Questions about some puzzle solutions

[infinEdy]

I just finished the game on Hard a bit ago, but there were two puzzles I am still a bit confused about. Both were important to getting in to the factory.

1. Factory Time Locks
I accidentally solved the factory's time lock puzzle by brute force. I was curious if the game even allowed you to solve it without finding the solution first. I started at lock 1, set the watch to 12:00, and cycled around to every time until I hit 7:25, and the light turned green.
(Lots of puzzles in the game seem to have random elements, so the time might not be the same for everyone.)
I went to lock 2, pressed the minute button, and it went green again! Same thing for the rest of the locks. All four were five minutes apart in sequential order.
Did I miss any hints leading to this solution? Where was I supposed to get this information from without guessing?

2. Finding the Meeting / Charging the Battery
After struggling to figure out how to charge the truck battery for nearly two hours I took to this place to look for advice. Putting some info from a few threads together I figured out that you need to get the pewter trophy from Delores's room, fill it with radioactive waste from the factory, and use it in the puddle at the trailhead to find a new area.
Was there anything I missed that would have helped me figure out that particular object could hold that particular substance, and that it should be used there?

[MenhirMike]

For 1: You need to call the phone number in the security handbook, and that number changes every playthrough. They will tell you the correct time for Clock Number 1, which is also different for every playthrough.

The security handbook mentions that all 4 clocks have to be visited within 5 minutes of each other, so once you have Clock 1 correct, it's really just a matter of visiting them in order and advancing the minutes once each time.

The security handbook can be found in the guard room (with the photo and map), it's under a pile of papers on the floor.

For 2: I hated that, but the clue was that several NPCs walk into the forest and walk through the puddle. So that was more an observation puzzle, but also one that seemed to have a random element as to when people showed up to clue you into the fact that the puddle is important?

[Waylander]

Originally posted by EddieBowie:

I just finished the game on Hard a bit ago, but there were two puzzles I am still a bit confused about. Both were important to getting in to the factory.

2. Finding the Meeting / Charging the Battery
After struggling to figure out how to charge the truck battery for nearly two hours I took to this place to look for advice. Putting some info from a few threads together I figured out that you need to get the pewter trophy from Delores's room, fill it with radioactive waste from the factory, and use it in the puddle at the trailhead to find a new area.
Was there anything I missed that would have helped me figure out that particular object could hold that particular substance, and that it should be used there?

To be honest I have no idea if this was signposted in any way. I just happened to try it first so it's possible that if you tried something that isn't right it would have given you a responsive clue

[Lord Dem]

Originally posted by EddieBowie:

I just finished the game on Hard a bit ago, but there were two puzzles I am still a bit confused about. Both were important to getting in to the factory.

2. Finding the Meeting / Charging the Battery
After struggling to figure out how to charge the truck battery for nearly two hours I took to this place to look for advice. Putting some info from a few threads together I figured out that you need to get the pewter trophy from Delores's room, fill it with radioactive waste from the factory, and use it in the puddle at the trailhead to find a new area.
Was there anything I missed that would have helped me figure out that particular object could hold that particular substance, and that it should be used there?

This is a homeage to Monkey Island 1 but is a bit obscene to catch if you don't know about the Radioactive Waste which is a reference to the grog from MI1

[Waylander]

Originally posted by dthoupis:

This is a homeage to Monkey Island 1 but is a bit obscene to catch if you don't know about the Radioactive Waste which is a reference to the grog from MI1

Hmm yeah I guess so. Those mugs were pewter...

[Lord Dem]

Originally posted by Waylander:

Originally posted by dthoupis:

This is a homeage to Monkey Island 1 but is a bit obscene to catch if you don't know about the Radioactive Waste which is a reference to the grog from MI1

Hmm yeah I guess so. Those mugs were pewter...

This one is an updated version of those mugs :) LOL

[infinEdy]

THANK YOU SO MUCH MenhirMike!!!

@MenhirMike:

#!: I used "look at" on those papers every time I entered the room, but I never used any other verbs. I should have been more thorough. Thanks!

#2: I knew I needed to do something to that damn puddle but the best idea I had was using Delores's fireplace soot and after that didn't work I tried every other object in every character's inventory on the damn thing. I didn't have the trophy at the time, I completely forgot about it, but even if I had it I doubt I would have thought that it would have made the perfect recepticle for luminous radioactive waste.
I love this game, but this puzzle kind of upsets me even after knowing the solution,,, ;-;

[Waylander]

Originally posted by dthoupis:

Originally posted by Waylander:

Hmm yeah I guess so. Those mugs were pewter...

This one is an updated version of those mugs :) LOL

Holy crap... it also has a infinity symbol on it... to show that it doesnt degrade like the mugs do...

[Lord Dem]

Originally posted by Waylander:

Originally posted by dthoupis:

This one is an updated version of those mugs :) LOL

Holy crap... it also has a infinity symbol on it... to show that it doesnt degrade like the mugs do...

See!

[TangoBravo]

Yep, there probably should have been a more obvious dry run for the waste, a bit like the ink-in-the-fireplace puzzle, which is first solved in the limited space of the flashback but by that becomes obvious enough to be usable for the fingerprints. I expected to use the three machines in the morgue again to get single clues, as their function was explained so thoroughly.

[infinEdy]

Thanks for the explanations!

I never would have noticed the Grog reference! I loved Monkey Island as a kid, but I haven't played it in nearly twenty years. Even if I had played it recently that probably wouldn't have helped me with that particular puzzle.

This is an amazing game, and I love almost every part of it, but this puzzle was definitely the most frustrating for me... :/

[Scyto]

yeah this obtuse and i have played all the MIs - i came here, it could be solved quite simply by having you leave a couple of footprints when you walk through the stuff at the factory

[infinEdy]

Originally posted by Scyto:

yeah this obtuse and i have played all the MIs - i came here, it could be solved quite simply by having you leave a couple of footprints when you walk through the stuff at the factory

That's actually a really good idea! It would be enough to get people to make the connection without being too obvious.

[Ahoge-dono]

Honestly I think the puddle puzzle was the most obtuse out there. I didn't even know there was a secret bunker that I was supposed to be trying to find. Maybe because of my conversation choices I missed the hint, but that seems to be against Ron Gilberts thoughts on game design.

[LowLevel]

Originally posted by CallMeCrisco:

I didn't even know there was a secret bunker that I was supposed to be trying to find.

The item that suggests you what to do is the pizza flyer, that mentions a "seckrit meeting". It's true that it doesn't explicitly tell you that you have to find the secret meeting but I perceived it as a hint about a new thing to discover.

[TangoBravo]

You want to discover the location to charge the battery, as there is a hint about the electric fence. The missing puzzle part is pretty clear. Then again, maybe I just read the flyer at the perfect time to go after that clue.