I'm replaying this game in VR and came across this swapped sphere in Kaptar that struck me as odd. The first time I played I was still uncovering all the mysteries so didn't take particular note of it, but now that I know how things work, I'm a little confused about it. It doesn't look like anywhere else in the game. Where did it swap from? It looks Kaptar-ish, but with water and different colored rocks. My impression of Kaptar was that it's made up of vast hanging rock monoliths above a gas core, and I don't remember seeing any water anywhere else there.

https://preview.redd.it/vd291kdvesud1.png?width=1600&format=png&auto=webp&s=d7221af603952a2bed4e44e353081398bdb08ddf

Playing on a windows PC. I linked to Maray but am having trouble with the graphics. Doesn't render all of the graphics,do I need a new card ?

Man wtf was that ending??? I saw earth destroyed from one of the other worlds, I knew that the others were all safe, HOW THE FUCK AM I MEANT TO KNOW UNPLUGGING THE BATTERY WILL GIVE ME A GOOD ENDING!?

After hours and hours solving puzzles (also fuck that russian computer) I feel robbed. Can't communicate with CW in any way to mention, hey Earth is kinda boned dude, and everyone else is Ok. Feels so rude to have your journey ending ruined because there's no interactive dialogue mechanic.

Also, did they ever mention why everyone hides in the pods? Or how Farley wakes up? Ugh, such a lot of effort for a terrible pay off. Good game but man that left me sour.

I am on Kaptar and have become stuck. I got all the way to the rotating wheel that blocks my way to the tree. I used the elevator to return to the upper level so I could turn off the correct piston to stop the wheel. I've been using Dilandau3000's excellent walkthrough (Let's Play Obduction) -- generally watching it after I do something to see if maybe I missed some small things (this is my first PS5 game -- I haven't played games much since Myst so a very long time ago).

On my game, the Russian puzzle machine is not up where I need to access it (as it is in Dilandau300's walkthrough), and when I try to raise the machine and lower the stairs by winding the crank handle, the stairs briefly go down and the machine comes up, but neither stay. The crank unwinds.

What can I do? Do I have to go all the way back to where the Russian puzzle machine is at the bottom (where I turned on the power in the first place) and do something there? Is there something I am missing in being able to raise the machine and get the stairs to stay down?

I guess I can't post a pic here, but the machine and location I'm talking about is :09 into this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csplhm71b1g&list=PLjjNZRzFam-rrGZU-Pe71DIO7BXJnNs0I&index=14

Edited to add: I went back and reviewed the previous video to see exactly what they did. It's at 11:09 in this video. I am doing EXACTLY the same thing but my stairs will not stay down. Help!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PC2Cqsz6GfU&list=PLjjNZRzFam-rrGZU-Pe71DIO7BXJnNs0I&index=13

The only difference is that I am doing this later in the game. Do I really have to start the game at an earlier point and do this action earlier? Please tell me that's not so!

I'm doing a decent house clean and found The Art of Obduction book from the Kickstarter. Just asking a question - is there much interest out there for it? It came with a certificate of exclusivity signed by members of the production team. To be clear, I am just wanting to gauge whether it's something people would want (this is not a sales post - but I also couldn't find the subreddit's rules to check if a post like this is OK).

Spoilers ahead, I don't know what to spoiler and what not to. Dumb puzzle issues and forgotten plot points mostly.

First, we start with C.W. just telling us to do stuff, can't find the next part "JUST DO IT, Karffin legs". I would've preferred a Zandi guide-type character to at least point us to puzzle pieces that we may have missed in Hunrath, because he just tells us very simple instructions that can easily be missed like the button to release the cart.

Then we get to the first issue on the cart "puzzle", which is recurring; click boxes and drag directions are way too strict. I didn't know the cart could move until after I destroyed the Mofang Lazer, because I could aim it through the gap in the metal. I thought it was a button to turn off the Villein Lazer.

This issue with click specificity has happened in Myst series previously. But whatever, it's a bit maddening but if that's it, it's fine.

Next is the linearity of the game, combined with back-tracking, and lack of two-way access if you don't intuitively understand a puzzle. Gauntlet 4th for example was a GOOD puzzle! The issue was just the walking. If they let us remote teleport so we didn't need to load screen and let us rotate them from the elevator. Mwah Beautiful. I kinda had more fun because I was cussing out Kadish though.

