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The Witness |OT|

J

Jornax

Member
Is there any way I can track the amount of
audio logs
I have found?

I know of the load game thing, but that doesn't actually keep track of what I want to check I think. I'd rather find them all myself without resorting to a guide, but I think I won't have any choice if I don't want to waste hours upon hours searching the island for
audio logs
that may or may not be left undiscovered by me. Unless something gets added for that after finishing the game or something (which I haven't yet).
 
B

Bowlie

Banned
Jornax said:
Is there any way I can track the amount of
audio logs
I have found?

I know of the load game thing, but that doesn't actually keep track of what I want to check I think. I'd rather find them all myself without resorting to a guide, but I think I won't have any choice if I don't want to waste hours upon hours searching the island for
audio logs
that may or may not be left undiscovered by me. Unless something gets added for that after finishing the game or something (which I haven't yet).
Click to expand...

Yes, and it's subtle.

There's a certain spot on the island that changes after you listen to an audio log/ complete a triangle puzzle / turn a laser on/ etc, so you can know how many you've listened to.

Go to the island's center and look for small, distinct objects in the environment.

The lake acts as a record of your progress. Now you just have to know which item corresponds to the audio logs.

White and orange flowers for normal and orange audio logs, respectively.
 
C

Chuck

Still without luck
can someone please give me the vaguest of vague hints regarding the tree house area. I've solved all the puzzles.
 
D

Deleted member 10571

Unconfirmed Member
Chuck said:
i don't knowwwww
Click to expand...

Alright. If you're generally stuck in the area, three hints, from vague to somewhat not so vague


If you can't find a way to go, but you know you probably should be able to get there.. it's most likely not impossible.
You know how the bridges work. Think about how you would find a way within that logic.

remember a trick one of the first puzzles you ever solved in this game had.
 
C

Chuck

Still without luck
Bufbaf said:
Alright. If you're generally stuck in the area, three hints, from vague to somewhat not so vague


If you can't find a way to go, but you know you probably should be able to get there.. it's most likely not impossible.
You know how the bridges work. Think about how you would find a way within that logic.

remember a trick one of the first puzzles you ever solved in this game had.
Click to expand...

still don't have the slightest idea how i'm supposed to get from here to there in time
 
D

Deleted member 10571

Unconfirmed Member
Chuck said:
still don't have the slightest idea how i'm supposed to get from here to there in time
Click to expand...

You'll have to take a different way :)

And don't forget how you go ways in that area

pretty definitive:
If only the pathways would be different
 
illusionary

illusionary

Member
hawk2025 said:
Quick note: I have not finished the game yet and don't know about other types that may come up, but I was curious about something:


I'm actually curious how people first
found out about the + environmental puzzles?
Click to expand...

For me, it was the giveaway one on the mountain summit - there's a puzzle panel in the exact same shape as the river below it. Screenshot here (not mine).


Remembrance said:
You can find one type of commonly missed puzzle by
referring to the lake.

Aside from those, here are all the puzzles I can think of that are basically optional:

Sequence of puzzles at the bottom of symmetry island
Upper-level quarry puzzles and activating the quarry elevator
The second panel in the keep tower after activating the first
Large tetris puzzle in marsh
RGB lighting puzzles in the town
All three control panels in the secret cave elevator
All exits out of the secret cave, and all other shortcut doors
All six vaults containing video solutions, plus the solution found in the seventh vault
Click to expand...
Okay, well you managed to draw me back into a quest for 100%, or at least to get closer! A good number of these were spot-on, so thanks... now up to 521 panels solved, so very close! Of course, now it gets all the harder to find those last two... this game really needs some way to keep track of panel completion by area.

Edit: found them now! I didn't even spot the existence of the quarry elevator initially, but thought that you were referring to something else until I did a little more reading.
 
L

LegendofLex

Member
Ocaso said:
I finally completed the game last night. Truth be told, it feels like an enormous achievement having managed to reach the end without any external guidance , but I can't really say I enjoyed the experience as thoroughly as I'd hoped to when I started. I was particularly disappointed that (mild endgame spoilers)
the final puzzles revealed nothing in particular of note about the story or setting
. Does completing more puzzles significantly alter this experience?
Click to expand...

