FAQ Page

joshwithguitar · 2013-11-06 00:40:00

On this page you will find answers to the most commonly asked questions on the forums. Please read through them plus the Game Rules section of the wiki before posting any questions.

Q. I haven't played this game since version X, what are the major changes that I need to be aware of?

If you spend 19 minutes in a house you will start hearing sirens and a minute count-down will begin. If it reaches 0 before you escape or reach the vault you will be arrested (die).
You no longer earn a salary. House income now comes through bounties on robbers that die inside your house. The bounty on a robber starts at $50 and increases $500 for each vault robbed and $1000 for every family member killed.
Backpacks now allow for an unlimited number of the same tool and a maximum of 8 different tools.
All tools that are brought into a house and unused will be lost when you leave. Only robbers who die will leave tools in the vault.
Trapdoors and electric doors no longer transmit power. Green indicator light have been added so you can represent them during self tests.
Steel walls no longer transmit power, use wired wooden walls instead.
House chills will not only block you from the house you die in but also all houses that you recently visited with tools.
There are no longer any blueprints.
Pets will only start moving after they have seen the robber for the first time.
Tool prices have been altered to represent their utility rather than real world price.
Clubs have been added due to the high cost of the crowbar. They function similarly but cannot be used to break doors.
You can now give your wife a shotgun. If she steps on it she will pick it up. Any square one step away from her becomes deadly.
You can now create panic buttons - switches that family members can walk on and only they can press.

Q. How does Mr X's house get posted without a clear path to the family? There is a trapdoor/electric floor right next to the doorway!

A. Mr X's family have all been killed and so he does not need to create a path for them.

Q. How does Mr X's house pass a self test? There is a dog right next to the door which eats you after you take a single step! Exploit!!!!!

A. Mr X has been robbed and his house is now broken. If a dog is put to sleep using dog food during a successful robbery or one in which a family member is killed the sleeping dogs remain in the position it was left. Further, any damage done to the house will remain. The next person to rob the place will find the dogs in their new positions and this can make the house impossible to rob without tools until the owner repairs it.

Q. I've reached a vault in a house but the game won't let me step on it. The house list says the house has money so there should be something in the vault...

A. The vault has been broken by a previous robber and so cannot be robbed again until there is something to rob. The houses remaining wealth is carried by the wife and this is what is showing up on the house list.

Q. There is a pit bull in Mr X's house that won't move towards me even though it has seen me and the space in front of it is empty. When I tried to move next to it to club it it suddenly jumped on me! What gives?

A. Pets will not step next to another dead pet unless the robber also occupies the same square. They hate the smell and don't want to go too close.
What you will find is that there is a dead pet near the pit bull (probably in a pit, if you mouse over it will tell you). When you step next to the dog it decides that eating you is worth stepping next to its fallen friend and so you get killed. Bring a gun next time if you want to get past it!

Q. Jason, can you please remove permadeath from failed self tests? This would make the game so much better!

A. Jason has made it very clear a number of times that death during self tests is an important part of the game and will not be removed. The game is meant to be punishing - (see: "Why is the game so punishing?" below) - and the feeling of suspense during self tests and the crushing feeling of falling to your own traps are important parts of the experience of the game. Also, as you'll be subjecting many others to your deadly traps, it is only fair that falling to them yourself will have the same consequence.

jasonrohrer wrote:

it's a game about being CAREFUL around dangerous things (in part).

To prevent yourself from dying in your own houses there are a number of measures you can take:

test your house replacing electric floors with red indicator lights, trapdoors and electric doors with green lights and pitbulls with chihuahuas. This way you can know if your traps are working as intended without risking your life. Be aware that pet behaviour may be different as real traps may effect pets differently than lights.
make sure to exit out the front door rather than reaching the vault when testing your house. Changes are only saved and paid for after you reach the vault in a self test. If you leave by the front door you will return to build mode and things will be just as they were before you started the self-test.
create back doors that let you escape if things go wrong and close them up before the final test. This lets you test out electric doors safely without having to replace them with lights allowing pet movement to be more accurate.
don't make your house overly dangerous/difficult to self test. If you make a house that requires 20 unique magic dances don't be surprised if you get one wrong in and end up dead. Make sure you are very confident in the correct way to solve a house before you test with real traps.

Q. Mr X is a cheater! He came into my house and walked straight through my maze to my vault, picking the correct path every time...

A. Although it is possible you have been targeted by a legitimate cheater it is much more likely that Mr X simply got lucky. Many alleged cheaters have been reported to Jason since the launch and the vast majority have turned out to be players simply getting lucky. You have to take into account all of the times that players unsuccessfully tried to get to your vault. Even if there is only a 1/100 chance that someone picks the right paths, with enough players the chance that someone gets lucky is actually quite high.

