Can anyone point me to a concrete guide to the switch "puzzle" in the Kotl city?

[Spock's Beard]

Girlfriend really likes this place for some reason. Just standing here healing and rezzing, healing and rezzing. This "puzzle" doesn't seem to give any real feedback on what it expects from us, so I just sit here watching her pull switches, die, and cuss.

I vaguely remember a couple people who knew what this was about being coy as if they were doing everyone a favor, but it's been weeks, interest has died down, and as far as I can tell nobody on the internet has bothered to actually document this thing. Which is sort of sad.

 

[Petra Fyde]

The only thing I can tell you is don't pull the next lever until the message disappears, it hits harder if you do. That should at least stop some of the death. I've done it a few times, but all I did was work my way along pulling and healing till I either got a message saying the door was open or it re-set and I had to start back at the beginning.

 

[OREOGL]

@Larisa did a good job going over this in a previous thread.

The switches are annoying but follow a general sequence you need to discover until the words pop that the door is unsealed.

Run just south of the switches and you'll see the spinning globe thing you need to double click.

That'll drop the wall where the blue blobs are.

Then you have to guess which tiles are the safe ones to cross across the 5 rows.

Cross those and step on teleporter on bottom of screen.

Drop power cores into the boxes

 

[OREOGL]

Treasures of the Kotl City – Ultima Online

This has the references for what I'm speaking of.

 

[CovenantX]

It seems if you refine your armor to be 75 energy resist with ~140+hp I don't think you can die to the traps on the switches if you're full HP when you flip the switch.
This was not counting swamp dragon armor (not sure if that helps with it or not).

I've only been taken down to 3/140 hp so far with 75/75/70/75/75 resist, I've only done the puzzle maybe 4 times though, so it might still be possible to get killed (maybe I was just lucky)

 

[Merus]

I party my character flipping the switches with 2 4xLegendary bards running all 4 peace/provoke mastery songs... The switches have yet to kill me.

 

[Basara]

I have 75 resists (stone form) and only 100 HP, yet never die doing the switches.

The big thing is to always stop and heal up, and let some time pass before going to the next switch after a failure.

I'll often go down there and do the switches and map out the way through the corridor after dropping the wall. Often, if I do that part, others will bring the rest of the stuff to start the room of their own volition.

 

[James [W^H]]

I have 75 resists (stone form) and only 100 HP, yet never die doing the switches.

The big thing is to always stop and heal up, and let some time pass before going to the next switch after a failure.

I'll often go down there and do the switches and map out the way through the corridor after dropping the wall. Often, if I do that part, others will bring the rest of the stuff to start the room of their own volition.

I have seen players using magic to map out the way through the corridor. What spell are they using and how do you figure it out?

 

[Basara]

How I do the corridor:

There's 13 potential spots on each barrier line. One can only be seen if you have Circle of Transparency active.

Make sure that there's only one or two Ignis around, not close to you, and cast an RC between you and them, where the RC won't kill itself running into a barrier trying to get to the monster. If there's 3 or more, have them chase you around the lava pool and invis when you get more than a screen away from them. Keep running the same direction to circle back to the corridor. Recast the RC as needed.

Start at one end (I start usually with the south side, where the one that you need the CoT to see), try to step one step into the barrier. If you take damage (about 20 points damage with 70-75 resists), step once to the side, and try the next. When you get to about 50-60 health, stop and heal before getting the next. When you find the safe way, mark it with a bandage or coin, then go through and repeat the process on the next barrier. Hopefully, you'll get to the point where most of the ignis either respawn behind you and out of sight, or on the other side of the teleporter where they won't see you. Eventually, once you find the way through the last barrier, you can run through to the teleporter. Then, I go clean up any Ignis in the main room while waiting for my friends with the cores to drop.

Alternatively, you can have friends fight the Ignis the whole time, and casting to keep you healed as you feel your way through, and have them follow you through the marked squares, to keep protecting you.

As for spells to find your way through, I can only imagine casting summons onto the barrier lines, and seeing where they can walk through. I GUESS you could cast an EV or Blade Spirit on the other side of the line, attack it to make it try to get to you, then walk along the barrier as it chases you, until it finds a way through - but that seems unnecessarily dangerous, given there's deadly spawn around too, especially since you'll have to dispel it when it does make it to you. But I've not tried that.