That there isn't much of an explicit reveal waiting for you at the end is a pretty big part of the game's underlying message.
 
T

takoyaki

Member
Finally had time to really play this game and I'm about to finish it (I only looked up the solutions for the
sound-based puzzles in the jungle
because I really suck at those and I don't think that I would have ever solved those without a lot of trial and error), questions for people who've already completed the game:

I unlocked all the lasers, watched the ending that starts in the white elevator, came back to that savegame and completed the challenge. I'm about to watch the remaining videos/lectures in the windmill and then go on another “sky-elevator” ride. Can I come back again to this savegame and try the puzzles I missed? Is there another ending somewhere hidden in the game? Any great easter eggs to hunt for (fully aware of the irony ;)
Thanks in advance and sorry if those questions have been answered a million times in this thread, I've somehow managed to avoid spoilers so far by staying away from anything Witness related on GAF.
 
P

petethepanda

Member
takoyaki said:
I'm about to watch the remaining videos/lectures in the windmill and then go on another “sky-elevator” ride. Can I come back again to this savegame and try the puzzles I missed? Is there another ending somewhere hidden in the game?
Click to expand...

Simple Y/N answers:
Yes, and yes.
 
T

takoyaki

Member
petethepanda said:
Simple Y/N answers:
Yes, and yes.
Click to expand...

Noaloha said:
you've done most from the looks of it, but do feel free to explore the starting area in a new game with your reborn knowledge, it's a surprisingly well-furnished little area
Click to expand...

Thanks guys, actually glad to hear that because this is one of those games I really don't want to end.

edit2: thanks again, I found it thanks to the hint.
Going back there and realizing it was hidden in plain sight felt incredible. that second ending was quite the mindfuck, not sure how to interpret it yet. It felt purposefully vague, like the rest of the game.
The Witness really was an amazing experience.
 
illusionary

illusionary

Member
523 panels!

Re-activating the entry area forcefield and activating the elevator in the quarry (I didn't even spot that this existed!)
were my last two.
 
O

Ocaso

Member
Henkka said:
Did you unlock all the lasers?
Click to expand...

No, only the minimum number. There are certainly other places I can solve, but will it make a difference?

Crispy75 said:
It put you back at the start for a new game didn't it? Have a look around a new game with more experienced eyes...
Click to expand...

Yes.
I started to replay the game, but honestly didn't notice a difference and couldn't bear to imagine repeating everything over. Should I have pressed on? Only got 8 puzzles in.

LegendofLex said:
That there isn't much of an explicit reveal waiting for you at the end is a pretty big part of the game's underlying message.
Click to expand...

I can accept that, and surmised as much. Still,
it feels rather anticlimactic and far from the evocative and overall memorable experience I expected based on impressions/reviews. Like I missed something.
 
C

Cerity

Member
If anyone wants a hint to the town's side puzzle/blue light room without having to use binary ops.

Take a screenshot at each colour (r/g/b), load them all into photoshop (or another editor that allows layer transparency) , layer them and drop each layer's opacity to about 50%. You'll be able to see the actual colours.
 
G

GhaleonEB

Member
takoyaki said:
you're close, try
to find a way of combining two of your solutions.
Click to expand...

Huh, I'd actually tried that but couldn't find an angle with which to do so. I'll pursue that further.

Edit:
Well I found a way to view the panel through both of the windows - from the left, outside the room - but it didn't change the dot arrangement. I must not understand what you mean.

Edit: 2: maybe it does? Being colorblind is not helpful here! :(

Edit 3: and got it. Partly by guessing. This is not a colorblind friendly game. Thanks for the tip.
 
T

takoyaki

Member
GhaleonEB said:
Huh, I'd actually tried that but couldn't find an angle with which to do so. I'll pursue that further.

