A few moments ago I launched update 2 of Midnight Mazes and Monsters. You will notice that the appendix after the name on the map is NOT "Update 2", but "1.2". In a seperate topic I explain why.

There was a BBB-bug at checkpoint 4. And somewhere in the grey area it seemed to be possible to "steal" a secret without catching the real prize (a gold coin) as well. It would be a shame (for me) to let one finish with $ 499.950, isn't it?

Hey Freddy,

I gotta tell you.... as impressed as I am about your great MM & M, it also drives me crazy...!! :)

Apart from psychotronic's Curious Observatory, it's the only mansion I still haven't mastered... but what's more:
I have to admit: I just don't get it !?  (sorry to report..)

I do not understand the CRUMBS thing...... and I don't even get near the biggest maze (took me weeks -and a look into the editor- to even realise it was there !!)

I have to admit, that I have to play other mansions in-between my tries of MM & M, otherwise I'd go mad....

Is that intended...or am I just too dumb ?? :-[

You are disturbing my beta-testing-work of SPoG! ;)

Midnight Mazes and Monsters ... there is so much to say about it. On the previous boards there were at last 10 threads of which the largest one had 25 pages.

To answer your questions ... more or less.

First of all, this mansion is built up like a tutorial. It starts very easy (Jack can't die!) and ends very hard (the player can die  ;D). The purpose is that a player with limited experience (e.g. the 8 original easy mansions) becomes step by step stronger while playing.

Two: the crumbs. Left of the starting room there is a map that gives you a message about this mansion having a master puzzle. The crumbs are there to help you. Not to frustrate you. But while the rooms are very easy and easy in the beginning of MMaM, the master puzzle is NOT. That doesn't mean that there is a paradox, since not knowing how to use the crumbs in your advantage is not a disaster in the beginning of the mansion. While playing, sooner or later you will get the point!

And finally, something about the size. Well, MMaM has close to 500 rooms. That means that it is huge and no one in the world, including myself, is expecting that you start playing and only stop at the exit door. Besides 34 saving points that give you the possibility to save your game and restart at any other time, I introduced checkpoints in this mansion. MMaM contains 12 checkpoints and each one has a brown blackboard now. On those BBBs you can read what the highest possible amount of secrets and dollars is, when you reach that checkpoint. And then you have the choise: go on OR go back. Midnight Mazes and Monsters is especially designed in a way that, as long as you do NOT enter the final treasure area, you are always in the possibility to return to any place in the whole mansion. Yes indeed, also to the starting room if you want to. (Because there is a secret over there, btw.)

Thus: relax, take your time, do it in shifts, ask for hints on the forum etc.

Good luck!

@Freddy:
Sorry...... didn't want to bring you out of the Palace.... ;)

Thanks for your explanations.
Yes, I remember the long discussions about MM & M, and have read parts of it (should 've read them all, I guess).
I had also understood the concept of starting easy and getting harder and harder.

But the crumbs thing, thanks for the clarification of that.... seems that you have to get close to the end to understand it.

And I knew MM&M was big, but to find out it has 34 (!!) save pedestals...wow!  
At least I don't feel too ashamed anymore for not mastering it quick enough.

I also understand the possibility of returning to any place in the mansion.... but isn't there a room at the beginning where you tell people to "avoid backtracking" ?
Ooops....another question...I did it again  :D
Don't want to be responsible for another thread of 25 pages....

aquaMat wrote on 02.01.2007 at 21:39:21:

... But the crumbs thing, thanks for the clarification of that.... seems that you have to get close to the end to understand it. ... ... I also understand the possibility of returning to any place in the mansion.... but isn't there a room at the beginning where you tell people to "avoid backtracking" ? ...

1° Not at all: close to the end. Between checkpoints 4 and 5 things should become very clear. But it IS possible to understand the crumbs-stuff already in the grey area.
2° Yes and no. Avoiding backtracking is solving the masterpuzzle. But since it is a puzzle of which the solution hasn't any connection to a certain point in the mansion, a player must be able to go back. The later you solve the problem, the more backtracking you may have to do.