Board Thread:Troubleshooting/@comment-131.191.63.53-20150818004600/@comment-24668482-20150819135313

To be honest there is a reason I have put off creating the pages for those two puzzles here. Well, two completely different reasons with the same result - its hard to find a good way to talk about them and I am too easily distracted by things that are easier to talk about so you can just free write and edit later (no plan needed). (and there is is this one thing I really want to do and not having time to do that one things seems to have caused me to stop doing anything here, but thats another story)

For Treasure Box, it would be easy to write  - you just have to copy paste the gem match info and add a bit for new modes. But I am so annoyed by a few puzzle configurations I have found I just don't think I can be neutral when talking about it. I mean not that I am really that neutral at the best of times, but right now I think the vitriol would pour over. So I am waiting to see if I play more will I prove myself wrong and see strategies to win all puzzle configurations 100% of the time without tools. Right now it looks like chance comes too much into play without move extentions, and I get too angry at the idea that it is on purpose to earn money from players.

For Mosaic, its just that there doesn't seem to be a good way of describing how the pieces move or strategies. I'll have to figure out a good way of talking about the game first. I think it is the simplest of the 3 puzzles in the game but explaining how and why isn't easy. I probably need to make up some terminology and spend a bit of time in photoshop constructing images of the puzzle as its harder with words alone.

I am not going to say don't something as if it works for people, then great - use it. But I personally would not take screen grabs/photos of mosaic. I think it is a bit of a false economy in that you will lose too much time when refering back to them no matter how quick you are at pausing the puzzle. There is so little time for that puzzle that any amount of flaffing about with the device (or another device) is probably going to be the difference between running out of time or not. Using two separate devices seems awkward anyway (I'm not the most dexterious of people though). I'd use the ipad screen grab function and just have photos and the game open. double tap the home button to bring up open apps list and the game will automatically pause you can switch to photos (to view your screen grab). Might save a few valuable seconds. I dunno. I do screen grab each puzzle before it shuffles but only because I have grand plans of putting them somewhere here, I never refer to them when playing.

For me, the key is that you can take all the time in the world to look the image over before the pieces shuffle, and make a plan for each puzzle on a puzzle by puzzle basis. There could be a limit to how long you can look at the image, I haven't tested it, but it is a decent amount of time if there is one as I haven't reached it when playing. Examine not just the picture, but how the features are broken up into pieces.

I scan first and if possible, break the picture down into colour areas (e.g. tell myself that the carpet is purple, mostly bottom left side or the top right is sky but top left is buildings or bottom right is grass and bottom left is concrete) just basic colour/textures, nothing fancy.

I then try to pick out 2 distinct features of the image, hopefully on opposite sides of it. I look at where these distinct features are, and how many pieces contain a part of them. You have to pick something very distinctive, even if stuck just using a single very small feature as a result. There is no point in using a bench in a Train Station image or a statue in the Cafe image if there are two of them and you run the risk of confusing the pieces later (The horse shaped bushes in a Garden picture do work well though as their heads always face a distinct direction in the image, usually opposite each other, and they are usually in the middle which is helpful later).

I actually change what I use all the time, even if I have had success with something else in the past. If something catches my eye, then I know I can reconstruct it again so I use it. When I pick something I count where it is from the sides/top/a gap (depending on puzzle looks like I guess). A feature that needs more than one piece is best, but even a couple of single pieces that you are confident on positions of will make placing everything else easier. If it does take a couple of pieces to make the item you chose, you only have to memorise the position of one piece, and then construct the rest around it later.

It sounds like a lot, but it actually works out as only a very little memorising. You just need to know rough areas of obvious colours, have picked out one or two items to use as a starting point and the exact position of just one piece of those items you choose. I don't spend more than 10-15 seconds on it, during which I pick 'my piece' which I will then follow when board shuffles and immediately put back into right position when it comes to a standstill and puzzle starts. And that is where I will start - get everything around that piece into place. If I know there is a distinct colour in an other area I will randomly throw pieces that colour in that direction to deal with later (nothing worse than having one piece stuck on exact opposite side of picture when time running out). I say colour, but with some images it is more 'lighting' that I use (e.g. 'the sunny pieces are on top right/features in shadow are on top left').

Well, you see what I mean about it being hard to descibe using words. I am looking for a couple of images to use as an example instead.

The other key is to play the pictures? Sounds silly. But the more time you spend looking at them when just playing hidden object games, the more familiar you will get with them, and the easier you will find mosaic as you will just instinctively know where things are in relation to each other. Mosaic uses your open locations. When you unlock a new location, it can then be used by mosaic. So you won't get any surprises, just pictures you've seen before. If you cringe every time mosaic chooses a certain location (maybe because you also dislike playing that location), then play it 10 times in a row. As you struggle to find some annoying object, you will be taking the image in without realising it. Because when you know a particular item has a couple of tricky 'hiding' spots and you can't find it, you end up staring at those hiding spot areas and are commiting their details to memory without realising it. And it works both ways. I didn't like Alley, both as a hidden object location and as a mosaic location, but I forced myself to play it so much that now I still don't like it as hidden object location but I am able to solve it as mosaic location quicker than most. Looking at the cursed picture so much means I have a good sense of where everything is in relation to each other. And once you finially figure out that irritating balcony that is always in top left when Alley is used in Mosaic, it isn't that bad (that is one picture that lighting is key, actually).