Edit:
Well I found a way to view the panel through both of the windows - from the left, outside the room - but it didn't change the dot arrangement. I must not understand what you mean.

Edit: 2: maybe it does? Being colorblind is not helpful here! :(
Click to expand...

That's probably it, the solution is
looking through both the blue window and the yellow window on the left. Give me a sec, I can load an old save game and check the solution

GhaleonEB said:
Edit 3: and got it. Partly by guessing. This is not a colorblind friendly game. Thanks for the tip.
Click to expand...

Nice! just to let you know before going in, this area might be really tough/impossible if you're colorblind.
 
G

GhaleonEB

Member
takoyaki said:
Nice! just to let you know before going in, this area might be really tough/impossible if you're colorblind.
Click to expand...

I'd seen complaints from a few others in the thread, well before I got to this area, but I now understand them. On multiple occasions I've had to ask my wife to identify the unique colors so I could write them down, and then solve on paper because I couldn't (or could barely) tell them apart.

Definitely an omission on Blow's part, which is a bit disappointing given how well thought out the game is overall. I love puzzle games, but I end up not being able to progress very far in ~75% of the ones I play because they are color rather than shape dependent. Thanks again for your help.

At any rate, I got up to
the 4th floor of the greenhouse, in the elevator, to the room where the cord is broken. I'm assuming I need to figure out the pattern using the plants in the room, but I can't even tell what color most of them are.
Gonna have to recruit my wife for help again. :lol

I'm solving like, 5 puzzles a day, but it's progress. Baby steps, baby steps.
 
M

meltingparappa

Member
GhaleonEB said:
Definitely an omission on Blow's part, which is a bit disappointing given how well thought out the game is overall. I love puzzle games, but I end up not being able to progress very far in ~75% of the ones I play because they are color rather than shape dependent. Thanks again for your help.
Click to expand...
You may have heard (through osmosis) from the Giantbomb chat, that he hoped to balanced this out by having a puzzle that only people who are colorblind/color-confused could solve, but had to scrap the idea because of the many variations people have, and the individual gamma and balance of monitors.

It's unfortunate there are puzzles that certain people simply cannot solve through due to biological variance, but the only other compromise for that set would be omission.

Same for (puzzle theme spoilers of the jungle area)
sound puzzles which are impossible for the deaf.
 
R

Remembrance

Member
GhaleonEB said:
At any rate, I got up to
the 4th floor of the greenhouse, in the elevator, to the room where the cord is broken. I'm assuming I need to figure out the pattern using the plants in the room, but I can't even tell what color most of them are.
Gonna have to recruit my wife for help again. :lol
Click to expand...

That one is weird in that there are so many ways to think about it.

1.
The pattern among the floors (some people use this to solve it without even looking at the colors)
2.
The colored lights on the different floors (this does require color knowledge)
3.
A clue from somewhere else (the vast majority of people will never notice this; it's almost an easter egg)
 
M

mcfrank

Member
Picked this up today and put about 3 -4 hours into it. Not really grabbing me in the way I hoped it would. I do not get the rush of excitement when I solve a puzzle like I did in a game like Portal. I guess I miss the feeling of figuring out the solution and then struggling to pull it off that you get from some other puzzle games. In this case I feel like I am just trial & erroring a lot of the time rather than really thinking through what the solution is. Does the game change radically at some point?
 
G

GhaleonEB

Member
mcfrank said:
Picked this up today and put about 3 -4 hours into it. Not really grabbing me in the way I hoped it would. I do not get the rush of excitement when I solve a puzzle like I did in a game like Portal. I guess I miss the feeling of figuring out the solution and then struggling to pull it off that you get from some other puzzle games. In this case I feel like I am just trial & erroring a lot of the time rather than really thinking through what the solution is. Does the game change radically at some point?
Click to expand...

In some ways, yes. Some parts of the island are better at this than others (the quarry is currently my favorite), but the game has a lot of variety in its implementation of the idea of mazes, and some of them produced wondrous epiphanies, though where this occurs seems to vary widely from person to person. And there is an entire layer or two to the game that you likely have not uncovered yet.

