Anyone else feeling the like the rules of the puzzles aren't explained well enough?

[&rew]

I'm guessing the designer wanted us to have some "a-ha" moments in realizing how the puzzles work, but I think in practice it ends up being more of a "haha, fooled ya" just because I didn't guess and check the exact way that the systems work, because I didn't know the rules. Running water is a perfect example. Without giving any solutions away, a lot of the running water puzzles require you to let one block fall off of another as the water grabs the block, but we never got a primer at the start of the running water section to teach us how friction would behave, so you just have to guess dozens of different configurations and see if any of them behave differently? I think back to the Witness, where each new type of puzzle has a cipher at the beginning that wordlessly teaches you all of the rules before letting you loose, and if you ever had any questions about what works and what doesn't, you could just revisit that cipher. Some mechanics in this game have them, like a few of the rules revolving around arrow or spear traps, others still will have a decent clue in the title of the puzzle, but the lengths to which this game is willing to teach you how it works seem to vary wildly, and it's getting fairly frustrating.

[kingmaniacxd]

The only puzzle that I feel like I had to brute force random configurations until one worked was the rube Goldberg puzzle. The rest (excluding the 4 puzzles I have yet to figure out) I felt the mechanics were previously taught to me allowing the solution to eventually come.

I understand the concern, I think the game aims to have each puzzle require a unique combination of mechanics to solve. Which probably explains why it feels like you weren't taught properly. If it taught each combination in previous levels the challenging ones wouldn't be as challenging.

[&rew]

Originally posted by kingmaniacxd:

The only puzzle that I feel like I had to brute force random configurations until one worked was the rube Goldberg puzzle. The rest (excluding the 4 puzzles I have yet to figure out) I felt the mechanics were previously taught to me allowing the solution to eventually come.

I understand the concern, I think the game aims to have each puzzle require a unique combination of mechanics to solve. Which probably explains why it feels like you weren't taught properly. If it taught each combination in previous levels the challenging ones wouldn't be as challenging.

The Rube Goldberg puzzle is exactly the one I was thinking about in my example, but it's not alone either. You're saying that as I continue along, the "tutorial" for combinations of mechanics I haven't learned yet are still ahead of me? For instance, there's a Crate Tower puzzle early on, but even after solving Slightly Crate Tower much later on in the game, I still don't know what I'm missing to be able to solve Crate Tower.

[kingmaniacxd]

If I remember correctly The Crate Tower is the one with 5 crates and you need to reach a 4 tall high tower?

[&rew]

Originally posted by kingmaniacxd:

If I remember correctly The Crate Tower is the one with 5 crates and you need to reach a 4 tall high tower?

I believe it's 7 crates, and you need to get 4 tall. I can't find any way to be standing on 3 tall next to a 4 tall, even utilizing the nooks in the wall as some sort of storage. But again, this is one of many cases where I don't really feel adequately prepared for it in some way.

[Mawthra]

Originally posted by &rew:

Originally posted by kingmaniacxd:

If I remember correctly The Crate Tower is the one with 5 crates and you need to reach a 4 tall high tower?

I believe it's 7 crates, and you need to get 4 tall. I can't find any way to be standing on 3 tall next to a 4 tall, even utilizing the nooks in the wall as some sort of storage. But again, this is one of many cases where I don't really feel adequately prepared for it in some way.

I've been stuck on that one, too... I've tried many time to stash boxes temporarily on the second shelf up to no avail

[kingmaniacxd]

Yea, the trick you need to do to solve that puzzle is pretty unique, it's not really use again until way later on in the game. Maybe the puzzle should have been placed a lot later on, or have been altered to make the solution a bit more obvious, although It was placed pretty far off the main path.

If you need a hint: See if you can use the same mechanic you use to split the boxes at the higher inlet.

Each level does have a "trick" that can take a while to discover, I personally felt more of the "a-ha" that you mentioned, but I see how it can become frustrating.