Automation Ruin Puzzles Are a Great Idea — But They’re Often Too Easy to Break

[LaShomb]

I really like the idea of the automation puzzles that appear in ruins. They’re a fun way to show off the automation mechanics and create little engineering challenges for players to figure out.

The problem I keep running into, though, is that they’re often either already broken by the environment, or it’s simply easier to deconstruct the puzzle instead of solving it. That kind of removes the incentive to actually engage with the challenge.

I’m curious how others feel about this. Do you usually try to solve the ruin puzzles as intended, or do you end up bypassing them?

One idea that might make them more engaging would be a special ruin building that:

• Prevents deconstruction within a small radius

• Automatically repairs connected puzzle components

• Provides any needed power

One concern with something like this is that a building which prevents deconstruction and auto-repairs nearby structures would probably be too powerful if players could freely incorporate it into their own bases.

To avoid that, it could be tied to automation and designed to self-destruct or deactivate under certain conditions, such as:

• Receiving a specific automation signal

• Detecting a nearby duplicant

• Shutting down once the puzzle is solved

That way it could exist primarily as a ruin puzzle controller, helping preserve the intended challenge while preventing it from becoming an overpowered tool in normal gameplay.

Curious if anyone else has ideas for making ruin puzzles feel more like real challenges.

[Gurgel]

I have always thought of them as just decoration. They do not represent any challenge at all. 

[Fleetfeet]

I think they're design remnants that don't ultimately fit what ONI became, and were hopeful of an 'exploration' kind of gameplay loop, rather than the more strict survival/building/physics sandbox we've got now.

I don't think their original purpose of being solveable puzzles that demonstrate automation fits in the game. As you mention, they're too easy to break, and the steps you'd need to take to protect them introduce new problems faster than they fix them.

What I'd propose is repurposing a lot of these ruins to organically show mechanics of ONI you wouldn't come across normally - things like a normal V-shaped water lock holding a room full of (some gas), half-tamed metal volcanos, SPOMs that just require water input and a kickstart... things that organically present the depth and complexity of ONI's systems to the player without overloading with too much info at once.

That would make the ruins puzzles 'useful' in the sense that you give a new player a prebuilt SPOM that they just need to kickstart and feed more water, they're going to learn more about how the game works, where the puzzle is "When I turn this machine on, what the heck does it do" and when it runs out of water "How do I feed it more water", and when it is built in an awkward spot, or in the next game when you don't find one, "how do I build my own."

Seems like a much better fit for ONI than pressure plate and motion sensor based puzzles.

[gigamoi]

I understand the idea but they are fine as they are IMO. There can only be so many different ones and, if made indestructible, will quickly become meaningless chore to all players with even a modicum of experience. Even though the basics of the automation system are not hard to grasp IMO, it is not rare for me to hear about some new player finding it difficult to engage with (which doesn't necessarily mean that most new players do struggle as those who don't just wouldn't manifest themselves so there is now way to tell) and I think those light and optional automation puzzle can help those players a lot with that. As they stand now, they provide both a nice little bonus and, if you want to, an opportunity to solve a small automation brain teaser. As stepping stones, they are very good at what they do, but their destructibility is essential to them not becoming a giant flight of stairs you have to climb every time you start a new run.

[Gurgel]

I do not think making this stuff mandatory is a good idea. It is clocked boolean circuits under the hood with an occasional lost cycle and it presents as non-clocked boolean circuits with exact delays. That is about as difficult as it can get. Yes, still basic, but when you study these at university, you already had a full course of math and you will generally invest a few weeks. Hence some people may struggle with the basics, while others that have done boolean circuits in the real worldy for decades will seem them as completely trivial. As Oni is not a logic-game, no more than a basic grasp of circuit logic should ever be required. 

[asurendra]

I always thought that its just ruins of Gravitas labs, where they tested duplicants intelligence. Thats cool as lore thing, no need to make it real puzzle