I particularly enjoyed the quarry, keep, rocky cost (symmetry) and golden forest.

My suggestion is to rely less on trial and error and to focus more on trying to understand why certain solutions work; there should be little if any trial and error outside of very early tutorials when you are testing the rules. Trial and error won't get you far, at any rate.
 
M

mcfrank

Member
GhaleonEB said:
In some ways, yes. Some parts of the island are better at this than others (the quarry is currently my favorite), but the game has a lot of variety in its implementation of the idea of mazes, and some of them produced wondrous epiphanies, though where this occurs seems to vary widely from person to person. And there is an entire layer or two to the game that you likely have not uncovered yet.

I particularly enjoyed the quarry, keep, rocky cost (symmetry) and golden forest.

My suggestion is to rely less on trial and error and to focus more on trying to understand why certain solutions work; there should be little if any trial and error outside of very early tutorials when you are testing the rules. Trial and error won't get you far, at any rate.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion. I did the Keep already and it was pretty good, except the hedge mazes felt gimmicky.
 
O

orthodoxy1095

Banned
Potentially idiotic question, but I finished the game and feel like I never saw this area from the promos:
WitnessPoster.png


Did I just miss it?
 
P

paperspace

Member
Remembrance said:
By the way, I just saw this for the first time and it's an amazing run as a whole.

I can't believe
he figures out the tetris rules from seeing them for the first time in the Town.
Click to expand...

Indeed, it was great fun watching him playing the game. I didn't think it would be considering the nature of the game but even knowing the solutions to every puzzle it was great seeing him analyzing the puzzles (during and after) + his reactions.

He also happens to be pretty good with puzzles, yeah. It took him ~15 hours or so to finish (end game + chal, with 508 puzzles) while streaming.

GhaleonEB said:
I'd seen complaints from a few others in the thread, well before I got to this area, but I now understand them. On multiple occasions I've had to ask my wife to identify the unique colors so I could write them down, and then solve on paper because I couldn't (or could barely) tell them apart.

Definitely an omission on Blow's part, which is a bit disappointing given how well thought out the game is overall. I love puzzle games, but I end up not being able to progress very far in ~75% of the ones I play because they are color rather than shape dependent.
Click to expand...

meltingparappa said:
You may have heard (through osmosis) from the Giantbomb chat, that he hoped to balanced this out by having a puzzle that only people who are colorblind/color-confused could solve, but had to scrap the idea because of the many variations people have, and the individual gamma and balance of monitors.

It's unfortunate there are puzzles that certain people simply cannot solve through due to biological variance, but the only other compromise for that set would be omission.

Same for (puzzle theme spoilers of the jungle area)
sound puzzles which are impossible for the deaf.
Click to expand...

For reference, here's the part where Blow addresses this:

https://www.youtube.com/v/jhEDARvLf90?start=1012&end=1437&vq=hd720

(starts at 16:52, ends at ~23:57 - this part only spoils the jungle, the greenhouse and the number of lasers)

mcfrank said:
Picked this up today and put about 3 -4 hours into it. Not really grabbing me in the way I hoped it would. I do not get the rush of excitement when I solve a puzzle like I did in a game like Portal. I guess I miss the feeling of figuring out the solution and then struggling to pull it off that you get from some other puzzle games. In this case I feel like I am just trial & erroring a lot of the time rather than really thinking through what the solution is. Does the game change radically at some point?
Click to expand...

You never really need to use trial and error to find a solution though. The exception could be some tutorial puzzles where you have to experiment to learn the rule set, but in general it's not a good idea to brute force a solution. In some cases you'll be punished in some form, and more importantly - you won't know how to solve future puzzles of the same kind.

orthodoxy1095 said:
Did I just miss it?
Click to expand...

You have some exploring to do in the desert!
 
