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The Witness |OT|

mclem

Member
I'm in the Desert now, and I was still thinking about my treehouse problem yesterday. I was thinking that I failed to answer the game's question in that one particular puzzle, which was
'what happens when a star is alone'. I never put 2 and 2 together in that his companion can be ANY piece of the same color, it doesn't need to be a star. All along I ignored that his companion in the early puzzles happened to be another star.

It's so blatantly obvious that I didn't see it. I was so fixated on solving it my way, that I was ignoring the question the game was asking. Still weird that the tutorial panel for this concept came after the more complex puzzle, but that was probably the point.

Out of interest, what do you regard as the tutorial panel for the puzzle? I felt the puzzle after it reinforced the rule, but I didn't think it was inherently better at teaching it than the former. I might not be remembering right, though.
 

Creamium

shut uuuuuuuuuuuuuuup
Out of interest, what do you regard as the tutorial panel for the puzzle? I felt the puzzle after it reinforced the rule, but I didn't think it was inherently better at teaching it than the former. I might not be remembering right, though.

The panel I was stuck on was this:

http://i.imgur.com/xJRmIgD.jpg

Then there was a 4 block tutorial panel after this, showing explicitly that
1 star is paired with 1 block of the same color. Every puzzle before that, had 2 stars.
So it was a bit weird to have this panel come after a more complex puzzle.
 

KevinCow

Banned
The panel I was stuck on was this:

http://i.imgur.com/xJRmIgD.jpg

Then there was a 4 block tutorial panel after this, showing explicitly that
1 star is paired with 1 block of the same color. Every puzzle before that, had 2 stars.

This is one of the ones that pissed me off and made me go look up the solution. They could have and should have introduced that mechanic better. If they'd just swapped these two puzzles around, it would've made far more sense.
 

Henkka

Banned
I solved every puzzle in the tree tops, but can't get the laser :(

It keeps happening. I solved all the shadow puzzles too except the very last one.
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
with some help from my brother, I finished the last coloured panel and what I think is my last real puzzle panel in the game (some other smaller switches or such not withstanding).

520/+79 at the moment. I think I might try to get the remaining +. I've come so far and I'm not quite feeling like I'm done exploring the island yet.

This is one of the ones that pissed me off and made me go look up the solution. They could have and should have introduced that mechanic better. If they'd just swapped these two puzzles around, it would've made far more sense.

This was unquestionably "best comedic moment in a game 2016". There will be nothing that tops it. I loved it.
 

TTG

Member
I think one of the themes John Blow really wanted to explore was communication without actually saying anything. Part of the fun for me was trying to understand what he is saying through the puzzle. I'm always asking myself what point he's trying to get across. And there's a bit of magic there when I solve the puzzle or understand the rule because we just communicated without using language.

Right, all I'm saying is understanding the rules of how a new element works seem to be the real sticking points for me so far. I don't think the onus should be on that. I did the tree house section right after tetris and it's so much clearer than those blue blocks because he iterates on the same type of puzzle, expanding it somewhat with each step.

The solution for that can be represented using the blue squares as a 2x2 block; your initial assumption was not incorrect

I suppose it's a good thing I gave up and went looking for a hint then, otherwise I would be handicapped thinking that it must adhere to the set shape.
 
Just reached the end game, this is gonna be pretty tough.

Also was I the only one
that thought it was creepy as hell when you first walk into the mountain?
 

TTG

Member
This is one of the ones that pissed me off and made me go look up the solution. They could have and should have introduced that mechanic better. If they'd just swapped these two puzzles around, it would've made far more sense.


That took me a good 10 minutes, luckily there are only 3 elements on the board and the fail state flashes the elements that aren't working as a hint. The way those 2 panels are presented made me think he wanted to make sure the player knew the solution wasn't a fluke.
 

