The Castle Doctrine Forums

dalleck

Member

Registered: 2013-04-13

Posts: 250

The many ways we play The Castle Doctrine

So I recently became a bit bored with seriously building houses since v9 came out.
I am now finding it that I prefer to just rob houses in this latest version.

I have made a few houses, and really did try to have a bit of a puzzle there, but it just didn't seem worth the trouble in the end, and felt more like 'decorating' than setting a method to solve your house. So I finding it more engaging to play it as a suicidal-robber style game than as a house-keeper game, becoming attached to your house is a very foolish notion now, it seems.

Recently, I have started playing a style (suicidal robber) where I spend all my starting money on tools, then rob a random house on the list.  If I manage to break it, I then spend all my winnings on a run with more tools until I finally meet my end.  It is actually great fun to play this way, and I would love to see a variant of this tried on the 2nd (perma-perma-death) server, where players are basically suicidal robbers thrown into a random house each time.

Are most people house-keepers here?  How does everyone else play at the moment?

Last edited by dalleck (2013-06-19 08:43:07)

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The rich aren't safe. Nobody is safe. -jere                   ...but the smell wafts out from the pit, obviously. - Jason Rohrer

And the more dickish they are, the more I feel like beating a house to destruction after finally figuring it out. -bey bey

bey bey

Member

Registered: 2013-04-20

Posts: 386

Re: The many ways we play The Castle Doctrine

Well, I've done both. I did enjoy my suicidal-robber-stints, but somehow the "Evil Genius"-type house design gets me at some point and then it's no longer an option, obviously. 

Yet I know the feeling with v9, especially if one has been vandalised early after release. I'll keep my current house repaired (the pillar-cellar-one) for now if it gets broken again, but I'm not really attached to it and I also wouldn't build a new one (nor would I feel any need to cross other people's concrete-block-trapdoor-corridors for any reason). A good house in v9 is neither fun to play nor at least a puzzle to ponder. I'd say my house works nicely as a puzzle, maybe I'll just post the castlefortify here so people can solve it instead of bringing 30 ladders to the party.

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In fact you can be batman.
(if he robbed houses and murdered families.) - Dalleck

colorfusion

Member

Registered: 2013-04-02

Posts: 537

Re: The many ways we play The Castle Doctrine

I normally play that way until I get a large amount of money from robbing a high up house, then build a house and rob less dangerous cheaper houses to get money and expand.

Last edited by colorfusion (2013-06-19 09:35:28)

dalleck

Member

Registered: 2013-04-13

Posts: 250

Re: The many ways we play The Castle Doctrine

Well, I've done both. I did enjoy my suicidal-robber-stints, but somehow the "Evil Genius"-type house design gets me at some point and then it's no longer an option, obviously. 

Yet I know the feeling with v9, especially if one has been vandalised early after release. I'll keep my current house repaired (the pillar-cellar-one) for now if it gets broken again, but I'm not really attached to it and I also wouldn't build a new one (nor would I feel any need to cross other people's concrete-block-trapdoor-corridors for any reason). A good house in v9 is neither fun to play nor at least a puzzle to ponder. I'd say my house works nicely as a puzzle, maybe I'll just post the castlefortify here so people can solve it instead of bringing 30 ladders to the party.

I just suicide ran your place and managed to complete the ladder path started by others to you backdoor switches.  Now that I had a substantial amount of money I have had to invest it into a *sigh* house.  However, I pretty much built pits as they aren't very tempting to vandalise.

I normally play that way until I get a large amount of money from robbing a high up house, then build a house and rob less dangerous cheaper houses to get money and expand.

Yeah at some point when you have a huge bunch of money you need to plonk it into a house, that of course is the natural unfolding of the game.  I am not saying house building has lost its appeal, but that it somehow simply feels less important than it used to.

Something I have also noticed is watching tapes feels much less satisfying than before.  Now we watch robbers take out house apart piece by piece and always kill our dogs.

Before I would be quite excited to see a playback, now though, it feels a little like self-torture

Last edited by dalleck (2013-06-19 09:43:47)

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The rich aren't safe. Nobody is safe. -jere                   ...but the smell wafts out from the pit, obviously. - Jason Rohrer

And the more dickish they are, the more I feel like beating a house to destruction after finally figuring it out. -bey bey

bey bey

Member

Registered: 2013-04-20

Posts: 386

Re: The many ways we play The Castle Doctrine

Can't have been my house, that's still intact and has no switches in the back . I have the black&white gallery w/ the Ali fight photograph etc. If somebody copied my house (one person made it to the safe once) I'd be interested in knowing who what and how. There's only about 400 cash in my house at the moment since I just packed lots of stuff in the backpack to be able to afford repairs when the inevitable happens, so probably not the most interesting target for ladder-attacks.

And you're right about the trapdoors / pits and vandalism, even though it is rather odd that a squeaky green ladder being placed atop one cannot be simply chucked away but requires building of a new trapdoor. The poor pit is probably irreparably traumatized for such cruel a laddering.

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In fact you can be batman.
(if he robbed houses and murdered families.) - Dalleck

ukuko

Member

Registered: 2013-04-06

Posts: 334

Re: The many ways we play The Castle Doctrine

A good house in v9 is neither fun to play nor at least a puzzle to ponder. I'd say my house works nicely as a puzzle, maybe I'll just post the castlefortify here so people can solve it instead of bringing 30 ladders to the party.

