Really? This is all Bethesda could come up with to challenge me? Multiple creations of the same object, with the exact same solution to the problem?

Oh I forgot the turning pillars, with the answer right next to them (can't leave those monstrosities of cryptic connumdrums out can we). Wow I always see dead bodies next to these puzzles too, they must have been quite [censored] not to work it out.


Do me a favour Bethesda, leave out the tedious turning stones and claws in the next title unless you are going to atleast put some effort into it.


Thanks

I had one pillar puzzle where i just couldn't figure out the solution...in the end i just tried them all (4 pillars, 3 sides each) until i got it...i had a lot of poisened arrows stuck in me...

Yeah, that fuzzy green screen with no effect bothered me too. I think it was the kiddy variety of poison they used on the tips.

The puzzles get a lot harder when you use a certain sword that makes undead explode. Last night I spent an hour searching a dungeon for a claw that I finally figured out must have been blown off a shelf or table during a skirmish.

That was one hell of a find a needle in a haystack puzzle.

I didn't know the answers were on the claws, until I noticed the Zoom feature when I was admiring the quality of the crafting of the claw. I just guessed until I got the answer right.

Pillars were cool. Kinda funny the answers were laid for you. So many dead bandits. Can they not see?

Except for one handle puzzle where there was a written riddle associated with the order of pulling them and the one where the pillars are kind of arranged like a Rhombus I found them incredibly easy as well.

I've got to admit the puzzles are far too easy. Maybe the solutions should't be so obvious, perhaps leaving clues in other barrows or books would be more challenging.

I've happened across precisely two "advanced" incarnations of the pillar puzzle:
1) There was a journal in the same room that had the words Eagle, Snake and Whale in it (with the first letter capitalized). You had to have the pillars arranged in the same order the animals appeared in the journal.

2) Again, journal in the same room. It said something like "number one fears number three" and "number two eats number one".

Not great, but at least they tried I guess.

Haha that's not really making the puzzle harder is it? It's more an unfortunate set of events.


Seriously though the Legend of Zelda had harder puzzles in it. I had no problem with that game when I was 10. Isn't Skyrim supposed to be for 18+ advlts? It makes me wonder who the real target audience is (were they secretly hoping 3 year olds were going to be picking this up?).

Game stopping puzzles would ruin the game for most players. Without any hint as to how to solve it, you end up just wasting time trying possible solutions or going to the net for a solution. Puzzles in this game aren't meant to be obstacles, but provide the illusion of an obstacle so there's a plausible explaination as to why your character was the first guy in 100 years to figure it out. It's a bit of business that allows you to pretend, while not making the game so frustrating that you feel you need to cheat to get through it.

I've seen some with the answers found in books and such. And sometimes I use much time trying, only to realise that the answers were written directly behind the pillars.
Bad Bethesda, but I like the claws.

Yeah, I was hoping for more riddles and stuff. I would have also liked to have seen a Indiana Jones chest where you had to replace the item with another item of equal weight (though they did have the pedestals). I also liked the one where you had to burn something specific, but I was bummed that the caves was filled with said item. The column puzzles were a bit too simple, but I liked the one where a lever rotated multiple columns and you had to get them in the right order. I did like the doors where you had to get multiple items throughout the dungeon. The area with the Wall had some decent puzzles, if not a bit simplistic.

I think what really hurt them was that both the column and claw puzzles had the same 4 -5 images, on everything. I think a bit more variety would have been nice, and a few more puzzles where the answer isn't in the same room as the puzzle, and a bit more variety overall (there were few puzzles that used Thu'um for example).

Game stopping puzzles? Perleaze.



10 dead bodies lay scttered infront of a puzzle door. In the middle of bodies is a pillar stand with a claw on it, funnily enough looking exactly like claw on the lock of the door, which also incidently has has 3 holes in it. On the claw is 3 pictures, funnily enough like the pictures on the door that you can turn.


