Author Topic: inscrutable puzzles  (Read 561 times)

bilbous

  • Guest
inscrutable puzzles
« on: February 22, 2015, 12:39:50 pm »
What, are we all supposed to be Mensa members here? I can't figure out any of the puzzles. There are no clues that help you get off the ledge in the lava cave and into the room, the throne with the puzzlewall clue in the howling well is now a portal with its own puzzle. Were the clues to that in the books lying around that never had such info? I can't get the quest that might have the clues in it. Is there any other way to find the answers to these puzzles other than by getting a spoiler from someone? I sure can't see it. I guess I must be stupid. I find these puzzles just about as much fun as banging my head against a wall because uninvited guests can't take a hint.

Eonwind

  • Developers
  • Hydlaa Notable
  • *
  • Posts: 815
    • View Profile
Re: inscrutable puzzles
« Reply #1 on: February 22, 2015, 05:53:44 pm »
For the howling well portal there are several hints, some are told in the quest (but I don't know why you can't get the quest) other can be found in a hidden place in the same cave (there is an in-game book, a diary).

The lavacave portal has a few less hints, but looking at the description on the portal you can see this:
Quote
Runes and magical symbols are inscribed on the portal. In front of you there are five movable tiles carved in the marble, they vaguely resemble an air glyph, the azure sun, the dark crystal, a water glyph and a might glyph in the middle. Looks like they can be moved.
From there you should be able to guess what they mean and how to proceed to unlock the portal.

One last note: unfortunately, despite the efforts we did to make the puzzles impossible to mess up (removing or adding tiles) there can still be time where a player can make a mess of them. I think we need a reliable way to reset them on demand and I will try to push to make it a priority.

bilbous

  • Guest
Re: inscrutable puzzles
« Reply #2 on: February 22, 2015, 09:59:14 pm »
The water glyph looks like a bat wing and not a water glyph. I saw that description you quoted and it really didn't help me at all. I randomly moved them around for about twenty minutes, it would have helped if there was even only one blank spot. A couple people told me a hint that did not seem to pertain and someone else told me exactly where to place which. (Thank you, Miss, you know who you are.) If there is some reason they go in that particular order in those particular slots it totally escapes me. It seems completely arbitrary.

The puzzle in the howling well I completely missed because it is on the thing that gives you the hint for the wall in another part of the dungeon, I'm sorry I missed the introductory event where it had its debut. I admit I didn't look in any of the ground books since the update and missed any new clues that might be there but this puzzle board seems even worse and if those books do not have diagrams I'll never figure out which of the 11(?) slots which of the 5 markers go into.

This is the toy puzzle all over again where figuring out what to do is not good enough because there is the one extra twist to make is just that much more clever.  ROTx is hard enough but Letter 1 and 4 are exceptions.

I was given hints as to how to solve the well puzzle but it was not sufficient to let me solve it. Oh and that secret wall whose hint is on that thing with the other puzzle is broken such that the hint is wrong.

I get it, some people want to spend an hour or two to figure these things out, some are clever enough to do it considerably faster. I have to rely on spoilers. I do try to figure them out on my own but I rarely succeed. If I wanted to do this I would buy Random House's Big Book of Logic Puzzles. I haven't done that in close to thirty years.

I'm sorry to go on about this but it has been bothering me for a long time. I'm not as smart as I used to think. :)

Eonwind

  • Developers
  • Hydlaa Notable
  • *
  • Posts: 815
    • View Profile
Re: inscrutable puzzles
« Reply #3 on: February 23, 2015, 04:44:44 am »
The water glyph looks like a bat wing and not a water glyph. I saw that description you quoted and it really didn't help me at all. I randomly moved them around for about twenty minutes, it would have helped if there was even only one blank spot. A couple people told me a hint that did not seem to pertain and someone else told me exactly where to place which. (Thank you, Miss, you know who you are.) If there is some reason they go in that particular order in those particular slots it totally escapes me. It seems completely arbitrary.
The "bat wing" is an air glyph, and this may give you one more hint :)
Yes I know it would be optimal if we could decide the icons to use for the tiles but it's not yet possible (I hope it will be one day - yes the tile pieces are hardcoded) as the engine doesn't allow it, this is another useful feature we miss.

