05-03-2010, 04:10 AM
thank you for playing and testing my hard version of TC&TC.
Thank you for all the time you've obviously spent on it, and making it available. While i may have thought that it was a bit too hard for me in places, and that I did get frustrated, there's undoubtedly plenty of players far better, who are probably going to really enjoy this mansion. I can't speak for those players, though, just myself.
Complaint has such a negative connotation. ;-). I prefer to think of it as providing constructive feedback. It's all about perception, and consideration of difficulty is incredibly subjective. My perception is likely to be quite different from someone who has spent lots of painstaking time, carefully creating each room in the mansion. You know all of what is possible and what isn't within your mansion. I didn't. I try to avoid making value assessments, and try to offer suggestions where I have some, but I have no expectation that any opinion I offer will be acted upon in any way. My feedback is freely offered and its yours to consider or ignore as you decide. My hope is that it provides at least a little value
.
I'm sorry but I cannot reproduce this.
Darn. I never thought this had anything to do with you. For all I know, Vern may not even be able to do anything about it, but I did send him a more detailed email about it before I posted this. I was hoping that someone else might be able to get the same result, which I have no trouble duplicating. It may even be something to do with the configuration of my own machine. It's impossible to account for all environments and configurations.
But there IS a clue! When you get the 2 gold coins in the upper left you hear a sound indicating that something has appeared somewhere. And at that point there are not many places left to check - except the hidden area in the upper right - or behind the waterfall.
This is just my own personal prejudice about keys being hidden out of sight, with or without a tone (Incidentally, I normally disable the sound while playing, or play with my own playlist in the background, so this sort of clue is often lost on me, as it would be with someone with a hearing disability. I believe that there should be some visual cue as well). There is at least one other room, possibly others where keys are hidden. It's a perfectly legitimate way of constructing a room, but it's always been a pet peeve of mine.
Things that I think would have been better:
- Briefly seeing the key pop out of the air above the water, and fall out of sight somewhere behind the rocks.
- See some sort of visual cue to accompany the audio one
- Have there be some sort of sign by the nearest red door past this area that makes some oblique reference to the waterfall.
- Being able to see the key openly once the trigger condition has been met.
Anyway... this is basically just a difference of opinion. It's not right or wrong.
Yes, I am thinking about it - but I will not change it yet.
The more I think about it, the more I think you shouldn't. I keep these notes as I encounter each room, and I don't always go back and review every comment. Especially if I have a lot of comments... or if the mansion is especially difficult. However, I played the section leading up the first save point a lot (more than I care to think about). I think there are other portions of the mansion that would benefit more from an additional save point or treasure. Besides, if a player is unable to get to that first save point, it's not as if the mansion gets easier from there.
Nothing I can do about that except skipping the snow which I won't do.
I probably should have left this comment out. There was another mansion I played where the effect was worse. I left it mostly as a note for myself to remind me to go back and look at the room closer. It turns out that you can alter the frequency in which the snow falls and other details, but I don't really think it's necessary here. I meant to point out that the snow appears not to be accumulating across all of the merlons in the battlement, probably due to a layering issue. Look at the two in the middle (In front of the gargoyle) No snow appears to gather on top, but behind. Also, no snow gathers in the crenel immediately to the right of them (the one in front of the knight). It's a small thing for a room that players don't spend much time in, but I thought I'd point it out.
Why would you want to jump from the vanishing block to the fast moving platform?
This was my mistake - I must have been tired when I wrote that. You're absolutely right. Sorry about that.
Please read the sign. The snake is NOT a cheap death!
I did read the sign - In fact I read ALL the signs I came across (I deleted all my comments specifically about the signs.) but it wasn't clear what it was referring to... so many ways of dying on this set of rooms. I did realize even after I posted it that I could cause the platform with the snake to move, but death still appears to be the price of getting the additional gold coins across the top of the screen (not worth it) if you don't have a shield, and they are a rare commodity in this mansion. You're right though, one doesn't have to get the gold coins (or even finish this particular room) to get to the end, so it was not a cheap death.
Anyway, thanks again for the challenging mansion. Perhaps I'll try it again at some later point - especially those sections I missed the first time.
