Dragon Age Origins Puzzle Thoughts?

Nebor

Lifer
Jun 24, 2003
29,582
11
76
Alright, I don't know how many hours I have into Dragon Age, but I have the expansion, and I've bought all the DLC as well (another $35 or so.) I've been enjoying playing my way through as a chaotic good type rogue\assassin\duelist. But a couple of nights ago I finally got back onto the main story line, trying to get the Ashes of Andraste in the lower left hand corner of the world map. I had to go through "the Gauntlet" of tests to get to the Ashes. I enjoyed the riddles from the ghosts. But then I got to the "create a bridge puzzle." I played with it for 20 minutes or so, and got nowhere. I repeatedly dropped characters into oblivion. I understood that I needed to slowly move one character across, so I would need to keep at least one piece solid the whole time for them to stand on... But I firmly believe that you could put me in prison cell with that puzzle and I would starve to death before I figured it out.

It totally broke the flow of the game for me, and I very nearly just uninstalled it, despite my already substantial time investment. But I went online and searched for help, only to find forums full of people ridiculing others for not being able to figure out a puzzle "that an 8 year old could." After taking that ego bashing for a while, I realized the puzzles were different on Xbox and PC. But still, I really don't think I would ever have solved that puzzle and progressed in the main storyline if I hadn't found the solution online.

My point is, please ridicule me for not being able to solve the puzzle. Tell me how you did it in 3 minutes without even using a sheet of paper to write anything down. Thanks.
 

Elcs

Diamond Member
Apr 27, 2002
6,278
6
81
www.gamefaqs.com?

I gave this puzzle an hour and got about 60% of the way there in total then I used GameFAQ's. I appreciated the puzzle, figured out it's nuances but wanted to get back to more ridiculous blood splattering :)
 

darkewaffle

Diamond Member
Oct 7, 2005
8,152
1
81
Did it on my own in a few minutes after getting the hang of the mechanics and remembering which of the tiles lit up two of the 'steps'.

However, each of the few times I've played through Tales of Symphonia I always get stuck on this one "sliding on the ice" puzzle, which I always kick myself for.

Edit: Btw you may want to skip the Golems of Amgarrak DLC if you didn't like that puzzle :p
 

MJinZ

Diamond Member
Nov 4, 2009
8,192
0
0
Alright, I don't know how many hours I have into Dragon Age, but I have the expansion, and I've bought all the DLC as well (another $35 or so.) I've been enjoying playing my way through as a chaotic good type rogue\assassin\duelist. But a couple of nights ago I finally got back onto the main story line, trying to get the Ashes of Andraste in the lower left hand corner of the world map. I had to go through "the Gauntlet" of tests to get to the Ashes. I enjoyed the riddles from the ghosts. But then I got to the "create a bridge puzzle." I played with it for 20 minutes or so, and got nowhere. I repeatedly dropped characters into oblivion. I understood that I needed to slowly move one character across, so I would need to keep at least one piece solid the whole time for them to stand on... But I firmly believe that you could put me in prison cell with that puzzle and I would starve to death before I figured it out.

It totally broke the flow of the game for me, and I very nearly just uninstalled it, despite my already substantial time investment. But I went online and searched for help, only to find forums full of people ridiculing others for not being able to figure out a puzzle "that an 8 year old could." After taking that ego bashing for a while, I realized the puzzles were different on Xbox and PC. But still, I really don't think I would ever have solved that puzzle and progressed in the main storyline if I hadn't found the solution online.

My point is, please ridicule me for not being able to solve the puzzle. Tell me how you did it in 3 minutes without even using a sheet of paper to write anything down. Thanks.

Um yea it took me like 1 minute to figure out the point of the puzzle, and then like 5 minutes to do the puzzle.

You just had to quick save and quick load at each "step" if you don't want to even bother to remember the tiles in order.
 

you2

Diamond Member
Apr 2, 2002
5,678
917
126
Yea - as a puzzle this one was ok - bit on the weak side. My two biggest gripe about the game was the huge lack of puzzles and the lousy combat mechanics. Hell the flash game (which was basically TBS had better combat mechanics than the actual game).
 

DefDC

Golden Member
Aug 28, 2003
1,858
1
81
www.gamefaqs.com?

I gave this puzzle an hour and got about 60% of the way there in total then I used GameFAQ's. I appreciated the puzzle, figured out it's nuances but wanted to get back to more ridiculous blood splattering :)

I'll give puzzles like this a fair shot. If I can't get it in about 5-10 minutes, I'll use gamefaqs. I'm not playing the game for the puzzles. I have kids and a limited amount of time to play, so I won't waste too much time.
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
110,511
29,093
146
i like puzzles and all, but those type of puzzles, in those type of games, are just distracting, imo. They completely take you away from the game for too long, and just really seem out of place.

98% of the dungeons are just caverns that you explore and hack at things, the occasional tricky route or false wall that you need to discover, key or switch to open up a pathway somewhere else, and then you run into things like this that come totally from nowhere.

