Why Elite's riddles and story do not work for me

[Astirian]

Does anyone know how they got the keyword EXODUS for these new CG ciphers? I decided to see for myself if I could do some of this cryptography, even though it has been solved and some major plot stuff (apparently) happened while I slept. Got nowhere. Tried a number of online crypto tools: nothin'.

This thing was cracked wide open in like, 3.5 hours. During the evening, nice and comfortable GMT hours, right after work but before dinner time. (So that's the if-they-had-simple-puzzles-for-everyone-it-would-be-solved-in-an-hour argument eviscerated)

I'm done here.

Off to the pub!

 

[mugendo]

There is a another game "The secret world" that needs research and background study beyond the actual game itself to solve puzzles. The ED puzzles are interesting, but not essential to progress, or interesting to everyone, But I do like the fact that ED encourages people to educate themselves..I have learned so much about the galaxy through casual fact checking of in game places, to listening to the excellent voice attack profile of Orion and Verity.

 

[TigerTen]

Just another way for FD too screw with us... That how I went from playing +10 hours a week to -1 hour to soon 0 hours then delete it from computer altogether...

This is not a rant, just facts - look around you...

 

[Astirian]

Just another way for FD too screw with us... That how I went from playing +10 hours a week to -1 hour to soon 0 hours then delete it from computer altogether...

This is not a rant, just facts - look around you...

I think I'm asking too much of it right now. I'm giddy for a true sequel to FFE, or Elite 4 if you will. Which is a bit like getting annoyed that The Elder Scrolls Online isn't The Elder Scrolls VI.

There is a another game "The secret world" that needs research and background study beyond the actual game itself to solve puzzles. The ED puzzles are interesting, but not essential to progress, or interesting to everyone, But I do like the fact that ED encourages people to educate themselves..I have learned so much about the galaxy through casual fact checking of in game places, to listening to the excellent voice attack profile of Orion and Verity.

Yeah, I still think it's a great game, I've learned a lot about mythology while reading up on the Formidine thing, which has sparked a renewed interest for me there with the Classics. I've come up with crackpot theories whilst smoking my tinfoil pipe. I've learned about star types, and red shift etc... I've gleefully spotted many parallels between Elite Dangerous and the TV show Cosmos. I love that they've allowed player made factions.

It's just basically like what many others have said, I feel like I'm tangibly missing out on major (and very cool) things happening in the game and it makes me sad.

I'll make my dude in 2.3, enjoy the almighty biscuits out of FPS and atmospheres when/if they ultimately arrive; and in the end, continue to role-play an Imperial spy turned big game hunter. But that sadness I mentioned is a definitely a thing.

 

[CMDR_Mogriax]

I started playing with the release of the Guardians Update again after a pause of maybe one or two months. I headed to the alien ruins, the atmosphere was great, creepy, immersive and there were some shiny, unknown objects to be found. So I drove around looking for clues, collected all types of ancient artifacts and pondered about the place. Then I headed online to look for what users on the forums found out so far. That was when I got frustrated with Elite again.

In order to solve the riddles we had to record audio, look at sonographs, find the codes hidden and decipher them. Or we have to take high resolution screenshots and use CAD/Vector-graphics-software to solve the map riddle, but then again there is no way to just type in coordinates of even see system coordinates, except for the grid in ED (?). It neither helps that beacon messages are encoded in caesar ciphters, cause nobody would use such a weak cipher, but that at least that can be solved more or less ingame.

In other words, too many riddles cannot be solved ingame. I have to get out of the game and use third party tools to make progress if I want to solve them on my own.

Then I soon realised that all these shiny ancient relics I gathered have no real monetary value, compared to other endeavours and when I keep them in the hope that an engineer will one day build me something awesome with them, then I cannot use any of my other ships anymore, because cargo has to stay with me and cannot be stored in a station inventory. Do I better keep them now, crippling me, because the Feds will be like "this is mine!" and station battle cruisers there?

Bottom line is: Following the story line and trying to solve the riddles breaks immersion and thus the game for me and the cargo mechanics punish me for collecting rare items for later.

I emphasize that I really appreciate that Frontier puts effort into their riddles and that they are engaged in the story telling, but to me FDev made the wrong design choices with the riddles.


EDIT:

I found the following contribution adds much to the understanding of the problem, so Kudos to FalconFly:

These are not Brabens puzzles and as a result are as half baked as american brownies.

 

[Ozric]

It's not like the Ruins are the only riddle in ED. It's not like it's the only storyline. In fact, in many respects, it's by no means the main storyline.

If this part of the storyline has been tailored to suit a sizeable part of the playerbase, who have dedicated their time to solving these specific riddles, is that so bad? Is it any different from changing the way CGs are run, or altering Combat Zones, or the many other adaptations FD have made depending on players actions.

 

[Siranui]

Does anyone know how they got the keyword EXODUS for these new CG ciphers

Brute force. It was backwards engineered as a key, rather than utilised.

