Puzzle definitions

[Cathy]

Nice game, but I wish they had descriptions of the puzzles BEFORE you solved one first. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what a "light motif" was until I saw a random comment in here about aligning the silvery paint found on walls. Likewise with the sentinel stones -- I was trying to drag the mouse to connect the stones, not realizing you need to stand still in one spot and click on them. And for rolling blocks, I could see what to do, but I thought you'd move them with the mouse. I tried clicking, dragging, etc... finally, I slammed the keyboard in frustration. Good thing I hit the S key, or I'd still be standing there (keyboard controls to roll the stones).
I enjoy solving the puzzles, not trying to figure out what the devs mean by the strange puzzle names or movement controls. I still haven't figured out what "sky drops" are.
If anyone would like to publish a tutorial that lists all the puzzles with a brief description of each, I'm sure it would be popular.

[Cregan]

The entire game is about exporing and finding out how things work by yourself. So frustration is a sign that that might not be what's your cup of tea.

Good thing is that once you learn about it all, your frustration should disappear and you should be able to enjoy the puzzles :)

As for skydrops;

Skydrops consist of a number of orbs in the air (you can't tell which ones belong together unless you have and activate an upgrade). The puzzle is finding a spot to stand on where the orbs form a nice pattern, usually a circle.

The orbs become brighter when you're near the right spot and this is when you can definitely see which orbs are part of the pattern you're supposed to form. Moving around a bit more to finish the pattern in the air will turn the orbs almost completely white, which is when you can activate the pattern and solve the puzzle by clicking (near the center of the pattern).

On the island with a lot of skydrops there are environmental clues to use for the patterns: a circular hole in a wall, a circular gap in the canopy when standing on the right spot etc.

[Lime]

i legitimately didn't know what a light motif was by the time I reached the enclave where I was expected to complete them to progress.
I remember muttering to myself that "maybe it has something to do with those horrible lines scarring the world" and being bewildered when I was right.

They can still be finicky to complete even if you know the answer but I think the "insights" not being provided to you until you've shown a sufficient understanding is a good design that can reward more than it frustrates.

[Cathy]

Originally posted by Cregan:

The entire game is about exporing and finding out how things work by yourself. So frustration is a sign that that might not be what's your cup of tea.

Good thing is that once you learn about it all, your frustration should disappear and you should be able to enjoy the puzzles :)

As for skydrops;

Skydrops consist of a number of orbs in the air (you can't tell which ones belong together unless you have and activate an upgrade). The puzzle is finding a spot to stand on where the orbs form a nice pattern, usually a circle.

The orbs become brighter when you're near the right spot and this is when you can definitely see which orbs are part of the pattern you're supposed to form. Moving around a bit more to finish the pattern in the air will turn the orbs almost completely white, which is when you can activate the pattern and solve the puzzle by clicking (near the center of the pattern).

On the island with a lot of skydrops there are environmental clues to use for the patterns: a circular hole in a wall, a circular gap in the canopy when standing on the right spot etc.

Yes, I get that discovery is part of the fun. The problem from a developer standpoint is, if after a few hours of "discovery", the player is still lost, they stop playing, tell their friends the game sucks, and write a bad review. This leads to fewer people deciding to buy the game.

With a server-based game, it's critical to maintain a player base, or the cost of servers outweighs the profits you're making and you have to shut down the servers. As it is, they will need to continue offering new content to pull in new players, or add for-purchase seasonal events and cosmetics to continue revenue from existing players.

It's easy to offer a significant challenge to players who want it by providing a difficulty mode, or just stuffing the instructions in the Encyclopedia so that players can self-challenge by not looking. I'm not suggesting they should dumb-down the puzzles, only offer information for those who are truly stuck. Making the game accessible to more (paying) players means more money to cover maintenance and new game development.

This isn't Sea of Thieves, it's a puzzle game, and that genre attracts players with a wide range of gaming skills, including Grandma who doesn't play anything except puzzle games.

[WIZ_ARD]

nice

[MannyKlystron]

Originally posted by Uwasa:

i legitimately didn't know what a light motif was by the time I reached the enclave where I was expected to complete them to progress.
I remember muttering to myself that "maybe it has something to do with those horrible lines scarring the world" and being bewildered when I was right.

They can still be finicky to complete even if you know the answer but I think the "insights" not being provided to you until you've shown a sufficient understanding is a good design that can reward more than it frustrates.

Had the same experience, and enjoyed it. I'd thought the mineral-looking lines everywhere were some sort of Corruption that we as the Chosen Ones were to purge from the world as part of Resolving the big Plot involving that Rift, but that never happened.

[Cathy]

So it turns out the only way to get an intro definition of a few of the puzzles is in the landing zone, by clicking on the five short, blue pillars. Clicking on those left-to-right, contain a brief description of matchbox, armillary rings, sentinel stones, hidden pentad, and skydrop. The skydrop description only says "find a circle among the spheres" but it at least shows you a picture of spheres in the sky. Without the picture, you wouldn't even know what "sky drop" refers to.

If you've forgotten where the landing zone is, it is the island immediately to the right of the one labeled "A mystery..." and the launcher to reach it can be found at "Moments of Discovery".

If you miss that one area with the five blue pillars, you won't find descriptions anywhere else until you solve one of that puzzle type. the descriptions do not appear in the encyclopedia, where you'd expect it (until you solve one).

