To those struggling with fractals

[ShadowTheAge]

Here is a one quick tip: When doing large scale movements you can notice that the main feature of the fractal (like a center of a cluster) also moves a little. Getting this center correct is way more important than getting small feature right.

[󠀡󠀡]

That's true of like 10% of the fractals though. Most of the time there isn't a feature like that.

[Francarzo]

I move my mouse randomly and get it done

[ShadowTheAge]

That is true for almost all of the fractals. Every fractal has a center or other fixed point like that. Sometimes it doesn't move with large scale movements but most of the time it does.

[Rockbud]

If anyone read this :
Move your mouse slowly x and y, but you NEED to release mouse button to test the pattern and it will be validate if you are close enough

I solved 4 the last 3 minutes.. and before that I only released when I was 100%sure, it was like 15min on 1

[Fogmoz]

Most of the fractals I’ve encountered are generous with the accuracy, to the extent that the image won’t look remotely close but I’ll release the mouse to reposition & it goes “yay you did it!” lol

Some of them seem incredibly precise, however. Either that, or there will be 4-6 iterations of the correct pattern with almost indiscernible differences. In these instances I just mentally disengage from the puzzle and randomly micro-drag the mouse around each iteration until I get close enough.

I think some kind of grid representation of the searchable space would go a long way in helping players visualize the space, make better decisions on where to look within that space, and feel like they’re actually making progress towards solving the puzzle.

[Sag]

Following the bits of advice here I just started moving the mouse randomly while frantically clicking, so I've been able to cheese most fractals in under 1 minute without any sense or effort.

[Stonga]

Originally posted by Sag:

Following the bits of advice here I just started moving the mouse randomly while frantically clicking, so I've been able to cheese most fractals in under 1 minute without any sense or effort.

This is the way

[joridiculous]

Originally posted by Stonga:

Originally posted by Sag:

Following the bits of advice here I just started moving the mouse randomly while frantically clicking, so I've been able to cheese most fractals in under 1 minute without any sense or effort.

This is the way :cozybethesda:

I do the same. Just did a "Quest" to "Find" 8 of them. Did all of them just moving mouse randomly around.
The big problem with these is the super pixel-perfection, and how insanely sensitive the movements is. Moving the mouse one pixel spins the fractals too hell and back

[TNTDragons]

Originally posted by joridiculous:

The big problem with these is the super pixel-perfection, and how insanely sensitive the movements is. Moving the mouse one pixel spins the fractals too hell and back

On the contrary, you don't need to be too pixel perfect. Quite frequently I'm a decent bit off and the game just gives me the solution because it's "close enough." Yes, moving the mouse by a single pixel can often cause massive changes, but you usually don't need to worry about those, and if you're trying to hone stuff in pixel-perfect then you're probably in the wrong branch of the fractal/some detail somewhere else is different

[Polantaris]

Originally posted by Fogmoz:

Most of the fractals I’ve encountered are generous with the accuracy, to the extent that the image won’t look remotely close but I’ll release the mouse to reposition & it goes “yay you did it!” lol

Some of them seem incredibly precise, however. Either that, or there will be 4-6 iterations of the correct pattern with almost indiscernible differences. In these instances I just mentally disengage from the puzzle and randomly micro-drag the mouse around each iteration until I get close enough.

I think some kind of grid representation of the searchable space would go a long way in helping players visualize the space, make better decisions on where to look within that space, and feel like they’re actually making progress towards solving the puzzle.

I think there also needs to be a different way of controlling it, too. Sometimes it feels like it's reading micro-movements in my mouse in the direction I don't want to go in and then overreacting to that. It's honestly infuriating.

For example, I'm trying to move left or right with the mouse, but I see the effects of going up/down as well. If I had the ability to control it with something else other than the mouse, I'd have a much better time because I'd be able to understand how I am controlling the puzzle in the first place.

Right now I spend a lot of time in each puzzle (if I'm trying to solve it legitimately) testing each individual direction only to not really be sure which is doing what.

These are easily the most aggravating and unenjoyable puzzles in the game. I wouldn't even call them puzzles insomuch as they are completely illogical. It's entirely guesswork, 100% of the time, because the player doesn't have full control, they have to hope mouse sensitivity doesn't screw them over.

[TNTDragons]

Originally posted by Polantaris:

I think there also needs to be a different way of controlling it, too. Sometimes it feels like it's reading micro-movements in my mouse in the direction I don't want to go in and then overreacting to that. It's honestly infuriating.