Thank you for all the time you've obviously spent on it, and making it available. While i may have thought that it was a bit too hard for me in places, and that I did get frustrated, there's undoubtedly plenty of players far better, who are probably going to really enjoy this mansion. I can't speak for those players, though, just myself.
Complaint has such a negative connotation. ;-). I prefer to think of it as providing constructive feedback. It's all about perception, and consideration of difficulty is incredibly subjective. My perception is likely to be quite different from someone who has spent lots of painstaking time, carefully creating each room in the mansion. You know all of what is possible and what isn't within your mansion. I didn't. I try to avoid making value assessments, and try to offer suggestions where I have some, but I have no expectation that any opinion I offer will be acted upon in any way. My feedback is freely offered and its yours to consider or ignore as you decide. My hope is that it provides at least a little value
.I'm sorry but I cannot reproduce this.
Darn. I never thought this had anything to do with you. For all I know, Vern may not even be able to do anything about it, but I did send him a more detailed email about it before I posted this. I was hoping that someone else might be able to get the same result, which I have no trouble duplicating. It may even be something to do with the configuration of my own machine. It's impossible to account for all environments and configurations.
But there IS a clue! When you get the 2 gold coins in the upper left you hear a sound indicating that something has appeared somewhere. And at that point there are not many places left to check - except the hidden area in the upper right - or behind the waterfall.
This is just my own personal prejudice about keys being hidden out of sight, with or without a tone (Incidentally, I normally disable the sound while playing, or play with my own playlist in the background, so this sort of clue is often lost on me, as it would be with someone with a hearing disability. I believe that there should be some visual cue as well). There is at least one other room, possibly others where keys are hidden. It's a perfectly legitimate way of constructing a room, but it's always been a pet peeve of mine.
Things that I think would have been better:
- Briefly seeing the key pop out of the air above the water, and fall out of sight somewhere behind the rocks.
- See some sort of visual cue to accompany the audio one
- Have there be some sort of sign by the nearest red door past this area that makes some oblique reference to the waterfall.
- Being able to see the key openly once the trigger condition has been met.
Anyway... this is basically just a difference of opinion. It's not right or wrong.
Yes, I am thinking about it - but I will not change it yet.
The more I think about it, the more I think you shouldn't. I keep these notes as I encounter each room, and I don't always go back and review every comment. Especially if I have a lot of comments... or if the mansion is especially difficult. However, I played the section leading up the first save point a lot (more than I care to think about). I think there are other portions of the mansion that would benefit more from an additional save point or treasure. Besides, if a player is unable to get to that first save point, it's not as if the mansion gets easier from there.
Nothing I can do about that except skipping the snow which I won't do.
I probably should have left this comment out. There was another mansion I played where the effect was worse. I left it mostly as a note for myself to remind me to go back and look at the room closer. It turns out that you can alter the frequency in which the snow falls and other details, but I don't really think it's necessary here. I meant to point out that the snow appears not to be accumulating across all of the merlons in the battlement, probably due to a layering issue. Look at the two in the middle (In front of the gargoyle) No snow appears to gather on top, but behind. Also, no snow gathers in the crenel immediately to the right of them (the one in front of the knight). It's a small thing for a room that players don't spend much time in, but I thought I'd point it out.
Why would you want to jump from the vanishing block to the fast moving platform?
This was my mistake - I must have been tired when I wrote that. You're absolutely right. Sorry about that.
Please read the sign. The snake is NOT a cheap death!
I did read the sign - In fact I read ALL the signs I came across (I deleted all my comments specifically about the signs.) but it wasn't clear what it was referring to... so many ways of dying on this set of rooms. I did realize even after I posted it that I could cause the platform with the snake to move, but death still appears to be the price of getting the additional gold coins across the top of the screen (not worth it) if you don't have a shield, and they are a rare commodity in this mansion. You're right though, one doesn't have to get the gold coins (or even finish this particular room) to get to the end, so it was not a cheap death.
Anyway, thanks again for the challenging mansion. Perhaps I'll try it again at some later point - especially those sections I missed the first time.