Post news Report RSS Puzzles! How hard will they be....my philosophy ramble of video game puzzles.

(Please note the following puzzles ideas are just quick ideas that will obviously be refund and perfected. And there will be 2 modes of level of difficulty in the puzzles presented in the mod. Enjoy my ramble. Please leave feed back if this is a good and fresh idea.) I wonder what people would think if I put a relay hard puzzle in my mod "The Hands Resist Him" for Amnesia the Dark Decent. Like you half to use a chemical machine to get to the next area in the level. You half to find the Delta H

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(Please note the following puzzles ideas are just quick ideas that will obviously be refund and perfected. And there will be 2 modes of level of difficulty in the puzzles presented in the mod. Enjoy my ramble. Please leave feed back if this is a good and fresh idea.)

I wonder what people would think if I put a relay hard puzzle in my mod "The Hands Resist Him" for Amnesia the Dark Decent. Like you half to use a chemical machine to get to the next area in the level. You half to find the Delta H reaction using Enthalpy of formation, provided the variables to work with to solve the equation.

Delta H-f degree, Nh3 = -46.19 kj/mol
Delta H-f degree, No2 = 90.37 kj/mol
Delta H-f degree, H2O = -285.85 kj/mol

So you half to solve the equation and type it in a special keypad. Mabye there is some chemical charts and equations to help the player get started, and if they are relay stuck, just write a guide book for them in the mod.

Maybe they half to play the matching game. Match symbols to some device. But to find the other matching symbols, they would be in the level environment, what would make the puzzle harder is if the clue symbols where naturally in the level. For example, lets say a shape of a shark or whatever, that is in shape of a tree, puddle, cloud in the sky, ect. To make it even harder on top of that, make the player solve word riddles that correlates to the story; to get to each symbol. Like the player would half to read notes, lore of the world the player is in, that leads to solving the riddle to get to each symbol area. Then once the player has all symbols written down, it would go back to the device to match the symbols and thus finally getting passed the locked area.So essentially the more layers of puzzle solving to finally get to X area, the more complex the puzzle can be.

Ex. 1 - Door in X area locked. Need to get though. How?
Ultimate goal: Unlock the locked door or device.

Step 1: Fix the power generator.New Problem: I cannot get to the other level. Something is preventing that.

Step 2: The Generator does not have enough volts to power the teleporter. Find what is causing it.New Problem: The machine that is powering the teleporter is not working. (Not the generator machine, some other machine)

Step 3: Fix the machine to activate the teleporter.
New Problem: You cannot find the solution to fix the machine. But you know there is a painting that when you touch it, it teleports you to its own world as you have read in a lore book in the level.

Step 4: Find a solution to get to this painting.
New Problem: You are in this painting world. The bridge is not extended from the water generator.

Step 5: Go to the alchemy lab to find the solution to activate the water generator to extend the bridge.
New Problem: To activate the water generator, it requires a special mathematical formula. The answer to that given formula is they key to activate the water generator.

(Incert as many layers of puzzles as you want to reach the ultimate goal.)
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Essentially, the more layers you have to solve a particular problem, the longer and more frustrating it will be for the player. Exploration of the game environment, critically thinking, and maybe writing down notes on a pice of paper. What used to be a requirement for old school adventure puzzle games. Which are almost present no more in modern games.
Now what is the point of this? To make the player frustrated and give up? I find it interesting to make the player think. I hate seeing games to where they have huds that tell you to do stuff and hold your hand though the level, not giving you the challenge of problem solving and exploration. Although if I do take this approach, having puzzles that make you think critically. The answer may not even be in the game itself but make you do your own research to solve it. It will make the player feel smart when the player solves the puzzle. And not feel like a dumb butt head. "I found a key to this door! Yaaayyy" Boo I say. Sure a key to a door puzzle is find for 1 or 2 things, but its extremely over used. I think adding complexity of puzzles but still maintain a solution the player can find in the game, is what game developers have almost completely lost in video games. Holding the players hand while the player traverses the level map. I will be adding this level of depth in my mod when it comes to puzzle solving to progress, but it will turn off allot of players, because they are not used to such puzzle challenges if all they play is modern video games, or casual games. 3 great examples of these types of puzzles that has depth and complexity is Myst series, The 7th Guest, and Portal 2. They have different themes of puzzles solving but are essentially the same path structure as given in example 1.

Now I know that no one wants to solve a chemistry mathematical problem just to activate a generator to get passed the level, but then again maybe some would. So here is the deal. There will be 2 versions of levels of difficulty for puzzles. Lite Level will strip down the complexity of some puzzles. The Complexity Level will be full on hard puzzles. That will make you get out your spiral note book to jot down notes and maybe do mathematics. The big gripe I think people will have on there first impression. "This is too hard!" All puzzles will be story, and environmental correlated. They will not be placed just because its there. There will be meaning for every single thing in this mod.

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jssjr90 Author
jssjr90

About the "finding the Delta H reaction using Enthalpy of formation" problem. I do not fully understand the concept of this in chemistry but I am researching on it to get a better understanding of where it might be used. Will it be in the mod? I am not sure, but I think it would be a unique puzzle to have.

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Patrick_Winekiller
Patrick_Winekiller

The chemistry puzzle is original - you HAVE to insert it, no, make the whole mod around it! In general, I like hard puzzles with meaning (educational) or relation to story (the Myst series is one of my favorites) except the ones where you have to choose an item which resembles an image (drawing, shape, etc.) found within the level (usually at a different scale, size) and that's because either the level design is poor, uninteresting and boring to investigate it in detail or the shape is too hidden, unimportant. Care is needed when you build these kind of puzzles that require visual memory, in my opinion.

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daortir
daortir

The idea of puzzles with mathematics/physics is a good one and I like that ! Would be pretty original I think ^^.

I have to say though, I play Amnesia for immersion and experiences, not to alt+tab and google some stuff to know what to enter in the (kinda cliche) keypad : I'll take the Lite version.

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UBCS_Recruit_Muffin
UBCS_Recruit_Muffin

I think this is a good idea

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BlasterLizardCo
BlasterLizardCo

I loved the extended puzzle, with a lot of problems and steps to follow. Please insert it into the game :3

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jssjr90 Author
jssjr90

Thank you all for the interest in this interesting approach to puzzle solving for Amnesia, something that you probably never see.

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