And I was expecting a major overarching puzzle utilizing the one-way access in so much of the worlds. Where we needed to have the trees linked and specific pieces in location to give us access to some new part of Hunrath via a Sorai Link or something. But they didn't. "Just walk".

And when I think back to all of the puzzles in each world, the ones that stick out are ones I spent time on. And the answer was always "You missed something". That's not a puzzle.

Finally, the puzzle of the story. I loved Caroline's Diary, very reminiscent of Sirrus and Achenar's hidden rooms. A beautiful piece of storytelling that goes NOWHERE! Caroline goes mad and started a war with the Mofang because she's paranoid of becoming extinct. Stakes and flawed character and significant world changing conflict. But Caroline's a good guy, everyone ends up in the magic land at the end of the rainbow end scene...

And the running theme of nature vs nurture didn't get any recognition in the end either. Are we supposed to think that a >!run-down desert town is really a "hell-earth"!<. We're in a shanty town, I expected a shanty town on the other side, no?

The game was just so close to being amazing, but just fell flat from so many issues that could be solved by just watching 1 unfamilliar person solve the puzzle. You missed the red lever on the turnstyle, let's just remove it! You didn't know you could turn the fan's power switch thing, let's put an inner lever.

And then the pointless machine >:| That was an insult, because I didn't spin the thingy in a circle, even though I tried it a dozen times left and down. Sorry, I just needed to vent, and this place has low enough population for this post to not matter. And I still don't know what the point of the drawing on the last page of the Pod Database was supposed to mean. Looks like it might be a Villein number, but it's definitely not. It better not refer to 222, because I just brute-forced that one, before looking at a guide to understand what I did that made the door work.

Rant over. Lots of quitting points. I don't think much of this story or gameplay. And I feel like an amateur should be able to see these issues let alone solve them.

I've tried everything I can think of and seen on previous threads. When I was originally in the cart, I tried to access the seed through the window, but ended up exiting the cart. this got me stuck in the walls. I did everything I could to finally get out, but now I can't get back in, so I can't destroy the laser in Kantar. Is there anything I can do? I can't access the cart

Hi,

I just finished Riven, and I bought Obduction, but I can't set the controls to smooth walk instead of teleporting in the game, which I hate. I read it is possible somewhere. Also, I don't know how to access the game menu while playing, is that possible too? Thanks

edit: I found how to change the controls, but I still can't access the game menu other than with a keyboard, and it also seems that the game does not save my graphics parameters, just like Riven they reset to low randomly when I restart the game. Cyan games are incredible, but they're oh so full of bugs haha

This is unnecessary, but I found the numbers really satisfying and my drawing skills really unsatisfying so I made a little worksheet to print out and draw on. I figured I may as well share it here where there is at least a miniscule chance someone who actually is interested may see it

https://preview.redd.it/ca62qf7m2jzc1.png?width=2260&format=png&auto=webp&s=7d4272ee0a58c27fb3ba1506702d02dd56bb6cab

Windows PC with mouse, low tech irregular infrequent gamer. I’m in the rail car, can toggle between laser control and car control. I can see the control to move the car, but I can’t use it. Cursor is locked on center of screen. Tried right click but that didn’t work.

The circular turntable, with the tracks on them -- reminded me of Hunrath!:

Estación del Parque, Argentina

Source: This image on Wikimedia, linked in this article on Wikipedia, retrieved: 2023-04-05.

I am on Kaptar and am trying to move the turning bridge platform so that I can access the wall. It will not go that far, only having two positions. I've even restarted the game and consulted a walkthru up to that point and no matter what the bridges still won't turn far enough. Please help!

https://preview.redd.it/eblfalyyurrc1.png?width=2327&format=png&auto=webp&s=136e125a3db1647988512203b91b50b7558f1c24

Long shot here because I like the game and don't want to start over...

I loaded my save and somehow I'm standing on top of walkway on the propeller gate in the river. But the gate is turned parallel to the flow of water so I can't actually walk anywhere. Looking online I see some people suggest switching to point and click. When I did that it dropped me on the wrong side of the river (I'm on the side with the painting). I can see on this side there's a tunnel blocked by glowing rocks that I probably shoot later in the game. But as it is, I'm stuck.