Without a blueprint it's just not worth solving any 'hidden information' houses. By the time you've cut your way into the gubbins you may as well push on to the vault!

The problem with making 'solvable' puzzle houses (where the information needed to work out the house is visible to the player without any tools) is they're very easy to die on during self tests.

bey bey

Member

Registered: 2013-04-20

Posts: 386

Re: The many ways we play The Castle Doctrine

This is why I tend to make it so that it is easily verifiable from the safe side if everything has worked out as I planned. I had one house where things tended to go wrong and I build it twice or even three times over usually getting eaten by my own bloody dogs....

I think that was it:
http://castlefortify.com/c/dcee2d5 (and it could also be solved by cutting with about 5 tools and starting money I think...)

Solution was to hit the nearest sticky to activate the circuit, then hit the counter 3 times so upper doggie doors are open and lower closed, then walk in front of the lower doors to get the doggies into the pen, then lower sticky (door master switch). Problem was that if the doggies got loose up there, they could reach the entrance-pen-opening switch before one could run around it to the entrance. And the Darwin award goes tooooo.....

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In fact you can be batman.
(if he robbed houses and murdered families.) - Dalleck

dalleck

Member

Registered: 2013-04-13

Posts: 250

Re: The many ways we play The Castle Doctrine

Can't have been my house, that's still intact and has no switches in the back

Ahh, well it was just similar to how you described the concrete+pits set up.  Another robber had had a good crack at it with explosives and ladders, but alas, he didn't quite reach.

I finished off his work and run away with the loot.

Last edited by dalleck (2013-06-19 10:34:57)

---

The rich aren't safe. Nobody is safe. -jere                   ...but the smell wafts out from the pit, obviously. - Jason Rohrer

And the more dickish they are, the more I feel like beating a house to destruction after finally figuring it out. -bey bey

ukuko

Member

Registered: 2013-04-06

Posts: 334

Re: The many ways we play The Castle Doctrine

Ooh. That's a fun one. Looks scary to self-test, though!

I seem to have a knack for sealing myself in my own tomb. I think it's my favourite method of failure — you really get to consider the ramifications before you finally hit the suicide button.

bey bey

Member

Registered: 2013-04-20

Posts: 386

Re: The many ways we play The Castle Doctrine

I went for a kind of underground cellar feel, it has a light triangle at the start pointing to the entrance. Somebody also once went for mine like that, but didn't have quite enough ladders and stopped about 4 short of the safe - bummer.

I actually enjoy the self-test for this eerie feel of walking through this cellar with an Indiana Jones feeling.

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In fact you can be batman.
(if he robbed houses and murdered families.) - Dalleck

colorfusion

Member

Registered: 2013-04-02

Posts: 537

Re: The many ways we play The Castle Doctrine

Something I have also noticed is watching tapes feels much less satisfying than before.  Now we watch robbers take out house apart piece by piece and always kill our dogs.

Before I would be quite excited to see a playback, now though, it feels a little like self-torture

I was feeling that. I've just set up a somewhat hidden commitment trap.
To me it's really no advantage as if they are running out of my house they would normally drop their tools anyway, but it's a lot more fun watching them get trapped and try to save themselves rather than just exiting.

I have the black&white gallery w/ the Ali fight photograph etc.

My personal goal with paintings, rather than getting a full set, is to snatch a single painting from each popular set just to be annoying.
Currently I have 3 and I'm aiming to get a 4th when its price comes down.

Last edited by colorfusion (2013-06-19 11:55:36)

bey bey

Member

Registered: 2013-04-20

Posts: 386

Re: The many ways we play The Castle Doctrine

My personal goal with paintings, rather than getting a full set, is to snatch a single painting from each popular set just to be annoying.
Currently I have 3 and I'm aiming to get a 4th when its price comes down.

HAHAHA, I really hope somebody is frantically biting their nails about how to get that missing piece of the set.

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In fact you can be batman.
(if he robbed houses and murdered families.) - Dalleck

bey bey

Member

Registered: 2013-04-20

Posts: 386

Re: The many ways we play The Castle Doctrine

By the way, does anybody else feel the urge to, at times, empty their own safe again to keep down the risk? (Say buy ten guns and dump them somewhere else etc.)

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In fact you can be batman.
(if he robbed houses and murdered families.) - Dalleck

Matrix

Member

Registered: 2013-04-06

Posts: 137

Re: The many ways we play The Castle Doctrine

By the way, does anybody else feel the urge to, at times, empty their own safe again to keep down the risk? (Say buy ten guns and dump them somewhere else etc.)

Sometimes. (There is no need to dump them somewhere else, you can just keep them.)

bey bey

Member

Registered: 2013-04-20

Posts: 386

Re: The many ways we play The Castle Doctrine

I know, I just feel bad about putting 30k in my backpack, so I just infuse some back into the game. I see it as compensation for how hard I laugh when somebody dies in my house. And somehow, after 30 tapes or so, it's rather funny to speed up tapes 4 times and watch them run around hitting switches like headless chicken.

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In fact you can be batman.
(if he robbed houses and murdered families.) - Dalleck

largestherb

Member

From: england

Registered: 2013-05-27

Posts: 381

Re: The many ways we play The Castle Doctrine

paintings!