[WIP] Skyrim Puzzle Box

[Saerileth]

I recently watched a video that lamented how Skyrim had been dumbed down in comparison to other TES games, specifically the way puzzles were oversimplified. Personally, I really liked the first Dragon Claw door, and the puzzle pillars are a nice touch visually, at least. But you have to admit, the clues to the pillar riddles in particular are blatantly obvious, to the point where they are nothing more than a nuisance.

 

So I was wondering how much interest there is for a mod that rectifies this by making the Skyrim puzzles more challenging. Most of these changes could be made with very little CK knowledge (like simply hiding the clues a little better).

 

I came up with the following ideas so far:

 

1. Enhancing existing puzzles

Focusing entirely on the pillars for the moment, since there's not much I can think about that could be done with the dragon doors.

 

- Expanded set of symbols (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/27411)

 

- Hide clue plaques better / substitute them with adventurers' journals / clues dropped by enemies

 

- Text clues (like in the Fjori & Holgeir quest). Ritual desccriptions might be cool, associating a particular symbol with the north, east, ... etc.

 

- "Logicals": giving clues like "A bear is left of the eagle" or "Snake comes neither first nor last". Kind of hard to make good logicals with only two dimensions (symbol - location) though.

 

- "Linked" pillars: turning one changes one or several others, so the trick is to turn them in the right order to get the desired effect. There is at least one riddle like this already, but it's about as easy as it can get.

 

- "Mastermind": There's this game I used to play as a kid where one player tries to guess a combination, and the other sais how many colours (symbols) were correct, but out of place, and how many were correct AND in the right place. It would be real awesome if the combination could be randomised and the clues given visually. If I can pull it off at all.

 

- Other suggestions?

 

2. Other (completely new) riddles

Not quite sure where I'd put these, might replace some of the pillar puzzles for variety, or add them to optional sidepassages containing loot.

 

- Combination locks (e.g. order in which levers are pulled / switches pressed)

 

- Associating items with certain containers, e.g. ceremonial weapons with the tombs of their bearers. Anyone who played the Baldur's Gate series knows the kind of riddles I'm talking about.

 

- Good ol' rhymes: Dialogue based, best illustrated with an example. "What has 4 legs in the morning, 2 in the afternoon, and 3 in the evening?" - ANSWER: "A human. It crawls as a baby, walks as an adult, and uses a walking stick in old age". Sorry for the abysmal example. I'd need some help with these, I'm really bad with making them up.

 

- Knowledge tests: player find books of ritual descriptions or old legends, and then answers questions about them. Also dialogue based. A nice example is the statue in the temple of Amaunator (Baldur's Gate 2)

 

- Number puzzles (Sudoku, magic squares, etc). Would need some help with these, too, as I'm not entirely sure how to implement such a thing, or how to generate good number puzzles.

 

- Suggestions?

 

Please tell me what you think so far and wether or not you'd like to see something like this implemented.

[noveltyh3ro]

YES! I have thought of making something like this but currently I am working on another mod. So you can make my idea! A new type of chest which is basically rubix cube equivalent to skyrim, maybe also those japanese puzzles..pls make this ^^

[Hangman4358]

This is cool. I actually have come up with some of these ideas in my mod already. And I think they add way more coolness.

 

One I did was the linked pillars. Another thing I did was use fires to say when they are correct instead of the visual plaques. One I even did the two in combination and that is really fun.

 

I like the mod u linked to. Having other pillars is great.

 

As a suggestion a cool one to have would be a sound based on. Like you the player step on triggers and it resonates a souns and then you have to find the right combination of sounds. Like a scale or say middle C and then C one octave up and one down or like the first bar of the dovakihn song or something.

 

Or like a light based puzzle you fire a beam from one object to another and then rotate that object to fire a beam to another and so on. Kinda like that one Temple quest with guiding the light through the temple but more user interactive.

 

Hey, these are actually give me great idea too!!

 

EDIT: Another cool one would be like puzzle pillar Sudoku. Since there are 9 of the shapes if you use the expanded set for the mod you posted, you can mage like a door where the pillars are the missing numbers and the plaques are the already given numbers and then you have to make it like sodoku!!

Edited February 18, 2013 by Hangman4358

[Saerileth]

@killerman: A rubix cube sounds kind of hard to make. I'm trying to avoid heavy scripting, but I might take up the idea once the easier features are implemented.

 

@Hangman4358: I like the fire idea! Would you mind if I used it, too? I like your other suggestions a lot, especially using sounds. The pillar sudoku might be a problem though, because even with the extended set, each piller still has only three faces (as far as I know). So the choice of pillar would already give away quite a bit.

 

Thank you both for the positive feedback. I think I will go ahead with this mod idea.