If the odds seem so absurd that even all the robberies happening in the game put together wouldn't guess it, such as someone guesses your 25 bit, 8 wall thick bit lock first try when no one had so much as dug into the walls to have a look then post it up or contact Jason - jasonrohrer@fastmail.fm.

Q. How do I get more money?

A. Several ways, only one of which is easy:

Lure robbers deep within your house and have them killed. By doing so, you will be awarded bounty money and you'll get any tools that were being carried. You can sell these tools at half the buying price.
Reach someone else's vault. You will receive all tools and/or money stored there.
Break into someone else's house and kill their wife. You will get any money she is carrying.
Hit the 'Suicide' button to receive a fresh $2000.

Q. How are the house values in the house list calculated? Are tools and paintings included?

A. The value of each house is calculated as the total money held by the vault and the wife + the resale value of all tools (i.e. half their price). Paintings are not counted.

Q. Is there a simple way to find out my own name?

A. No, your name is intentionally obscured. This makes collusion between friends more difficult. See this thread for Jason's reasons.

Q. I'm on Windows 8. Where are my game's saved files kept?

A. Windows 8 sandboxes things that you install into Program Files and hides their saved files from you. Strange but true! Take a look here:

C:\Users\YOUR_NAME\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\CastleDoctrine_vXX

(Replace YOUR_NAME and XX, of course.)

You can also save the game outside of the "Program Files" folder to prevent Windows from doing this.

Q. Why are there no useless decorations to make my house more homey? This would make the game so much more enjoyable.

See this thread for Jason's reasons for not adding extraneous filler items.

Q. Why is the game so punishing? It is so frustrating when I lose the house I spent hours on because I didn't know I could die in X way. At least let me save my houses so that I can build them instantly when I re-spawn.

A. Jason has answered this question a number of times in the forums, here is a recent quote:

jasonrohrer wrote:

"We've had lots of discussion on the idea of saving maps.
But this takes the edge off death. Death should feel awful. Heart-breaking. Game-hating.
It also takes the edge off robbery. You worked SO hard on this house, and now someone has come in and destroyed all of your hard work. It feels awful. "I spent HOURS building that, you asshole!"
This game is 100% fair, in that death is ALWAYS your fault. There is no randomness. You can ALWAYS walk back out the front door in a sticky situation and save your own neck (and house).
Yes, maybe it would be more "fun" or "addicting" if you could just press a button and magically rebuild the exact same house again after dying.... but.... I'm really not trying to make a fun, addicting game here. That's not the point. The point is to build something that has never existed before.... something that makes you feel things that you've never felt in a game before.
And if anything sets my games apart from other games, it's that my games have this kind of "point" and stick to it. There are loads of people making fun, addicting games. My job is to do something different."

Q. Why can't I walk through walls/traps in build mode?

A. It should feel like you really can build yourself into a corner! Also no power is propagated during build mode and the house objects reflect this. Here's a quote from Jason:

jasonrohrer wrote:

I think that weird editing mode is an important part of the feel of the game. It also allows you to interact with your own family a bit, and poke around as if you actually live there (as you inspect damage, etc.)
In general, you have to face the realities of building something (you can't box yourself in, paint yourself into a corner, etc.) You can't cross open pits. A pain, but it's all consistent, at least.

Q. Why do they kill the children?

A. Because they are bastards.

If you can think of any new questions or better answers to the ones above post them below and I will update it.

I've focused on the questions I've seen regularly but perhaps we should also pre-empt the kinds of questions that are likely to pop up with the current version of the game.

Last edited by joshwithguitar (2014-02-26 04:50:45)

ukuko · 2013-11-06 05:14:24

Q. Why can't I walk through walls/traps in build mode?

A. It should feel like you really can build yourself into a corner! Also no power is propagated during build mode and the house objects reflect this. Here's a quote from Jason:

jasonrohrer wrote:

I think that weird editing mode is an important part of the feel of the game. It also allows you to interact with your own family a bit, and poke around as if you actually live there (as you inspect damage, etc.)
In general, you have to face the realities of building something (you can't box yourself in, paint yourself into a corner, etc.) You can't cross open pits. A pain, but it's all consistent, at least.

joshwithguitar · 2013-11-07 00:39:14

Thanks whoever made this sticky!

And thanks for the question ukuko! I'll add it.