The puzzle in the howling well I completely missed because it is on the thing that gives you the hint for the wall in another part of the dungeon, I'm sorry I missed the introductory event where it had its debut. I admit I didn't look in any of the ground books since the update and missed any new clues that might be there but this puzzle board seems even worse and if those books do not have diagrams I'll never figure out which of the 11(?) slots which of the 5 markers go into.
The book that give you the hint (but also the quest does) is in a different part of the dungeon for IC reasons (if you will examine the place and read the book you may understand what I mean).
I'm sorry to go on about this but it has been bothering me for a long time. I'm not as smart as I used to think. :)
bilbous no problem ;), if you still have troubles going through them maybe we can talk about it in irc (#planeshift-gmtalk) or in-game, I like it better then posting spoilers here.

bilbous

  • Guest
Re: inscrutable puzzles
« Reply #4 on: February 23, 2015, 06:55:45 am »
The "bat wing" is an air glyph, and this may give you one more hint :)

Really? I guess that means what I thought was the whirlwind must have been a toilet flush! Who knew! You can see how I might be a bit confused.

Eonwind

  • Developers
  • Hydlaa Notable
  • *
  • Posts: 815
    • View Profile
Re: inscrutable puzzles
« Reply #5 on: February 23, 2015, 01:15:05 pm »
The "bat wing" is an air glyph, and this may give you one more hint :)

Really? I guess that means what I thought was the whirlwind must have been a toilet flush! Who knew! You can see how I might be a bit confused.
call it a whirlpool and we have a deal  ;D

bilbous

  • Guest
Re: inscrutable puzzles
« Reply #6 on: February 23, 2015, 06:35:39 pm »
It is just odd that an actual air glyph has a whirlwind pictogram and yet the spiral form was chosen to represent something entirely different in the puzzle.

Anyway, now I know which side of the roof the rooster's egg rolled off of and where the survivors were buried,  you must be quite amused.

Eonwind

  • Developers
  • Hydlaa Notable
  • *
  • Posts: 815
    • View Profile
Re: inscrutable puzzles
« Reply #7 on: February 24, 2015, 04:00:25 am »
Like I said we had a limited set of tiles to choose from and the wing seemed to me the most fitting tile for something related to air while the whirlpool seemed the closest for water; I would love to be able to use the true glyphs icons as tiles  :)
Anyway good luck, and if you still have troubles you know where to find us ;)

Roled

  • Hydlaa Notable
  • *
  • Posts: 818
    • View Profile
Re: inscrutable puzzles
« Reply #8 on: February 24, 2015, 11:24:36 pm »
Bilbous, Roled would be glad to take you into the lava caves or other secret territories ICly and show you the magick doors and inscrutables... that is if I know them! I know most of 'em I think, well, except for the ones I don't know I guess...  ::|
"RR is a PieSexual" ~ Monala

Sulaika

  • Hydlaa Resident
  • *
  • Posts: 94
    • View Profile
Re: inscrutable puzzles
« Reply #9 on: February 25, 2015, 06:22:10 am »
Erm if it is only one puzzle to solve in Howling Well it is just easy. I agree that lava cave isn't easy to solve for stupid me either. But Howling Well is so simple. Just contact me, if you wanna know it ;) But if there is a second riddle in there, except the one at the door, then I haven't even found it yet :o

bilbous

  • Guest
Re: inscrutable puzzles
« Reply #10 on: February 25, 2015, 08:05:01 am »
Thank you for the offers of help. I usually get spoilers in game, eventually. I am going to reread the materials in the well before I ask again.

Perhaps the descriptions should have been written to match the symbols used but I suppose that might have distorted some settings related logic.
The problems with the game-board type puzzles is just something that I will have to accept until Soon™ happens. :)