Shamash Signal 25/10 new threat

[metatheurgist]

You can, of course, be critical of anything they do, because "Frontier bad"; but as I understand it, those audio puzzles with hidden images have been very popular and somewhat highly praised in the past, and I have read the occasional "bring back those hidden message thingies". Damned if they do, damned if they don't. And for the record, I was very giddy to find this message, because I knew those puzzles only from fairytales from "way back when". I've been playing for four years now, and this is the first reoccurance of an audio image puzzle.

And a good one too, because, as @Jmanis pointed out, there hasn't been revealed anything in this hidden message; you don't miss out if you don't find it, and if you do, all that happened so far is that the audio logs get even creepier.

I don't doubt their popularity, it's just rubbish to have external real-world knowledge to solve an in-game puzzle. Just have one of the engineers say "Hey, I dabble in sound analysis, if you find anything funny bring it to me." Engineer gives you the message, don't even need to go to the trouble of encoding weird pics in audio. Or even have a ship module that will show you the pic - even better you can now create a whole line of "investigator" missions with the tools and an entirely new career. Find a weird noise in the black? Maybe this module will lead you to cool things. So much better use of time than this.

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

I don't doubt their popularity, it's just rubbish to have external real-world knowledge to solve an in-game puzzle. Just have one of the engineers say "Hey, I dabble in sound analysis, if you find anything funny bring it to me." Engineer gives you the message, don't even need to go to the trouble of encoding weird pics in audio. Or even have a ship module that will show you the pic - even better you can now create a whole line of "investigator" missions with the tools and an entirely new career. Find a weird noise in the black? Maybe this module will lead you to cool things. So much better use of time than this.

I'd argue you have to have external knowledge for any engaging puzzle that doesn't treat you like you're a moron, otherwise they might as well not bother. I felt it was a tremendous joy when I ran those audio logs through a spectograph and first thought "okay, nothing here to see", only to suddenly see this message creep up when I zoomed further in. Yes, I had to know about this hidden image thingie. Yes, I had to know about spectograms. Yes, I had to have an audio tool and know how to use it. So what. Recording the audio logs, documenting the text logs, and playing around with various ways with the audio files to look for stuff had me engaged for the evening. That's the ultimate goal: Be engaged, use your capabilities and have fun. And people obviously do have fun with this stuff. You have to know about ciphers and how to solve them, and also employ the help of external knowledge and tools to solve them - should the game hand you the solution to cipher puzzles on a platter, too?

An engineer or a module that goes "beep bop boop - there's your hidden message"? That's lame beyond anything I can imagine.

 

[Ned Flandalorian]

You can, of course, be critical of anything they do, because "Frontier bad"; but as I understand it, those audio puzzles with hidden images have been very popular and somewhat highly praised in the past, and I have read the occasional "bring back those hidden message thingies". Damned if they do, damned if they don't. And for the record, I was very giddy to find this message, because I knew those puzzles only from fairytales from "way back when". I've been playing for four years now, and this is the first reoccurance of an audio image puzzle.

It's not really a puzzle though... just an easter egg, and there's already a few installations around that have something similar in their signals (not related to this event, they've been there for quite a while).

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

It's not really a puzzle though... just an easter egg, and there's already a few installations around that have something similar in their signals (not related to this event, they've been there for quite a while).

... which makes the artificial "outrage" even more silly. I said it above, so did Jmanis: It's just fluff. An easter egg. It's fun. And creepy.

 

[Banana's_Are_Good_For_You]

It's probably the humans again... it's usually the humans... mostly.

It may also be fair to assume that these guys (grey swans) have always been there, hiding in plain sight because they just look like any other human, until you got the message which kinda identified them....

Maybe, obviously... just part of a theory which may well be way off..

 

[Kira Goto]

I guess the thing is that, regardless of how easy it hard it is to do, and acknowledging that this is still playing out... it's never been necessary for anything. Every occurrence is at best just an easter egg, at worst just a vague hint that isn't required to do anything.

On this occasion, "kill them for me" just looks like some creepy overtones... but it's not solving or unlocking anything for anyone right now, so it's just flavour?

I didn’t have any issue with it, to be perfectly clear. I just made a neutral comment about how if such messages are hidden, people from Canonn(or in their server) are usually quick to find it and get it relayed to the outside world, for those of us who might not be in the habit of thinking of this kinda thing. So it’s not something to really get upset about in my opinion.

well one of the logs said something about "having around 20 minutes"... so I think we're safe

We’re from the Pilot’s Federation anyway. Apparently, that gives us special immunity to a lot of otherwise deathly things. Or some of them, anyway. The voices I’m hearing sure are not as a result of the signal, if it was in any of those beacons I scanned.

Totally getting that very strong impression this stuff’s going deeper than your average Elite murder mystery. Which is still a weird statement to make.