I'll also add something about chills as they are a little confusing.

jere · 2013-11-07 06:49:19

Q. How do I get more money?

A. Several ways, only one of which is easy:

Lure robbers deep within your house and have them killed. By doing so, you will be awarded bounty money and you'll get any tools that were being carried.
Reach someone else's vault. You will receive all tools and/or money stored there.
Break into someone else's house and kill their wife. You will get any money she is carrying.
Hit the 'Suicide' button to receive a fresh $2000.

iceman · 2013-11-10 21:20:43

Here's a couple of questions that I'd like to know as a new player:

1. What decides if a vault is "Broken" or not? I've robbed houses that have damage in them, the family isn't dead, and the vault is still robbable, but others have broken vaults, despite the house still having money.

2. Do tools in your vault show up as money to others in the neighborhood?

EDIT: I've also been wondering this:
3. How heartless are you when you kill someone's wife? I've been waiting for someone to try & die in my funhouse home for me to get money, but the $90 gain I'd get from killing an undefended wife is getting more and more tempting...

Last edited by iceman (2013-11-10 21:36:29)

joshwithguitar · 2013-11-11 07:01:29

iceman wrote:

Here's a couple of questions that I'd like to know as a new player:
1. What decides if a vault is "Broken" or not? I've robbed houses that have damage in them, the family isn't dead, and the vault is still robbable, but others have broken vaults, despite the house still having money.
2. Do tools in your vault show up as money to others in the neighborhood?
EDIT: I've also been wondering this:
3. How heartless are you when you kill someone's wife? I've been waiting for someone to try & die in my funhouse home for me to get money, but the $90 gain I'd get from killing an undefended wife is getting more and more tempting...

1. A house can have broken elements and money in the vault (and so it is unbroken) for a number of reasons
- people have died in the house since it was robbed leaving bounty money/tools
- the owner has reactivated the house after it was robbed leaving parts of it damaged. Sometimes this can lead to an unbroken vault with $0 in it.
- the owner has made some money robbing while their house was broken.

As for broken vaults in houses that have money - the will be with the wife.

2. Yes, half the value of all tools in the vault is added to the value that is displayed.

3. This decision is really up to you.

Hope this helps!

Last edited by joshwithguitar (2013-11-11 07:04:24)

largestherb · 2013-11-11 12:08:25

if there is a $90 profit to be made, take them out clubbing!

joshwithguitar · 2013-11-14 18:03:13

I just added a question at the start to let all those who haven't played for a while but have returned due to Jason's invite know what major changes to expect.

If you haven't played for a while and feel I've missed anything or are confused about something let me know and I'll update it.

jasonrohrer · 2013-11-15 19:06:49

Good stuff, Josh!

ZenRose · 2013-11-16 21:36:36

I have a few questions and this seem like the most appropriate place to ask them:

1) Tools:
a) Do the tool that failed robbers abandon, that are then in my vault, get stolen when someone robs my vault?
b) Do the tools in my vault show up as part of the house value that is displayed in the hose selection page? If yes do they display at sell value of purchase price?
c) If I put tools in my backpack and then log off do they stay in my backpack or do they go back into my vault as I don't use them / lose them to rob a house?

2) Money:
What value does the wife carry and when is it changed/updated?

3) Paintings:
a) How are they stolen from other players houses?
b) How does the periodic price decrease work?
c) Do they show up as part of the house value?
d) All I know about paintings is that they can be purchased at auction and are displayed at house entrances. Is there anything else I need to know about them that impacts gameplay one way or another?

Thank-you for the FAQ updates thus far.

ZenRose · 2013-11-16 21:52:12

I thought of another important class of information that I am woefully ignorant of.

Building and replacing objects:
When I go back and edit my house I am not credited money when I remove an object but I seem to not be charged if I replace it somewhere else. Is this the correct interpretation of the house behaviour? As far as I can tell I can replace sleeping dogs with wake dogs for no cost too. Are there any other wrinkles that I need to know about?

iceman · 2013-11-16 22:06:46

I'll try to answer some of your questions. I'm not sure about the tools, although for 1b I know that your tools show up as part of your house value as their sale price. So, if you have $0 in your vault, but two Waters, you'd show up as having $100.

2. I believe this question was recently answered here - see #3 and the next couple of posts.

3.a. When you reach a house's safe, you steal ALL of the paintings they own
b. Every 3 minutes , the price of every painting goes down for all players. The more expensive it is, the more it goes down. That means that a painting that's at $92 might not go down every 3 minutes, while a paintings that over $1000 might go down several dollars each update.
c. Paintings do NOT add to your house value
d. Paintings cannot change the game in any way (except for encouraging players to steal a nice painting they like)

4. Any mobile house tile (pets, shotgun, and panic button) can be moved anywhere without cost (by deleting one and placing another). All other tiles can be removed and replaced IN THE SAME SPOT for free, but if you place a new tile somewhere it will always cost something, even if you removed the same tile somewhere else. Like you said, sleeping dogs count as awake dogs when you're editing, as they will wake up during the self test.

jasonrohrer · 2013-11-18 18:56:43

Backpack is returned to your vault if you haven't been active in the game for 5+ minutes (like, you load up your backpack and then quit the game). So, you can't hide tools in your backpack when you logout.

