Hey guys, how's it going ? So i saw some people stuck on Discord, stumped on missions and puzzle they have trouble to solve; and i had a question passing through my mind that i knew i had to make a thread for, because everyone will give a different answer and it genuinely interests me. The question is simple, it's even the name of the topic : - What do you do, when you're stuck on a puzzle ? What's your reaction ? Your way to deal with the thing, do you headbang on it, do you step off, do you scream ? Note that this question only concerns regular puzzles and not live events. It's the stuff you explore on your own. You can answer the real deal or be more creative. ============================================= In my case, i tend to sleep over it, after searching for a few hours or when i feel like i depleted all my leads. Then i check the forum for nudges before attempting for another set of hours. After that i cry for help and clues on discord. ..if everything fails, i'm just throwing a fullfist of cat's blood on an obsidian mirror and look at the assembled glyphs. Sometimes i have to close pop-up ads about the afterlife on the mirror, gods really want their followers back. They don't know YouTube or Twitch, like a bunch of old farts. ============================================= Alright, so what do YOU do when you're stuck ?
I can get stuck in my day job in a similar way. I've learned to either 1) ask for help or 2) step away for a time. Asking for help can be hard in a puzzle game because you can feel like you're cheating yourself out of the experience but I think it works in a game like this due to the theme. You're part of a large agency full of fellow agents. There's no reason to think you wouldn't pool resources on cases from time to time. Otherwise, I just go do something else. I stop thinking about the puzzle entirely and come back later. Coming back with a fresh, unfrustrated mind helps a lot.
I try to bruceforce it, cry, ask for the help of my friends, drink, ask for the help of one of my fellow agents, still fail, get stuck on it for 30 years, miss the growing of my only child, my wife left me, I wake up at 55 realising I missed most of my life. Take a deep breath and go outside. Realise how much things have change. Look at TV, see that Whitechapel took control of modern world. Meet one of my fellow agents begging for money. Getting told that me giving up on 3.3 is the reason everything is so bad right know and that Whitechapel married Trump and nuked Scandinavia. What ? Take a deep breath, go back to 3.3 despiced warning from fellow agents. "Don't be dumb". Die while launching the game. In reality I just beg every agents I know to help me because I'm unskilled. :I
I try to organize the clues I have. I make a list of everything that I know about the puzzle, and I lay it out in an organized way. It helps me to look at it with fresh eyes and maybe spot something I didn't see before.
It depends on the puzzle, really. If it's a cryptography-based puzzle I'm more likely to ask for help immediately on getting stuck. As much as I think cryptography is a cool concept, I suck at it. On the puzzles that deal with fact-finding or discovering the common thread among different pieces of information, I tend to do what codex-13 does (hey codex!) because if I look at it long enough, I'll find the connection. The WC 3.x puzzle that has Spoiler the letter where each paragraph Spoiler is from a different Lovecraft story is a great example of this. The only thing that tripped me up on that puzzle was Spoiler the capitalization.
(i know i'm two months late but anyway) Usually when i get stuck i try to either get help or try to find a new perspective to find the solution and when that all doesn't work i play another random puzzle game to relax (because of course i have to suffer even more to relax) and then try again to find a new perspective and if it doesn't work i wait a week then come back to it, then rince and repeat until i find the solution
