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Post by dmikester on Jan 30, 2018 20:02:08 GMT -5
OK I take it back. The Sage entry password is solvable. Not sure about the others, but I assume we'll need more than we have for them.
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Post by craigrj on Feb 4, 2018 16:10:14 GMT -5
OK I take it back. The Sage entry password is solvable. Not sure about the others, but I assume we'll need more than we have for them. Can you hint on this? I’m hoping this sort of thing saves the experience because so far I’m finding it very light - a semaphore cipher? Oh please. A substitution cipher where they blatantly chuck five letters in your face (including E)? Oh double please. The website is ok but I think i’d’ve Preferred box content you know?
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Post by Memosinstilettos on Feb 4, 2018 16:20:28 GMT -5
OK I take it back. The Sage entry password is solvable. Not sure about the others, but I assume we'll need more than we have for them. Can you hint on this? I’m hoping this sort of thing saves the experience because so far I’m finding it very light - a semaphore cipher? Oh please. A substitution cipher where they blatantly chuck five letters in your face (including E)? Oh double please. The website is ok but I think i’d’ve Preferred box content you know? The password is part of one of the ciphers.
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Post by dmikester on Feb 4, 2018 16:25:56 GMT -5
OK I take it back. The Sage entry password is solvable. Not sure about the others, but I assume we'll need more than we have for them. Can you hint on this? I’m hoping this sort of thing saves the experience because so far I’m finding it very light - a semaphore cipher? Oh please. A substitution cipher where they blatantly chuck five letters in your face (including E)? Oh double please. The website is ok but I think i’d’ve Preferred box content you know? Sure; it’s basically staring you in the face on one of the photocopies but only if you’ve cracked the code. And I believe all lowercase. I agree that it’s a little light but there’s a lot to dive into on the site if you want to; for example I’m enjoying listening to her music choices and discovering double meanings in some of the lyrics when listened to in the context of the narrative. There are also many other blog entries to be unlocked, so I assume we’ll get a lot in later boxes. However, if it’s very costly shipping because of international rates, you may be having the same debate I’m having about CosyKiller (at least this is only five boxes per season!).
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Post by centaurofattn on Feb 4, 2018 17:21:13 GMT -5
I, for one, am glad that it's announced as 5 boxes and that there is SOMETHING to look at and get creeped out about. That was my complaint with the original HaK boxes. But this is a great "middle ground" for someone who likes something to do but isn't super skilled in the ways of ciphers and puzzles. It's the first box that my partner has actually spent more than 5 minutes looking at, so I'm glad that we can bond over this one, even if it's not as complicated as I am used to.
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Post by craigrj on Feb 5, 2018 7:24:19 GMT -5
OK, I'm in the SAGE area and also decoded the four characters there - which I guess is part of a large whole. My question is really - why? Why is the password for SAGE written twice in the music notes - why would that lead us to Sage? I'll read it again later in case I'm missing something obvious .... I agree that value is perhaps my biggest concern - I'm not worried that it's a light solving experience as such, after CPP it's nice actually to have a relaxing puzzle box like this. It's just that compared to Dispatch at a similar price there's really not that much here.
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Post by craigrj on Feb 5, 2018 7:24:54 GMT -5
Oh and yes, at five boxes to complete then it's much less of a risk than 12 with CosyKiller or even undefined with Letters From Dead People.
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Post by tanders on Feb 5, 2018 7:57:01 GMT -5
I am glad I am not the only one concerned with value. Just because the puzzles are easier, doesn't mean they should be allowed to skimp on what is in the box. I feel like I have been getting burned with these companies that send out monthly puzzles and often times, they are laughing the way to the banks with our money. Unless it starts to become more consistent with what we are paying, I will probably stop after the initial five mailings.
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Post by dmikester on Feb 5, 2018 11:55:19 GMT -5
I mean, I'm not really sure what everyone expects with these things. Dispatch I would say is far and away the best in terms of "value" but what does value mean anyways? A well-told and intriguing story? Super difficult puzzles? A bunch of goofy curios, some of which never really get used by most people (papercraft from C&C, I'm looking at you)? The latest Dispatch box, while it has a lot of story-building content in it (mainly pieces of paper), has two (sort of three if you count the question to unlock the video) puzzles in it, one of which can be solved in about thirty seconds by anyone who's touched a KenKen puzzle before.