Are there any console commands or tricks to get me off this side of the river? I tried ctrl alt shift 1 and that doesn't seem to do anything.

I started playing Obduction for the first time, and I noticed the house number on the community center is 1436. This is a reference to 1436 Tudor Street, Philadelphia, PA, Rand and Robyn Miller's childhood grandparents' house.

I know because of.... reasons :)

So I get that when you teleport you are swapping the area around the device with the area it's going to. But the three in the same room is throwing me off. It's not always an even swap and sometimes it moves to the opposite side of the room. And the most confusing part is why sometimes you end up with no teleporter in the room and instead have an empty hole. I've managed to get across to the maze but went back to try to get the bridge panel to a specific side of the hunrath cave. I built the one cave bridge that leads to the maze piece it's the opposite side I can't get the control over to.

I didn't discover the entrance to the Bleeder area until close to the end of the game. I wanted to test what would happen if I pushed the trigger to blow up the Bleeder before connecting all the roots/finishing the levels. Is it possible? (Perhaps only the spheres you connected end up in the "good ending"?)

In Mofang, we see a destroyed Arizona in the distance that Hunrath also swaps into in the bad ending. Was this a larger area of the desert around Hunrath on Earth that obducted to Mofang, while the central Hunrath part went to the Hunrath world? And so in the bad ending Cecil thought he was swapping back to Earth, but he just ended up swapping to the obducted location of Hunrath's original surroundings in Mofang?

Also, there are 70 humans in the cryo chambers - where did everyone live? We only ever see Caroline's and Josef's houses. Did they live in the expanded Arizona area in Mofang? Was it only destroyed shortly before the game takes place in the Mofang war, and that's why Cecil was so surprised to see it in its state in the bad ending?

In the good ending, I understand that all three of the world domes swapped to one location on a whole new world where they could be free from the Mofang. Is this correct?

Or, my other theory: Is the Mofang sphere actually Earth in the far future? This one makes less sense to me because obviously the people had access to Mofang. They set up the lights for the tree and the swapping sphere and everything, so they would have already known that Earth was destroyed if it was Cecil's intention to go back there. Also it would be even more mysterious as to where everyone actually lived.

Also, why the hell is the determination of which ending you get based on a completely unmentioned switch that the player would have absolutely no idea about? Is that just supposed to be some grand last minute twist?

I just completed the portion of Maray with the injured Villein, and I feel like the game just talked down to me super hard.
Arriving to the site of the laser fight near the end of Maray, I find Trar, Aprar, or Orbar (not sure which one) laying under some rubble, staring at me with a Villein screen neatly framed near him so I can view both simultaneously. It seems like he is going to inform me of something to open the nearby door but after minutes of waiting for the big guy to say something I finally looked up the obduction hint guide online.

Apparently the screen is supposed to show a number, which correlates to the manifest nearby, which checks out.
Since the number didn't show up I figured I needed to get Vito who was mentioned on the legal pad back in Hunrath to talk to him regarding the Villein language.
Vito does not appear on the manifest but "Veto" does, oddly enough, but maybe just a simple typo.
His pod number is 5, and I just so happen to have a picture of the "how to Villein number" which has the number 5 filled in, nice!
I pull up his pod and nothing happens. I try the other mentioned characters on the legal pad.
Tam pulls up, but Farley does not. (Interesting, I imagine that may be consequential soon.)

Annoyed, I look up a spoiler guide to figure out what I am missing. Apparently the number is suppose to be 222. Pulling the pod causes me to see Josef in cryo, which is where I figured he was. But the music begins to swell like this is some sort of important revelation just occurred, and this apparently is what causes the door to the laser bomb to finally open???

I'm mad at this point. How fucking stupid does the game think I am?
CLEARLY the Josef on the Maray screens is a fake. He speaks in incredibly broken English, even more so than his Hunrath records. AND HE HAS THE RED SHIMMER OF A HOLOGRAM ON HIM!!
For reference the recordings of Farley don't have that red shimmer on the Villein screens.
So now I am sitting here wondering why the game devs think that I would be fooled that Josef isn't actually Josef? It is obviously not the real guy, I knew the Josef that had been talking to me was either a recording or an imposter for upwards of an hour due to that miserable maze puzzle.
Hell, even if I was completely dense his lifeless body even has one of the Mofang guns next to him, it's next to a laser bomb, and guess what? it is STILL shimmering red like a hologram!!

