant, Gemini Rue was solid as well, Resonance not so much imho...).

Aaaanyways, since I just embarked on the journey towards a Phd I guess I'll get to know a lot more games over the years to come.