When a robber dies in your house, all the tools they have left in their backpack go into your vault. They are then able to be stolen by someone else who reaches your vault.

ZenRose · 2013-11-19 09:46:33

Thank-you for your fantastic answers to all my questions. :-)

I do have another question though.

My understanding was that if I take tools with me when I rob any house they will be forfeit if I leave without robbing the place. If I get to the vault I keep my tools I think. Now to the story and question. If you go to rob a house and immediately back out (1 step total) do you lose your tools? I thought yes but the tapes from the most recent robbery attempt on my house say no. Someone came to my house with a gun then left, taking 1 step total. I gleefully checked my vault and found no gun there. Is this a bug or a feature?

Thanks again.

joshwithguitar · 2013-11-19 17:39:27

ZenRose: The only way tools go into the house vault after a robbery is if the robber dies. In all other situations, including if the vault is reached, any tools left in the backpack are permanently removed from the game. This prevents the easy transfer of assets between people holding multiple accounts.

ZenRose · 2013-11-20 10:33:53

Woah, okay. That is an interesting fix to the problem of multiple accounts boosting each other. Thanks. I totally misunderstood that mechanic.

jasonrohrer · 2013-11-20 10:41:06

Thematically, when you run out the door, your tools are dumped in the street.

When you die in the house, your tools remain in that house and are added to the vault.

When you reach the vault, you empty your backpack to make room for the loot, and your tools evaporate into thin air. You may think this is strange, but that's only because you haven't actually tried it in real life.

Gimpy_Weasel · 2013-11-20 14:05:00

jasonrohrer wrote:

When you reach the vault, you empty your backpack to make room for the loot, and your tools evaporate into thin air. You may think this is strange, but that's only because you haven't actually tried it in real life.

It's true. In my younger and less-wise days whenever we would be making room in our packs after a big score, ALL THE TOOLS WOULD VANISH. Creepy stuff.

Zalethon · 2014-01-22 19:28:27

Is there a way to discover your own current name without just asking someone to look up your specific value?

DethBringa · 2014-01-22 19:35:58

There is a reason you can't see your own name. I wondered about the same thing originally but its made that way for a good reason.

Zalethon · 2014-01-22 19:37:21

I understand, then. But what's the reason? Other than to thwart alt abuse, but you can identify yourself pretty easily anyway if you have an alt...

DethBringa · 2014-01-22 21:10:29

Not just alt's, friends too. It doesn't stop it completely but makes it at least a little harder to be exploited.

jasonrohrer · 2014-01-23 12:33:33

That was the main motivation for it.

But also, thematically, there's this:

http://thecastledoctrine.net/forums/vie … php?id=408

The "otherness" aspect is amplified when you don't know how you yourself are being perceived by players in the game. You don't even know your own name, but they do, and vice versa.

SomeGuyNamedDavid · 2014-01-26 17:08:31

Q. What's that symbol in my tapes list?

A. The Japanese symbol for death. A tape marked with this symbol is one in which the robber dies at the end, the dollar value shown indicating the bounty you claimed. For any tape without this symbol, a dollar value indicates the amount of money that was stolen from you.
Also, I lied, it's just a skull. The kanji isn't real either, I made it because that's what I saw at first. The closest I found was 舌, which means tongue.
side-by-side comparison

Cabnormal · 2014-01-27 17:23:50

SomeGuyNamedDavid wrote:

Q. What's that symbol in my tapes list?
A. The Japanese symbol for death. A tape marked with this symbol is one in which the robber dies at the end, the dollar value shown indicating the bounty you claimed. For any tape without this symbol, a dollar value indicates the amount of money that was stolen from you.
Also, I lied, it's just a skull. The kanji isn't real either, I made it because that's what I saw at first. The closest I found was 舌, which means tongue.
http://s5.postimg.org/9vwgmmy9z/Untitled2.png

oh cool, thought it was a simple 8-bit skull

Q: The white number is how many steps, so what does the red number next to peoples name who have been in my house mean?
A: The kill score of your current house design

Last edited by Cabnormal (2014-01-27 17:24:45)

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