I think puzzles like in Toomraider would be more appropriate. Maybe somebody finds something unusual somewhere, and then somebody else finds something else, which is related to the first item. Then you know that you need other items or activities to complete the puzzle, so everybody can go and look for them or participate in the activities. The puzzles we've had so far have been too complicated for the average guy, who can only sit back and wait to see what the selected few can do.
Why Elite's riddles and story do not work for me
- Thread starter KiDra
- Start date
We still have tip-off missions, though. The main puzzle-line hasn't obsoleted them. I think they will continue to be a very accessible way of accessing some of the mysteries in game, but should not be used for major 'reveals' of plot, because it would rush the plot: We would solve each step in an hour, and the plot would be over in a week.
The issue with an overly simple puzzle that does not need so much as a pen and paper to solve is that it would be trivially easy and the mystery solved within about an hour of being discovered. I find that idea deeply disappointing.
Personally, I like the fiendish difficulty of some elements. I've educated myself a remarkable amount in reading people's solutions. And yet some facets are easy, and can be solved by anyone.
Honestly, is a simple substitution cipher asking too much of a player?
if a million people are playing the game, then if 50% can solve the greatest mysteries in the game, they very quickly stop being any kind of mystery, though.
I agree with all of this post. Every single puzzle I've come across has been well beyond me. Not that I would want to take the existing puzzles away from anyone. I find it much fun to follow the u.a. thread. I thought the rift was more my thing. Fly out and find a needle in a needle stack. But I've even took a brake from that as there's not going to be anything there to "find". Untill galnet tells me there is.
And even then.....it will be a puzzle wrapped in a conundrum shrouded by a mystery.
Keep it comeing.....F.D.
o7
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Not in itself no, but you have to realise that this IS the Elite Dangerous story, it should be of and for everyone, not just those who enjoy codes and ciphers as gameplay. I'm not even suggesting that the codes and ciphers be removed to be honest but there needs to be more variety, different branches and avenues as important as Cannon's endeavours. Having such a major and intriguing story as the alien one semi gated to a small percentage of the player base is neither fair or healthy.
...and if you didn't read the Canonn thread you'd have no idea that the ancient ruins exist and it would still be a mystery to you ! I've not seen anything in game that would have made me go and check out Synuefe xr-h d11-102 1 B
Sad to see all those thread complaining about the game
Not sure this is a bad thing. I mean, I complain ALL THE TIME and E D is still the only game I play. Actually, it's almost like E D bashing is part of the experience
My issue is not that the puzzles are too difficult, it is the use of outside tools and the missing cargo storage that ruins it for me.
When I have to record audio with external tools or spend evenings in a cad-program to draw a map to solve a riddle, then I won't do it cause my free time is more valuable than solving puzzles whose design I find questionable.
Frontier could give explorers a science computer station ingame with some mechanics that allow hard to crack puzzles, but all ingame and properly designed to fit in. In passing they could raise the bar for exploration to levels that have been asked for ever since launch.
Caesar ciphers should not be used as they are so weak and easy to crack that it is not plausible to find them in the year 3000+. The big problem is consistency.
No matter what type of riddle will be used the solution will be postet online for all to read up. Difficulty of riddles is a very unsafe way to predict how fast a story moves on.
When I am at ancient/alien ruins and there does not much happen except for a relic emerging from the ground, creepy sounds playing and triffles laying around to be picked up with no imminent meaning or use, then that disappoints me.
When I have to record audio with external tools or spend evenings in a cad-program to draw a map to solve a riddle, then I won't do it cause my free time is more valuable than solving puzzles whose design I find questionable.
Frontier could give explorers a science computer station ingame with some mechanics that allow hard to crack puzzles, but all ingame and properly designed to fit in. In passing they could raise the bar for exploration to levels that have been asked for ever since launch.
Caesar ciphers should not be used as they are so weak and easy to crack that it is not plausible to find them in the year 3000+. The big problem is consistency.
No matter what type of riddle will be used the solution will be postet online for all to read up. Difficulty of riddles is a very unsafe way to predict how fast a story moves on.
When I am at ancient/alien ruins and there does not much happen except for a relic emerging from the ground, creepy sounds playing and triffles laying around to be picked up with no imminent meaning or use, then that disappoints me.
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I enjoy watching it all, but you pretty much need to be a codebreaker to stand a chance. Would be more fun if they could come up with little quests and riddles that could be followed by lone commanders, where it's just a little adventure for yourself, maybe with a nice prize at the end like a rare module or engineer mod. They could stick a dozen or so of these quests in the game, and make it so everyone has a chance of getting the quest, but the locations and NPCs involved could change so we each get a unique experience.
Oh please mate, show some intuition !
FD designed a full scale 400 billion stars galaxy and put you right in the middle of it, hiding some non-interactive content on a few barren moons for you to stumble upon. And you actually have the nerves to ask for a compass ?!
Or (even worse) an actually useful scanning gaming mechanic !?