I just go to the forums and use the cheats to skip by as quickly as possible. And I think this is why the mod that lets you skip the mage tower dream sequence in its entirety is so popular. I actually like that part--but on a second play through, I just didn't want to endure that.
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
110,511
29,093
146
I'll give puzzles like this a fair shot. If I can't get it in about 5-10 minutes, I'll use gamefaqs. I'm not playing the game for the puzzles. I have kids and a limited amount of time to play, so I won't waste too much time.

exactly
 

exar333

Diamond Member
Feb 7, 2004
8,518
8
91
I didn't think it was an easy puzzle; it took a couple tries. My brother (who is usually better at puzzles than me) had trouble with this and got the answer from Youtube. He said it was really easy to follow what someone did by actually watching the gameplay rather than reading it from gamefaqs.

Personally, I like Gamefaqs for more of a "completist" purpose. When playing RPGs, I like to do as many of the sub-quests as possible, and having a map is sometimes all I need. Thats what I find helpful in Gamefaqs, especially from a huge game like Oblivion or BG1/2 where NO ONE can possibly find everything in the game the first time around.
 

exar333

Diamond Member
Feb 7, 2004
8,518
8
91
I'll give puzzles like this a fair shot. If I can't get it in about 5-10 minutes, I'll use gamefaqs. I'm not playing the game for the puzzles. I have kids and a limited amount of time to play, so I won't waste too much time.

Same here. Unless the game itself is a puzzle-oriented game and you know what you are getting into, obviously.
 

MJinZ

Diamond Member
Nov 4, 2009
8,192
0
0
I didn't think it was an easy puzzle; it took a couple tries. My brother (who is usually better at puzzles than me) had trouble with this and got the answer from Youtube. He said it was really easy to follow what someone did by actually watching the gameplay rather than reading it from gamefaqs.

Personally, I like Gamefaqs for more of a "completist" purpose. When playing RPGs, I like to do as many of the sub-quests as possible, and having a map is sometimes all I need. Thats what I find helpful in Gamefaqs, especially from a huge game like Oblivion or BG1/2 where NO ONE can possibly find everything in the game the first time around.

It was a pretty damn easy process:

1) Ascertain that you need to push the blocks to make the platforms appear - 2 seconds from running around

2) Ascertain that because you need some people to stand on the blocks, they can't all go across at once - infer that only 1 is going to make it across and that's all that matters - look at the platforms

3) Find the blocks that make the first platform appear and put your character on it

4) Character goes poof so ascertain that you must make TWO platforms appear because character must stand on one and not go poof

5) Try combinations of blocks - on second or third platform, you find that you can't get it right - simple logical jump, maybe you have to put 2 characters on ONE block so to make sure that block stays *pressed* while the other character moves to another block

6) Done after a few combinations. You don't even need to memorize the patterns, you can just quick save at each progressive Platform.
 

Kev

Lifer
Dec 17, 2001
16,367
4
81
That puzzle was annoying but I got it on my own. I still suck at that overall game, I had to drop it down to easy to survive.

Honestly, I don't understand how it is possible to beat that clan of werewolves on anything above easy.
 

Nebor

Lifer
Jun 24, 2003
29,582
11
76
I agree with the poster that said that it was very jarring in contrast to the rest of the game. I'm running along, killing everything I see, sexin' the wimens, gettin' phat loot, and then BOOM, PUZZLE. Not conducive to the story, doesn't fit in with anything else I'm doing, just makes me want to bang my head on the desk.

Don't they realize that people that enjoy puzzles can play PUZZLE games? There's a whole genre of games for puzzles.
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
110,511
29,093
146
That puzzle was annoying but I got it on my own. I still suck at that overall game, I had to drop it down to easy to survive.

Honestly, I don't understand how it is possible to beat that clan of werewolves on anything above easy.

Some of the areas are meant for your party to be at a higher level. it's not obvious at first, and since it is relatively "open" for you to choose which missions to complete first, you can easily get trapped in an area that is way beyond your ability. IIRC, the only parts of the games that are actually level-scaled are the special items that you find...which is odd.

Generally, the best thing to do first is the mage's tower, what with all the stat bonuses that you collect. it's tedious, but I actually found it rather fun. Still don't want to go through it more than once, though.
 

MJinZ

Diamond Member
Nov 4, 2009
8,192
0
0
Some of the areas are meant for your party to be at a higher level. it's not obvious at first, and since it is relatively "open" for you to choose which missions to complete first, you can easily get trapped in an area that is way beyond your ability. IIRC, the only parts of the games that are actually level-scaled are the special items that you find...which is odd.

Generally, the best thing to do first is the mage's tower, what with all the stat bonuses that you collect. it's tedious, but I actually found it rather fun. Still don't want to go through it more than once, though.

Well the whole game is level scaled, but there are minimum and maximum monster levels at each area.

So if you do Mage Tower at level 20, it will be pretty damn easy while a different area at level 20, like Bracilian ruins, will not.

Bracilian ruins is doable immediately as well, it just doesn't get you the best results as you may not be able to choose a battle you can win.