I am insulted at how little they seemed to have thought of our ability to observe and understand. Fucking insulted. And what is worse is that this completely stupid non-revelation is how the path forwards opens, meaning it is likely mandatory on repeat play throughs.

Great game, finally got it on the steam sale after being on my wishlist for years. This puzzle gave me a huge headache tho. I had a pen nearby but no paper, so I had to improvise… 10/10 would eat pizza while playing again

I want to play Obduction in VR for the first time before I play Firmament (I played it on PC years ago) and I'm trying to play it through Steam VR. It says my computer is wirelessly connected to my router and that this is not allowed, but I'm able to continue anyway. Only the game is so lagging and slow that it pauses silently for several seconds at a time, and by the time I get to Hunrath it crashes. Do I need a cable to connect my PC to the router or something? Would that make it playable? Or am I missing some other method entirely to play it in VR?

There is a weird thing with teleportation in the "heart" of the trees:

When not both trees are "healthy" (= in the gameplay: Have water), it is not possible to pass between them. But the water within the hose still can pass, water within the channels not.

Ahoj,

I just finished Obduction, and I just want to give my short overall impression:

It was a nice freetime activity, but not a deep experience for me like Riven and Myst IV were.

And I have an idea why:

• 1st, in Obduction I never really had the "Oh, now I don't know any further"-situations. There was always something left to explore and to try out, and it led me somewhere; or there was a tedious but clear how to do it puzzle (like the maze in Maray).
  That lead to a lot of walking, but not really the need to deeply immerse into the game, re-visit stuff, take notes, have the surroundings impacting you, ... Or maybe I am too used to this type of game by now that I need harder ones?
• 2nd, I think the pre-rendered pre-defined places to go as it was in Riven and Myst somehow made it easier to immerse with the surroundings (both visually and auditorily). In think it is because with free roaming I am easily busy with walking around, and there is less intense "just looking and watching". Since in Obduction, you can easily move a bit further, to see something at a different angle, ..., so not so much deep looking at a picture you get and cannot change. (I know that Obduction also has the fixed-point movement mode, but that did not work well for me user-interface wise.)

There was only one exception to "1st", it was in Maray the puzzle you needed to solve before the door opens. And that one was so random (after Cyan removed the hint), that I actually had to look that one up. (Also in Riven I had to look up one thing, but there were many things left that left me puzzled and needed to interconnect stuff you see across all the islands.)

My favourites in terms of immersion are still Riven, followed by Myst IV (which I still have to complete!)

Regards!

I am pondering another thing.

From the meta perspective it totally makes sense for gameplay, but for "in game" perspective it looks il-"logical" to me:

It is the movement restrictions put in place in Hunrath and Maray (and Kaptar).

There are many barriers which simply can be circumvented by a bit of climbing elsewhere, or by just moving the swap seeds and do seed-swappings to get barriers out of the way (e.g. the first entrance door in Maray: Take the seed you came with, move it close to the door, swap back (with the door!), take the seed away from the door, swap to Maray again, and the door is unlocked).

The Mofang, against which it is to protect, are smaller in body size, so probably less able to climb than humans.
Given that the Mofang are highly advanced in technology, it is strange to assume that they do not have easily accessible means to get over some walls.

What do you think?

Regards!

Ahoj,

what happens when the "retro encabulator" detachment code is entered while the stairway is high (i.e. the device is lowered standing on it's table)?

(If someone know it by heart, then answer, but do not do yourself the tedious task of re-starting a game to try it out. I am at the very same position, I don't have a suitable savegame, I am curious, but it is not that important that I want to start a new game for it.)

What happens when the device is hanging in the air and is then detached I know (and this is also described here), I am courious what happens if you lower the device before entering the unlocking code.

Regards!

Retro encabulator.

In the game it is mentioned that in Hunrath/ amongst the humans many different languages are used. And it is explained by the fact that humans are taken from all over the earth to Hunrath.

Nevertheless, almost everything in Hunrath is US-centric: With a few exceptions, we find US machinery, US license plates, US newspapers. We find only English language (with the exception of a few russion in a very specific occasion).

How does it come that Hunrath is so US centric, when in fact the arriving humans are not specifically bound to the US?

Regards!