Stuck on flow orbs

[Cathy]

I can't complete "phase and melody" in "autumn falls" because I can't do the flow orbs. Most of the other puzzles and straight-up puzzles, but this type requires platforming on a timer. I'm really bad at this kind of "puzzle". Is there any way to skip these so I can proceed with a game I otherwise enjoy?
The game info claims you only need to do the puzzle type you enjoy, but that's clearly not true. To unlock more content, you need to do all the types, even the ones you hate.

[Truth_X_ile]

You merely only need to collect them before the time runs out, you don't need the fastest time possible, they all give ample amount of time to be finished & collected

You will have to do a variety of puzzles & other activities when progressing through the story, of course certain enclaves will have specific extra activities before it's considered complete & unlocks said features if an enclave does

Good Luck & Have Fun

[Cathy]

Originally posted by ึ:

You merely only need to collect them before the time runs out, you don't need the fastest time possible, they all give ample amount of time to be finished & collected

You will have to do a variety of puzzles & other activities when progressing through the story, of course certain enclaves will have specific extra activities before it's considered complete & unlocks said features if an enclave does

Good Luck & Have Fun :smiling:

Yes, the first one in that area offers a generous 40 seconds. I'v located all of the orbs, I just cannot complete the run in 40 seconds. This isn't a competitive game, why not offer an easy mode or a skip feature on the timed puzzles?

[Chitn]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3172520902

Git gud maybe?

sorry. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3172535341

[Fogmoz]

Originally posted by Cathy:

Originally posted by ึ:

You merely only need to collect them before the time runs out, you don't need the fastest time possible, they all give ample amount of time to be finished & collected

You will have to do a variety of puzzles & other activities when progressing through the story, of course certain enclaves will have specific extra activities before it's considered complete & unlocks said features if an enclave does

Good Luck & Have Fun :smiling:

Yes, the first one in that area offers a generous 40 seconds. I'v located all of the orbs, I just cannot complete the run in 40 seconds. This isn't a competitive game, why not offer an easy mode or a skip feature on the timed puzzles?

It’s not competitive, but puzzles often include a time constraint as part of their challenge.

When solving flow orbs, it is important to start from the highest orb. Also consider your path. Choose your path so that you have the least distance to run.

Additionally, try to sprint as much as possible, and keep in mind gliding is the fastest way to move, once you unlock the upgrade in the skill tree.

[Pogo]

You should only need two out of five courses to get credit for that enclave; maybe you can hop around between the courses there and find the two least-tricky ones?

If you have trouble controlling the character in the world space in general, the only thing I can really suggest is gradual practice out in the open world. I'm fairly comfortable with platforming in general, but I still needed to get a feel for movement physics in this particular game (hopping from rock to rock without touching the ground to learn the maximum jump distance, or canceling out of a glide while high-up and trying to steer myself mid-fall to land precisely on a jump-pad). Since there's no risk to the player character for falling (compared to other games which would have damage or death for long falls or bottomless pits), you're free to experiment or give yourself small challenges.

Maybe take a shot at any random flow orb courses you see out in the world, especially if the orbs are all on the ground, just to get more comfortable with them.

It may also help to experiment with both first-person and third-person camera and see if one of them makes precision movement & obstacle awareness easier for you.

I imagine a decent number of players will experience a similar frustration, since the game is kind of a weird mashup of genres. Most platformers don't involve logic puzzles, and most logic puzzle games don't involve platforming.

[Cathy]

Originally posted by Pogo:

You should only need two out of five courses to get credit for that enclave; maybe you can hop around between the courses there and find the two least-tricky ones?

If you have trouble controlling the character in the world space in general, the only thing I can really suggest is gradual practice out in the open world. I'm fairly comfortable with platforming in general, but I still needed to get a feel for movement physics in this particular game (hopping from rock to rock without touching the ground to learn the maximum jump distance, or canceling out of a glide while high-up and trying to steer myself mid-fall to land precisely on a jump-pad). Since there's no risk to the player character for falling (compared to other games which would have damage or death for long falls or bottomless pits), you're free to experiment or give yourself small challenges.

Maybe take a shot at any random flow orb courses you see out in the world, especially if the orbs are all on the ground, just to get more comfortable with them.

It may also help to experiment with both first-person and third-person camera and see if one of them makes precision movement & obstacle awareness easier for you.

I imagine a decent number of players will experience a similar frustration, since the game is kind of a weird mashup of genres. Most platformers don't involve logic puzzles, and most logic puzzle games don't involve platforming.

Thanks. I'm going to take a guess that most people who say platformers are easy are under 30.

I recall playing Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker in 2003. I was already struggling with platforms then. Twenty years later, it's not going in a good direction. I'm sure there are still players in their 60's and 70's who can platform just fine, but most can't. I'm not going to "get good", I'm going to "get older". And so will everyone else here. I'll just get old sooner.

Given that puzzles games are popular with old farts, it would be in the devs best interest to allow a skip on the platforming / speedrun puzzles. Anyone who enjoys doing those can do them without using skip. Alternately, just don't make that type of puzzle a requirement for advancing to the next area.

Most devs are young, and they love to game too. It typically doesn't occur to them that they're cutting out a segment of their players with a required platformer in a non-platforming game. We saw this in early release My Time at Sandrock, where a difficult platformer stopped players from continuing the main story quest. **The devs added a skip**. After three failed tries, you could skip.

Even Amazon's New World had a lore item that was nearly impossible to reach even if you used firewalk. A later release removed it. I suspect they will also make some of their seasonal content easier going forward, as quite a few people can't finish the solo bosses (it's a multiplayer game), and there is no skip.

Islands of Insight is a server game, so it's very easy for the devs to track player behavior. I worked for a company years ago that did it on their UI, to see where users were getting stuck. If the devs see players just working through something, that's fine. However, if they see a lot of users just stopping at a specific point, and eventually logging out and not logging back in, that's a red flag. Maybe most players continue past that point. But even if you lose 20% of your players, that's a lot.