08-02-2011, 02:54 AM
Nightmare mansion EASY
* Keys: 8 red, 12 purple, 11 yellow
*Doors 9 red, 13 purple, 12 yellow
Nightmare Mansion has one of the more open layouts in the MM HD, and it uses a lot of keys and doors, so it's pretty tough to analyze. To give some idea, in the Easy version, I missed one money bag, and got everything else and ended up with 7 keys in my inventory when I finished! I was able to avoid a lot of doors, to the point where I had to be careful where my inventory was concerned of having too many keys. I played Easy again and got myself stuck trying to get the last money bag. This was due to key shortfalls in the mansion.
All of the key shortfalls occur in the first major section of this mansion. This includes the blue and green areas. I combine them because it's possible to go from the green (lower) area back up to the blue area. The exit points for this section are in rooms: 16894 and 16899. Both feature poles. One is blocked by a yellow door and one is blocked by a purple door. Once Jack heads down one of these poles - there is no return. So, I include everything from the start to one of this points as the first section. Within this section, the non-matching key/door counts are:
Purple 7 Keys/8 Doors
Red 3 Keys/4 Doors
Yellow 4 Keys/5 Doors
Red Keys: By far, the easiest mismatch to identify, and fix (if necessary). It is due to a small fork. A red key is in room 16297 (behind a blue door), and a red door is on the lower level of the same room. In room 16296, there is another red door. This is what I call an exclusive fork - Jack can open one red door, but not both - nor should he need to, because there is no way back up to use the other door even if he had another red key. In this case, both doors lead to a pole that's visible from room 16296. One path also includes treasure. This should be clear to the player when they're in 16296, and the player has to go here first in order to get the blue key which is necessary for getting the red key. As far as forks go, it's pretty tame. To completely match up red keys to doors, I'd simply remove the red door in 16297.
The way I see it - the
Purple and Yellow Keys
It is currently possible to get stuck in this first section if Jack unlocks all the doors except for one of the reds, the purple door closest to the pole in 16899, and the yellow door in room 16892. You could simply remove these two doors. The problem with this approach, is Jack could still end up carrying a lot of keys. He could potentially end up with eight keys at the end without one of these doors to take one away. Also, I feel like finding the extra keys spurs Jack to do more exploring to find them. Here's an approach that I'm recommending instead, because it doesn't change things too much, and tries to help encourage some of the keys to be used. If nothing else, it doesn't make the situation any worse, and hopefully improves matters slightly.
1. In room 16899, I'd replace the purple door on the right side with a yellow one. This does two things: It brings the purple keys into sync with purple doors, and it means that both of the exits to the next section are blocked by a yellow door. Since there is no way back up to this section, it should be all right for us to have one fewer key than doors. A player will only be able to pick one way down so there is no use for the the yellow keys and doors to match up here. It would be another useless key that the player would have to carry through the rest of the mansion (keys and doors match up in the rest of the mansion). However, since we've added a yellow door, we're actually short 2 yellow keys instead of one.
2. Where to put the additional yellow key… I'd put it someplace where the player will be forced to drop some other keys in order to get it. When I got stuck, the last doors I opened up where in room 16701 (I'd shift both doors a *little* to the right in this room), and then in room 16501. I'd put the yellow key in room 16500, in the lower right corner, immediately above the green switch. This way it can be easily seen in this room, if Jack enters the room from the upper right - even if he can't get to it right away.
Note that these changes will at least leave a yellow mismatch (possibly a red as well, if left alone). These will both be due to forks and should be fine.
Other misc changes I would make:
* I would move the purple key in room 16696 out from behind the purple door that guards it, and display it prominently in room 16699. It should be tantalizingly out of reach from Jack if he's on the blue side, but should spur him to explore a bit to try and find it. (it will appear on the map, and force the player to try and find his way there).
* Remove the red lever in room 17502. It serves no useful purpose here, except to cause the player to wonder what it does (nothing). I forget if I took this lever out for MM HD or not.