 

[aclout]

Would love to participate, but the snakes are horrible at the moment.

 

[BDelacroix]

It is exactly what people have been making the link to. Generation ship Thetis is just 15 ly away from Shams… why is this name so difficult to remember? Anyway, that exact distance is mentioned in one of its logs for where the killer signal got onboard the ship…

I have a distinct feeling this is going to go a little deeper than your usual end-of-year murder mystery. Which, looking at it, it something of an unusual statement to make.

Actually I thought it was going to be like the subject 0 (or whatever her name was) hunt. Just listen to some logs and that be it. Will be interesting if it goes somewhere.

 

[Kira Goto]

Actually I thought it was going to be like the subject 0 (or whatever her name was) hunt. Just listen to some logs and that be it. Will be interesting if it goes somewhere.

The official announcement post sure makes it sound like this is going to span across a few days. The way this has played out also feels a lot like setup.

And you’re probably thinking of ‘Subject D-2’, or as her actual name goes, Seo Jin-ae. (Most just refer to her as Seo… for obvious reasons.) Subject Zero, or at least the one I’m familiar with, would be the lovely and definitely quite crazy Jack from Mass Effect.

 

[metatheurgist]

I'd argue you have to have external knowledge for any engaging puzzle that doesn't treat you like you're a moron, otherwise they might as well not bother. I felt it was a tremendous joy when I ran those audio logs through a spectograph and first thought "okay, nothing here to see", only to suddenly see this message creep up when I zoomed further in. Yes, I had to know about this hidden image thingie. Yes, I had to know about spectograms. Yes, I had to have an audio tool and know how to use it. So what. Recording the audio logs, documenting the text logs, and playing around with various ways with the audio files to look for stuff had me engaged for the evening. That's the ultimate goal: Be engaged, use your capabilities and have fun. And people obviously do have fun with this stuff. You have to know about ciphers and how to solve them, and also employ the help of external knowledge and tools to solve them - should the game hand you the solution to cipher puzzles on a platter, too?

An engineer or a module that goes "beep bop boop - there's your hidden message"? That's lame beyond anything I can imagine.

You spent time engaged in not playing the game. That's lame. ED players should be doing that in the game. Some of that depth the game is missing.

What's the difference between you spending all that time doing that crap as opposed to the game just showing the pic? That's exactly the same end result, no one is handing you the solution.

Sure you need some external knowledge to solve puzzles. Math, problematic for some but understandable. Real world history, lame but at least that's just a google search away. Any historical puzzle should be based on ED history obtainable in the game Codex or from in-game beacons anyway. Knowing image files can be imbedded in audio is one obscure piece of knowledge for any gamer. Knowing there are free audio programs to see that? Just as bad. Extracting the game sound to load into said program is something no one participating in a in-game puzzle should know how to do. That's coming from someone that's had Wavosaur and Audacity installed for probably longer than ED's been running.

It's rubbish. They can do better. People should be playing the game, they don't need more reasons to not play it. They already do that pretty well with their game design.

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

What's the difference between you spending all that time doing that crap as opposed to the game just showing the pic?

I had fun and used my brain . But yeah, sure. It's all bad. Heaven forbit people enjoy this stuff.

 

[Factabulous]

How would they even 'show the pic' based on the functionality that is in the game? All that they could do is add the msg onto the end of one of the inbox messages. As it is it is an (optional) extra puzzle for those who want it - the story works fine without ever going near a spectrogram.

 

[aRJay]

The question is... now that we've heard the audio... will we be affected... and when?

Yes you were.

Yesterday.

 

[Kryxix]

And now we know: Commander Mackenzie Coates coordinating Fleet Exercise Grey Swan.

"experimental mind-affecting technology"
Gan Romero will be back?

 

[Hicky]

How would they even 'show the pic' based on the functionality that is in the game? All that they could do is add the msg onto the end of one of the inbox messages. As it is it is an (optional) extra puzzle for those who want it - the story works fine without ever going near a spectrogram.

Maybe in GalNet as a Breaking News story?

 

[Taledo]

I, for one, welcome our new mind controlling overlords.

 

[aRJay]

I, for one, welcome our new mind controlling overlords.

Admit it the voices in your head told you to post that?

 

[Taimaru]

I've had voices in my head several times today telling me to grab a coffee.

 

[Leadfoot]

it might be connected to this, found in message 3:

Spoiler

Just one damn second. Are you telling me and everyone else here that this thing was always in message number three, and no one, not one person checked any of this stuff in audacity?

And we're just seeing it now? With proper punctuation?

I am just very perplexed that no one thought to look at that.

 

[Leadfoot]

This is very reminiscent of what happened on one of the generation ships.

Could be. Is the guy from the "Saw" franchise still running loose somewhere?