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Difficulty choices for clocktower JP


Lini.2698

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My issue with it, has never been so much the difficulty (trust me it's not that hard), but the fact that you have to wait so long for it to restart. That's what causes the frustration, even if people don't realize it. In most JP, including Winter Wonderland, it's all about the timing, and if you mess up, you can start over pretty soon, if not immediately with your error still fresh, and keep some of the grasp on the timing, which allows you to improve. The Clock tower can make you wait minutes for it to restart, which means everything is gone, and you'll be more frustrated and less focused by the time you get to start over.It's all because it's treated like a pvp map, with you having to wait for the pvp session to restart. If that was changed, and you could either be switched to a new instance as soon as you fail, have a personal instance (because lets face it, having wisps jumping ahead of you brings nothing to the enjoyment of the JP), or simply re-script the whole thing so that it functions in a wave, like the wintersday puzzle, allowing multiple people to be completing it in different stages of the puzzle. Until they get rid of that enormous wait time, the difficulty will always seem greater than it actually is.

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I am one of those fun people that has crappy reaction times for various reasons, so my jumping skill is not up to snuff. for this and other JP's. I would be fine with a really awesome reward for people that can do the clock tower. For the sake of us people that do not have the reaction times necessary to make this crazy climb but really want to complete the armor collection, put the armor on a different event please.

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@ReaverKane.7598 said:My issue with it, has never been so much the difficulty (trust me it's not that hard), but the fact that you have to wait so long for it to restart. That's what causes the frustration, even if people don't realize it. In most JP, including Winter Wonderland, it's all about the timing, and if you mess up, you can start over pretty soon, if not immediately with your error still fresh, and keep some of the grasp on the timing, which allows you to improve. The Clock tower can make you wait minutes for it to restart, which means everything is gone, and you'll be more frustrated and less focused by the time you get to start over.It's all because it's treated like a pvp map, with you having to wait for the pvp session to restart. If that was changed, and you could either be switched to a new instance as soon as you fail, have a personal instance (because lets face it, having wisps jumping ahead of you brings nothing to the enjoyment of the JP), or simply re-script the whole thing so that it functions in a wave, like the wintersday puzzle, allowing multiple people to be completing it in different stages of the puzzle. Until they get rid of that enormous wait time, the difficulty will always seem greater than it actually is.

This. Epic this.

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It's made significantly easier by dropping your detail levels down as much as possible. At 60 fps your keyboard input will be very closely synchronised with character actions which is very important. At 20 fps you are going to be missing jumps or landings, which will obviously cause you to fail. The problem isn't terribly obvious in other areas of the game, but in the Clock Tower you really notice how attached at the hip the game's frame rate and your character's actions are.

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@nosleepdemon.1368 said:It's made significantly easier by dropping your detail levels down as much as possible. At 60 fps your keyboard input will be very closely synchronised with character actions which is very important. At 20 fps you are going to be missing jumps or landings, which will obviously cause you to fail. The problem isn't terribly obvious in other areas of the game, but in the Clock Tower you really notice how attached at the hip the game's frame rate and your character's actions are.

This is true!! Very much so! Also mind your mouse's resolution as well. Back in 2012 i couldn't complete the JP for the life of me, until i tried it on my brother's laptop (who was constantly badgering me how could i be so lame, since he had done it quite easily), and i did it like 3rd try after it (still needed to learn part of the way up).In 2014, with the same PC but a better mouse, i had way less issues with it.

But i still keep to my point that most of that could be solved if we didn't have so long of a wait time between attempts.

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  • 1 year later...

@Randulf.7614 said:This has come up every year for 6 years and the JP has so far and prob always will be, untouched. It has reached a certain notoriety as one of the hardest jp challenges and I would doubt they want to make any changes or alternate difficulties for it.

As someone who can barely get past the first jumps, Im happy for them to leave it as is

I am a little upset though, as with this year, you are offered a cape but you need the completion of the annual event (including the clocktower) to get it...which...I get it, insanity, I got the theme, but kinda deters me from continuing any of the others.

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@Cosmicneo.9751 said:

@Reynarth.4819 said:Why should they make easier choices or nerf this jumping puzzle? If it's too hard for someone, then it's not for him, you don't have to do it.

But when you tie rewards to completing it, it hurts the ability to acquire the top tier reward. Like the Lunatic Cape for example.

Is there not more activitys then you need, so you can skip the jump puzzle for example?

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Tip : You only wait a minute if someone in your group isn't failing and reach the top. From there two options are available to you : Watch and learn, replicate, so you can see how it's done, or go to another lobby, until you find one where everyone fails more than succeed (that's more likely than a lobby with someone who reach the top 100% of the time).