That is not a plausible explanation. It seems to me like a bunch of mentally handicapped kids went on a field trip to the barrow and the teacher died because of the dust made her asthma paly up. The kids were too stupid to go back and all died infront of this door. This isn't immersion, it's bloody tedium.

I wonder if the puzzles in TES VI will have a floating marker that helps you solve them.

I think the puzzles are a neat addition, but just like the removal of spell crafting and stats altogether, they have to dumb it down for the masses.

I'm sure Bethesda would rather us complain they were too easy, as opposed to having 500,000 high school kids from the Fable generation who cant be bothered with reading, screaming "THIS IS STUPID! I CANT COMPLETE THIS QUEST!"

Unless the national IQ starts to climb, we're all screwed.

I agree the puzzles COULD of been done better but they are still a huge step up from oblivion so I was pretty happy with them. We will hopefully see some more advanced stuff in the next elder scrolls. I would like a puzzle that requires some junk items from the dungeon and you need to figure out which items and maybe there's a few journals that give you hints but very subtle hints.

and when they make the puzzles harder 90% of the forum will explode with how they cant figure it out because its not handed to them on a plate or they cant reason something out!

for one of the posts above..the order in the book isnt how you set the pillars..its where the animals are in relation to the wording..snake in the grass, whale in the sae....the pillars locations have hints to which element of land they are

i think it can be quite humourous to come across the "foolish" dead at the switches etc yes its makes stuff easier but it also gives you a bit of background information and storyline for free. a bit of atmosphere about proceedings etc

would be nice to have some harder puzzles but then you alienate half of the populace who can barely read let alone think for themselves!!
would be nice to see something a bit more Tomb raider in its design..maybe hunting through a few dungeons to gain some dwemer cogs to create a machine to open some ruins gates etc or positioning something to catch the moons rays at a given time or some other thing like that.
Was hoping the moon forge would have something like that but it doesnt appear to have

the average adventurer before you was not book smart he was combat smart.
mages have typically NOT been adventurers and been content to study magic in their buildings except on certain places of interest which they excavate with overwhelming numbers.

avg intel of adventurer before you = low they probably just pulled the lever to see what would happen and then it was to late the trap was set off. also -> the first dose of poison wouldn't have decayed over time from being there for a hundred years and been properly deadly -> when no one returned to tell the tale of x dungeon no one went back for fear of dieing as well.

basicaly it's a combo of -> your more inteligent that a warrior who only fights, in skyrim with it's dangers the smart mages stay indoors except in large 5+ numbers. so no smart people came to dungeons before you unles they were starting up some cult ie mage intel to avoid traps.

I assume you're referring to my post. If that's the case, then you must be talking about a different puzzle. The one I came across had no no mention of sea or grass - it was the order of appearance in the book that mattered. I can't remember the details, but I think it had to do with this hero facing these creatures one after the other.

it's pretty much on purpose, because many ppl hate to be stuck for years in one place, because they can't complete the puzzle. so they rather make it too easy.

I know a guy who had google the solution to the first pillar puzzle in Bleak Falls Barrow so yeah don't ever underestimate people's capacity to amaze you.

yeah different puzzle...sounded similar though! LOL!

the puzzles are actually an insult to my intelligence

This.

This is exactly the reason we get this issue. It's not just Skyrim. I play a lot of games, including MMOs and I've seen this issue creeping like a deadly shadow across multiple genres. Marvel vs Capcom 3 has an "Easy Mode" where players can execute their character's special moves with the press of a single button. World of Warcraft has a continual issue with a vocal minority of hopeless losers telling the silent majority that the game's too hard and needs dumbed down. Even Fable 3 was ridiculously easy compared to the first entry in that series, what with its leveling weapons. And then there's Guitar Hero's "Beginner Mode." I realize that it's generally meant for younger children, but come on. We can all see what you're doing.

While I wholeheartedly agree with you I rather listen to you complain they are too easy than hear 10x scream that they are too hard.