Silly newbie question

[fingers peter]

Just downloaded the Witness for my Windows PC, but I'm puzzled by the total lack of playing directions. Is there any way to save the current game without leaving it? Is there any way to pause the game to go to another app, or do I just have to use Alt-Tab? Are there any other controls that I'm missing in some way - I only found out about Screenshots by trying every key on my keyboard.?

[Pesky]

The game automatically saves y our progress every so often. Mostly it overwrites your current save, but occasionally it starts a new one. Hit 'escape', or start at the main menu, and try to load a saved game to see where it has chosen to save.

Pressing escape will pause the game. But there is nothing creeping around planning to kill you. So nothing's going to come out and attack you while you're stood still.

Four keys to walk, mouse to look and turn, a way to focus so you can solve puzzle boards. I think that's it.

The screenshot function isn't part of the game. It's part of Steam and works with every game you play while Steam is running (except a few which override it).

[fingers peter]

Thanks. So there isn't a way I can tell it to save except by quitting and restarting. And then I lose the previous save unless I can work out where it is and copy it or rename it or something.

[Pesky]

True, but I think you're worrying unnecessarily. Nothing you can do in the game puts you in a worse situation. You can't lock yourself into any bad situation. Almost everything you do in the game is about making paths and opening doors. So there's no need to prevent overwriting an old save with a new save, because the new save can't be worse than the old save.

In almost all cases, if you get a big buzz out of solving a particular puzzleboard then you can reset it and solve it again, perhaps trying a different solution. Solving a puzzleboard doesn't lock it in the solved position. (Though it may make a door swing open meaning you can no longer get to the puzzle to reset it.)

[fingers peter]

I must say that I'm finding The Witness an extremely frustrating game. Some of the puzzles seem to have no logical solution, Having (for one chain of puzzles) to go back after a failure to the previous puzzle and re-solve it is a real pain.

The lack of being able to save a game and come back to it is, for me, a total no-no. Even when I quit a game it doesn't always seem to save it. I've just loaded an old save by accident and it has now wiped my current status. So I either have to start from that game or give up completely. A waste of good money that could have been spent on beer.

[MASTAN]

Originally posted by fingers peter:

Some of the puzzles seem to have no logical solution

That only means you haven't figure their rules yet. Replay simplier puzzles of the same type, every area has them. I had trouble only with some sound puzzles.

Having (for one chain of puzzles) to go back after a failure to the previous puzzle and re-solve it is a real pain.

That just protects rom bruteforcing.

The lack of being able to save a game and come back to it is, for me, a total no-no. Even when I quit a game it doesn't always seem to save it.

I've never had problem with that. Every time I enter the game I return to the exast state when I left. IIRC the only exceptions are game endings.

I've just loaded an old save by accident and it has now wiped my current status.

Well of course, loading any of those older autosaves reverts game to the state when it was done.

I can only guess that author deliberately omited manual save option to prevent puzzle bruteforcing.

[fingers peter]

Thanks Mastan. I think I'm verrrry sloooowly getting the hang of it. But not sure it's worth the effort in the long run. But there are two puzzles that have completely stumped me, as I thought I'd worked out the rules only to find that they don't work on the final puzzle of a set. Or does that mean that I have to solve some completely different puzzle before I'm allowed to complete the set? Bashing my head against a brick wall would be easier.

Comments about sound puzzles worry me - does this mean I have to have the sound switched on when I'm playing?

[Pesky]

Nothing invisible blocks puzzles. If the puzzle doesn't respond to your solution, your solution is wrong. It sounds as if you have misunderstood why your previous solutions worked, which is something that happens often on that island.

There is one sequence of puzzles which appear to have no clues if you have sound turned off. You will need to turn on sound to solve them. Some of these puzzles have obvious loudspeakers next to them. But not all of them.

[MASTAN]

Post screenshots of those puzzles and what you think of their rules and we'll give hints.

[swingline]

fwiw, I'm finding the Witness difficult in many (most?) places, but I'm slowly working through the puzzles, and every puzzle that I've ultimately solved has made sense. Sometimes the solution is just a hard line drawing combination, but often the solution requires thinking differently about the rules or inspecting the environment differntly. I've found It is possible to work through significant series of puzzles using the "wrong" or incomplete rules only to realize it when I'd get stuck and have to rethink what I was doing. Usually I find I have over-specified the rules, when in fact the rules are often simpler.

I find my play now is often get to a puzzle that I can't solve - totally stumped - so I take a screenshot, and exit the game and give it time. Before I start up the game again (sometimes only a short while later, sometimes days later) I'll look at that screenshot (and screenshots of previous puzzles to freshen myself on the rules) and try to work it out. Sometimes it just takes a bit of time away of a puzzle to let my mind work on it in the background. Sometimes it required going to different part of the map when I really have no idea what is going on. I had a section the other day where I only vaguely was understanding the rules (in the rock sorting building), but was bumping my way through until it all starting coming together.

But yeah, I have alot of puzzles I'm totally stumped on right now. I just kindof keep going arouind the map until find something that works, or until I get a new perspective/idea on an old one. I think the game is probably smarter than me, but I keep going back and gradually make a bit of progress. I've probably been playing for over 2 months now off and on and still have a lot to finish - so I don't know if I'll make it to the end or not - so yeah, it's slow going but keeps me from getting too frustrated with it.

[Pesky]

swingline articulates the situation very well. I will add this: the mechanism for each symbol can be stated in one short sentence. If you find yourself thinking "It wants me to do X and Y." you're probably wrong, it's just Z. Also, for every symbol there's a sequence somewhere on the island that teaches you how to solve it. But you often find puzzle boards in the wrong order, and you get the exam before the lessons. Or you get just one or two lessons and miss the sequence.

But yes, don't try to solve the game by solving every puzzleboard in the order you encounter them. That's not going to work on Witness Island. If you're stumped in place try somewhere else.

[fingers peter]

Originally posted by MASTAN:

Post screenshots of those puzzles and what you think of their rules and we'll give hints.

I can't work out how to post a screen shot! I uploaded it using F12 but there doesn't seem to be a button to create an URL from it.

[MASTAN]

In Steam settings select "Interface" on the left, enable "Dispaly Steam URL address bar when available".

[fingers peter]

I don't have an 'Interface' (or anything else) on the left. I have 4 tabs at the top: Broadcasting, Web browser, Music, In-game. None of these has the "Display..." message. Totally flummoxed.

[MASTAN]

Here https://techmuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/steam-interface-settings-screen.png

[fingers peter]

Interesting - mine looks like https://www.dropbox.com/s/tw4gsibx7e0jg3r/Steam%20settings.png?dl=0

Can you see why I'm confused?