Lucky Escapes

RockyBst · 2014-01-28 15:30:22

To go with the wacky deaths thread, how about lucky escapes? The moment you get that sinking feeling after you made a rookie error, only to fluke your way out of it by the skin of your teeth?

I just had two in very quick succession.

Firstly, making a couple of tweaks to my house. I think I may have replaced an pressure pad (starts on) with a pressure pad (starts off) near the start. 150 odd steps into the self test, with a pitbull one step behind me, suddenly the six electric grids in front of me light up. Must have sat there for a good two minutes, bemoaning the loss of my house. Luckily it wasn't a sticking pressure plate, and the pitbull actually saved me!

A few minutes later, still a bit shaken, I decided to pop my head in to a house in the $1,200 region to check it out. Saw a powered door, ignored it and went upwards. To find a couple of steps later a recessed window which was cleverly hidden in the shroud. Instantly the door sprang to mind, and I ran to the entrance. Yup, pitbull.

Luckily the guy has miscalculated, it was an odd number of spaces away. I managed to escape thanks to the one club I always put in my backpack for wife beating duties. One more pitbull, or having it start another space back, and this lucky guy would have gotten to $30,000 odd bounty that's currently sitting on my head.

I think I might stop fiddling with castle doctrine for a while, before my luck runs out.

Zalethon · 2014-01-28 15:51:58

I was self-testing a few days ago. My house included a hidden dog-based commit gate, and well past that a two-dog faith gate. (A gate where you have to have two dogs following you to get through, and have faith that it will work...)

The two dogs were included separately from the commit gate, but somehow when I was editing at one point I forgot to include the first one. So when I rounded the corner to get it to follow me, and it wasn't there, my heart skipped a beat! I was past the commit gate, and I couldn't pass the faith gate.

But when I went to see if I could find a flaw in my commit gate to escape, I realized I could just use that dog as the second dog... I'm glad I didn't just commit suicide on the spot.

Last edited by Zalethon (2014-01-28 15:52:27)

Blip · 2014-01-28 16:37:40

I was working on revising my house, and, on my final self test, took one step too many down a passage and saw the electric floors down the passage I needed to go light up. I knew that I would die, because their was an angry pit bull waiting by the entrance. I ended up deciding that, as I would die anyway, I would try a leap of faith onto the floors, hoping beyond hope that I had accidentally used a non-sticking switch. I stepped forward, my hard shaking as I pressed the key. And... the floors turned off. I was through.

I proceeded with the rest of my trap only to realize that the pits at the end were disconnected to the power source they were intended for due to an error, and I was locked in. Again, I tried another crazy, hail mary maneuver to get back. My plan was to kill the pit bull waiting at the entrance with electric floors from that first trap. It would have worked... but because of the way I circumvented the previous trap, I was greeted with a snarling and completely alive pit bull on my way to the door. Goodbye, me. You didn't have anything to live for, anyway.

iceman · 2014-01-28 18:12:50

Here's the new and old versions of the house mentioned in this escape:
http://castledraft.com/editor/l1UoDI
http://castledraft.com/editor/zewPy6

About 1 day before the end of the Contest, I did a 40k robbery, leaving me at 80k, about $100 IRL at that time. I did major renovations, and then went in the self test. It started out normally, and then I almost stepped into a unpowered trapdoor - one that was supposed to be powered. Knowing I did everything right, I still went back and double checked the power switches to it - they were all down. Then, I realized what I had done- I had removed the power supply to improve my wife defences, which meant that the trapdoor's power lines were connected to a pit. I thought I was dead, and that I didn't have any hope of making it back that far, since the contest was almost over.

Suddenly, I remembered - to make protect the wiring for the chihuahua trap near the top middle, I had changed the old wiring for my entrance to the top area. I didn't want the switch to seem useless, so I had actually rerouted it to come in contact with the wired walls to the right of it - the ones that would provide power to the trapdoor! I was sure I had discovered my way to the safe, but I quickly realized that it wouldn't work - to provide power to that switch, I would need to trigger a doggie commit gate that would prevent me from getting to the bottom of my house. I went through all the possible options to get past the dog, knowing that I had designed my house to make that impossible without tools. I was about to log onto the forums to announce my death before going through one of my death traps to at least kill the dog when I thought of that pit, right above the dog, but behind a window. If I could get into the room to the right of the pit, and if the dog was far enough away, and if dog movements worked a certain way... he would jump in the pit, letting me to my safe!

The only obstacle left was getting into the room - to do that, I had to press a series of buttons, but at the same time as a magic dance that would prevent a pitbull from eating me on my way out. I had no idea if there actually was a solution, though - it was part of a way to a possible safe hiding spot that I had never made sure worked. It was my only hope, though, so I studied my record of the switches, prayed that dog movement worked the way I thought it would, and put my plan into action - and it worked!!!!

And that's the story how the three sections of my house, that I intended to be completely different solutions to different safe hiding areas, came together in an amazing way to give me a way out

The Castle Doctrine Forums

#1 2014-01-28 15:30:22

Lucky Escapes

#2 2014-01-28 15:51:58

Re: Lucky Escapes

#3 2014-01-28 16:37:40

Re: Lucky Escapes

#4 2014-01-28 18:12:50

Re: Lucky Escapes

Board footer