For example, I'm trying to move left or right with the mouse, but I see the effects of going up/down as well. If I had the ability to control it with something else other than the mouse, I'd have a much better time because I'd be able to understand how I am controlling the puzzle in the first place.

Right now I spend a lot of time in each puzzle (if I'm trying to solve it legitimately) testing each individual direction only to not really be sure which is doing what.

These are easily the most aggravating and unenjoyable puzzles in the game. I wouldn't even call them puzzles insomuch as they are completely illogical. It's entirely guesswork, 100% of the time, because the player doesn't have full control, they have to hope mouse sensitivity doesn't screw them over.

I think a key insight here is that fractals are complex beasts that don't simply go up or down. In fact, most of the time you should think of stuff as "zooming" and "swirling". Your controls allow you to zoom in and out of the infinite pattern, as well as simultaneously 'swirl' make the infinite fractals going towards each of the 'spiral centers', making the various arms of the fractal overlap with each other.

Combined with the mirror symmetries present in many of the fractals, this creates the illusion of movement in a certain direction, but in reality it's highly dependent on where in the fractal you are. Just because moving your cursor up moved the fractal up doesn't mean that will always be the case, as the movement of the fractal will likely sway right/left the further up you go with your mouse. Might even appear to flip and go backwards!

I think ultimately the issue with fractals is readability. And not of the puzzle, but of its difficulty. It is hard for someone unfamiliar with these puzzles - and they're fairly unique to this game, so that would be majority of players - to see at a glance if a puzzle is easy or hard. All other puzzles in the game you can quickly judge the difficulty of by looking at them, be it through the difficulty orbs/stars or just the size of the puzzle. The only two exceptions are Sightseer and Fractals, and the former uses the very familiar concept of our surroundings, while the latter uses a very unfamiliar concept of infinitely repeating complex analytical functions. People tend to not be able to tell how hard a morphing fractal is, and thus get easily frustrated when they struggle with the equivalent of a 5 orb logic grid (or higher) thinking it should be as easy as the previous fractal they got in 5 seconds, even though that one was significantly easier.

[darxide23]

The absolute worst part about these things is that two patterns can exist in completely different "areas" of the fractal so you spend 20 minutes trying to massage it into place because it looks like you're right there, but nope. You're on the wrong one and you have to go find the other, almost identical looking pattern.

The second huge problem is that sometimes you'll move the mouse slightly in one direction, let's say up. And that puts you further away from the solution so you try to go back and move the mouse down, but that doesn't undo the up movement, it just screws things up even more. The mouse movement does not always seem logical at all.

I hate these things so much. I either solve them in 10 seconds or it takes 10 minutes. There's no in between. The higher difficulty ones also seem to have nearly pixel-perfect requirements for you to complete them.

[TNTDragons]

Originally posted by darxide23:

The second huge problem is that sometimes you'll move the mouse slightly in one direction, let's say up. And that puts you further away from the solution so you try to go back and move the mouse down, but that doesn't undo the up movement, it just screws things up even more. The mouse movement does not always seem logical at all.

I think the "puzzle plane" may be a circle. So if you're on the rightmost edge of the circle and move your mouse up it will "nudge" it along the edge of the circle, moving your cursor up and left. That means when you then move the cursor down you will keep the left movement, and thus end up in a different place from where you started.

I think most answers aren't very near the edges, but the edges are required nonetheless, otherwise you could get lost in the infinite fractal with no hope of making it near the correct solution

[Vardis]

While I can get most of them, I'd swear some are bugged.

Usually, I can just count the elements, and if there are a chain of 5 when there should be 4, I know it's one rotation off and can find it easily.

This one though... I couldn't solve it, no matter what I did, and it looks like it matches to me. It'd be nice if they didn't cover the border of the smaller image, and made it slightly bigger.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3172239124

[󠀡󠀡]

Originally posted by Vardis:

While I can get most of them, I'd swear some are bugged.

Usually, I can just count the elements, and if there are a chain of 5 when there should be 4, I know it's one rotation off and can find it easily.

This one though... I couldn't solve it, no matter what I did, and it looks like it matches to me. It'd be nice if they didn't cover the border of the smaller image, and made it slightly bigger.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3172239124

Just to make sure, are using the left mouse button to fiddle with the fractal instead of the right mouse button? Only the left mouse button will trigger the puzzle solved thing. If you use right mouse button you could match it exactly and it won't tell you.