Episode 4 Pointless Elevator Puzzle

[JMDude]

I am so ♥♥♥♥ing done with this impossible puzzle.

So you're in the aquarium place and the scientist lady goes off into the elevator without you. Now you're expected to figure out this puzzle by deciphering the code according to a plaque listing off eras of the history of Earth. This would be impossible enough since I'm pretty sure I need a pen and paper to BEGIN memorizing this or understanding it, but then they throw this bull♥♥♥♥ in with resetting the elevator panel on top of it, which is impossible.

Basically, with the panel it expects you to switch a knob to different settings in the right order. Input, then hold for three seconds, then reset, then enter the old code. But every time I TOUCH the input setting, the old man steps away from the panel and gives up!

I've tried holding the left-click button, and everything else, but he always just leaves! Is this is a bug, or is this frustrating puzzle just a victim of stupid design?

I'm DONE, I don't CARE about solving it fairly. I'd consult a walkthrough right now, except they don't EXIST yet.

[JMDude]

Okay, so I figured out the puzzle.

As it turned out, the puzzle buttons are just VERY poorly designed.

In the panel section of the puzzle, the knob you turn has three notches...it also has three action buttons, seemingly representing the notches.

Not so.

As it turns out, only the right-most two action buttons turn the knob. You can press them more than once for left or right, and the puzzle becomes straightforward. The Left-most button quits the puzzle.

So of course, I, and likely a lot of people, got massively confused and quit the game several times in frustration thinking a gameplay glitch on the level of the "House of Glass" from Back to the Future had been invoked.

Three notches...three buttons... Am I just stupid, or is this legitimately BAD design? Would it have KILLED them to make the rotating buttons look like a curving arrow instead of the standard flat-palm hand? That would have EASILY saved this puzzle. Instead, I took from ten in the morning till two-thirty in the after-♥♥♥♥ing-noon to brute-force their bull♥♥♥♥.

Still like the game, mostly, but Jesus Hell, did you guys PLAYTEST this ♥♥♥♥?

[RSHabroptilus]

If it makes you feel any better, I understood it immediately and got it on my first try--and without having to refer to the provided time scale.

[PanStrife]

I wanted to be snippy and say I did it instantly - but then I realised you weren't using a controller. I know we don't all have that choice but I heavily recommend it if you can. (Sad that we have to use a gamepad on a pc these days)

[Redboy]

Calm down and take deep breath. Think and look only realise how easy :)