I found a Dwemer puzzle cube and was expecting an actual puzzle, only to be disappointed. So I decided I'll just make my own variations, as well as make them more common throughout the world. The general idea is that the puzzles are random (out of the few variations I add), and once they are completed the cube opens and there's a gold/gem prize.


Here are the first two variations I've come up with:

http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/7066/38480731.jpg

The first is a rubiks cube-esque design that, instead of relying on color, relies on the size of the pieces. The second is similar to the Mass Effect 2 symbol matching minigame for cracking safes. The multiple 'P' looking symbols would be different, I just couldn't be bothered adding separate symbols.

If you have ideas for puzzles, please post them below, I would love to add them into the mod!

Its interesting, but how exactly are you planning on implementing it? I am drawing a blank on how exactly it would work. Oh and a rubiks cube with different sized panels doesn't seem like it would be physically possible. How would the panels not prevent each other from rotating etc.

3ds max.

It is perfectly physically possible, because I have one sitting on my desk right now. It's simple geometric conservation.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/images/products/zoom/b077_rubiks_cube_mirror_blocks.gif

Oh ok, neat... I might have to get me one of those.

However I still am not sure how you are planning on putting it into the game. You say 3ds max, but that would really only allow you to model them. Implementing them into the game would be another matter. Would it be similar to a book where you pick it up and it opens up a screen to interact with the puzzle? Or are you thinking of some way to do it in realtime during gameplay or what?

Lol, the puzzle box is just a reference to a early on, but very difficult quest from Morrowind, where you had to find a puzzle box in a ruin....since it is a small item and the ruin is huge, many people didnt find it leading to an influx of confused people posting about it in the (at the time) fair new elder scrolls forum.

You can make up your own idea on how it is supposed to work, but it shold open somehow, as when the NPC solves the one in Morrowind he finds a key inside.

Yeah I remember the quest, but I agree it would be neat to solve yourself none the less.

that's the plan, it opens and there is a gold reward inside based on the difficulty of the puzzle. Probably somewhere between 100 and 500.

I haven't really done much TES scripting, but I have done a fair bit of games programming (as job and hobby both). I just wanted to point out that if you keep the fancyness to a minimum, these types of puzzles should be pretty easy to implement. As long as you can set up the animations properly (i.e., they exist in the model and you can start and stop them from script easily), you can just have it work like other "activator" style stuff in the game (i.e., hit the use key to activate), except it plays the appropriate animations, and also keeps track of the current state of the variables in the puzzle (for the lock, you'd need basically how many rotations per wheel, so you'd know in script what position the lock was at after the player activates it). There's already a puzzle similar to this in the game that has an activator per "wheel" on the lock. So you'd basically just keep track of how many times each wheel has rotated, and check that against what the values need to be for it to be in the correct configuration. If it's in the correct configuration, play the animation to open it up and put up a chest inventory for the player.

The Rubik's cube style puzzle would be a bit more complicated, but the same deal for the most part.

It would work, it just wouldn't be a perfect square. Which is the point, the objective would be to make it a perfect square.

Given that the entire UI is done in Flash, once modders have it figured out, we're probably going to see massive expansions to it, and I wouldn't be surprised if something like this could be done in a pop-up interface (think item view but more interactive) once you activate the stationary object.

This sounds like an awesome idea! I love puzzles in my games (brings me back to my days playing Zelda). They don't necissarily have to be exremeley hard to be fun either.

In fact (as simple as they are) I quite enjoyed the little puzzles Bethesda put in Skyrim. Perhaps you could turn this into a dungeon mod filled with different puzzles and traps. Have clues left in books or on the walls (as reliefs, ect).

Have you seen the Puzzle Box pedestal thing they show in the loading screen every now and then? It has gears and stuff and looks pretty cool. It would be cool to have that next to a locked door and you have to find the \matching puzzle box, you solve the puzzle box and place it into the pedestal to open the door.

Or even better... open it and be hauled away by Cenobytes.

THIS
or something of that nature. Unique rewards would be so much better than gold, especially if it's not even a valuable item. Like a key to an unmarked dungeon, or something.

If I might make a suggestion, please do not put gold inside. It was one of my main issues for annoyance on finding modern day gold Septims from the 3rd-4th era inside ancient Dwemer ruins that date back to the Late Middle Merethic Era. The Dwemer ruins pre-date the Septim dynasty by thousands of years (give or take a century).

So if anything, please put gems inside if you plan on putting in items with monetary value.


Greetz,

Milt

Such a good point, sir. Actually I didn't even think of them as Septims, lol. Perhaps too many different RPGs all mottled up in this cranium of mine, I just see everything as "gold".

Yeah, they're simply listed as Gold in the inventory so I can understand the initial reaction (especially when playing other games) but the detailed view cleary shows it to be a http://images.wikia.com/elderscrolls/images/a/aa/Septim.jpg. A lot of NPC's also refer to them as Septims. So I found it a shame to find them inside ancient Nord cairns and Dwemer ruins

The Dwemer had their own form of currency which looked like hexagonal chips of platinum and were smaller than gold Septims (but more valuable)

I really like the idea. When I thought about how to script it though (because how can we maniplute items in Skyrim like you'd have to manipulate a rubix cube in real life?), I came up with the idea to make the puzzles man-sized. This is also a lot cooler because it would extend their use from only containing gems and small items, to being able to be used as a door to for example a dungeon or a treasure room. Or it can be a safe-sized puzzle.

Manipulation could be done by activating different parts of the cube. Biggest challenges would be design (how to keep it fresh everytime you discover one?) and animation.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0123755/