Hightower mansion

eppfel · 2015-02-09 11:17:23

I mean for 2k you get almost half of the schematics with 1 explosive and some meats. I used 1 explosive, 1 gun and 14 meats for mapping the schematics. It's maybe not a 2k flaw in a sense of being solvable for just 2k, but it's still a big flaw.

iceman · 2015-02-09 13:01:43

mala wrote:

exception made for the bottom right part, it's the same map i have, still can't see a possible 2k flaw

You can use C4 to blast into the combo lock wiring, and can see about a third of it. I was able to scout everything for $3800. On top of that, once you explore that room you can brute force it extremely easily, since the wiring leads straight to the safe, with only 1 trapdoor (and a whole lot of dogs) in between.

(Here's my map- every empty space in the wire room has a dog.)

I'm guessing Davidson finally realized we had the code, tried to change it, and ended up killing himself (like how it happens to all of us). The really weird thing is why there was that flaw in the first place. I mean, without even reducing all the unnecessary wiring in that room, you could just move the two "latches" on the left side to the right to fill in the hole in the concrete, and there wouldn't be any danger of changing and possibly messing up the wiring. I dunno, maybe he just never expected to be the top house.

EDIT: Oops, didn't realize eppfel had already explained the flaw on the next page.

Last edited by iceman (2015-02-09 13:02:58)

eppfel · 2015-02-09 16:25:26

iceman wrote:

The really weird thing is why there was that flaw in the first place. I mean, without even reducing all the unnecessary wiring in that room, you could just move the two "latches" on the left side to the right to fill in the hole in the concrete, and there wouldn't be any danger of changing and possibly messing up the wiring. I dunno, maybe he just never expected to be the top house.

I saw an early version and it had pits instead of the wiring all the way up. So I guess he just changed this part, because he did not seem to active to me.

AMWhy · 2015-02-09 17:32:17

I've just been doing a few Santa runs. So
Few houses!

mala · 2015-02-09 20:23:27

i'm still planning.
i won't build an house because right now i have plenty of things to do (and i'm unsatisfied of my design) so i won't have the time to manage it, and i know you're hungry

but don't worry, i'll be back soon, this game is too addictive to me

Last edited by mala (2015-02-09 20:24:01)

JAAM · 2015-02-11 16:05:27

Ehh So i took another look today, many new houses, poor designs, I deduced a guys entire magic dance just from what i've found to be easy to put together. The only place i slipped up was 1 step that i should have known to be a false move (could not have possibly worked under the set up)

I enjoy a good dance but some of them are easy to crack, most if not all are as easy as 2 forward 1 back and so on and so forth, sloppy wire placement also makes it easy to identify as you can see which buttons are the kill switches. however a single wire at the very end is very secure and also reveals none of the dance mechanics. now that i'm talking i guess i might go build a 2k dance thats safe and secure.

well as i was writing this i went and built it has $200 and rather poor defenses. Easily upgradable to become quite strong though. The dance is not hard but very long. Biggest problem is the walls, and for little more than a few hundred it can be broken, thankfully unless someone wants to burst in and wreck stuff for the fun of it, there will be no gain to brute forcing the place for a very long time...

Last edited by JAAM (2015-02-11 16:07:01)

mala · 2015-02-11 18:05:21

JAAM wrote:

Ehh So i took another look today, many new houses, poor designs, I deduced a guys entire magic dance just from what i've found to be easy to put together. The only place i slipped up was 1 step that i should have known to be a false move (could not have possibly worked under the set up)
I enjoy a good dance but some of them are easy to crack, most if not all are as easy as 2 forward 1 back and so on and so forth, sloppy wire placement also makes it easy to identify as you can see which buttons are the kill switches. however a single wire at the very end is very secure and also reveals none of the dance mechanics. now that i'm talking i guess i might go build a 2k dance thats safe and secure.

well as i was writing this i went and built it has $200 and rather poor defenses. Easily upgradable to become quite strong though. The dance is not hard but very long. Biggest problem is the walls, and for little more than a few hundred it can be broken, thankfully unless someone wants to burst in and wreck stuff for the fun of it, there will be no gain to brute forcing the place for a very long time...

with a good setup a simple dace can be a cash cow.