The vast majority of games start you in a "tutorial" area, and once you finish the tutorial (or skip it), you are moved out of that area and cannot return. It is bizarre that this game requires you to go back to the tutorial area to read puzzle overviews. I get the feeling this is something that will be fixed before the final release.

[Cregan]

Originally posted by Cathy:

So it turns out the only way to get an intro definition of a few of the puzzles is in the landing zone, by clicking on the five short, blue pillars. Clicking on those left-to-right, contain a brief description of matchbox, armillary rings, sentinel stones, hidden pentad, and skydrop. The skydrop description only says "find a circle among the spheres" but it at least shows you a picture of spheres in the sky. Without the picture, you wouldn't even know what "sky drop" refers to.

If you've forgotten where the landing zone is, it is the island immediately to the right of the one labeled "A mystery..." and the launcher to reach it can be found at "Moments of Discovery".

If you miss that one area with the five blue pillars, you won't find descriptions anywhere else until you solve one of that puzzle type. the descriptions do not appear in the encyclopedia, where you'd expect it (until you solve one).

The vast majority of games start you in a "tutorial" area, and once you finish the tutorial (or skip it), you are moved out of that area and cannot return. It is bizarre that this game requires you to go back to the tutorial area to read puzzle overviews. I get the feeling this is something that will be fixed before the final release.

It doesn't require you to go back if you do explore the first island. You chose to skip a part of the first island, even after the game specifically tells you to interact with the blue stones ;)

You chose "Don't tell me what to do" and are now worried about not knowing what to do.

But yeah, the game could do with a more obvious 'this is tutorial island' kind of thing, but I'm afraid that would be detrimental to the flow of that part of the game.

[Cathy]

Originally posted by Cregan:

Originally posted by Cathy:

So it turns out the only way to get an intro definition of a few of the puzzles is in the landing zone, by clicking on the five short, blue pillars. Clicking on those left-to-right, contain a brief description of matchbox, armillary rings, sentinel stones, hidden pentad, and skydrop. The skydrop description only says "find a circle among the spheres" but it at least shows you a picture of spheres in the sky. Without the picture, you wouldn't even know what "sky drop" refers to.

If you've forgotten where the landing zone is, it is the island immediately to the right of the one labeled "A mystery..." and the launcher to reach it can be found at "Moments of Discovery".

If you miss that one area with the five blue pillars, you won't find descriptions anywhere else until you solve one of that puzzle type. the descriptions do not appear in the encyclopedia, where you'd expect it (until you solve one).

The vast majority of games start you in a "tutorial" area, and once you finish the tutorial (or skip it), you are moved out of that area and cannot return. It is bizarre that this game requires you to go back to the tutorial area to read puzzle overviews. I get the feeling this is something that will be fixed before the final release.

It doesn't require you to go back if you do explore the first island. You chose to skip a part of the first island, even after the game specifically tells you to interact with the blue stones ;)

You chose "Don't tell me what to do" and are now worried about not knowing what to do.

But yeah, the game could do with a more obvious 'this is tutorial island' kind of thing, but I'm afraid that would be detrimental to the flow of that part of the game.

It was the beginning of the game, so it's fair to assume it's the tutorial area. And I did get the message, if you're having trouble with the puzzles, go to the blue pillars. But honestly, tutorials are usually of the type "left-click to select a square, right-click to unselect".

Quoting directly from another puzzle game tutorial, "1) To solve the puzzle, you need to fill in the squares of the grid. 2) The horizontal lines are called rows. 3) The vertical lines are called columns..."

I knew I didn't need that sort of help. What wasn't clear was, "click on the frickin blue columns or miss the only chance you'll get to identify several puzzle types only found in this game."

Honestly, I enjoyed playing the first three main areas, I'm now stuck on a 'chasing the glowing orbs' puzzle that's needed to progress, and I'm not fast enough to finish it. I'm not having fun any more. It feels more like a chore than fun, so I'll probably just move on to another game. Maybe I'll check back in a year and see if they included skips for puzzle types that you don't enjoy, and a bit more instruction for the puzzles unique to this game.

[Cregan]

Originally posted by Cathy:

Quoting directly from another puzzle game tutorial, "1) To solve the puzzle, you need to fill in the squares of the grid. 2) The horizontal lines are called rows. 3) The vertical lines are called columns..."

Yeah, I had the same reaction as you here :D They're trying to make things clear for all sorts of players, but that causes some more experienced players as yourself to skip too much. At the same time they shouldn't force too much for the even more experienced players, of forget the really new ones.

As for the orb chasing;
Most of them can be completed by running alone (and the occasional jump to get on higher ledges).

Some require you to be a bit faster, so gliding through the air is needed there (gliding is faster than running).

Then there's an enclave where you have to find the trick to reach the orbs in time. Running and gliding will not work at all. If you're stuck here then I will suggest you explore the other islands in the enclave first and pay special attention to the hidden archways ;)

[StonedWolf62]

Not all puzzles games need or should have to tell you how to solve them.
Maybe it's because I played stuff like The Witness or other difficult puzzle, and point and click games, but you don't always need to be hand-held to figure something out if the game gives you a good enough introduction to them.

If you are really have trouble with the puzzles, i'd suggest going to the enclaves as they teach you the different puzzle types as you go through them and don't usually require you to finish them all.
Specifically the ones the game tells you to go to after finishing the tutorial enclave.

But if all fails maybe this puzzle game isn't for you.