Fatal Error

Neo Member
Post-Ending Spoiler:

I'm now at 498 +64, I activated the credits area but still have puzzles left, and I can't leave the area, do I have to reload another save? last save around 430 +40. :/
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
Post-Ending Spoiler:

I'm now at 498 +64, I activated the credits area but still have puzzles left, and I can't leave the area, do I have to reload another save? last save around 430 +40. :/

it auto-saved, you'll be fine. just reload.
 
Early game secret question
I completed the pillar with the triangles in the tutorial area and got the bored on the floor, what does that activate if anything? I got the yellow + puzzle with the wrong answer, is that all it was for?
 

Shadous

Neo Member
I solved every puzzle in the tree tops, but can't get the laser :(

It keeps happening. I solved all the shadow puzzles too except the very last one.

Check some of those puzzles in the Tree Tops and see if there are other possible solutions.
 

Atrophis

Member
I completed 400 odd puzzles without looking up any solutions. BUT I did get one of the coolest things in the game spoiled :(

Do not uncover this unless you have beat the game and seen a certain hidden area related to + puzzles

Someone in this thread posted a link to a youtube video. I thought it would just be someones reaction to the + puzzles so I thougth I was safe to watch it. Nope, it was a the + puzzle that leads to the credits. Now, I already figured there was a + puzzle there but hadn't worked out how to activate it and I obviously had no idea what would happen after it was activated. I turned off the video straight away so I didn't spoil what was inside but I am gutted I missed experiencing that WTF moment myself.
 

MThanded

I Was There! Official L Receiver 2/12/2016
The panel I was stuck on was this:

http://i.imgur.com/xJRmIgD.jpg

Then there was a 4 block tutorial panel after this, showing explicitly that
1 star is paired with 1 block of the same color. Every puzzle before that, had 2 stars.
So it was a bit weird to have this panel come after a more complex puzzle.

This is the only panel I had to look up a solution for. I don't like how they placed this panel in there right there. A lot of people in this thread got stuck on this panel too.

I'm still mad at myself for needing to look that up. I was stuck on it for an hour or two. I ended up leaving that area.
 

Creamium

shut uuuuuuuuuuuuuuup
This is the only panel I had to look up a solution for. I don't like how they placed this panel in there right there. A lot of people in this thread got stuck on this panel too.

I'm still mad at myself for needing to look that up. I was stuck on it for an hour or two. I ended up leaving that area.

Glad to see I was not alone. And now I can admit I was stuck on this for hours too until I came to the thread.

And I never looked at that tutorial panel as a joke before... this game man
 

Blizzard

Banned
I managed to finish 523 +71 with no hints besides three occasions late in the game. I'm proud of all the stuff I solved on my own without getting spoiled, but some parts of the game did seem unnecessarily frustrating, and Jonathan Blow sure loves (vague unlockable spoiler)
long, slow videos
.

I don't know if I will ever completely finish the game unless people find out about a neat unlock or something. Some bonus things are pretty much too difficult for me to find on my own I think.

The three occasions I got hints (MAJOR ENDGAME SPOILERS):
1.
What zone to search (the inside of the mountain) for a certain area unlock. I had scoured the entire island for maybe 6-8 hours before that, so I wanted to salvage a little time.

2.
I was wondering why I was missing a few + puzzles, and a friend asked if there was something I hadn't touched/used near the end. So I ended up searching around and happened on the credits stuff.

3.
I started reading the spoiler thread to find the final 2 panels I was missing, and learned about the hidden pillar puzzle in a certain area. Who knows if I would have ever found that.

Overall, the game had some gorgeous, masterful level and puzzle design. It was addictive and the first game I've finished / got 100% in some sense in a while (though of course I missed some details). I thought it was marred by some needlessly frustrating sections and some very odd spoilery inclusions, but overall I'd say maybe 8.7/10 personally.

I spent 43 hours, yikes.
 

MThanded

I Was There! Official L Receiver 2/12/2016
Glad to see I was not alone. And now I can admit I was stuck on this for hours too until I came to the thread.