However, it has been used in Galnet articles and by Drew. We were supposed to get it from another source.

There may also be a unregistered beacon somewhere, periodically broadcasting it in substitution cipher, as was the case with the 'ENIGMAS' key.

 

[Goose4291]

My issue with the storyline is that its very fractured, little tidbits here and there and unless you actually know the lore of old then its pretty meaningless and hard to make sense of unless you have been around here for awhile. The only real information out there is contained in a forum post which rivals the bible in its sheer scale, much of it to be overlooked and missed if you are new to the scene or don't visit the forums.

Even knowing the lore of old doesnt help. Frontier have a habit of retconning things without letting people know that theres even been a change (see: Imperial rules of inheritance).

 

[Ozric]

Does anyone know how they got the keyword EXODUS for these new CG ciphers?

Brute force. It was backwards engineered as a key, rather than utilised.

However, it has been used in Galnet articles and by Drew. We were supposed to get it from another source.

There may also be a unregistered beacon somewhere, periodically broadcasting it in substitution cipher, as was the case with the 'ENIGMAS' key.

I don't think it was brute force, as you said it has been in mentioned in a few Galnet articles which were released before the CGs were around and the Galnet articles were woven into the surrounding story. In fact the whole MetaDrive scenario started around August if my memory serves me correctly which, as always there's a distinct possibility it doesn't

 

[Bzek]

Agreed. The story is great and I would love to get more immersed in it, but as long as it requires you to do it all outside the game I am not interested. I spend a considerable amount of time outside the game while playing this game as is (INARA, Coriolis, EDCD).

A few ARGs to amp interest is a good marketing strategy, but pushing your main story progression through it just seems like lazy design to me.

 

[Siranui]

I don't think it was brute force, as you said it has been in mentioned in a few Galnet articles which were released before the CGs were around and the Galnet articles were woven into the surrounding story. In fact the whole MetaDrive scenario started around August if my memory serves me correctly which, as always there's a distinct possibility it doesn't

The guy who did it says it was brute forced. I think it's buried in the Canonn thread.

 

[Ozric]

The guy who did it says it was brute forced. I think it's buried in the Canonn thread.

Ah OK then, I'll admit I've not been around too much recently. Though it again demonstrates that even if you put ingame mechanics/clues in place for people to be able to find the solutions to the riddles/clues, you can't stop people from finding things out using out of game or brute force tactics.

But once again, that's obviously FD's fault. It could have obviously been avoided by labelling the corresponding Galnet articles with glowing neon signs saying, this will be used in a future storyline and we'll let you know which one it is when it goes live, please don't try anything until we are ready to progress the story.

Is the way it is currently perfect? Of course not.
Do mistakes happen, that frustrate the player base? Of course they do.
Should FD at least get some commendation for the way they throw away everything they had planned and adapt their storylines when people find things before they're ready? Yes, they should.

 

[Siranui]

Though it again demonstrates that even if you put ingame mechanics/clues in place for people to be able to find the solutions to the riddles/clues, you can't stop people from finding things out using out of game or brute force tactics.

But once again, that's obviously FD's fault.

I do not believe for one second that if FD asked people not to do a puzzle that they won't.

Are those of us who spend time exploring the Rift 'wrong' to spend time trying to find something before its time? Are we robbing other players of story for exploring millions of stars in the region before FD can put clues in for the rest of the players? No, I don't believe so. We are enjoying the game. Others who wish to participate may do so, but we cannot blame players for using their own initiative, thinking around problems, and being keen to progress.

It's not at all FD's 'fault' that a player base can brute force. It is the nature of outsourcing and community. Just like it is not any developers 'fault' that a bug that was not found during 10,000 hours of testing is missed, and only discovered when 100,000 people all play the game.

Monkeys and typewriters. Statistics. People will stumble onto things. We cannot admonish players for enjoying the game enough to want to do these things.

 

[Ozric]

I do not believe for one second that if FD asked people not to do a puzzle that they won't.

Are those of us who spend time exploring the Rift 'wrong' to spend time trying to find something before its time? Are we robbing other players of story for exploring millions of stars in the region before FD can put clues in for the rest of the players? No, I don't believe so. We are enjoying the game. Others who wish to participate may do so, but we cannot blame players for using their own initiative, thinking around problems, and being keen to progress.

It's not at all FD's 'fault' that a player base can brute force. It is the nature of outsourcing and community. Just like it is not any developers 'fault' that a bug that was not found during 10,000 hours of testing is missed, and only discovered when 100,000 people all play the game.

Monkeys and typewriters. Statistics. People will stumble onto things. We cannot admonish players for enjoying the game enough to want to do these things.