I'm not really sure how EF is "skimping" when we got a number of unique items (including a very cool pendant/necklace that is far and away one of the better designed items I've ever gotten in one of these), a couple of puzzles that may not be challenging but are at least well-designed, a set up for an intriguing mystery, and a blog that you can deep dive into if you want. Sure, the puzzles may have been simple, but consider that unlike C&C, this is not specifically designed for hardcore puzzlers; there are people on the EF Facebook group who are utterly baffled by the Spirit Alphabet.
I think it's just a case of what matters to you. I canceled one subscription (Finders Seekers) because the story was barely there and the puzzles were all over the place in terms of internal logic and consistency, though Finders Seekers also included all kinds of cool and unique objects, including a T-shirt and a boomerang! Cryptogram Puzzle Post, on the other hand, is one of my favorite subscriptions that I do, and it's literally all puzzles with only a vague story and just pieces of paper, with an occasional cool "art piece" every couple of months if you qualify for a prize. Overall, I think EF is a pretty solid middle ground, especially given its relative brevity.
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Post by wortelboer on Feb 5, 2018 12:11:14 GMT -5
I mean, I'm not really sure what everyone expects with these things. Dispatch I would say is far and away the best in terms of "value" but what does value mean anyways? A well-told and intriguing story? Super difficult puzzles? A bunch of goofy curios, some of which never really get used by most people (papercraft from C&C, I'm looking at you)? The latest Dispatch box, while it has a lot of story-building content in it (mainly pieces of paper), has two (sort of three if you count the question to unlock the video) puzzles in it, one of which can be solved in about thirty seconds by anyone who's touched a KenKen puzzle before. I'm not really sure how EF is "skimping" when we got a number of unique items (including a very cool pendant/necklace that is far and away one of the better designed items I've ever gotten in one of these), a couple of puzzles that may not be challenging but are at least well-designed, a set up for an intriguing mystery, and a blog that you can deep dive into if you want. Sure, the puzzles may have been simple, but consider that unlike C&C, this is not specifically designed for hardcore puzzlers; there are people on the EF Facebook group who are utterly baffled by the Spirit Alphabet. I think it's just a case of what matters to you. I canceled one subscription (Finders Seekers) because the story was barely there and the puzzles were all over the place in terms of internal logic and consistency, though Finders Seekers also included all kinds of cool and unique objects, including a T-shirt and a boomerang! Cryptogram Puzzle Post, on the other hand, is one of my favorite subscriptions that I do, and it's literally all puzzles with only a vague story and just pieces of paper, with an occasional cool "art piece" every couple of months if you qualify for a prize. Overall, I think EF is a pretty solid middle ground, especially given its relative brevity. I agree...and I have to point out that I saw some EF posts by people who had no idea of what to do with the "triangle" cipher. There were some who didn't recognize a Semphore cipher...so in terms of difficulty, novelty, etc. for them this was a deep dive. For us who are used to the C&C puzzles this was nothing. I had planned that since this was the introduction to the mystery there would be more reading and less to do. We will see how the story develops though.
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Post by distantsmoke on Feb 5, 2018 13:45:37 GMT -5
I've enjoyed Empty Faces so far. Once I had the time to go thru the different ciphers and to look thru the girls' website it was quite fun for me. I also was very pleased with the quality of the necklace. Obviously it's not a family heirloom, but it is quite pretty and not an obvious piece of junk. I thought the puzzles were just the right amount of difficulty for the beginning of an adventure. I'm interested to see where it goes.
