The Castle Doctrine Forums

gumshoe

Member

Registered: 2013-08-18

Posts: 54

Combo locks? Anyone still care?

There seems to be this general notion that when the great steam train comes barreling through castle town all the games issues will just go away... I am not nearly as optimistic, previously sir Roher went to extreme lengths to curb the effectiveness of combo locks, this ended up merely hurting the game while leaving combo locks unscathed. And in response he and we just... gave up? Came to terms with the fact that combos gonna combo? Thats quite a depressing concession and it does no favours to this game. If 4000 people start emulating the current meta we will wind up with not a plethora of fascinating houses each more insidious in its design than the last. Ney, we shall have 4000 more combo locks instead. So at the very least we should keep brain storming.

The way I see it, there are two primary combo lock culprits, the cat on the mat across the pit, and the endless chain of wired walls leading to some complex network of electrical pathways.

For the matter of cats, hike the price of ladders (or dont) and make them reclaimable, this way using two ladders someone can cross any length of pits, this would still require a minimum of 3600 (more if you hike the price of ladders in accordance with the buff).

As for endless wired walls, why not put in a tool( hammer or something basic) made specifically to crush wired walls for 100? The walls would be somewhat hollow, so it makes sense that they'd be easier to crash through.

largestherb

Member

From: england

Registered: 2013-05-27

Posts: 381

Re: Combo locks? Anyone still care?

there is one house right now that looks like it is a dog dance and a combo lock at the same time.

the cost of tools make it so even a wooden fortress is pretty much impenetrable. combo locks can be brute forced, but you're going to need like $300,000 worth of tools to make sure you don't end up one crowbar short of victory, or whatever.

cost of building is pretty good right now, feels pretty balanced. cost of robbing is.. well.

i could always go back on my promise and lay waste to these impenetrable houses

jasonrohrer

Administrator

Registered: 2013-04-01

Posts: 1,235

Re: Combo locks? Anyone still care?

Changing tool prices, as far as I can tell, can't be used to combat combo locks without also combating other possible house designs.

What I saw in the past 5 or so revisions is that people can build the equivalent of some kind of combo lock no matter what.  And they can make it as expensive as possible to cut through, give the current costs of everything.  Change the costs, and what they will build will change slightly.  But there will always be a "hardest to cut through" house given whatever prices I set.

Even if there were nothing but wood walls and dogs, I think you could make a "combo lock" with it (a maze with only one right path that won't kill you, out of 1000s of possible paths).

The biggest problem was that a flagrant, boring, right-in-front-of-the-door combo lock was a viable strategy before, given the salary that would flow in no matter what.

Now, at least someone who does that won't be directly rewarded by the game.

And trust me, robberies are still happening a-plenty.  Thus, the ever-dwindling house list.  53 vaults were reached yesterday, for example.  So, I don't think that robbing has gotten too hard.  If it's too easy, the houses fall (and game content vanishes) faster than they are created.