And I never looked at that tutorial panel as a joke before... this game man
Yeah for me 1-2 hours is probably generous. Probably more on the order of 3... :-(
 

Wok

Member
I managed to finish 523 +71 with no hints besides three occasions late in the game. I'm proud of all the stuff I solved on my own without getting spoiled, but some parts of the game did seem unnecessarily frustrating, and Jonathan Blow sure loves (vague unlockable spoiler)
long, slow videos
.

I don't know if I will ever completely finish the game unless people find out about a neat unlock or something. Some bonus things are pretty much too difficult for me to find on my own I think.

The three occasions I got hints (MAJOR ENDGAME SPOILERS):
1.
What zone to search (the inside of the mountain) for a certain area unlock. I had scoured the entire island for maybe 6-8 hours before that, so I wanted to salvage a little time.

2.
I was wondering why I was missing a few + puzzles, and a friend asked if there was something I hadn't touched/used near the end. So I ended up searching around and happened on the credits stuff.

3.
I started reading the spoiler thread to find the final 2 panels I was missing, and learned about the hidden pillar puzzle in a certain area. Who knows if I would have ever found that.

Overall, the game had some gorgeous, masterful level and puzzle design. It was addictive and the first game I've finished / got 100% in some sense in a while (though of course I missed some details). I thought it was marred by some needlessly frustrating sections and some very odd spoilery inclusions, but overall I'd say maybe 8.7/10 personally.

I spent 43 hours, yikes.

Do you know of a simple way to find which are the 3 puzzles that I am missing?

Also you are missing almost half of the "+" puzzles! :D

Plus secrets we do not know of yet!
 

mclem

Member
I suppose it's a good thing I gave up and went looking for a hint then, otherwise I would be handicapped thinking that it must adhere to the set shape.

But it must, and it does; that wasn't a handicap.

The bit that did handicap you was that
you weren't thinking in an abstract enough way

How the solution works, keeping the set shape intact.
The numbers represent 'stacks', so a yellow piece (#) is +1, a blue piece (*) is -1:

Code:
[spoiler]. . . .   . . . .
. . . .   . . . .
. . # .   . . 1 .
# # # .   1 1 1 .


. . . .   . . . .
. . . .   . . . .
. # . .   . 1 1 .
. # # #   1 2 2 1


. . # #   . . 1 1
. . . #   . . . 1
. . . #   . 1 1 1
. . . .   1 2 2 1


. . . .   . . 1 1
. . . .   . . . 1
. * * .   . . . 1
. * * .   1 1 1 1[/spoiler]
 

boeso

Member
Ok I've reached breaking point on
the final puzzle in the forest area behind the gate. Opened both sides. Can anyone let me know if my current idea is right and I'm just not drawing it right: turn 180 look up at the branch and using the leaf as the starting area, then heading left and up then around and down? The problem I have is the kinked branch, I think. If that ain't right could I get a subtle hint?
 

mclem

Member
Ok I've reached breaking point on
the final puzzle in the forest area behind the gate. Opened both sides. Can anyone let me know if my current idea is right and I'm just not drawing it right: turn 180 look up at the branch and using the leaf as the starting area, then heading left and up then around and down? The problem I have is the kinked branch, I think. If that ain't right could I get a subtle hint?

I don't recall doing that at all. I think I
just used the shadows
.

That one really didn't stick in my memory at all, it was over rather quickly.

(If that doesn't mesh up with you, try linking to a picture, that might jog my recall)
 
Ok I've reached breaking point on
the final puzzle in the forest area behind the gate. Opened both sides. Can anyone let me know if my current idea is right and I'm just not drawing it right: turn 180 look up at the branch and using the leaf as the starting area, then heading left and up then around and down? The problem I have is the kinked branch, I think. If that ain't right could I get a subtle hint?

Both gate doors were opened up using different ideas...