The puzzle itself isn't hard, it's challenging because you have to rush, and if you dont know where and when to jump, you will get keeled off by the vortex. Once you got that part down, you have to handle the actual jumping. Those are only hard at two spots if my memory is correct : after the first forced stop where parts of the tower explode to create passage (most of the fails happen here early on) and at the sideway cog after that part.

General tip : Handle the camera through Holding Right Click non stop, from the start to finish, and the only keys you have to worry about then is "Forward" and "Jump". This simple thing will prevent any fumbling with the keyboard. As for how to handle the camera, I recommend a Top down view, as it will help you gauge distances more easily, the path being circular, you dont necessarily need or want to see far ahead of you, since you -cant-.

Tip for the first hard jump : If you're lacking speed, some elements of the paths can be skipped and jumped over, provided you aim correctly, you dont have to, and should not jump on all elements, there is a stone before the stair shaped wall that you can skip and gain a little bit more time from. From the stair shaped wall, instead of going atop of it, jump to the platform directly to the right of it, since you'll save time off of jumping, and the platform is flat, while the stairs are not.

Tip for the second hard jump : There's no easy way to aim properly so as to not slide off the cog. I tend to aim slightly to the right of it, and then keep jumping 3 times (basically dont stop jumping until you reach the metalic stairs after it). It seems to do the trick for me.

There is no miracle cheat, or method. You learn by doing, and you do by failing a lot. A healthy amount of cussing is generally involved, but in time, you'll make it.

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Honestly, it's not that hard. It looks intimitating and you have to have a lot of patience (I guess people mostly have an issue with this), but it's doable. Last year it took me hours to get to the top, but after I got up just once it was infinitely easier, you get a feel to it. This year it only took me less than an hour to do it. Practice, practice, practice.

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45 minutes of pure torture.45 minutes of practice that first Halloween.45 minutes of none of this "everyone is a whisp" and praying no huge Norn or Charr join (actually just hoping everyone else falls off asap so I can have the jp to myself).45 minutes of having the Mad King taunt me.

That's how long it took me the first Halloween, and I enjoy jumping puzzles. It was well worth the wait. This one was probably THE jumping puzzle I enjoyed the most completing the first time. It was/is epic. Best jumping puzzle ever. Ever single year I look forward to redoing it.

I get that this will be a hard pass or uncompletable for some players. I am torn on this one tbh, on the one hand I usually agree that most open world and festival content should be within reach of most players, on the other hand this jp is so iconic, has been around for so long, it just fits the Halloween theme perfectly.

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@Cosmicneo.9751 said:

@Randulf.7614 said:This has come up every year for 6 years and the JP has so far and prob always will be, untouched. It has reached a certain notoriety as one of the hardest jp challenges and I would doubt they want to make any changes or alternate difficulties for it.

As someone who can barely get past the first jumps, Im happy for them to leave it as is

I am a little upset though, as with this year, you are offered a cape but you need the completion of the annual event (including the clocktower) to get it...which...I get it, insanity, I got the theme, but kinda deters me from continuing any of the others.

You don't need to do the tower. There's 10 annuals and you need only 9.

I also have never been able to do the tower and never will but I don't mind. There's no need to be able to do everything. :)

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@Majosea.2487 said:I am one of those fun people that has crappy reaction times for various reasons, so my jumping skill is not up to snuff. for this and other JP's. I would be fine with a really awesome reward for people that can do the clock tower. For the sake of us people that do not have the reaction times necessary to make this crazy climb but really want to complete the armor collection, put the armor on a different event please.

You don't need the tower for the armor collection. Everything can be completed without the tower. Only thing missing will be few APs.

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The waiting it the most annoying. Though after I tried it first in 2012 or 2013 (where it took me ages) after coming back last year after my long break ... I learned it much quicker. And this year it was not a big deal for me.

I can see how it is super annoying (remember this as well from the beginning when I started to learn it) to fall down after a few secs then having to wait. Maks it hard to reach and learn the later parts.

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I think the thing that gives people the most trouble, besides not knowing the "path" up, is that you have to adjust your mouse several times while on the run. And people just aren't used to having to do that. So, there is no time to stop and adjust to center your mouse again. Running with either the w key pressed or both mouse buttons pressed is important, since you will still need to be able to run and jump with just the keyboard while you reposition the mouse. Figure that out, and assuming no mechanical difficulties that some individuals have, will go a long way to helping complete the puzzle.

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