* Keys: 8 red, 12 purple, 11 yellow
*Doors 9 red, 13 purple, 12 yellow
Nightmare Mansion has one of the more open layouts in the MM HD, and it uses a lot of keys and doors, so it's pretty tough to analyze. To give some idea, in the Easy version, I missed one money bag, and got everything else and ended up with 7 keys in my inventory when I finished! I was able to avoid a lot of doors, to the point where I had to be careful where my inventory was concerned of having too many keys. I played Easy again and got myself stuck trying to get the last money bag. This was due to key shortfalls in the mansion.
All of the key shortfalls occur in the first major section of this mansion. This includes the blue and green areas. I combine them because it's possible to go from the green (lower) area back up to the blue area. The exit points for this section are in rooms: 16894 and 16899. Both feature poles. One is blocked by a yellow door and one is blocked by a purple door. Once Jack heads down one of these poles - there is no return. So, I include everything from the start to one of this points as the first section. Within this section, the non-matching key/door counts are:
Purple 7 Keys/8 Doors
Red 3 Keys/4 Doors
Yellow 4 Keys/5 Doors
Red Keys: By far, the easiest mismatch to identify, and fix (if necessary). It is due to a small fork. A red key is in room 16297 (behind a blue door), and a red door is on the lower level of the same room. In room 16296, there is another red door. This is what I call an exclusive fork - Jack can open one red door, but not both - nor should he need to, because there is no way back up to use the other door even if he had another red key. In this case, both doors lead to a pole that's visible from room 16296. One path also includes treasure. This should be clear to the player when they're in 16296, and the player has to go here first in order to get the blue key which is necessary for getting the red key. As far as forks go, it's pretty tame. To completely match up red keys to doors, I'd simply remove the red door in 16297.
The way I see it - the
traphere serves as a useful warning to the player, and is close enough to the top that aborting and restarting the mansion isn't too big a loss. Because this sort of trap is used elsewhere in this mansion, I think it would be worthwhile to put a sign in the starting room, between the pole and the ladder down that says something like:
Beware all those who enter these passages! Inside you will find multiple pathways down, and hardly any back up. Pick your path carefully, because the quickest and easiest paths will rarely be the most profitable. You will find very few second chances here...A phrase like this could serve as a clue for what's to come.
Purple and Yellow Keys
It is currently possible to get stuck in this first section if Jack unlocks all the doors except for one of the reds, the purple door closest to the pole in 16899, and the yellow door in room 16892. You could simply remove these two doors. The problem with this approach, is Jack could still end up carrying a lot of keys. He could potentially end up with eight keys at the end without one of these doors to take one away. Also, I feel like finding the extra keys spurs Jack to do more exploring to find them. Here's an approach that I'm recommending instead, because it doesn't change things too much, and tries to help encourage some of the keys to be used. If nothing else, it doesn't make the situation any worse, and hopefully improves matters slightly.
1. In room 16899, I'd replace the purple door on the right side with a yellow one. This does two things: It brings the purple keys into sync with purple doors, and it means that both of the exits to the next section are blocked by a yellow door. Since there is no way back up to this section, it should be all right for us to have one fewer key than doors. A player will only be able to pick one way down so there is no use for the the yellow keys and doors to match up here. It would be another useless key that the player would have to carry through the rest of the mansion (keys and doors match up in the rest of the mansion). However, since we've added a yellow door, we're actually short 2 yellow keys instead of one.
2. Where to put the additional yellow key… I'd put it someplace where the player will be forced to drop some other keys in order to get it. When I got stuck, the last doors I opened up where in room 16701 (I'd shift both doors a *little* to the right in this room), and then in room 16501. I'd put the yellow key in room 16500, in the lower right corner, immediately above the green switch. This way it can be easily seen in this room, if Jack enters the room from the upper right - even if he can't get to it right away.
Note that these changes will at least leave a yellow mismatch (possibly a red as well, if left alone). These will both be due to forks and should be fine.
Other misc changes I would make:
* I would move the purple key in room 16696 out from behind the purple door that guards it, and display it prominently in room 16699. It should be tantalizingly out of reach from Jack if he's on the blue side, but should spur him to explore a bit to try and find it. (it will appear on the map, and force the player to try and find his way there).
* Remove the red lever in room 17502. It serves no useful purpose here, except to cause the player to wonder what it does (nothing). I forget if I took this lever out for MM HD or not.