›

Hate these kind of "puzzles"

EddieEddie
edited September 2009 in Tales of Monkey Island
If there is one thing I hate about ToMi, it's the "puzzle" with the bucket and the coals. I don't like the fact that an object magically appears in a location you've been to a few times. I couldn't find anything to pick up the coals and then suddenly a theres a bucket? Why does telltale do it this way? In previous MI games all objects where there already. Doesn't matter if you only need it later on in the game. In ToMi objects appear just when you need them.

So when I get stuck, I need to visit ALL locations again just to see if an object appeared ouf of nowhere? That is ridiculous.
«13

Comments

  • PariahKingPariahKing
    edited August 2009
    It was there from the beginning. You didn't see it the first time.

    Unless your game is bugged.
  • BasBas
    edited August 2009
    The coals definitely weren't there before, they only magically appeared after the statue crashed.

    That puzzle, and the one where the
    bronze fish idol magically takes bait
    were my least favorite ones this episode.
  • EddieEddie
    edited August 2009
    Didn't mind the coals. It was obvious they appeared and makes sense (coals can only burn for so long).

    PariahKing: I'm not even sure anymore if it was there from the start or not. It probably was and then it's an error on my part. Though I usually check each new location thoroughly. Gonna load a save game from before that point.
  • BasBas
    edited August 2009
    How did the coals appearing at that point make sense? Where did they come from?
  • EddieEddie
    edited August 2009
    Loaded a savegame and now I know how I missed it. It's there, but I can't click it! So I can't take it with me and I must have not remembered it.

    Coals came from inside the crashing statue.
  • HaydenHayden
    edited August 2009
    Eddie wrote: »
    If there is one thing I hate about ToMi, it's the "puzzle" with the bucket and the coals. I don't like the fact that an object magically appears in a location you've been to a few times. Why does telltale do it this way? In previous MI games all objects where there already. Doesn't matter if you only need it later on in the game. In ToMi objects appear just when you need them.

    So when I get stuck, I need to visit ALL locations again just to see if an object appeared ouf of nowhere? That is ridiculous.

    I had no trouble finding the coals! I helps when the object is GLOWING...
  • EddieEddie
    edited August 2009
    haydenwce27 wrote: »
    I had no trouble finding the coals! I helps when the object is GLOWING...

    Well, me neither. But thanks for mentioning ;-). I just didn't have the bucket. Checked around on the forums and it seems this is a known glitch that the bucket isn't always a clickable object.
  • BasBas
    edited August 2009
    Eddie wrote: »
    Coals came from inside the crashing statue.

    How does that make any sense? Unless the statue was some sort of heating device and I missed that entire thing.
  • spiffy_the_dogspiffy_the_dog
    edited August 2009
    Geez weez people, the merroyalperson was in a HOT TUB. And parts of it crashed down.

    Need me to spell it out?
  • BasBas
    edited August 2009
    spiffy_the_dog wrote: »
    Geez weez people, the merroyalperson was in a HOT TUB. And parts of it crashed down.

    Need me to spell it out?

    Did the hot tub crash down? I thought it was the statue in front of the library.
  • NabaDwANabaDwA
    edited August 2009
    Yeah... the magically appearing AND burning coals didnt make much sense. You get the feeling that in these episodes things are done and rushed and not sufficiently thought about by the telltale team. The 1st few monkey games, everything made sense. To my knowledge at least.
    Nothing appeared magically, and not everything was so straight forward.

    There should have been a bit more explaining and a bit more things to do. You get the feeling you're playing ToMI: Lite Version (like in MI2).
  • SpadgeSpadge
    edited August 2009
    I don't feel like checking Wikipedia. The pirates shot some kind of cannonball at a statue made from an unknown substance. Probably it exploded on impact creating... umm... creating some burning debris from either the cannonball or the statue. What? It could happen. I don't know if it's a good explanation, but it's the best I can do. Honestly, in a world of merfolk, steam robots, carnivals and voodoo, I can buy it.
  • XuGatorXuGator
    edited August 2009
    It was an all out cannon assault and the city was under seige!