I think that's about as subtle as I can get.
 

damidu

Member
done around 240 panels. this is kicking my ass harder than i thought.
anyways im having great time with it.

just wanted to post some mid-game praise.

i started to play this this and tomb raider simultaneously.
now im aware that they are not comparable in any way but they are both genres i like and
its incredible how this dwarfed TR in in my mind (play-time, thinking about it etc.)
its like the brain instinctively deviates towards novelty instead of been there done that.

i even find it superior graphics wise. it has some jaw-dropping art design.
and will probably age much more gracefully than any AAA production because of it.
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
But it must, and it does; that wasn't a handicap.

The bit that did handicap you was that
you weren't thinking in an abstract enough way

How the solution works, keeping the set shape intact.
The numbers represent 'stacks', so a yellow piece (#) is +1, a blue piece (*) is -1:

Code:
[spoiler]. . . .   . . . .
. . . .   . . . .
. . # .   . . 1 .
# # # .   1 1 1 .


. . . .   . . . .
. . . .   . . . .
. # . .   . 1 1 .
. # # #   1 2 2 1


. . # #   . . 1 1
. . . #   . . . 1
. . . #   . 1 1 1
. . . .   1 2 2 1


. . . .   . . 1 1
. . . .   . . . 1
. * * .   . . . 1
. * * .   1 1 1 1[/spoiler]
There isn't another puzzle in the game that uses this technique, and the way you described it wasn't at all how I came to that solution. Interesting
 

boeso

Member
Both gate doors were opened up using different ideas...

I think that's about as subtle as I can get.

Ahaaa! Thank you!

I can't believe I didn't see that before, even more annoying is I tried following the outline before and kept getting stuck, just didn't think to combine the two!!
 
Ahaaa! Thank you!

I can't believe I didn't see that before, even more annoying is I tried following the outline before and kept getting stuck, just didn't think to combine the two!!

Glad you understood. It was hard to think of a way to say it that wasn't too spoilery but still got the point across.
 

Robiin

Member
Okay, inside the mountain, I am struggling with the second one of the panels with only one blue tetris block. The panel is twisted, which is fine, it has one black dot, which is fine. What is not fine is that there is a blue tetris piece 4 blocks in a backwards L-shape. There are no yellow pieces. What dods this mean?
 

Blizzard

Banned
Do you know of a simple way to find which are the 3 puzzles that I am missing?

Also you are missing almost half of the "+" puzzles! :D

Plus secrets we do not know of yet!
Sadly I don't know a good way to find the ones you're missing. Some major ones to check (puzzle spoilers!):
Did you do the hidden pillar puzzle near the start? Did you circle the island and make sure to activate every boat panel? Did you do all 3 elevator panels in the mountain hidden area? Did you do the bonus area to get to the audio log credits?
You might also be missing some scattered
isolated triangle panels.

About the spoiler, I know, but I don't really want to do them because:

They're really difficult to find and apparently nothing happens besides them turning white and affecting your save file name.
After spending 43 hours I've probably had my fill for quite a while. :p I don't want to further make myself sick of the nice landscape.
 

mclem

Member
There isn't another puzzle in the game that uses this technique, and the way you described it wasn't at all how I came to that solution. Interesting

Yes, it's an interesting one; it's very much dependent on how you visualise the tetris puzzles. The overwhelming reason why I believe it's the intended solution is that there's so much consistency elsewhere in the game that I find it impossible to believe that
the blue pieces don't follow the same fundamental rules about position and orientation than the yellow ones do
.

There is actually a more specific example that goes a little way to corroborate that, although it's not directly the same sort of solution:

The final puzzle in the marsh has - IIRC (and if I'm wrong, it blows my logic right out of the water!) - a tilted 2-square blue block, which is a fundamental part of how you manipulate that mechanism. If you assume the blocks just represent 'remove this many squares':

* Rotation is meaningless. So why bother tilting the icon?
* You could - in principle - remove two abstract squares that are separated from each other on the grid. I've not tried this, but if that isn't permitted, my theory must be correct.

