Do you think an in game audio spectrograph should be included in 2.4?

[Leadfoot]

Hmmm. A spectrograph. Something for the engineer/science officer console in multicrew perhaps?

I suppose this would be ok as long as we can refer to him as Mr. Spock (or Mr. Spocksoddsocks, since we have one on the forums already )

 

[Riverside]

Why can't we have, you know, normal puzzles instead of all this spectrograph\number stations\cryptography things?

We do have normal puzzles. We have these too.

 

[Soopyyy]

At the very least, the spectrographs should be released in the game for people to look at in the game. Once they are discovered externally. You could at least explain that as the discovery had been made by a small group who released the data.

 

[Zeeman]

No offence, if you aren't the kind of person to think of trying an online spectogram then I doubt your going to decipher the image anyway. That applies to me too and I'm perfectly happy for Frontier to include this (fairly trivial) stuff for player groups to work together on. If you want something that doesn't require this kind of creativity and team-work then your looking for a more single player scripted experience and I'd argue with a modern online game what's the problem with having both?

It's just stuff that's easy to include that makes the game more interesting. The stuff that's had real development time on (like the alien structure and UA puzzles) didn't require anything outside of the game world to access.

I've seen some people comparing the stuff going on in ED to the 'ready player one' type game-world where there is larger mysteries being unlocked by those willing to put in the extra effort. I think that's an interesting concept, if you aren't the type of person that wants to investigate this stuff by thinking out of the box then it's unlikely that you would be the first person to follow some perfectly well sign posted theme park type stuff anyway, so what's the problem if it's opened up for you by the kind of players that do?

Actually, I am in the AV industry, I have many such tools, but would rather not have to install work related stuff to my gaming PC, and then alt+tab every 30 seconds. I'd prefer to do it in the game, because, VR, muh immershon and stuff.

Z...

 

[Dommarraa]

People seem to be under some delusion that the data hidden in the spectrographs and Morse are hiding something useful. You might be wrong.

In all the interesting stuff that has been found in them, what actual information has been discovered that leads the plot on, or helps you discover any game play? Look at it, its absolutely nothing?

Ua transmitting their current location: cool but so what

Ua transmitting a drawing of your ship: cool but so what

Up transmitting it's location to a place in a locked region: cool but so what

The mysterious signals needing external tools are nothing but Easter eggs for those who like doing that stuff.
Chill your beans.

 

[Marc_Hicks]

I think any tool that is required to solve something in the game... Should also be in the game.

Z...

That is why I have been pushing for a science module for ages.

 

[Leo Sagan]

There's no point creating an in-game tool that only a few people are going to use.

You mean like multicrew and cqc ? ;-)
*ducking*

 

[Marc_Hicks]

You mean like multicrew and cqc ? ;-)
*ducking*

Actually, I'd say that every explorer in the game would use such a tool, if it were made available in-game....and if it did more than just solve the alien related stuff.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

I would have thought the whole point of hiding things in the sound files was as a sort of easter-egg reward for people thinking outside the box. Wasn't that part of the fun?

Once you include the tool in the game it merely becomes a tedious game mechanic. Everything has to be scanned with the spectrogram to see if it does anything. It's just another scanner. It's basically saying, yep that's it now, no point trying anything new.

How many players can figure out what to do with the pictures anyway? You still have to decipher the image, if it's all going to be decipher by default might as well just skip that stage and go straight to the image? save pointless tedious clicking on in-game tools to decode it?

Personally I don't see the big issue with the game having some easter-egg type content that requires a bit of out of the box thinking. Currently the game isn't asking all of us to use Spectrograms if we don't want to, but you currently have to go that extra mile if you want to open up the path. Using an external free tool to investigate very obscure content in a game seems fine to me, we're quite happy to use other tools like joypads, VR head-sets and voice attack.

easter eggs, cool, bring em on. "out of the box thinking" ditto

however out of game tools for any game is a massive own goal, esp one whos entire DNA is based on immersion (hence why no 3rd person view for gameplay)

FD made a big song and dance about how elite is about purely from the eyes of your commander...... therefore, from the games point of view there is NO "out of game". imo

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Think of it like this. They could easily omit the players solving the riddles, and have npcs do it instead. Nobody would complain about that,.

whilst i generally do not agree with doing stuff out of game for stuff in game... this is a fair point, i never thought of it like that... so what we have IS better than nothing, which is what you are getting at i think

but i just think having the easter eggs in game is better still. its not a massive biggie but i still agree with OP

 

[MarkAusten]

Why can't we have, you know, normal puzzles instead of all this spectrograph\number stations\cryptography things?