JAAM · 2015-02-11 18:14:10

Yeah had someone bust through and take a look but after gathering a few tools i upgraded and changed the code, lol some of that wiring is so sloppy and confusing though i don't think they took it in all the way, now sitting at 1K with hopes of keeping it over the night.

iceman · 2015-02-11 18:22:00

Gah, I started a house only to fall to a wife pincer trap

Pseudo-edit: Hahaha, now I just managed to guess a 8 bit combo lock on the first try.

JAAM · 2015-02-11 18:48:37

so im still looking oveer the davison house not understanding, what was all that wiring? definitly not the standard combo lock im used to, is that one of those memory type things that has to be turned on in a certain order? and if so wold someone care to explain it in a bit more detail?

mala · 2015-02-11 20:24:16

JAAM wrote:

so im still looking oveer the davison house not understanding, what was all that wiring? definitly not the standard combo lock im used to, is that one of those memory type things that has to be turned on in a certain order? and if so wold someone care to explain it in a bit more detail?

i guess iceman and eppfel can explain the details, but yes, it's an order based combo lock.

and if my memory is good, the tutorial about ordered combo locks was written by icemen himself.

JAAM · 2015-02-11 20:47:16

and i died in a self test derping around with that thing...

i hadn't armed it but another part of my house and forgot to just leave it be. oh well....

The ordered concept is very cool though and i feel like i should start implementing that system in my modular designs giving the illusion of freedom while instead forcing the user to progress in a very strange pattern. A combo lock hidden within a more diabolical design... now if i can just reduce the size of everything by 3X

Last edited by JAAM (2015-02-11 20:50:27)

iceman · 2015-02-12 12:52:20

mala wrote:

i guess iceman and eppfel can explain the details, but yes, it's an order based combo lock.
and if my memory is good, the tutorial about ordered combo locks was written by icemen himself.

Nah, that was Blip. Here's the tutorial if you want to look at that, but I'll explain Davidson's lock.

Here's an image with all of the wires highlighted, so you can follow what they power easily:

First of all, a quick note. The circuits that I circled in green are called "latches"- once they receive power, they never stop producing power, and they're really the key to combo locks.

Now, back to the buttons. There are two really important buttons- the fifth and the first. You'll notice that the fifth (colored red) is the most straightforward. It winds back and forth, but it never branches off anywhere- it goes straight to cutting the power to the grids. All of the other sets of wires just reach switches that affect power flowing along the red wire. The other most important button is the first, with the light blue wires. Pressing it will always power the latch in the top left, and (following the blue down) that latch will always provide power to the electric floors, cutting off the robber.

Before we start following power flowing along the red wire, we need to notice one more thing. All of the cool colors (light blue, dark blue, and purple) are actually connected. That means that dark blue and purple (the second and last buttons) also have the chance to power the latch in the top left, making it impossible to unpower the electric floors. The only thing preventing that from happening is the inverted switch connected to orange (the fourth button). Once orange is pressed, dark blue and purple can no longer reach the latch. So, we know that 4 *has* to be pressed before 2 or 6.

Now we can trace the red wire and solve the combo lock. You'll notice there are two latches along it, A and B. They essentially serve as "checkpoints"- once power reaches it and turns it on, you can cut off the power behind it without any worries. That means that essentially 3 "stages" we have to get the power through: Start to A, A to B, and B to the end.

Start to A: There are 3 switches that can block power from getting to A, but only if dark blue, yellow, or orange are pressed. If red is pressed first, A is powered, and we're through that stage.
Code: 5????

A to B: Following the wire, we see that Dark Blue, Orange, and Yellow have to be powered for the power to reach B. Remember, orange has to be pressed before dark blue, but yellow doesn't affect anything else. So, the next 3 buttons can either be 423, 432, or 342.
Code: 5423?

B to End: There's only one switch that has to be pressed before the power can reach the end- purple. Press it, and we're done!
Code: 54236

Just one more quick note- if you do make a ordered combo lock, be careful not to make redundancies- they take up space! In Davidson's lock, light blue blocks power getting from A to B; which is pointless, because light blue already makes power reaching the end of red useless! Similarly, purple blocks power getting from A to B in 2 different spots (right branch and straight down)- obviously, only one is needed. (Although dark blue is seemingly also connected to that switch at the far right, its right branch actually cuts off power from reaching there, not to mention orange's two switches).

