The Castle Doctrine Forums

Pandamonium

Member

Registered: 2014-02-10

Posts: 123

Re: So much wrong with this game

I don't want to chime into this argument here about game design and making a point, but I do want to talk about the self test itself.

• I do feel that the actual self test should be perma-death, It's part of the game's theme, if you wire a shotgun to the front door, and forget to flick the safety before "self testing" in real life, you'd be dead. It's game game death, not your real life, so I find it fine.

• I also feel that "swapping" out all pitbulls for chiwawas, and electric floor for orange lights, and doors/p.pits for green lights is very slow going. If would be nice if there was a "replace all" button - "replace all with safe version" button?
  I mean, yes, the undo button helps us "automate" the reverting of changes... If we forget to go back to danger mode, then it's our fault.

Storm

Member

Registered: 2014-02-09

Posts: 101

Re: So much wrong with this game

2.- It's outrageous that you can die trying your own home. I just spent more than an hour building a macro complex only to die on it while trying, and it's not the first time it happens; it's the fifth. Can you imagine how I feel when that happens?

um... dumb?

monkey

Member

Registered: 2014-02-12

Posts: 50

Re: So much wrong with this game

I don't want to chime into this argument here about game design and making a point, but I do want to talk about the self test itself.

• I do feel that the actual self test should be perma-death, It's part of the game's theme, if you wire a shotgun to the front door, and forget to flick the safety before "self testing" in real life, you'd be dead. It's game game death, not your real life, so I find it fine.

• I also feel that "swapping" out all pitbulls for chiwawas, and electric floor for orange lights, and doors/p.pits for green lights is very slow going. If would be nice if there was a "replace all" button - "replace all with safe version" button?
  I mean, yes, the undo button helps us "automate" the reverting of changes... If we forget to go back to danger mode, then it's our fault.

My opinion here is that most of the complaints I keep reading could be avoided by the addition of a test mode.

Not the self test run for validation, it is absolutely right that the validation run should be potentially lethal, but there should also be a mode where you can test the lethality of your traps, or practice your self test run, or experiment with fringe conditions and movement order without having to restart from scratch for each lesson learned.

Indicators and chihuahuas don't cut it, and a "replace all" shortcut is not really an option for anyone who uses chihuahuas or indicators in their designs.

In 99% of my test runs (ie: while the house is still a work in progress) I have no intention of touching the safe and validating. The house design itself gets all out of shape because I have to constantly build, remove and rebuild shortcuts back to the entrance from each area under development. And i still have no idea, there is simply no way to test... if I place the shotgun just *here* and the corner *here* will my wife surprise the robber, or the other way around?

When learning, with so many of the conditions, especially with interactions between of pets, or order of operation of electronics, the only way to test is to die and start over from scratch.

I'm really only posting this in the hope that maybe a modder would like to pick up the idea, but my suggestion is a test mode, like a self test, but you cannot validate your house this way, and you can go into it with the intention of seeing your lethal traps in action. Maybe have the whole screen in green and black monochrome, to show that it is a "simulation."

Also, for "test mode" it would be handy to be able to take $2000 worth of simulated tools. Imagine the improvements you'd see in house designs!