Stuck in Abandoned Factory...

[VulcanTourist]

(Spoiler screenshots:)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2971446926
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2971446602

I can't figure out - or recall - where I'm supposed to return to proceed from here. My short-term recall is damaged and labyrinths that require me to remember where I've been are frustrating.

[Vermillion]

Pull the lever to restore power to the ventilation system.
Go downstairs into the room at the back of the Boarding Ramp that says "Maintenance" with a blast door. Flip the now-active switch to lower the boarding ramp and go exactly where the arrow on the wall is directing you.

[VulcanTourist]

Is through here where you meant? I missed something....
(Spoiler screenshot:)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2971489899

[Vermillion]

Yes.
You need to get the codes off the two screens, open the radiation shelter (two code-locked switches behind the reception desk on B1), go through the airduct into that room. Once you've gotten in there once, the blast door can be opened for easier access.

[VulcanTourist]

Originally posted by Vermillion:

Yes.
You need to get the codes off the two screens, open the radiation shelter (two code-locked switches behind the reception desk on B1), go through the airduct into that room. Once you've gotten in there once, the blast door can be opened for easier access.

As you can see from the (new) Steam overlay notepad, I had those two codes, found those two switches, and tripped both of them. However... in my effort to find this I toggled them again, so I'll try again and hope third times really are the charm. I was sure I'd checked that location again after first tripping them to check for an effect, but maybe I didn't.

Wait... what AIR DUCT?

I cheated to find it. I had missed that entirely. It wasn't telegraphed very well. I had thought the entire point of that room was to release a horde of Bad Things behind me. It needed some line symbols on the floor and/or changes to the wall texturing or coloring to draw the eye to it with more predictability.

Oh, and there was no "arrow" in that room, because the LCD was inactive, even after the nearby switch was flipped.

There's also a capitalization error in one of the Personal Logs: "If i'd been a little more brave, I could've reached it before the mechs turned on us."

And...
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2971542764
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2971542757

[Vermillion]

The ladder in the shelter has bright hazard lines painted on it and it's directly opposite the door. It's kinda hard to miss.

The LCD in the maintenance room doesn't have an arrow. It's powered on by default and says to flip the power switch in the duct above (where you went first).
The Arrow is a symbol painted on the wall, directing the player to walk between the upper and lower panel of the closed boarding ramp.

The terrain flickering is a game issue. The terrain generates too close to the outer wall, causing the two edges to overlap. The POI needs an extra layer of wall to counter it.

[VulcanTourist]

Originally posted by Vermillion:

The ladder in the shelter has bright hazard lines painted on it and it's directly opposite the door. It's kinda hard to miss.

It's called author bias. You know to expect it because you designed it; as I explained, I assessed that the entire point of that room was to belatedly disgorge deferred Bad Things, and so I wasn't expecting to find an exploratory progression. I'm not generally unobservant, rather the opposite.

This is what the room looked like upon gaining entry, both with and without the player's helmet light:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2971765275
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2971765252
As you should clearly see, the reflectivity of the chosen wall texture in particular does a pretty effective job of obscuring the ladder, and you cannot reasonably dictate that players never use their flashlight while spelunking it.

Try eliminating the unnecessary texture, or using a matte one, on the blocks behind the ladder and using a darker color to make the ladder contrast better. Something like this:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2971765224

Originally posted by Vermillion:

The LCD in the maintenance room doesn't have an arrow. It's powered on by default and says to flip the power switch in the duct above (where you went first).

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2971713123

Originally posted by Vermillion:

The Arrow is a symbol painted on the wall, directing the player to walk between the upper and lower panel of the closed boarding ramp.

There is no such arrow in the POI as delivered.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2971769603
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2971770709
After you mentioned it, I looked for it, and expected to find a symbol. There was none. I considered that the arrow might have been displayed on the nearby LCD (shown above), but since *that* wasn't powered there was no way to know what it was intended to communicate. Knowing there's a navigable space inside closed boarding ramps, I nevertheless figured it out in spite of an arrow's absence. Not everyone would.

Originally posted by Vermillion:

The terrain flickering is a game issue. The terrain generates too close to the outer wall, causing the two edges to overlap. The POI needs an extra layer of wall to counter it.

In this specific instance, using full blocks instead of half-blocks in those locations would have eliminated the competition.

My only personal failure in all this was failing to notice the ladder, and there's arguably blame to be shared for that.

[Kevin]

Hmm, i have not encountered any switchs so far and none of the screenshots look familiar. I am going to have to look around as i am obviously missing some very key stuff

[VulcanTourist]

Originally posted by Kevin:

Hmm, i have not encountered any switchs so far and none of the screenshots look familiar. I am going to have to look around as i am obviously missing some very key stuff

I expect that it's not the same POI, but if it's one of the "Abandoned" series they all share the same designer and could have issues similar to this one that I encountered. As hinted here, that designer places the burden of failure on me, but that burden was at the least split equally.

[mathaniel]

I was with ya til this Vulcan. Don`t start with the whose on first or whose fault is it man lol. I follow you pretty closely on here, and I`ll admit sometimes you post good info that is nevertheless far over my head. But sometimes, man, C`mon. It`s a maze, a puzzle, hidden hints, whatever. You were at fault man, don`t go all mp on the share the fault guilt trip. I don`t mean this in a bad way dude.