 

[Poo]

for the wall.
stealth ninja.

go into dog form and a decent regen suit dosnt hurt.
walk up to wall with stealthing and use the bump method.
bump, move a tile over, bump, move a tile over, rinse, repeat.
the HPR from dog form and your suit will heal you up by the time you move over the 1 tile to the next tile.
if you pop out of form pop a smoky and carry on.

thats how i do it.

 

[James [W^H]]

How I do the corridor:

Thanks for the in-depth explanation, that really helps. As for the person casting that I mentioned, I did not recognize the spell words, but they were not casting anything that was a summons.

 

[Dizzy]

I would start here:
https://www.quikrete.com/pdfs/concreteselectorguide.pdf

 

[Spock's Beard]

Welp. Thanks for trying to be helpful guys, but it looks like literally no one has ever bothered to figure out how this puzzle actually works. Everyone just pulls random levers until it pops.

@Mesanna @Kyronix @Bleak

How about some dev spoilers?

 

[Malee]

I don't think there is a rhyme or reason to those switches - ie - there is nothing you can do to avoid the possibilities of getting shocked. The key is just to really slow down and wait. I always start on the east of the line and start flipping the switches. You can walk against the wall over the switches. I stand next to the first switch to the east and click it. I then stand on the switch I pulled and either keep going one by one or heal. Like the above said, if you get shocked - WAIT. It doesn't show on status bars (and least on mine) the lower energy resist but its there. As long as you wait for the words to clear - you'll be fine. There have been times when I opened the door without getting shocked once. Other times, I get shocked three times in a row and have to restart right away. I do nothing different - it is just random.

Now maybe you spreadsheet lovers could use those things to write down the patterns of the switches and have a guide like the puzzle board in the abyss; maybe the patterns repeat often enough you could find each possibility. Same with the blue lines, maybe the pattern repeats often enough where a chart can be made saying (for ex. ) if you pass on square one on line one - pass on square 5 on line 2. I have no idea how to do spreadsheets - or I could try myself.

The blue lines are the same - GO SLOW and heal. It is best to go it alone, the more people - the more spawn. It is also better to drag away the blobs far away (I move the to the beginning of the hallway that leads to the spawn.) It seems the more you kill the more they spawn. (sometimes it seems kill one 2 spawn) It is hard to see the squares and where to safely cross when the blobs are fighting. Like the above said, mark the tile with something, I use ham and cheese - easier for me to see. Going slow and dragging away may take just a bit longer but but it saves a lot of aggravation and death.

I've done the switches and lines a few times (ok a few times a day ) and I think they are just random to keep us on our toes and guessing.

 

[Uriah Heep]

Sounds simplerthan what I do lol. I always dual client, and let the stealther char get killed. Then ghost across the blue lines, writing down which tile lets me pass. Run thru, back out to other char, rez, get coils from him, and stealth back thru alive now that I know the path.

And Spock, yes, sometimes content is just Russian Roulette...this aint the first time

 

[OREOGL]

Welp. Thanks for trying to be helpful guys, but it looks like literally no one has ever bothered to figure out how this puzzle actually works. Everyone just pulls random levers until it pops.

@Mesanna @Kyronix @Bleak

How about some dev spoilers?

If you're referring to the lever sequence, there's a little randomization to it so you can't just give out a set of numbers and have it work. And the number you need to pull in sequence will change.

I've had to pull as little as 5 and as many as all 10.

However, there are some with strings of patterns.

Say 10, 3, 5, 7 9 4 would work one time, the another it's 10, 3, 5, 8, 9, 1.

I have found that if they change after a few numbers, it'll follow another string.

So if it's 10, 3, 5, 7 ,9, 4 in one and 4, 6, 8, 3, 1 in another, a string could be 10, 3, 5, 4, 6, 8.

There could just be more sequences they added, but I haven't done enough to get them all. And sometimes even the other sequences don't help.

In test center they would rotate back to the exact same sequence after a few rotations but it seems that got tweaked.

 

[OREOGL]

Also, I found (at least on Great Lakes), the most common starting point is on lever 10, all the way to the right.