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Post by craigrj on Feb 5, 2018 16:14:29 GMT -5
I mean, I'm not really sure what everyone expects with these things. Dispatch I would say is far and away the best in terms of "value" but what does value mean anyways? A well-told and intriguing story? Super difficult puzzles? A bunch of goofy curios, some of which never really get used by most people (papercraft from C&C, I'm looking at you)? The latest Dispatch box, while it has a lot of story-building content in it (mainly pieces of paper), has two (sort of three if you count the question to unlock the video) puzzles in it, one of which can be solved in about thirty seconds by anyone who's touched a KenKen puzzle before. I'm not really sure how EF is "skimping" when we got a number of unique items (including a very cool pendant/necklace that is far and away one of the better designed items I've ever gotten in one of these), a couple of puzzles that may not be challenging but are at least well-designed, a set up for an intriguing mystery, and a blog that you can deep dive into if you want. Sure, the puzzles may have been simple, but consider that unlike C&C, this is not specifically designed for hardcore puzzlers; there are people on the EF Facebook group who are utterly baffled by the Spirit Alphabet. I think it's just a case of what matters to you. I canceled one subscription (Finders Seekers) because the story was barely there and the puzzles were all over the place in terms of internal logic and consistency, though Finders Seekers also included all kinds of cool and unique objects, including a T-shirt and a boomerang! Cryptogram Puzzle Post, on the other hand, is one of my favorite subscriptions that I do, and it's literally all puzzles with only a vague story and just pieces of paper, with an occasional cool "art piece" every couple of months if you qualify for a prize. Overall, I think EF is a pretty solid middle ground, especially given its relative brevity. Value is a personal, amorphous, unquantifiable quality of a product that's very much based on feel - *this* feels like it's worth the money, *that* doesn't. For me it's down to how much time I spend on something, how much pleasure I get from leafing through the documents/materials/items, how interesting the story is, how unique it is - something I haven't seen before, something original, what the box it comes in looks and feels like, the whole kit and kaboodle. For Empty Faces, five boxes at £35 quid each is £165, we're looking it's almost at a Surprise Me! price here - five EF boxes or Filigree, what's better?
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Post by dmikester on Feb 5, 2018 16:36:50 GMT -5
I mean, I'm not really sure what everyone expects with these things. Dispatch I would say is far and away the best in terms of "value" but what does value mean anyways? A well-told and intriguing story? Super difficult puzzles? A bunch of goofy curios, some of which never really get used by most people (papercraft from C&C, I'm looking at you)? The latest Dispatch box, while it has a lot of story-building content in it (mainly pieces of paper), has two (sort of three if you count the question to unlock the video) puzzles in it, one of which can be solved in about thirty seconds by anyone who's touched a KenKen puzzle before. I'm not really sure how EF is "skimping" when we got a number of unique items (including a very cool pendant/necklace that is far and away one of the better designed items I've ever gotten in one of these), a couple of puzzles that may not be challenging but are at least well-designed, a set up for an intriguing mystery, and a blog that you can deep dive into if you want. Sure, the puzzles may have been simple, but consider that unlike C&C, this is not specifically designed for hardcore puzzlers; there are people on the EF Facebook group who are utterly baffled by the Spirit Alphabet. I think it's just a case of what matters to you. I canceled one subscription (Finders Seekers) because the story was barely there and the puzzles were all over the place in terms of internal logic and consistency, though Finders Seekers also included all kinds of cool and unique objects, including a T-shirt and a boomerang! Cryptogram Puzzle Post, on the other hand, is one of my favorite subscriptions that I do, and it's literally all puzzles with only a vague story and just pieces of paper, with an occasional cool "art piece" every couple of months if you qualify for a prize. Overall, I think EF is a pretty solid middle ground, especially given its relative brevity. Value is a personal, amorphous, unquantifiable quality of a product that's very much based on feel - *this* feels like it's worth the money, *that* doesn't. For me it's down to how much time I spend on something, how much pleasure I get from leafing through the documents/materials/items, how interesting the story is, how unique it is - something I haven't seen before, something original, what the box it comes in looks and feels like, the whole kit and kaboodle. For Empty Faces, five boxes at £35 quid each is £165, we're looking it's almost at a Surprise Me! price here - five EF boxes or Filigree, what's better? Well, based on my issues with Filigree, not a hard choice for me between those two options. But what you're saying is completely fair and I think right. Craigrj, as you know, I'm super torn right now about CosyKiller, as while I loved the first box's puzzles, the second box was underwhelming, and that one is 40 dollars a box for me! This is still a young style of storytelling, and I feel like companies are still testing the waters and we're all still figuring out which companies to support and which aren't cutting it.
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Post by Catwhisper on Feb 5, 2018 18:42:23 GMT -5
Chrisu, I'm sorry to hear you can't get Empty Faces. I think the reason might be but not positive, that at least one of the items can't be sent to your area. That could be the problem. I hope later on they will be able to if the item is the reason their not sending it there.
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Post by Catwhisper on Feb 5, 2018 18:57:51 GMT -5
Well, all that translating took some time. Two different codes spread over five different pages, but it is all done. Good intro. to the story. Haven't figured out how to unlock the entries yet, tried a few related words for each one. May have to wait to another issue for those. I'm happy with it. Have you figured out at least one of the passwords on the website. I'll give you a hint. It's one of the words on the diary pages and is also in code on the diary pages. If you try it on the website it will open one of the password protected pages.
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