Exactly! (I am guessing my sarcasm didn't come across enough in my last post, although the fact you agree with me is always a good thing)

And yet we have to put up with god knows how many of these threads over the last couple of months. People who casually want to drop into a certain part of the game get frustrated that they do not understand it as much as those who spend all their time doing it. It would be like me buying a FDL, fitting it with some random loadout and then complaining that I have to go online to find out what the best PvP/PvE loadouts are. It's as though the people who complain don't realise that there's a massive part of the player base (much bigger than the lot whining about combat rebalancing), for who this is the game.

 

[DefiledDragon]

People who casually want to drop into a certain part of the game get frustrated that they do not understand it as much as those who spend all their time doing it.

Isn't that part of the problem though? Getting anywhere with any aspect of the game seems to require that you dedicate your life to it, be it grinding ranks, money or solving puzzles. Most people probably don't want to dedicate their lives to a video game just so they can feel in some way involved with the overreaching narrative. It's just bad game design or should I say, exclusive game design.

 

[playfuldreamer]

Isn't that part of the problem though? Getting anywhere with any aspect of the game seems to require that you dedicate your life to it, be it grinding ranks, money or solving puzzles. Most people probably don't want to dedicate their lives to a video game just so they can feel in some way involved with the overreaching narrative. It's just bad game design or should I say, exclusive game design.

This is a problem across the whole of Elite's design--from travel times, to mission payouts, to engineered items, and power play.

 

[Astirian]

I do not believe for one second that if FD asked people not to do a puzzle that they won't.

Are those of us who spend time exploring the Rift 'wrong' to spend time trying to find something before its time? Are we robbing other players of story for exploring millions of stars in the region before FD can put clues in for the rest of the players? No, I don't believe so. We are enjoying the game. Others who wish to participate may do so, but we cannot blame players for using their own initiative, thinking around problems, and being keen to progress.

It's not at all FD's 'fault' that a player base can brute force. It is the nature of outsourcing and community. Just like it is not any developers 'fault' that a bug that was not found during 10,000 hours of testing is missed, and only discovered when 100,000 people all play the game.

Monkeys and typewriters. Statistics. People will stumble onto things. We cannot admonish players for enjoying the game enough to want to do these things.

I agree. Both camps can be rewarded though, I think an initial part of the solution is on the way in 2.2.0.3 already; in the form of a mission to go see the ruins.

There was a kick-ar$e mission I did once, called "Strange Alloys", that tasked me with bringing back 1 ton of Meta-alloys back to a lab. It's dead simple but it gave me a reason to go to the barnacle site (back before you could buy them) and I really enjoyed it. I don't know if it was by design but I got a counter-offer on the way back by some shady NPC, he said I didn't know the full picture or something, it was awesome.

I've also had fun following the Rift thread for a while there.

I think the hard-core can (and probably should) get first dibs on discoveries but I also think that Joe Spaceman should be able to have a nice little narrative experience of his own.

Proc-gen missions were fun in FFE but (if you read the papers and went to the right system) suddenly you were inadvertently stealing cultural artwork from the Empire for the Feds. In fact, the thin veil the hand-crafted mission descriptions had for nefarious activities were hilarious; transport two "hitchhikers" only to read in the following newspapers that two Federal spies made it out of Imperial space alive. Happy days!

Slightly more sophisticated Tip-offs would be another good way to experience some plot elements.

 

[Siranui]

transport two "hitchhikers" only to read in the following newspapers that two Federal spies made it out of Imperial space alive. Happy days!

We kind of have that again now.

What we called 'good times' instead now invokes wrath and pure hatred, because to gamers today, it is 'unfair' that passengers on Elite missions, paying millions of credits, who 'prefer' not to be scanned are secretly wanted.

I think it's a fun element, but judging back from feedback, players don't like NPCs lying to them and feel it is a bug that needs to be removed.

 

[Drelthar]

We kind of have that again now.

What we called 'good times' instead now invokes wrath and pure hatred, because to gamers today, it is 'unfair' that passengers on Elite missions, paying millions of credits, who 'prefer' not to be scanned are secretly wanted.

I think it's a fun element, but judging back from feedback, players don't like NPCs lying to them and feel it is a bug that needs to be removed.

I think if there was a communication from the station/ship that's about to blow you up for transporting wanted criminals, which you can then respond to with at least two choices, then people would g love it actually.

It's not the set up, it's the lack of communication from the game about what's going on.

 

[Starstrydur]

I think if there was a communication from the station/ship that's about to blow you up for transporting wanted criminals, which you can then respond to with at least two choices, then people would g love it actually.

It's not the set up, it's the lack of communication from the game about what's going on.

I agree, there is such a lack of information about the game from FD it is beyond ridiculous. Who would guess that your ship would be destroyed instantly from a person being aboard. Why no fine and the cops try to arrest this passenger seeing as they are wanted. Is it too hard to make their mechanisms clear? Like 'any security will XX if passenger is discovered?

The 'If you do anything wrong you will die' is an ancient form of game mechanics. This is one of the things that makes the game shallow to me.

The old 'Stop Right There Criminal Scum' from Oblivion is leaps past what FD has imo.