Can't believe such self-entitlement, you Sir should be ashamed
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And to be unemployed, because most of the time, I learn about the last "breakthrough" while I'm sipping my tea browsing the forums after I get home from work.
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Leo Sagan said:
Can I just say on this.
It is not the "Canonn" as such.
There are a whole bunch of independents that colloborate and get involved, and it's often these people that are actually making the discoveries. Arguably more often that not it's a non-Canonn member finding something, because (IMHO) the number of non-Canonns getting involved generally outweigh the Canonn members.
I know it's easy just to use a blanket label of Canonn but it's just not the case, it's everyone and anyone with an interest.
I was involved right at the start at the formation of the Canonn player group, and the only reason it formed because there were just a bunch of like-minded people talking about aliens and such. And since it formed that way, through open discussion on the forums, one of the tenets was to keep it open, this is specifically why all Canonn discussion happens right here on the forum and not behind closed doors.
If folk want to join Canonn it's cool, if they don't it matters not, you're not missing out specifically because it's all right here on the forum.
It's not about Canonn or Frontier doing things "for Canonn" it's literally that there's a very large proportion of players that really enjoy the mystery and intrigue of it all and (although yes a player group) the general label for that has become The Canonn.
Some people like trying to figure out the puzzles, some people like to know how they've been solved, some people just like to theorize with crazy theories and talk about that, some people like just having something new to see in game and visit the discoveries for themselves, some people just love the intrigue and mystery of the story unfolding.
It's not really all about being the first person to solve a soduku puzzle, there are loads of facets to it.
I just wanted to add on what others said above that post, not comment what they say just add. At least it sounded clear to me after reading posts above mine.
Its flaw. There is never one full story that could be enjoyed in relatively short time. Now players solve couple puzzle and then next one is released months later. They should release full story at once the start, middle and the end that can be discovered at once. Currently we have tv series that has months between two episodes. Its not fun or engaging for player to try remember stuff that happened 12 months ago and when the story finally continues.
Also other problem is that the story makes 0 changes to the game. War, federation mass bombing planet says gal net, The planet mentioned in gal net article doesn't have any marks of any kind of attack and system population is same. Ruler of empire changed and nothing happened/hanged in the empire despite text on empire stations wall. The story need to have impact to the game and not be this stuff that is't connected to the game. Even power play is more connected to players and the game than the story of elite dangerous.
I was sitting in the station and was gonna write, but erased it as i see big pieces of debris from a few ships flying across the screen at the same time i can see 8 radarstations and 3 landing pads... All of them are spinning so they are clearly interested in whats around them. How many radars are needed inside one station? 400?
Not being funny but Galnet has been in the game since day 1, it's where CMDRs get "news" from and has had at least 3 articles about it.
Also a galaxy wide CG requiring items found only at the site has literally just finished. This was even in the newsletter, and being a CG is visible at EVERY station you visit and even has a SPECIAL ICON on the galaxy map!
I mean c'mon.
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Thanks for the clarification Bitstorm
Let me add that the "E D riddles" are indeed a very good thing and something I definitely don't want to see removed by FD.
I just want something else to be added (alien stuff for the masses, not only for a minority, even if I actually like this minority very much)
No sniping here but are you referring to the Ram Tah's CG debacle ?
They've gone way too far with these puzzles. We shouldn't need a degree in cryptology to be able to take part and enjoy the game.
It needs to be varied up a little. At the moment it feels like all this stuff pertaining to exciting content is just for David Brabens little nerd group. I'd wager the majority of players are simply not involved with this.
The problem is that if they put puzzles into the game that are simpler to solve, then that "little nerd group" (way to disparage people with higher-than-average intelligence, BTW!) will solve them first anyway. If they're going to have one-shot puzzles like this that lead to progression in the game's lore, then they necessarily *must* be hard to solve, and there's little point in implementing in-game tools to help solve them because they themselves will be one-shot things (and thus a waste of development resource).
There's a very definite place in the game for puzzles and intrigue as part of the mission system (e.g. encrypted communications with varying levels of difficulty, backed up with in-game tools to help decode them) but that's not what this is. This is simply a mechanism to gate progression of a background storyline that provides a bit of interest to a subset of the community. The alternative would be for Frontier to simply progress the story at their own rate through Galnet, and I'm sure that would elicit its own set of complaints.
Oh please mate, show some intuition !
FD designed a full scale 400 billion stars galaxy and put you right in the middle of it, hiding some non-interactive content on a few barren moons for you to stumble upon. And you actually have the nerves to ask for a compass ?!
Or (even worse) an actually useful scanning gaming mechanic !?
Can't believe such self-entitlement, you Sir should be ashamed
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And to be unemployed, because most of the time, I learn about the last "breakthrough" while I'm sipping my tea browsing the forums after I get home from work.
yeah, about that those 400 billion stars... its like 10 stars 6 different planets 4 types of craters 3 types of rock... 3 types of canyons... but hey after a year or so we gotten something new, 2 types geysers and
Ye, I would already struggle figuring out how to record from game and then convert audio into a format for use in a program I don't know about.