No more click things in a row riddles please

beer781993 · July 10

And we get the typical click three or four things in order "riddles" again. That's so effortless and uninnovative. Can't you come up with something exciting or different?

Doing these feels like you're as intelligent as a piece of wood.

beer781993 · July 10

Maybe you guys should also add putting shaped wooden pieces into the right hole. Not even a toddler enjoys these for long.

That's the lvl this "puzzles" or "riddles" are.

YffresTrill · July 10

I am not sure what puzzle in particular you are referring to (I have not done the new questline) but in general I believe these are kept so basic because they are part of overland, and the philosophy of overland is that people of any capability should be able to complete it.

There are puzzles in some DLC dungeons which are definitely far more difficult to complete. The instrument puzzles in Naj-Caldeesh come to mind.

Now, if overland puzzles could scale in difficulty along with your combat difficulty setting, that would be interesting and I would be very much on-board. But that would require a lot of additional development time for something that is generally completed very quickly anyway, and a lot of people (some people just hate puzzles in general) would not appreciate it.

beer781993 · July 10

YffresTrill wrote: »

I am not sure what puzzle in particular you are referring to (I have not done the new questline) but in general I believe these are kept so basic because they are part of overland, and the philosophy of overland is that people of any capability should be able to complete it.

There are puzzles in some DLC dungeons which are definitely far more difficult to complete. The instrument puzzles in Naj-Caldeesh come to mind.

Now, if overland puzzles could scale in difficulty along with your combat difficulty setting, that would be interesting and I would be very much on-board. But that would require a lot of additional development time for something that is generally completed very quickly anyway, and a lot of people (some people just hate puzzles in general) would not appreciate it.

I am not only complaining about difficulty. That game is full of them. They are boring and unnecessary. Why not come up with sth surprising or exciting. The point is creativity.

They just put no effort into this at all.

Click 3 Books in the right order, click 3 potions in the right order. Click 4 lamps or whatever those are in the right order. That's lame and boring.

ApoAlaia · July 10

They have addressed this before.

They could put more challenging puzzles - and to an extent the new 'vault' should have some of those, as did the night market with the lasers and the boulders, the spiders... not so much - but most players just CBA with those and they'd just go to the wiki for the solution.

Whether this is true or not I don't know, but they do have a lot more data about players than I do that's for sure.

beer781993 · July 10

ApoAlaia wrote: »

They have addressed this before.

They could put more challenging puzzles - and to an extent the new 'vault' should have some of those, as did the night market with the lasers and the boulders, the spiders... not so much - but most players just CBA with those and they'd go to the wiki for the solution.

Whether this is true or not I don't know, but they do have a lot more data about players than I do that's for sure.

That's what I am talking about. Nm riddles were a step into the right direction. No problem if they "cheat" but people who enjoy riddles can try them as long as they want to. Getting a good feeling when you finally succeeded.

YffresTrill · July 10

I'm sorry, but I don't quite understand the distinction you are making between "difficulty" and something more complex than simply clicking a few things in the right order. Doesn't the difficulty of a puzzle come from the complexity?

Edit to add: I was mostly agreeing with you. Just providing context for why it is as simple as it is. And looking up the solution outside the game does ruin immersion for a lot of people, so I understand why designing a puzzle meant to be completed by everyone should not take going outside the game into account.

beer781993 · July 10

YffresTrill wrote: »

I'm sorry, but I don't quite understand the distinction you are making between "difficulty" and something more complex than simply clicking a few things in the right order. Doesn't the difficulty of a puzzle come from the complexity?

That's true but I meant it could either be difficult, complex or they could just make it fun, surprising and different.

I liked the spider activity in nightmarket or the boulders. Even the mirrors were fun. Those were also not so complex or?

Clicking 4 things in the right order isn't very exciting or entertaining.

Edit: the only downside in nightmarket were the 8 minute respawn waiting time and that other players could ruin it for you.

SerafinaWaterstar · July 10

Because then you would get people moaning that the puzzles were too hard & it blocked them from progressing…..

beer781993 · July 10

SerafinaWaterstar wrote: »

Because then you would get people moaning that the puzzles were too hard & it blocked them from progressing…..

Feels like you didn't read what I wrote. I didn't say make it hard, I said do something innovative. Like sth that is actually fun and engaging.

YffresTrill · July 10

A lot of people found the Night Market puzzles difficult/frustrating too. If these were blocking story quest progress, I think many players would not appreciate that.

I was fine doing the Night Market puzzles when I felt like it, but I also think I would have found them frustrating (especially the light one, which did not even seem consistently completable?) if I had to do them in the middle of a quest. I do not see how these qualify as more innovative but not more difficult?

wolfie1.0. · July 10

beer781993 wrote: »

SerafinaWaterstar wrote: »

Because then you would get people moaning that the puzzles were too hard & it blocked them from progressing…..

Feels like you didn't read what I wrote. I didn't say make it hard, I said do something innovative. Like sth that is actually fun and engaging.

They did, its called antiquities. And a lot of players hate it.

