Blood River Forest and the general issue with rewards

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Gix, Jul 15, 2018.

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  1. Gix

    Gix Avatar

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    It's not any news that a lot people have issues with how the game rewards players by looting a corpse or chest, etc. Generally speaking, rewards are underwhelming.

    As much as I'd want to find cool loot, I understand that the game is trying to build an economy where player crafted gear is considered the best. That is an entire topic by itself and when we're talking about rewards from puzzles (especially when you can repeat them), the idea remains the same.

    The thing is that rewards from puzzles don't need to be items or anything; it can be a piece of story, an emote, a recipe, a pattern, a title or a buff of some kind... so you can approach the puzzle and its reward backwards: establish the reward then build the puzzle (and the level of BS it'll be to solve) around that.

    I've been spending my time in Blood River Forest recently and I noticed a few things with its puzzle:
    • The GPS map spoils the reward.
    • The puzzle requires me to comb the ENTIRE MAP to find tiny baubles... and it doesn't tell you that, you just have to eventually come to that conclusion.
    I'm noticing a pattern with these puzzles as it's not the only one I've encountered.

    If the reward for your puzzle is only worth it if you already know the answer (either because you were told the answer or you already struggled previously and you're just doing it again), then you got yourself a problem with the way the puzzle is designed.
    I know what I need to do to solve the puzzle but I can't be bothered to complete it because I don't know where the pieces are and looking for them would simply be mindbogglingly boring of a task to do.

    ... I bet most people would google for the solutions and that's the last thing you want when designing a puzzle.

    Thank god the puzzles are contained within their given scene but I don't think it's too crazy to suggest, given their rewards, that the areas in which we find the extra baubles should be closer to the centre of the puzzle.

    North Shattered Hills (there's a puzzle I enjoyed there) is at the limit of what I'd consider "too large" of an area to sweep, looking at every possible nook and cranny... and I think the reason why that particular puzzle was enjoyable (despite its size, although it's still a small map ~ I find it a tad too big for combing an area for tiny baubles) is that you could see every places you needed to be regardless of where you found yourself in the scene.

    I'm not suggesting to make the puzzles easier (although a few easy puzzles for tier 1-2 players wouldn't hurt); I'm suggesting to make the puzzles less of a hassle; especially considering the rewards given.

    Running around like you've lost a contact lens is not my idea of a fun puzzle; it's worse when you don't know what the thing you're looking for looks like (which wasn't the base in Blood River Forest, thankfully).

    The mine in Blood River Forest doesn't even have ore...
     
  2. DeadnGone

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    Lol, what does that have to do with the price of tea in China?

    Pretty sure we play games for fun and entertainment... emphasis on fun. Not because they mimic reality... are we supposed to message the government/cops/etc because we haven't been mugged lately or car jacked either?
     
  3. Gix

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    I wouldn't know; I never have. Are you implying you have experience on the matter?

    In all seriousness, though, I'm perplexed as to the reason why you believe your reply had anything to do with what I was saying in my OP. I'll make the assumption you didn't really take the time to read it. Ironically, taking the time to do something that's a hassle is essentially the point of my post.

    Also, it's a video game; If Richard Garriott didn't want us to kill things, he wouldn't have wanted to have so many enemies in the game... or at least pushed to give us options to completely avoid combat like engaging in dialogue or something. Probably wouldn't have so many combat skill trees either.
     
  4. Anpu

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    Location:
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    You can freely gather resources without any violence.....
     
  5. Gix

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    No worries. I was mainly confused by the reply, that's all.

    I'd argue that finding the baubles isn't much of a puzzle. You know they exist, you may or may not know how many there are and what they look like (in the case of Bloodriver Forest's puzzle, you do)... you just don't know where they might be... in a game that is visually dense with decoration.

    There are no clues as to their location and none of the objects in any of the puzzles I've found were clues themselves (like going into a mine because one of the object is a pickaxe, for example). North Shattered Hills's puzzle is possibly the only exception from those observations:
    the water orb is found in a well, the lightning orb is found floating in the sky, etc... but, now that I think about it, I guess getting those orbs WAS the puzzle so it's kind of important that the orbs would be found based on their element.

    So, while I generally agree with the idea that puzzles can be their own rewards, I still believe that scattering the baubles in completely random and unrelated locations is working against the puzzles themselves.
    Why is the Ruby Eye under water? No one would ever think of looking there if it wasn't for the fact that you HAVE to look everywhere and that's the problem.

    At the end of the day, your reaction upon finding the objects isn't so much a "yay, I got the item!", but more of a "finally, that's over with!" So if the reward is the puzzle itself, why the busywork?

    Is water really wet or is wetness only a side effect of being in contact with water? (I understand what you mean, though) :p
     
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  6. MrBlight

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    Enough to be a competitive crafter? Or to craft enough for an average player to be competitive adventurer? Or pvper?
     
  7. Gix

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    Have you been to Bloodriver Forest? It’s not the most abundant scene, I’ll tell you that. In all my time there, I found a single copper node, a single school of fish and the rest was garlic.

    Most of the copper is taken from the Copper Elementals/Golems.

    Being able to find some resources that isn’t guarded by enemies is not what I’d call “completely avoiding combat”. Not to mention that it’s unrelated to my OP. The combat argument was only used with the assumption that combat doesn’t need to or shouldn’t feel rewarding.
     
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