    The coals made perfect sense!
  • RazokyRazoky
    edited August 2009
    Oh c'mon, it's a Monkey Island game. Nothing makes perfect sense and that's part of the fun! You've suspended disbelief in order to accept talking pyrite parrots, rubber trees and androgynous merfolk and yet you balk at the idea that a cannonball barrage suddenly created burning wreckage? Granted, the coals appeared pretty abruptly, but they didn't detract from the story at all. And besides, all the craziness is what makes Monkey Island games so lovable.
  • DjNDBDjNDB Moderator
    edited August 2009
    Bas wrote: »
    How did
    the coals appearing at that point make sense? Where did they come from?

    I thought
    they fell out of Elaines "inventory" when she was hit by the statue. I think guybrush even commented on how Elaine might have carried hot coal without protection.
  • coolsomecoolsome
    edited August 2009
    DjNDB wrote: »
    I thought they fell out of Elaines "inventory" when she was hit by the statue. I think guybrush even commented on how Elaine might have carried hot coal without protection.


    I thought they fell from the hole in the statue where it was hit by coals
  • ThespisThespis
    edited August 2009
    Eddie wrote: »
    I can't click it! So I can't take it with me and I must have not remembered it.

    That's weird because the bucket was the very first item I picked up in the game (after the intro).
  • GreenVodkaGreenVodka
    edited August 2009
    I picked up the coals as soon as I'd
    helped elaine
    , I thought they mustve fallen from something in the explosions. I picked up the bucket at the beginning of the game too the first time i went into that area. Some people are trying a little too hard to find problems with the game
  • MusicallyInspiredMusicallyInspired
    edited August 2009
    @OP: Spoiler warnings would be nice.
  • BasBas
    edited August 2009
    XuGator wrote: »
    It was an all out cannon assault and the city was under seige!

    The coals made perfect sense!

    Cannons don't fire coal. Statues and cannon balls are also not made of coal.

    Anyway, it's not a big deal, but I'm kind of amazed at how apparently anything goes beause Monkey Island isn't set in reality for some forum members. I think it would have worked better if there was some sort of wooden structure on the island that got destroyed so that you'd end up with burning embers or something.
  • floweroftheforestfloweroftheforest
    edited August 2009
    GreenVodka wrote: »
    I picked up the coals as soon as I'd
    helped elaine
    , I thought they mustve fallen from something in the explosions. I picked up the bucket at the beginning of the game too the first time i went into that area. Some people are trying a little too hard to find problems with the game
    The bucket was the first thing I saw when I went into that shop thing.
    I picked it up right away and was amused when the shopkeeper merperson wanted to know what guybrush wanted it for.
  • jhuddyjhuddy
    edited August 2009
    The coals came from the cannonball that hit the statue.
  • glenfxglenfx
    edited August 2009
    DjNDB wrote: »
    I thought
    they fell out of Elaines "inventory" when she was hit by the statue. I think guybrush even commented on how Elaine might have carried hot coal without protection.
    I think that was the whole idea.
    Guybrush does say that and they appear just where Elaine was
  • Crono3Crono3
    edited August 2009
    Thespis wrote: »
    That's weird because the bucket was the very first item I picked up in the game (after the intro).

    Same here. As soon as the coals fell, I had the bucket and picked them right up with it.
  • priznaprizna
    edited August 2009
    As mentioned a few posts ago Elaine could have had the coals in her inventory, she said she was working on a plan, which could explain why she had the coals.
  • FealiksFealiks
    edited August 2009
    Elaine dropping coals made no sense. Even if it wasn't her that dropped them, they made no sense. And the bucked was evidently not visible to a lot of people. I hope that in the DVD release, they leave out the bucket and the coals; I'd be perfectly happy with just using the hot-tub controls on the barbecue to heat it up, the coals didn't seem all that necessary (I'd be okay with them if they fell out of a fireplace or something though).
  • pilouuuupilouuuu
    edited August 2009
    Couldn't they just be fragments from the statue heated by the cannon ball?
  • SpadgeSpadge
    edited August 2009
    Oh, yes. Remove 2 items from the game and part of the puzzle. That what we need.
    /sarcasm
    Come on, guys. It's just a bucket and some coals. Get over it.
  • jmmjmm
    edited August 2009
    I think the coals were used to heat the hot tube in the Royal Chamber
  • GrandeGrande
    edited August 2009
    I wonder what will happen, if the solution to this would the pox
    and Elaine actually carried them in her inventory... Maybe she is the Pirate God or whatever at the moment? I don't remember exactly, but how many people complained that it wouldn't be possible that LeChuck is in flames and not suffering from it?
  • wispwisp
    edited August 2009
    okay, about the coal "puzzle"...the bucket isn't always clickable, that's not on purpose, as it seems, so i understand how confusing this may be. but the coals themselves...i mean regardless how they got there, they are visible right after the cutscene with guybrush helping elaine. you're practically lured there by her screams. so, the buggy bucket is a bit unfair, but the coals aren't really that bad.
    btw, has anybody tried the new build? is the bucket still unclickable sometimes?
  • EddieEddie
    edited August 2009
    MusicallyInspired wrote: »
    @OP: Spoiler warnings would be nice.