Places the burden of failure on you? Really? Gasp, the designer did their job you mean? No wait, it`s the designer`s fault. Ahhhh, I get it:-) Man up dude. You are a smart cookie, you , just missed the hints. No fault sharin` on this one my friend, yur in it to win it, and that`s the right of it. ps just f***in with ya dude lol.

[Bif]

To me, this is a brilliant POI, tons of fun, even though I admittedly cheesed it. Vermillion does a lot of things well, but he's not a God. VT couches things in terms of blame and that can be off-putting but if you ignore his analysis you are just cutting off your nose to spite your face. Respect and props to all involved.

[VulcanTourist]

Originally posted by Bif:

To me, this is a brilliant POI, tons of fun, even though I admittedly cheesed it. Vermillion does a lot of things well, but he's not a God. VT couches things in terms of blame and that can be off-putting but if you ignore his analysis you are just cutting off your nose to spite your face. Respect and props to all involved.

No, I don't couch things in terms of blame; I couch things in terms of a failure and thus a problem to be solved.

• The failure was my inability to progress and eventual need to cheat to discover why.
  
• What caused the failure? I missed something visual.
  
• Why did I miss something visual? It wasn't visible/apparent to me, in spite of my having entered the room in question several times.
  
• Why wasn't it apparent? I had the suit light on and there was a lot of reflectivity and the clue was otherwise not well telegraphed.
  
• I now know what I missed, but what of the next guy? Who owns the problem and the need to minimize it? Not me.

"Blame" = who owns resolution of the problem

Don't make an emotional contest out of what isn't.

[Bif]

Originally posted by VulcanTourist:

Originally posted by Bif:

To me, this is a brilliant POI, tons of fun, even though I admittedly cheesed it. Vermillion does a lot of things well, but he's not a God. VT couches things in terms of blame and that can be off-putting but if you ignore his analysis you are just cutting off your nose to spite your face. Respect and props to all involved.

No, I don't couch things in terms of blame; I couch things in terms of a failure and thus a problem to be solved.

• The failure was my inability to progress and eventual need to cheat to discover why.
  
• What caused the failure? I missed something visual.
  
• Why did I miss something visual? It wasn't visible/apparent to me, in spite of my having entered the room in question several times.
  
• Why wasn't it apparent? I had the suit light on and there was a lot of reflectivity and the clue was otherwise not well telegraphed.
  
• I now know what I missed, but what of the next guy? Who owns the problem and the need to minimize it? Not me.

"Blame" = who owns resolution of the problem

Don't make an emotional contest out of what isn't.

You do realize I took your side, right?

Originally posted by VulcanTourist:

My only personal failure in all this was failing to notice the ladder, and there's arguably blame to be shared for that.

All I'm saying is you can make your point in a way that isn't upsetting to Vermillion. Probably Vermillion is immune to such things, but why take a chance on your valid analysis being rejected on emotional grounds?

[VulcanTourist]

I have no interest in "being a diplomat" and playing games with the emotional states of others, guessing what specific words might or might not be a stimulus for a change in another's emotional state and whether that state is beneficial to my motives or not.

Do you hear how selfish, stupid, and wretched a behavior that sounds like, when stated bluntly that way? This is what humans do to each other every minute of every day, and it's sickening, not to mention wasteful and wildly inefficient. Humans fail miserably at this as often as they succeed: they have no objective information on which to base their choices. It's all guesswork. Their odds of success are no better than games in a casino, unless they're a card-counter. I refuse to play that game.

[Bif]

Originally posted by VulcanTourist:

I have no interest in "being a diplomat" and playing games with the emotional states of others, guessing what specific words might or might not be a stimulus for a change in another's emotional state and whether that state is beneficial to my motives or not.

Do you hear how selfish, stupid, and wretched a behavior that sounds like, when stated bluntly that way? This is what humans do to each other every minute of every day, and it's sickening, not to mention wasteful and wildly inefficient. Humans fail miserably at this as often as they succeed: they have no objective information on which to base their choices. It's all guesswork. Their odds of success are no better than games in a casino, unless they're a card-counter. I refuse to play that game.

True Vulcan: I have obviously always respected your integrity & veracity. Since I don't own your soul, I accept the aspects of your persona that strike me as sub-optimal. Chiefly, disregard for emotions.

Emotion: Yes, it's wasteful. Yes, it's stupid. But that is the reality of it, we are humans. Take the irrational part of humanity into account and greatly increase your influence. Or don't, & those of us that understand you will glean the gems of inspiration or experience that you share without expectation of recognition or reward.

Bottom line: You're not bad. You're definitely useful. Suit yourself on how far your contributions disseminate. Expect a comment when you egregiously disregard feelings, and feel free to put me on ignore or simply disregard my occasional comments. You possess yourself, do as you see fit with your property.

[VulcanTourist]

This was an unnecessary tangent prompted by the word "blame", but a real or perceived mischaracterization made in public can only be answered in public, where none of it really belonged.