Edit: Thinking about it, the above example proves one thing -
That the idea of splitting the blue squares is incorrect
- but it doesn't prove another thing -
The notion of stacking pieces atop one another and taking them away with the blue ones
. I think I was clued into that one by a puzzle actually shortly before the contentious one:

Prior to the contentious puzzle there's one with a long straight block, an S-shaped block, and a single blue square. I don't know if that's the only solution possible, but my solution to that used the same principle - overlap two pieces, remove the offending double-block with the blue one. That may be easier to reconcile because you can write it off as an order-of-operations thing - lay a piece, cut the hole, fit the remaining piece - but nothing else in the 'segment maths' (for want of a better term!) in the game that I can think of is tied to order of operations. Hence, I concluded that temporary overlaps were okay.
 

Noaloha

Member
There isn't another puzzle in the game that uses this technique, and the way you described it wasn't at all how I came to that solution. Interesting

I think there is at least one other that requires such an understanding, or at least the method in the code tags there is how I approached it (through what felt like a sort of abstract necessity). It was a puzzle of a 4x4 panel that had a 'tetris' piece of 8 squares in an alternating 'chessboard' pattern, and you had to combine that with a typical T-style tetris piece, with a smattering of the blue outline-squares proividing the means.
 

mclem

Member
I think there is at least one other that requires such an understanding, or at least the method in the code tags there is how I approached it (through what felt like a sort of abstract necessity). It was a puzzle of a 4x4 panel that had a 'tetris' piece of 8 squares in an alternating 'chessboard' pattern, and you had to combine that with a typical T-style tetris piece, with a smattering of the blue outline-squares proividing the means.

I loved that puzzle.

Because the answer looked kinda like a heart
 
It's slightly dependent on whether I'm understanding you right, but I think it's another one.

Much closer to the dock than those two; mentioning heading towards the tutorial area is just setting off towards it.

OK, that sounds like another one than those I found before. I will give it one more try next time I play, although it may be a few days until then. Close to the docks there was some pretty complex geometry in the stones along the shoreline. I guess they could have hidden the puzzle somewhere in there.
 

Robiin

Member
Oh my god I misread the puzzle, I am so stupid. Holy shit these
spinning and moving
panels got me dizzy! Otherwise easy peasy so far. Now for the green ones on the other side!
 

TTG

Member
But it must, and it does; that wasn't a handicap.

The bit that did handicap you was that
you weren't thinking in an abstract enough way

How the solution works, keeping the set shape intact.
The numbers represent 'stacks', so a yellow piece (#) is +1, a blue piece (*) is -1:

Code:
[spoiler]. . . .   . . . .
. . . .   . . . .
. . # .   . . 1 .
# # # .   1 1 1 .


. . . .   . . . .
. . . .   . . . .
. # . .   . 1 1 .
. # # #   1 2 2 1


. . # #   . . 1 1
. . . #   . . . 1
. . . #   . 1 1 1
. . . .   1 2 2 1


. . . .   . . 1 1
. . . .   . . . 1
. * * .   . . . 1
. * * .   1 1 1 1[/spoiler]

Yes, you are correct. Before I gave up I also got a bar, but alas, it was with pieces 2 and 3 in your code and I could not get the first piece to complete the shape. Then, I looked it up and assumed
The block is broken up
to make a bar out of 1 and 2 but facing the other way. The next room did not dissuade me from that false assumption. Anyway, yours is the elegant and, I'm now thinking, the only correct solution.

Yes, it's an interesting one; it's very much dependent on how you visualise the tetris puzzles. The overwhelming reason why I believe it's the intended solution is that there's so much consistency elsewhere in the game that I find it impossible to believe that
the blue pieces don't follow the same fundamental rules about position and orientation than the yellow ones do
.