Because Thargoids are aliens and therefore not human normal. These audio signals are the way that Thargoids talk to each other. It would be way too bizarre to expect the Thargoids to converse with each other in English.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

I

Frontier should add in some missions to follow after major events, right from the beginning of the release. Something of a Pilots Federation journal/codex that can be followed. At least then ALL commanders could experience the story as we have already.

Could even tie different rewards to it to add that little bit extra that, come on let's be honest the "common gamer" (not derogatory in any way just a demographic observation) does often need.

i think this is a very fair compromise. Let the most motivated get there and experience stuff 1st, and get a mention in galnet or what ever, but then rather than the story just moving on open up for everyone else to figure out, albeit with in game pointers.

my suggestion in the past has been a series of "previously on elite dangerous" in the single player missions, added to over time and done from the view of another character in a bar telling a story. once completing said story perhaps him even say...

look i have put X item in Y base or on the surface and XXX YYY co-ordinates. i wont use it now so feel free to have it.

That way, those new, or coming back to the game get to experiences the stuff which has been and gone, with the mission list increasing over time.

but if it could be crafted into the game properly, that would be the best of all worlds.

 

[CapuchinSeven]

Here's a scenario...

In game we have equipment used to analyse planets by recording harmonic resonances. By playing these back through our analytical device we get given a type of surface map..... This equipment is widely used and known about by all.

Later on a strange message is received with some scrambled audio contained. It's similar to recordings made back in my exploring days whilst analyzing rocky moons, I wonder what would happen if I feed it into my Planet Scanner 3000+...

Lo and behold and strange image has been found.

Wouldn't that be satisfying?

(Please ignore my pseudo science, but you get the idea.)

Scanning in general sucks in ED, it's boring and lacks any interaction from the player.
It could go beyond spectrographs and use things like spectral analysis of planets as well.

There is SO​ much gameplay to be gained just by looking at scanners and sensors.

this happens because this whole story is not to give us customers some additional gameplay but to give journalists, streamers and Frontier`s marketing department something to write about

it`s been like that since launch
it`s not content, its advertising

This is a cynical way of looking at it, but it's hard to not see your point.

 

[Ian Skippy]

You know, I am far more conflicted than when I wrote the OP... And it was kind of rhetorical, in a way.

The same as you said above, I actually prefer that the original imaging was found by the community in an unorthodox way. I also realise, that a spectrograph the reveals images would become instantly tired and adds little game play.

So, what was the original point?

I guess, I wish that there were more breadcrumb led discoveries in game, other than those that were picked apart by the community. We have tip offs, they don't lead far. They don't really need to be hugely story based either or contextual to current events in the game.

Basically, a dozen or so 'trails' that can be picked up at various locations at different times, that lead you around for a few days and most importantly don't require the forum use or out of game methods to take part.

If you try to put yourself in the mind of a non-forum user, after 200-300 hours of learning and building your skills finding one of this 'story' trails would good to break monotony but would also come around the point some people are feeling a bit lost with what they are doing. It's also a good opportunity to get across some of the lore in the game....



As regular forum users, this may not seem like a important thing, but TBH we burn new things in days, new discoveries are common knowledge in hours.


(Before anybody says 'Elite is not about being the hero of galaxy.'; these 'stories' don't have to be grand, just interesting and not necessarily a tale about yourself. Instead uncovering the past.)

I agree, but my hope is at further improvements of chained missions, and new mission start triggers. That would imho be the best way to offer in-game stories for all cmdrs.

 

[ZeeWolf]

easter eggs, cool, bring em on. "out of the box thinking" ditto

however out of game tools for any game is a massive own goal, esp one whos entire DNA is based on immersion (hence why no 3rd person view for gameplay)

FD made a big song and dance about how elite is about purely from the eyes of your commander...... therefore, from the games point of view there is NO "out of game". imo

If the game was constantly asking you to leave the interface to use a third party tool I'd agree. What we're talking about here was a very obscure clue put in for the community to solve. It isn't a critical path of your day to day game-play, it's essentially a little contest with a fun bit of extra investigation, going outside of the game with a third party tool as readily available as the web-browser you use to read the forums. The people decoding those messages aren't filling up the Cannon research thread with "OMG MY POOR IMMERSIONS" type messages - maybe because they are more immersed than ever, I think insisting that even the most obscure path simply must be restrained to the software is somewhat limited thinking. If you aren't into using third party tools or simply joining in with the community investigation then you probably aren't going to be the first to decode this stuff and find where it leaves - even if everything is put into the game and made nice and easy for you, it will just be less challenging and less interesting for the tiniest minority.