 

[vasagi]

What I do, rather successfully I think is this : have some bandaids with you, and start at what ever end you want. Pull the first lever.. If you get zapped, heal yourself and put a bandaid down in front of that lever so you know you have tried and it is incorrect. I generally do every other lever all the way to the end, marking the wrong ones with the bandaid. Once I get to the end of the row, I step back and see which ones have I havent tried and then start working with those, again marking the incorrect with the bandaid. If you fail to figure out the puzzle, you will get a message that says the levers have reset or something like that. Stop, heal up, pick up your bandaids (because now its a new puzzle) and start all over. I have been able to do the puzzle several times on the first shot, most of the time it takes me a couple to get it right, and i think i have had a few that were actually 3 or 4 times (really bad luck on those!)
It is a bit of a guessing game, but mark your wrong choices so you are not going back and repulling them.
I have been insta killed only 2x and we do the city monsters almost on a daily basis.

 

[Spock's Beard]

If you're referring to the lever sequence, there's a little randomization to it so you can't just give out a set of numbers and have it work. And the number you need to pull in sequence will change.

I've had to pull as little as 5 and as many as all 10.

However, there are some with strings of patterns.

Say 10, 3, 5, 7 9 4 would work one time, the another it's 10, 3, 5, 8, 9, 1.

I have found that if they change after a few numbers, it'll follow another string.

So if it's 10, 3, 5, 7 ,9, 4 in one and 4, 6, 8, 3, 1 in another, a string could be 10, 3, 5, 4, 6, 8.

There could just be more sequences they added, but I haven't done enough to get them all. And sometimes even the other sequences don't help.

In test center they would rotate back to the exact same sequence after a few rotations but it seems that got tweaked.

Thank you for the detailed answer. I think that's as good as it's going to get.

Unfortunately it doesn't seem like this puzzle offers enough feedback or interactivity to be considered much of a puzzle at all. I'll just let her keep pulling levers at random and blowing up. From what it sounds like our success rate isn't much different from that of people who have a system.

 

[Basara]

Thanks for the in-depth explanation, that really helps. As for the person casting that I mentioned, I did not recognize the spell words, but they were not casting anything that was a summons.

Wall of stone, perhaps, targeting the spot? It lasts a couple of seconds or so, and as a solid object might only succeed where the passage is. Not tested it, though.

 

[Kojak]

you don't have to wait for the words to disappear - you have to wait 11 seconds - same delay as using a skill like hiding

 

[OREOGL]

Thank you for the detailed answer. I think that's as good as it's going to get.

Unfortunately it doesn't seem like this puzzle offers enough feedback or interactivity to be considered much of a puzzle at all. I'll just let her keep pulling levers at random and blowing up. From what it sounds like our success rate isn't much different from that of people who have a system.

The system helps but is no guarantee.

I've done it in the first try and took as many as 6

 

[James [W^H]]

The system helps but is no guarantee.

I've done it in the first try and took as many as 6

I tried it for the first time last night and succeeded on the forth try. I don't have a clue how I did it and could not find a pattern.

 

[OREOGL]

I tried it for the first time last night and succeeded on the forth try. I don't have a clue how I did it and could not find a pattern.

There's no specific pattern, only certain strings that are patterns.

Generally I can get it on the first or second try now.

But I always start with 10.

Sometimes it starts with 4.

Then I always try 3, 5 etc

 

[CovenantX]

hrmm, maybe I just got it by accident.. lol I usually just hit all the levers and remember which ones don't "shock" you, then hit them from right to left skipping the ones that shock... worked everytime I've done it, then again I've only done that puzzle ~4 times or so.

 

[Basara]

hrmm, maybe I just got it by accident.. lol I usually just hit all the levers and remember which ones don't "shock" you, then hit them from right to left skipping the ones that shock... worked everytime I've done it, then again I've only done that puzzle ~4 times or so.

I've never hop-scotched around, either, after first couple. Simple right to left, and if I hit a trapped one, I write it down, and skip the next one to the left of it too (as there seems to be patterns of two bad ones in a row, more often than not). If I hit the end without a reset or opening it, I go back to the skipped ones right to left. There's never appeared to be an "order" or "sequence" - just having the right ones all tripped.