The Castle Doctrine Forums

Warboys

Member

Registered: 2013-08-07

Posts: 1

My first evening in Castle Doctrine in a nutshell

Hey guys,

I bought Castle Doctrine after hearing about it in a Gamasutra article and watching the trailer earlier today. I love the idea and watched a Let's Play which was great fun... but then I played the game

That picture pretty much summarizes my whole experience. There were around 10 houses available for me to steal from, 7/10 had Pitbulls just outside the entrance so there was no point, the other 3/10 were like the picture above... how does that guy complete his level without tools? There are only 2 ways to go and they're both blocked.

Am I taking crazy pills or is there no way for a person to get over the pit or the open trap doors?

Back home, I have only $2000 which isn't enough to build any sort of cool system with electronics and all that jazz. In fact, I got so bored with the house building that I just abandoned it and kept reviving to try and rob people with cooler systems than mine.

Does it get better or is this just teething pains?

colorfusion

Member

Registered: 2013-04-02

Posts: 537

Re: My first evening in Castle Doctrine in a nutshell

Getting started is definitely hard at the moment with the way things work. It does get better once you get enough money, but houses like this are still a problem.

The way it works is you have a dog following you. Behind walls where you can't see it this dog will be walking over switches. If you dance in the right pattern then this dog will toggle all the switches on, let power through the steel walls, and power all the trap doors so you can walk over them to the vault.

I'm hoping in the next version or so Jason might do something to nerf these houses a bit, since pretty much all you can do at the moment is use tools to get over them.

Last edited by colorfusion (2013-08-07 13:58:16)

bey bey

Member

Registered: 2013-04-20

Posts: 386

Re: My first evening in Castle Doctrine in a nutshell

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.

---

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: My first evening in Castle Doctrine in a nutshell

how is that house possible without tools?

http://castlefortify.com/c/181e88f

there is most likely a cat at the bottom of the first tunnel, the cat will scamper off once it sees you. you will have to perform a traditional rain dance in order for the spirits to guide you across the bridge.

bey bey

Member

Registered: 2013-04-20

Posts: 386

Re: My first evening in Castle Doctrine in a nutshell

That thing kind of looks like the cat skeedaddleing up top will do it, so you'll have to dance back and forth somewhere down there a few times until the exact step when the cat breaks the circuit to the powered floor. Looks like that.

More interestingly, cutting to the safe is possible for 3.5k, which isn't a lot considering the house cost ten times that.

---

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

Cent

Member

Registered: 2013-07-25

Posts: 41

Re: My first evening in Castle Doctrine in a nutshell

Also, if you see no clear path at all, that means this guys family is dead already. He pays a big price for having no path like that.

jasonrohrer

Administrator

Registered: 2013-04-01

Posts: 1,235

Re: My first evening in Castle Doctrine in a nutshell

Unfortunately, it really depends on who is playing the game at the moment and what kind of houses they are building.

Right now (a few days later), I see 15 houses on the list, some of which look pretty interesting to poke around in.

Part of the problem is that "easier" houses get robbed very quickly and taken off the list, so over time, there's a tendency for only hard houses to remain.