Anyways, I hope that helped you understand how Davidson's lock worked! Good luck on your future iterations of it

eppfel · 2015-02-12 16:32:33

Wow, iceman. That is detail. I used bottom-up to decipher the wiring. So which switches have to be triggered and which not. And then which button excludes another...

From the house list I enjoyed Mitchell very much. Saw that two dogs behind glas and a door before. Whose is it?

Jaam, i guess your house is the one with the trapdoor on the first step and a long electric floor? Your name is Trussel

Last edited by eppfel (2015-02-12 16:33:07)

gyuri · 2015-02-12 17:36:02

eppfel wrote:

From the house list I enjoyed Mitchell very much. Saw that two dogs behind glas and a door before. Whose is it?

That's mine, I always do the same thing with slight variations when I find some money but don't have a plan... I just started playing a couple of days ago after a longer break, found a very easy wife with 5k and had to come up with a house...

I just watched the tapes, it definitely looked like a map hack or someone with a very good memory... I thought it was AMWhy.

Yesterday someone robbed me with a ladder but left most of the money and the paintings in a starter house while robbing someone else, so I got it back without any effort. Now it takes much more ladders if you don't know the solution. I will have to build some new traps for players like you.

AMWhy · 2015-02-12 17:43:45

Not me, I've just been Santa running from time to time. I'm still thinking about a new house. Although I did have a house a while back along that description... Several, actually!

JAAM · 2015-02-12 18:02:43

Wow thanks for those descriptions, very helpful. guess im gonna spend the rest of my night trying to make those as compact as physicly possible because i never really plan these things out properly...

AMWhy · 2015-02-12 21:29:01

Ah, Mitchell! Gyuri, yes I do recognise and remember your house. The lower part is different and I'm going to have to think to work that out, but the top left part: I'd recognise that anywhere!

Last edited by AMWhy (2015-02-13 01:36:14)

JAAM · 2015-02-14 12:07:14

woot woot have the first of 4 sections up feel free to poke around in it currently at 2100$ (This version of the section is 100% 2K proof while i gather funds for the other sections). A rather simple dance i built this first to hopefully earn enough to build the other sections before finalizing the place! Also, I do feel bad about asking this but would someone take care of the kids begging at my doorstep for money? they are becoming worrisome.

If you want to take a look without entirely risking it all, you can blast the concrete wall open to enter without having the trap door open, i left that in as a cheaper way to scout while letting 2K's only make 2 runs (2nd traps them)

Last edited by JAAM (2015-02-14 12:24:33)

JAAM · 2015-02-14 12:41:40

Hmm just had a nice big oll look around for paintings seeing as most are 1-25$ and it would appear that my sarsaparillas are missing, anyone have info?

JAAM · 2015-02-14 22:23:12

Slightly disappointed in Mclain... decided he wanted to rob me so he used 3500 (half price) to entirely wreck the place and rob my 3300

Proper repairs will cost right around 1100 so i would be grateful for any homeless santas...

The Castle Doctrine Forums

#101 2015-02-09 11:17:23

Re: Hightower mansion

#102 2015-02-09 13:01:43

Re: Hightower mansion

#103 2015-02-09 16:25:26

Re: Hightower mansion

#104 2015-02-09 17:32:17

Re: Hightower mansion

#105 2015-02-09 20:23:27

Re: Hightower mansion

#106 2015-02-11 16:05:27

Re: Hightower mansion

#107 2015-02-11 18:05:21

Re: Hightower mansion

#108 2015-02-11 18:14:10

Re: Hightower mansion

#109 2015-02-11 18:22:00

Re: Hightower mansion

#110 2015-02-11 18:48:37

Re: Hightower mansion

#111 2015-02-11 20:24:16

Re: Hightower mansion

#112 2015-02-11 20:47:16

Re: Hightower mansion

#113 2015-02-12 12:52:20

Re: Hightower mansion

#114 2015-02-12 16:32:33

Re: Hightower mansion

#115 2015-02-12 17:36:02

Re: Hightower mansion

#116 2015-02-12 17:43:45

Re: Hightower mansion

#117 2015-02-12 18:02:43

Re: Hightower mansion

#118 2015-02-12 21:29:01

Re: Hightower mansion

#119 2015-02-14 12:07:14

Re: Hightower mansion

#120 2015-02-14 12:41:40

Re: Hightower mansion

#121 2015-02-14 22:23:12

Re: Hightower mansion

Board footer