New puzzle suggestion

[Thailand_Dan]

Was reading a thread on puzzles and it got me to thinking. There seem to be 3 main types of puzzles in-game that I can think of:

1. The movable tile one that gets more and more complicated, for each new quest. That one that shocks the guy in the cage in 3BC, I thought was kind of the limit they could bring those things too, but they have shown up again in the Korthos quests.

2. The rune wheels, seen in Von 4, Splinterskull, The Pit, Co6, etc.

3. The push button, light up one seen in Shroud, Enter the Kobold, etc.

In furute Mods, could we see some new puzzle types? It is obvious that attempts have been made, but usually these are one off tries. Rainbow, is a cool example. Another great one I think is in Test Your Worth. I hated it after 30 minutes on the first day of the Mod release, sitting in a lvl 5 dungeaon on my 16 Sorc, trying to get past the challenge. But, it was fun figuring it out.

I am just bored of the old ones. I think incorporating sound would help. How about a puzzle based on one of these:



You could have different party members in different rooms that have to step on the tones in sequence to advance. Of course you could change the toon to be one of 10 - 20 different combinations. Just a thought. Any other suggestions?

[Magnyr_Delorn]

I like it.

[KaKa]

I always thought an evil puzzle to give us would be a Sudoku with symbols instead of numbers.

[Lithic]

how about one of those pictures puzzles where one tile is missing, the rest of the tiles are randomized, and you need to get the picture fixed to solve it?

[Samadhi]

Not a fan of puzzles requiring teamwork and flawless network speed (too many Abbot nightmares - and we all know how trustworthy DDO's networds have been recently...)

But altogether, it's a cool idea.

[QuantumFX]

I always thought an evil puzzle to give us would be a Sudoku with symbols instead of numbers.

Is there a 4x4 variant? (I've only seen 6x6’s and 9x9’s) Otherwise we might be in for some trouble since “the quest takes too long” whining would commence.

[KaKa]

Is there a 4x4 variant? (I've only seen 6x6’s and 9x9’s) Otherwise we might be in for some trouble since “the quest takes too long” whining would commence.

That's why it would be evil.

[Thailand_Dan]

Not a fan of puzzles requiring teamwork and flawless network speed (too many Abbot nightmares - and we all know how trustworthy DDO's networds have been recently...)

But altogether, it's a cool idea.

I hear you. I think the solution would be no time limit (or a much longer time limit) between tones hit when you are parroting back the sequence.

I like the idea of the picture puzzle.

Above all, it just seems the devs can be more creative with quests then move these things around so everything lights up. It's a higher level puzzle, so how can we make it harder? Make it bigger and have mobs attack you...which seems to be the prevailing wisdom at the moment. That huge one in Von5 is rediculous.

[Venar]

You forgot the Reaver's Mastermind puzzle

I do like places where we need to use our brains.
Like the ATDQ book riddle, or the maze in Crucible, and even that anoying Rat maze in the necropolis.
The Abbot floor is a great idea IMO, if only it was not a crucial part of a raid that needs glasses.

Just put such a floor, VISIBLE, in a normal quest, and it would be fun for a party to walk across it.

I could also see the floor tiles used in a Tic-Tac-Toe game against a NPC.

Finally, i still wait for some puzzle/riddle/challenge that requires a player to identify invisible things using a Spot check.

[Kromize]

Or better yet, let ppl buy instruments in game and play them(bards don't have to buy an instrument, they have one already). (:

I know it can't be hard to do(maybe a bit time consuming), seeing as LOTRO has it...

[Garth_of_Sarlona]

Combine the titan passage ways where you can't go through carrying a specific item, with a seriously beefed up version of the taint of shavarrath (cannot carry two items), and make a puzzle like the 'get the corn, the chicken and the fox' across the lake...

I dunno - maybe a set of tunnels where you have to take the items through and put them into holes which give other items...