Has anyone in this thread even deciphered the spectrograph images? If not, what is the point of having Frontier spend developer time on a very obscure piece of functionality for something you wouldn't be able to solve anyway? Wouldn't it be better for them to develop in game story content you can actually routinely come across without the need to decipher obscure images? Why not simply remove the whole need for someone to decode the images and offer them unencoded as a single image? Even though the community as a whole are quite good at deciphering them, no that's not fair is it? Not everyone reads the forums and they aren't in the game and that doesn't give everyone a fair chance of being the first to discover the Thargoids. So why not have an easy route to be the first to discover the Thargoids? Have everyone find UAs with no effort and the messages appear unencoded. Have an NPC you can meet with a script and you click on him and he says "well done you are the first to discover the Thargoids" and then tells you how he feels with emotions and stuff? Then everyone can be the first to discover the Thargoids and watch a cut-scene and get an achievement.

It's the usual case of people getting upset about a whole load of nothing. As others have pointed, the spectrograph stuff was only a clue to game-play that already featured standard "blue key opens blue door" type game-play, the vast majority of players heading over to the Thargoid site with various objects haven't loaded up a Spectrograph to get there.

 

[CapuchinSeven]

If the game was constantly asking you to leave the interface to use a third party tool I'd agree.

It does, for other parts of the game. The spectrograph is just another thing on the list that you need to leave game for (which actually use the ED API and database so COULD be in the game).
And before you or anyone else replies that this isn't the case, FD have already acknowledged this which is why season 3 brings QOL updates.

 

[babelfisch]

Are you having a bad day? You seem...irked.

Have a virtual hug: {{hug}}

Looks like someone messed with his avatar again. Back in his days, they solved riddles without spectograms!

 

[Ouberos]

I would counter that by saying that the third party apps exist because the game is constantly asking you for information you dont have.

As the OP has suggested there are things hidden in the sounds in game. Therefore it would be nice if we could discover that in game. There is a tool to get me from Sol to Achenar in game, a tool for me to find out where a ship has jumped to, a tool to discover planets I can't see in system, so why not a tool to get me the clues for the Alien story?

The central part of your argument seems to be that the Cannon are enjoying themselves and we don't qualify for the same level of enjoyment. Would you disagree with that?

 

[Stryka Choon]

I would counter that by saying that the third party apps exist because the game is constantly asking you for information you dont have.

As the OP has suggested there are things hidden in the sounds in game. Therefore it would be nice if we could discover that in game. There is a tool to get me from Sol to Achenar in game, a tool for me to find out where a ship has jumped to, a tool to discover planets I can't see in system, so why not a tool to get me the clues for the Alien story?

The central part of your argument seems to be that the Cannon are enjoying themselves and we don't qualify for the same level of enjoyment. Would you disagree with that?

Just as in other parts of life, this game gives different opportunities to those with different talents, intellect, and ingenuity. The part of the Thargoid puzzle that required audio analysis to solve is a very small part of the whole, and is being studied by a few people for whom this kind of thing is interesting. They share their results here (and probably on Discord or Reddit) for all to use, or not, as they see fit. Meanwhile, lots and lots of players are taking absolutely no notice of all this simply because they aren't interested in the kind of detective work involved. Nothing's stopped or changed in the rest of the game for them; this is an addition which they're quite content for others to follow.

It's likely that out of this investigation will come developments which will interest other player communities; FD have left very strong hints that there will be a war. for instance. At that point I will take my ship to some other part of the galaxy and let those interested in combat get on with it - it's not for me. I won't resent that there's a part of the game that I don't take part in. I'm very happy that the combateers will get a new enemy to fight, and one which is likely to respond far differently to the current NPCs or other players. No doubt FD will bring in aspects of this scenario which will involve other communities within the game; for instance, it may be that influencing the BGS will affect the reaction by the powers and superpowers in the areas of the Bubble that first encounter alien actions.

I reiterate that I'd love it if our cockpits had the ability to access an ingame browser which would enable us to use third-party tools without leaving our primary screen, but it's not a deal-breaker. I love it that some people are prepared to spend huge amounts of time providing these tools which we can use as much or as little as we want. I don't care that they're not written by FD.

 

[Ouberos]

I think you are misjudging the reasons most players are ignoring the story. It isn't because they don't want to be involved, its because the crowd sourced clues are buried in a ridiculously long thread and the in game clues have no indication how to solve then. It took the games master saying "have you listened to them?" Before we went down this route.

What myself and others are saying is that if the developer s are taking the time to develop these fantastic mysteries, why not throw us a bone and give us a tool?