There is actually a more specific example that goes a little way to corroborate that, although it's not directly the same sort of solution:

The final puzzle in the marsh has - IIRC (and if I'm wrong, it blows my logic right out of the water!) - a tilted 2-square blue block, which is a fundamental part of how you manipulate that mechanism. If you assume the blocks just represent 'remove this many squares':

* Rotation is meaningless. So why bother tilting the icon?
* You could - in principle - remove two abstract squares that are separated from each other on the grid. I've not tried this, but if that isn't permitted, my theory must be correct.

Edit: Thinking about it, the above example proves one thing -
That the idea of splitting the blue squares is incorrect
- but it doesn't prove another thing -
The notion of stacking pieces atop one another and taking them away with the blue ones
. I think I was clued into that one by a puzzle actually shortly before the contentious one:

Prior to the contentious puzzle there's one with a long straight block, an S-shaped block, and a single blue square. I don't know if that's the only solution possible, but my solution to that used the same principle - overlap two pieces, remove the offending double-block with the blue one. That may be easier to reconcile because you can write it off as an order-of-operations thing - lay a piece, cut the hole, fit the remaining piece - but nothing else in the 'segment maths' (for want of a better term!) in the game that I can think of is tied to order of operations. Hence, I concluded that temporary overlaps were okay.

1. The elevator/mechanism made sense to me as soon as I saw matching panels on either side, so I was not looking at it long enough to think about the tilt or to try dropping "blocks" that aren't connected. Good points on both of those.

2. I came up with 2 solutions for the puzzle before the one we were discussing,
both don't need to overlap
.

Thanks for clearing that up.
 
Ok, there's supposed to be another one close to the one I talked about above.
It's the one just above it on the obelisk. The top one on this
shitty offscreen picture

Anyone know where it is. I'm guessing it's a tricky one, because the guide I'm using (and which I'm ONLY using for the environmental puzzles btw) doesn't even acknowledge that it exists

It's
this one. Missing it myself, though.

Only click if you know pretty much everything about the game:
I'm guessing it's either in the secret credits area or somewhere in the hidden caves you enter at the bottom of the mountain.

I'd recommend using this reddit post for the + puzzles, btw.
 
It's
this one. Missing it myself, though.

Only click if you know pretty much everything about the game:
I'm guessing it's either in the secret credits area or somewhere in the hidden caves you enter at the bottom of the mountain.

I'd recommend using this reddit post for the + puzzles, btw.

Thanks. If it's in an end-game area, I'll wait a while before tackling it. Have quite a bit left of the main game yet. And thanks for the reddit link too. Looks very helpful :)
 
How the solution works, keeping the set shape intact.
The numbers represent 'stacks', so a yellow piece (#) is +1, a blue piece (*) is -1:

Code:
[spoiler]. . . .   . . . .
. . . .   . . . .
. . # .   . . 1 .
# # # .   1 1 1 .


. . . .   . . . .
. . . .   . . . .
. # . .   . 1 1 .
. # # #   1 2 2 1


. . # #   . . 1 1
. . . #   . . . 1
. . . #   . 1 1 1
. . . .   1 2 2 1


. . . .   . . 1 1
. . . .   . . . 1
. * * .   . . . 1
. * * .   1 1 1 1[/spoiler]

I've been thinking about how to resolve this in an elegant way, and I realized
that you never have to think about overlapping if you place the blue square first
.

Granted, I don't know how helpful that is in actually solving the puzzles in retrospect.
 

mclem

Member
I've been thinking about how to resolve this in an elegant way, and I realized
that you never have to think about overlapping if you place the blue square first
.

Granted, I don't know how helpful that is in actually solving the puzzles in retrospect.

Yeah, that's just as valid a way of looking at it; the ultimate key is the fact that
blue squares are -1, yellow squares are +1, and the order is irrelevant
; whatever visualisation works for you is great!
 
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