G

GhaleonEB

Member
ctw0e said:
You have some exploring to do in the desert!
Click to expand...
I'm not sure what post of mine this is from, but here's where I'm at in the desert:
underground, most of the way through the room where you raise and lower the water. I've also found the reflection based + puzzles using the reflected circles on the paths along the stairs of the main outdoor structure, and again along the water's edge area, and opened the door on the lower waterfront. It's a fun area.
 
P

paperspace

Member
GhaleonEB said:
I'm not sure what post of mine this is from, but here's where I'm at in the desert:
underground, most of the way through the room where you raise and lower the water. I've also found the reflection based + puzzles using the reflected circles on the paths along the stairs of the main outdoor structure, and again along the water's edge area, and opened the door on the lower waterfront. It's a fun area.
Click to expand...

Yeah sorry, for some reason the quote linked to your post instead. Fixed!
 
C

Crispy75

Member
Ocaso said:
Yes.
I started to replay the game, but honestly didn't notice a difference and couldn't bear to imagine repeating everything over. Should I have pressed on? Only got 8 puzzles in.
[/spoiler]
Click to expand...

Yes you should. You should notice something before you leave the starting "castle" zone.

Explicit:
There is an environmental puzzle at the front gate, it should be very obvious. Solve it.
 
K

Kerned

Banned
Crispy75 said:
Yes you should. You should notice something before you leave the starting "castle" zone.

Explicit:
There is an environmental puzzle at the front gate, it should be very obvious. Solve it.
Click to expand...
He hasn't
activated all the lasers yet so this might not be useful advice. There is no way he would have the information he needs to do what you are suggesting. He should reload his last save and finish all the areas. ALL the areas.
 
T

the_prime_mover

Member
I don't think I have played a game in a long time that has given me as much joy as this game. A fantastic experience all the way through and one I hope to revisit years from now. I still have a lot left to do, but most of it is off the beaten path. I almost feel sad that there aren't more main areas to explore. Some of the puzzle types took a while to get a grip on, but I feel like the game does a great job of guiding you while keeping you on the cusp of ignorance. And the way the whole island ties together is sublime. I am happy to have had the opportunity to experience this, and I hope that Blow is able to continue to pursue his vision.
 
P

paperspace

Member
Viridian6 said:
Unfortunately I'm in the motion sickness camp (on PC). Will get a refund if I can't sort it out.
Click to expand...

Even with the new options added?

FOV, reticle, vignette, sensitivity options etc.

edit: you'll have to opt into the future-build for all these features. the update also removes head bobbing and increases walking acceleration
 
V

Viridian6

Member
ctw0e said:
Even with the new options added?

FOV, reticle, vignette, sensitivity options etc.
Click to expand...

I'll experiment with those another day, when my headache is gone.

If I could get the game to recognise my Logitech controller so I could be further from my monitor, that would probably help too.
 
K

Kerned

Banned
I did it. I finally got the Platinum.

I had a feeling it was going to be the winning run when I got to the maze well before Hall of the Mountain King started, and with a simple, easy to remember maze layout. Both triangle puzzles were luckily very straightforward and I was on to the columns with plenty of time left. I had a very, very difficult time with the black dot symmetry puzzle, so I moved on to the other one and got it in one try. When I went back to the unsolved column I immediately saw what I was doing wrong and solved it quickly. What a great experience this game has been. I guess I should go back and try to clean up the environmental puzzles.
 
E

Easy_G

Member
Kerned said:
I did it. I finally got the Platinum.

I had a feeling it was going to be the winning run when I got to the maze well before Hall of the Mountain King started, and with a simple, easy to remember maze layout. Both triangle puzzles were luckily very straightforward and I was on to the columns with plenty of time left. I had a very, very difficult time with the black dot symmetry puzzle, so I moved on to the other one and got it in one try. When I went back to the unsolved column I immediately saw what I was doing wrong and solved it quickly. What a great experience this game has been. I guess I should go back and try to clean up the environmental puzzles.
Click to expand...

when I did the challenge I never realized that the board game maze was the actual maze later on. So every time I did the challenge I would just run through the maze smashing into every barrier. Kind of frustrating, but I got it.
 
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