Garth

[honkuimushi]

One problem with DDO from my point of view is there are too many quests that take 10 minutes if you know it and 2 hours if you don't. Puzzles and mazes are a part of this. I'm tired of seeing comments in the LFM like Know Quest, Need Puzzle Solver and Need Guide for Maze. One of the problems is that it's hard to solo a lot of the quests to the puzzle so you can practice. So alot of the time one person solves the puzzle and everyone else is clueless how it's done. If you do it without someone who knows it, it can lead to some poeple getting mad and sometimes people just run out of time.

So what I would like to see are puzzles that can't be memorized ahead of time and don't really benefit from offline programs. Ideally, it should benefit from having more than one person work on it and the penalty for failure is not so harsh as to make letting a newbie try unthinkable.

It's not really a puzzle, but since the devs have been using classic games for inspiration, how about Space Invaders. The patterns the enemies take would be random, and while one person could do it, having more people manning the guns would make the next fights easier and maybe lead to an extra chest or 2.

I'm sure people could come up with a lot more.

[LazarusPossum]

Oh boy! Anything but Soduku! My head is hurting already...

[Samadhi]

One problem with DDO from my point of view is there are too many quests that take 10 minutes if you know it and 2 hours if you don't. Puzzles and mazes are a part of this. I'm tired of seeing comments in the LFM like Know Quest, Need Puzzle Solver and Need Guide for Maze. One of the problems is that it's hard to solo a lot of the quests to the puzzle so you can practice. So alot of the time one person solves the puzzle and everyone else is clueless how it's done. If you do it without someone who knows it, it can lead to some poeple getting mad and sometimes people just run out of time.

So what I would like to see are puzzles that can't be memorized ahead of time and don't really benefit from offline programs. Ideally, it should benefit from having more than one person work on it and the penalty for failure is not so harsh as to make letting a newbie try unthinkable.

It's not really a puzzle, but since the devs have been using classic games for inspiration, how about Space Invaders. The patterns the enemies take would be random, and while one person could do it, having more people manning the guns would make the next fights easier and maybe lead to an extra chest or 2.

I'm sure people could come up with a lot more.

I do agree with your point of "non-dire" consequences for failure so there is no harm in letting the newer folks give it a shot.

[Kromize]

It's not really a puzzle, but since the devs have been using classic games for inspiration, how about Space Invaders. The patterns the enemies take would be random, and while one person could do it, having more people manning the guns would make the next fights easier and maybe lead to an extra chest or 2.

Mounted Repeating Ballistas?

[Thailand_Dan]

One problem with DDO from my point of view is there are too many quests that take 10 minutes if you know it and 2 hours if you don't. Puzzles and mazes are a part of this. I'm tired of seeing comments in the LFM like Know Quest, Need Puzzle Solver and Need Guide for Maze. One of the problems is that it's hard to solo a lot of the quests to the puzzle so you can practice. So alot of the time one person solves the puzzle and everyone else is clueless how it's done. If you do it without someone who knows it, it can lead to some poeple getting mad and sometimes people just run out of time.

So what I would like to see are puzzles that can't be memorized ahead of time and don't really benefit from offline programs. Ideally, it should benefit from having more than one person work on it and the penalty for failure is not so harsh as to make letting a newbie try unthinkable.

It's not really a puzzle, but since the devs have been using classic games for inspiration, how about Space Invaders. The patterns the enemies take would be random, and while one person could do it, having more people manning the guns would make the next fights easier and maybe lead to an extra chest or 2.

I'm sure people could come up with a lot more.

I think that is why a puzzle based on the old 4 button Simon machine would be great. It would require teamwork, no real problems for messing up, and it would be retro. If you've done it once or a hundred times, it would be the same challenge, as the tones can be changed. Think about it, the old simon machine had hundreds of combinations, and probably had a chip smaller than a Commadore 64.

Once again, I'm not trying to push this one idea. I just wish the devs would expand thier programming beyond the same 3 basic puzzle designs we see over and over in new quests.