The Castle Doctrine Forums

Well, 1-6 in that list are all the same account.

7 is a different account, but I don't see signs that these accounts are related.

Hey!  And Kotaku picked this up:

http://kotaku.com/this-game-makes-you-w … -871956472

So.... there should be 67 new people playing the game today, so far....

Yes, I officially have a one-button mouse here that I use every day.

I also believe that all functionality should be on the screen, and nothing should be hidden or invisible.  All Right-Mouse-Button to pop up a hidden menu stuff violates all the old-school Mac HCI research.  Granted, Apple eventually conceded on this issue themselves with the advent of control-click for hidden menus.  However, I think in almost all cases (maybe both Mac and Windows), the same functionality is available in visible places on the screen elsewhere (and the hidden menu is really just a short-cut for those same features, for power-users).

What we're talking about here is TRUELY hidden functionality, where Ctrl-click does something that can't be done any other way...

I've already broken the rule, and clearly it bit me, because most people don't know that it's there!

I've thought about addining some kind of "eyedropper" button where the next click after will pick up a tile (and then the tool-tip for that button would explain the Ctrl-click, and the button itself could pop up and down as Ctrl is pressed and released).

Yeah, I see that Thurber tape!

It's a bug.

Part of it is that dogs that are together stay together, even after the closest one is killed.  That's not a bug.  But he's also able to lure them south right next to the dead ones.  Hmm... looking at the code, I don't see what's causing this.  I'll have to play around with it and figure it out.

Will be fixed soon!

Also, in cases where there's still a tape showing something, you don't need to send me the recording.  Just give me the name of the robber and other stats that identify the tape.  I can look it up just fine in the admin interface (even later, after you die, the tape is preserved for admin view for a while).

Yeah, this is an issue that will haunt me forever, it seems.  Dying while editing and testing your own house.

This is where "commercial potential" and "aesthetic potency" butt heads.  Making something that attracts and keeps as many new players as possible involves "sanding off all the edges."  Edges catch some people and cut a few others.  You don't want to cut anyone, 'cause that will make them walk out.

But the edges are what make something interesting.... they're what differentiate one thing from another.  Otherwise, everything is just a sphere.  Easy to roll.  Easy to swallow.  Plunk.

I just heard an interview with Refn about his new film Only God Forgives.  Ah, here it is: http://www.cbc.ca/q/2013/07/18/preservi … vinterberg

Anyway, at Cannes, half the audience cheered, and the other half walked out.  Is it a good film or a bad film?  Certainly not a commercially-viable film.

In the case of dying in your own house, there is a careful way of playing where this doesn't happen.  Yes, that's not obvious at first, because we've all be trained by a lifetime of video games that there are no real consequences.  We're accustomed to behaving carelessly in video games.

There are a few concessions in place, however.  This is NOT supposed to be a game about shaking fingers causing you to hit the wrong key by accident.  It's supposed to be a game about assessing and managing risk.  On purpose.  Deliberately.  So, when you die, it should always be because of a bad choice.  It should be due to impatience and haste.  It should be clear how to prevent that kind of death next time ("I should have practiced more," or "I should have tested with indicator lights a bit more").  One of the recent releases even has a safe-movement-mode to underscore this.

I think that every permadeath game takes some getting used to.  You have to learn how to play in a new way.  You have to learn what to care about, and how the game works.  This is permadeath in a new context.

All that said, the editor should not be annoying to use!  I've put a lot of effort into polishing the mouse controls, and adding eyedropper support (which may not be obvious to some people----Control-click!).  Maybe more polish is needed here, and I'm open to suggestions.

But it sounds like some of the complaints involve the limited view while working on your house.  This is partly caused by the need to walk around your house while editing, which requires that you never fully box yourself in.  This behaves differently from any other "level editor" that I've experienced.  Most give you a god-like view from above.

This editor places you in the house, interacting with the contents of the house as you build it.  It intentionally has a different feel.

Well, I realized that I need to make a video about the game first (so that people who become interested in the contest can quickly learn about the game).  Making a video takes a ton of time.... still working on that right now!

Yeah, this was fixed in v14 anyway.

I noticed that the cost-balance would update to correct itself once your finally placed another object (like a wall or something).

It was just that the cost-of-changes wasn't being recomputed when "mandatory" objects (vault and family) are moved.

Ahem.... the saw has a wooden handle, see?

Yes.

Err... sorry, but the buttons were visible through the windows anyway, right?  I didn't think I was giving anything away.  Just to be safe, I'll remove that image from the forums.

Also, regarding multiple robbers in the same house.... well, I'd love to see that mod! 

I see 10 active houses at the moment.

32 active players in the past 24 hours.
53 active players in the past 48 hours.
174 active in the past week.
570 active in the past month.
635 active in the past 2 months.

Yes, it has something to do with not enough active players.

However, the latest update did make it worse, because it made the conditions under which a broken house still earns money more strict (now it stops earning after two TOTAL vault reaches, where it used to stop earning only after two CONSECUTIVE vault reaches).

Before, a house could be robbed many, many times, as long as there was one "walk-out" between each vault reach.  Now, a house can be robbed at most 3 times.

There were more houses before, but most of the extra ones were broken houses that were hanging around and being milked over and over.

What we have now is a more realistic picture of the active house population.