Elemental Workshop Pt 3 Final Half
Entry posted by Merch Gwyar
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Well, I've finished it and I'm still utterly underwhelmed. The whole quest lacked any storyline; little in the way of intuitive journeying; and annoying repetitions. I did enjoy the sliding puzzle. It was frustrating at times and the reason I was doing it wasn't clear, but the actuality of it was fine. It felt as if the quest designer squealed with delight at working out a difficult puzzle, then just cobbled some fluff around the edges in order to declare it a quest. Why did I do anything in this quest? No idea.
For those still struggling with it, here are some tips:
1, The levers push the squares. They are working like crowbars, levering the squares into the empty spaces. You can move individual squares or whole rows like this.
2, In the top, left-hand corner of your screen is a magnifying glass. If you press this, you'll get a birds eye view of all but the square behind the middle tower. I found it easier to work using this view.
3, You only have 50 moves to complete each section, unless you power up some bonus moves. There is only the first puzzle where you can't release bonus moves.
4, The power is coming from the generator to the east, ie the bottom of your screen in the bird's eye view. Every position will have to link to this power generator.
5, Bonus 50 moves: Stick a small block in front of the power generator. Line up another to the north of it (right of it in your birds eye view); then place the 2 storey block to the north of that (right of that). This links up with the hole at the north-eastern side (far right-hand corner) and gives you 50 bonus moves. You can only do this after you've released the 2 storey block with the completion of puzzle 1.
6, Bonus infinite moves: Stick a small block in front of the power generator. Line up another to the south of it (left of it in your birds eye view); then place the 3 storey block to the south of that (left of that). This links up with the hole at the south-eastern side (far left-hand corner) and causes the counter to jam. It'll jam on 62 moves and won't budge, even when you move the blocks. That gives you infinite amount of moves from here on. You can only do this after you've released the 3 storey block with the completion of puzzle 2.
7, While puzzles 1 and 2 end with cut-scenes, you'll get nothing for the completion of puzzle 3. You may get a message suggesting that you power the machine up. Ignore the message and carry on to position 4. You should see the tower start noticeably spinning. If that doesn't happen, then rearrange everything into position 3 again, then back to position 4. The second time, it should definitely start spinning. The guides are full of the front view of position 4, but I struggled with the back. Here's a picture of the back of the blocks: Click Me. For the front view, go and look at N3wb's guide in progress.
Suddenly I was confronted with a spinning machine and happy times. Still no archangel descending to tell me what to do (give or take Teacuptime yelling, 'red button timmmmmeeee!' in Canting), but I think you're supposed to have noticed the control room when you entered. I certainly noticed the red button. There is something so primal about a red button. It screams, 'press me', even when you haven't a clue what's going to happen next. Nuclear bomb? Rain of fish? The Manic Street Preachers turning up to give an impromptu performance? However, by now the sheer lack of storyline to this quest was a standing joke in Canting. It was case of que sera sera, let's go and press a red button.
This I did, then received a huge electric shock. That's fair enough. If you will go tatting with unknown machinery, in secret places, just because your church robbing activities led you to thinking it's a good idea, then an electric shock sounds about right. The force of it knocked my defence right down, but did give me a body bar. Yay! Now what?
I don't think I've ever checked my quest diary so often as in this quest. Usually I go whole quests without opening it. If I do have to, then it's generally to double-check that I've not missed something, if an environment is a bit confusing or busy. In this quest, it was practically propped open, in a vain attempt to work out what I was supposed to be doing at any given moment. It remained the world's most badly-written guide ever. And while we're on the subject of badly written, let's just contemplate the quest diary at this point:
Body body....? And you spell the word 'really', with two ls. :) I'm being pedantic. *hands up*
I stuck another primed bar in the slot and went back downstairs. It really wasn't too bad, as positions 3 and 4 are very close. You just have to move the three storey block back and forth, then snake those blocks around the central generator, until it all connects. I'd left it in position four, so I just did this, then moved it all back again. I had to do that twice, press the button, receive another electric shock, then I had my two body bars. Yippee.
It didn't mention how to make my body body *looks for an eye rolling smiley* ;) *that will have to do* But I just went to same anvil as I've made all of my elemental armour on. It informed me that I needed my battered book. I had my ragged book on me. That was no good. I raced upstairs and dashed over the road to the house there. Instead I searched the bookcase and grabbed a book. Back into the elemental workshop, I realised that this was a slashed book. I now had a slashed book and a ragged book, but the anvil (which didn't trust me to remember how to smith anything, despite my prowess with adamantite these days) demanded the battered book. I experimentally used my body bars on it anyway and it worked. So for battered book, read 'slashed book from across the road'. Not ragged book that set you on this quest. Not battered book from the bookcase back home. Slashed book. Savvy?
With great relief, the quest was over. ;) My questcape emote has been updated. I now start it looking trapped in a wind machine, before rising up and circling in the opposite direction, while stars cascade down my veil-aura. Very pretty.
Oh! The body armour makes a tinkly noise and blue bits whoosh around you when you put it on. You jaggle like a New Age shop as you walk. It's quite groovy and looks very electric blue.
Right, I'm off to work...
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