JustLovely · July 10

beer781993 wrote: »

And we get the typical click three or four things in order "riddles" again. That's so effortless and uninnovative. Can't you come up with something exciting or different?

Doing these feels like you're as intelligent as a piece of wood.

Or AI.

Gabriel_H · July 10

YffresTrill wrote: »

I'm sorry, but I don't quite understand the distinction you are making between "difficulty" and something more complex than simply clicking a few things in the right order. Doesn't the difficulty of a puzzle come from the complexity?

Edit to add: I was mostly agreeing with you. Just providing context for why it is as simple as it is. And looking up the solution outside the game does ruin immersion for a lot of people, so I understand why designing a puzzle meant to be completed by everyone should not take going outside the game into account.

Difficulty is a measure of skill/effort.
Complexity is a measure of moving parts/thinking.

Something can be complex but easy, and likewise can be simple but hard. Standing on the halfway line and getting the ball in the basket isn't complex, but it is difficult.

SilverBride · July 10

I'd be happy if they stopped making puzzles all together. I don't find them the least bit fun and I just look up the solution to get them over with. Making them more difficult would just add to the frustration.

Quethrosar · July 10

i hate puzzles i hate anything about thief guild, just give me the damn reward already.

beer781993 · July 10

Quethrosar wrote: »

i hate puzzles i hate anything about thief guild, just give me the damn reward already.

That makes no sense. The mythic (the reward) is literally for improving pickpocketing, you know a thieves guild activity.

Why are you playing stuff you don't like 🤡

SeaGtGruff · July 10

I'm not a big fan of these sorts of puzzles, either, but they seem to be pretty common in games. I don't get the attraction, but presumably game devs feel like these sorts of puzzles are easy for just about anyone to solve.

At least the ones in ESO (that I've seen) are not too horrible. I mean, if you want to see a really, really horrible example of this type of puzzle, check out an old game called Timelapse, where you travel to a number of ancient cultures-- Egyptian, Mayan, Anasazi, and Atlantean. There's a puzzle in the Anasazi segment where you click on different animal tracks to fill in a snake. If you click the correct animal track, it gets added to the snake. But if you click an incorrect one, it wipes your progress and you must start all over again.

That almost sounds okay-- except there are 8 different animal tracks to choose from, and 35 circles on the snake that must be filled in, with (AFAIK) no hints at all in the game about the correct sequence of tracks. It's got to be the absolute worst case of a "click on things in the correct sequence" type of puzzle in a game.

AcadianPaladin · July 10

For all 10 years of my playtime in ESO I've been pleased with the puzzles. The reason is that my elf can figure them out without help quite reliably. The alternative is to fail, exit the game, go to some walkthrough to get the answer, come back in game and do them - not fun. Simple = good.

Dax_Draconis · July 10

I prefer there not be any puzzles at all. They are a time waster that I do not enjoy stopping for.

SilverBride · July 10

AcadianPaladin wrote: »

For all 10 years of my playtime in ESO I've been pleased with the puzzles. The reason is that my elf can figure them out without help quite reliably. The alternative is to fail, exit the game, go to some walkthrough to get the answer, come back in game and do them - not fun. Simple = good.

I don't exit the game to find a solution. I just open Chrome, google for the solution which is usually one sentence telling the right order, etc., then complete the puzzle. There is no need to exit the game for this.

LadyGP · July 10

SilverBride wrote: »

I'd be happy if they stopped making puzzles all together. I don't find them the least bit fun and I just look up the solution to get them over with. Making them more difficult would just add to the frustration.

SilverBride wrote: »

AcadianPaladin wrote: »

For all 10 years of my playtime in ESO I've been pleased with the puzzles. The reason is that my elf can figure them out without help quite reliably. The alternative is to fail, exit the game, go to some walkthrough to get the answer, come back in game and do them - not fun. Simple = good.

I don't exit the game to find a solution. I just open Chrome, google for the solution which is usually one sentence telling the right order, etc., then complete the puzzle. There is no need to exit the game for this.

Why?

When you get a puzzle and then just it up right away of course it's going to be boring and lame.

One of the most fun things my group had was the Night Market stuff when it launched. We spent 3 nights trying to figure out the puzzles when we would run across them.

SilverBride · July 10

LadyGP wrote: »

Why?

When you get a puzzle and then just it up right away of course it's going to be boring and lame.

One of the most fun things my group had was the Night Market stuff when it launched. We spent 3 nights trying to figure out the puzzles when we would run across them.

I never said they were boring or lame. I said they aren't the least bit fun. I don't enjoy reading a bunch of books around the room and trying to find clues for placing things in a certain order and having to rotate wheels in the right order, or pull levers in the right order to open a gate or lower a bridge. Nothing about that is fun to me.

I am not going to spend my game time doing things I don't enjoy so I look up the solution so I can continue on with what I was doing.

anadandy · July 11

I actually enjoyed the

hidden library

puzzles. Particularly the

Dibella test

. I guess it really is to each their own, and I respect that. Personally, I'm looking forward to the Nowhere Vault being puzzle focused and using my brain rather than my thumbs. 🙂