    The thread has a spoiler tag.
    Or do you want me to type like this all the time? You'd click it and read it anyway or you wouldn't know what it's all about.
  • BasBas
    edited August 2009
    pilouuuu wrote: »
    Couldn't they just be fragments from the statue heated by the cannon ball?

    Coal isn't made from heated stone. Like I said, it would've been a lot less awkward if the statue was a wooden structure and the coals were glowing embers. Heck, I would've found it believable if they had shown the hot tub being hit and the coal having sprung from there.
    Spadge wrote: »
    Come on, guys. It's just a bucket and some coals. Get over it.

    I think you're making a bigger problem out of us finding it awkward than we are making out of it being awkward. It's just some weird thing that some people found odd, nobody is saying it's a disaster like you seem to think.
  • DarylmanDarylman
    edited August 2009
    Coal is made of, you guessed it, COAL.

    There was no COAL around, and thus, it made no sense.

    It was a terrible idea and is a perfect example of lazy story telling and even lazier puzzle design. There is no need to stand up for Tell-Tale here, I'm sure they would admit the coals sucked.
  • ThespisThespis
    edited August 2009
    Darylman wrote: »
    Coal is made of, you guessed it, COAL.

    Unless it's charcoal, which is usually made from wood, and I think "hot coals" could be considered either.

    ETA: When you're grilling you use charcoal, not actual coal.
  • DarylmanDarylman
    edited August 2009
    Thespis wrote: »
    Unless it's charcoal, which is usually made from wood, and I think "hot coals" could be considered either.

    ETA: When you're grilling you use charcoal, not actual coal.


    I suppose that is true, and the "image" we see does look and appear to function as charcoal. Regardless, they cannot just appear from wood in the little tiny blocks that we are shown, nevermind in the AMOUNT that they apparently existed. On screen we see 3 glowing coals, yet they fill up 3/4 of the bucket. It's just terrible.
  • NabaDwANabaDwA
    edited August 2009
    Darylman wrote: »
    Coal is made of, you guessed it, COAL.

    There was no COAL around, and thus, it made no sense.

    It was a terrible idea and is a perfect example of lazy story telling and even lazier puzzle design. There is no need to stand up for Tell-Tale here, I'm sure they would admit the coals sucked.

    Totally agree. I think sometimes people here get a bit caught up in worshipping telltale for resurrecting adventure games that, in their eyes, telltale can do no wrong.

    There is no decent logic to explain the coals. It is just lazy story telling, or a temporary lack of creativity on the part of the story writters and game designers. That's all. End of story.
  • DjNDBDjNDB Moderator
    edited August 2009
    NabaDwA wrote: »
    There is no decent logic to explain the coals. It is just lazy story telling, or a temporary lack of creativity on the part of the story writters and game designers. That's all. End of story.

    What's wrong with Elaine losing them, which is implied by Guybrush?
    It's not the first time you get an item from another character in an adventure game...
  • NabaDwANabaDwA
    edited August 2009
    Can anybody quote the line that Guybrush says after the coals are revealed? I can't quite remember what he says.
    But for me, what's wrong with Elaine losing them is that Guybrush couldn't pick them up himself with his bare hands and Elaine's plan had nothing to do with fiery coals (If i'm not mistaken)

    However if Guybrush said that she dropped them or something along those lines then ok, it can be regarded as acceptable.
  • stemotstemot
    edited August 2009
    They are Elaine's coals, which is commented on by Guybrush, and since we have no idea why she has them (why does Guybrush have half of the stuff he carries) then it can't be called stupid that she had them.

    Some people really have little else to worry about if why Eliane would have coals is bothering them.
Sign in to comment in this discussion.