you know.. i've had many ideas.. if only some modders would take me on their projects their mods would have so many awesome ideas!! but lets get to the point.


puzzles in this game are too easy. only a few times did i need to think how the puzzle works. most of the time the answer is on some tablet behind the turning stone or on some wall or the ceiling.. lets make things harder!


puzzle one: waves of foes are coming your way, only way to stop more enemies from coming would be to solve the puzzle. think solving a puzzle is easy? try solving one when hoards of enemies are fighting you.

puzzle two: i like the idea of you having to READ a BOOK to solve a puzzle.. only encountered it once and i was so happy from the puzzle.. it made me think true the animal names were bolded so it would be hard to miss but most people don't even read books so.. yay

puzzle three: CUT THE RED WIRE!!!! you have to cut a rope, one will open the gate (or w/e) the others will make LAVA pour down on you. and you will die.

puzzle four: there are paintings on the wall that subtly give you the answer to the puzzle.. but it won't be some stupid turning stones puzzle! a REAL puzzle like...like.. walk on the correct stone tablets or hit the targets in the right order and what not...

puzzle five: oh how i like the room filling with water gag :3 only happened once in the game and i won't spoil it if you haven't got to that part yet. so a tough puzzle that you need to solve b4 the room fills with water and you drown? and maybe throw some sharks in it.. with freakin lazors!

Yah I do appreciate a good puzzles once in a while and was absolutely floored when I had to go look up how those door/claw puzzles actually worked (my self face-palm was indeed humbling ). Things like that really gave a nice depth of frustrating and fun long ago in the past with say the first tomb raider game and it'd be awesome to see more of those things included.

Some of these seem like pretty good ideas, others seem silly (puzzle one could be exploited easily, and puzzle three is just.... no). I did like some of the puzzles in this game, they're definitely a lot better than Oblivion. The only exception to this has to be Labyrinthian, I was so excited to be finally going back to labyrinthian and was expecting it to be just like the original, and a HUGE pain to navigate. Instead it's just a big pretty much straightforward dungeon. That's it, nothing really special. SO DISAPPOINTING!

lol was making ideas as i was writing so some ideas were pretty dumb. if one chooses to exploit the first puzzle its his choice, one way to prevent this is to make the enemy waves hard. like giants or something (tho at high levels giants are pretty weak)

On this topic anyone find any Rube Goldberg machines yet? That one in Fallout 3 left me in stiches.

ok how about this:

a big gate that is blocking you way. how do you open it? with magic! simpy hit the gate with the right spells in the right order. next to the big gate there are paintings on the wall that hint you what spells to use and their order. you want it tougher? you will have to translate the writings (and drawings?) on the wall using a traveler's book that you find near a scorched corpse, hinting you fate should you fail to solve the puzzle.

sure there are problems with this ideas like lacking the required spells but stuff like that can be solved easily by the modders

Yeah the book puzzle was so refreshing! We should use that as a template for puzzles in any new dungeons.

i bet thats what the developers of the game said about the claw doors.. and now i've got about 10 claws in my inventory and every time i see a door i feel as excited as seeing a chair. its only cool once or twice. we can't over use a good idea or it will become moot.

more ideas

I like the Idea with the books. How about solving more than one puzzle - you solve one and the gate will open a bit, then the next riddle appear. You can combine reading a book with hitting with the right spell and so on...

Well, they'd have to be at least somewhat lore-friendly.

While not quite "puzzles," it would be great if machinery could be incorporated in the game. Things such as:

A stream/waterfall that can be diverted to fall onto a waterwheel -> the waterwheel starts giving power to rotating stone/iron grate doors, and you must hurry through. The doors that move on certain triggers are already in, it's just that they stop moving when you're off the button. This would make that movement constant - and you can include swinging blade traps to give it more spice.

Not really a puzzle, but something to add more diversity.

The concept of "powering up" can be used in Dwemer ruins, too. Perhaps, to keep with the lore, that one would take soul-gems, and it would have to be a certain size - indicated by lights. This would then start pumps, which would open doors. Or, the reverse, to stop those rotating blade traps and allow you to take a shortcut.

The idea is not to make the player stop and scratch his head, but to add more diversity to the dungeon non-enemy obstacles. With a few more ideas, they could then be spread among the dungeons of Skyrim, making each one feel more unique.

Why not have the puzzle linked into the dialogue of npcs? Like they tell you the answer in riddles, there are always plenty of good riddles to be used, place it on the walls of the dungeon or in a book or summonable dremora

Very good idea

i wanted to make something of a dialog based but if the answer is given via the dialog then you won't have to think only quick load untill you get the right answer, maybe not even quickload.

i had this idea of a door that talks to you, like the one of the dark brotherhood, and it gives you a riddle, and you answer the riddle with a shout!

hey at the moment im working on a huge dwemer mod which will contain a lot of difficult puzzles ( i am a myst fan and to be honest the skyrim puzzles seem easier thank having to blink my eyes)
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1330588-ruins-of-abhtvahrk-a-dwemer-mod-wip/
your help would be greatly appreciated and i would think it would be awesome to have you in the team even if all you give is ideas for puzzles it would really help speed up the concept stage of the mod

i am willing to help anyone who wants to listen to my ideas i don't need credit, all i need is to enjoy the mods once they are complete, that's all that is important.

more idea guys.. it might not be something good or practical but at least it would give me more ideas.. sort of like a brainstorm

ok i have a few ideas.
1)
you are in a big room with a clock in the middle which has the roman numerals, around the rooms will be paintings each with latin type names and a defition of the name underneath. the names will be like "xaphatrine" or "iritium" (notice the roman numerals x,v and i in the names). the clock will have three hands: the hour one pointing at 4 (iv) , the minute hand will point at 9 ( ix ) and the sec hand pointing at 12 (xii). in the center of the room will be a large painting onto which all the painting words appear, you will have to click three for the painting to dissolve and reveal a doorway .you will know which words to pick by looking at which word contains iv which word contains ix and which contains xii. by pressing these three in sequence the painting will dissolve and you will hear the translation of the three words being said maybe something like "the shiny golden dwemer" ( you will press vatirn xaphatrine taxintius for example)

2)
there are two swithches far apart you must press both in sequence then a floor in the main hall will raise under the floor will be a button when it is pressed the floor will lower and a door inside the cavern will open.inside this cavern there will be a frozen lever, after using a fire spell on it the player will be able to turn the lever. he will press the button and the floor will raise when he step out it will lower. again he will have to trigger both far apart swithces to which he can then step oin the floor click a button and instead of only slightly elevatingit will bring the player to a higher level

interesting.. gives me some ideas ill have to consider