Wow, time to catch up!
@Polyphemus marked with honeycomb scars?
That is an awesome connection!
The text strings from Pastebin may in fact be Base64, they’re just not Base64 which translates to ASCII text. It’s possible to use Base64 to encode hex data. Here are the hex equivalents to those strings:
DA D6 3B 99 C3 EC D8 0F 19 F4 36 AB 98 09 E7 AC
A4 EA A6 1E 20 FB 77 8E 8A C1 AD 06 0D CC 2C 62
(32 bytes)
6D 89 B2 16 2A 14 1C C6 CB 19 12 34 87 C8 FD 02
94 98 F8 79 16 8C 3E 16 9A CD 22 F3 23 D9 BF 7A
49 8F 9C 69 D5 22 51 EC 76 92 3A 68 C1 9A 5F 1C
24 11 BB EF 1E 56 5D A5 C8 B5 82 26 D8 EC A5 15
(64 bytes)
F0 DB 87 44 86 46 69 CA 06 81 06 62 4D C0 B2 41
0A 69 D6 4C D1 58 FD CF 74 DE 0E 51 96 9B C5 96
CF A0 4D 0F D1 18 EC AC 54 62 34 1D 06 84 E7 15
77 00 52 63 3D 27 83 C0 30 96 7C D8 C7 CF 66 B0
38 46 1E B2 DB 21 47 2D
(72 bytes)
It’s very interesting that it says “command not yet unlocked”… while invalid commands have text that appear in red colour… you might have found something @Polyphemus - you’re ahead of the game!
There are lots of commands that are still locked / never used. That’s why I asked whether we’ve seen this one before.
@DevilinPixy had a list, but I can’t find it.
Your unlocked command has just been noticed… Good job!
OcelBOT - Today at 2:30 PM
NADIR
command not yet unlocked
Waking Titan Terminal•Today at 2:30 PM
Look at that, I missed that. I thought you were talking about the old ‘canals’.
Ha! My favourite writer! My favourite story @LilLadyD76.
Did you know Mr Noodles has a home base built by Frankie & Benjy mouse? It features the number Forty Two lol and quotes their line about “How many roads must a man walk down? - 42”
Nothing to do with the ARG (yet! lol) but @Polyphemus kindly gave a planet to Mr Noodles in the ETARCIA ECSD system in Euclid.
In homage to hard working Mr Noodles and the ARG I felt he needed a holiday retreat for all his hard work on the ARG, so I got Frankie and Benjy mouse to build it in Creative Mode… They just completed it and went for a mouse wheel theme. *cough…
It also has hidden away (really badly lol), the answer 42 to the great question of Life the Universe and Everything but you have to find it…
How great it is that the answer 42 features in the ARG! NMS and Hitchhikers are a perfect combination.
Here’s some pics for those without time to visit. It is in the steamworkshop for the time being. I really need to do a proper post on this soon with ECSD approval and of course Mr Noodles!
Edited May 30th 2018 to shuffle some pictures to new post reply
Well, red soil certainly fits Mars. Four times fits (fourth planet from the sun). Rises Vulcan - well, Vulcan was the volcano god - and Mars is home to the largest known volcano - Olympus Mons.
Aren’t volcanoes mentioned in the lore or someplace…and there has been speculation about lava…
“Four times fits (fourth planet from the sun.”
Fit the Fourth is also an episode from Hitchhikers coincidently!
Also, “lowest of the low” could refer to Valles Marineris - a seven kilometre deep trench, also on Mars.
and don’t forget this thread, lol
I was thinking along those lines, but the honeycombs appear in basins. I think the deepest basin is hellas, but I’m not sure. Also, hellas doesn’t do anything in the console.
Hellas Planitia does have the honeycomb structures, though.
Neither does Mars. They tend to be cryptic.
Sky Gods!
I posted this to the music thread, yesterday. Totally makes sense now!!
Hmmm… Hellas Planitia does indeed seem to contain the lowest point of elevation on Mars, and it does have the honeycomb structures.
Also, Olympus Mons stands in a kind of group with three other prominent volcanoes, the Tharsis Montes. The whole region is labeled the “Tharsis volcanic region” on the NASA map of Mars.
Potentially the two terms we’re looking for are Hellas and Tharsis, but what to do with them?
EDIT:
from wikipedia:
Tharsis is a vast volcanic plateau centered near the equator in the western hemisphere of Mars.[note 1] The region is home to the largest volcanoes in the Solar System, including the three enormous shield volcanoes Arsia Mons, Pavonis Mons, and Ascraeus Mons, which are collectively known as the Tharsis Montes. The tallest volcano on the planet, Olympus Mons, is often associated with the Tharsis region but is actually located off the western edge of the plateau.
I’d say Hellas and Tharsis are pretty good bets, as Olympus is commonly associated with it despite not quite being there.
Vulcan Rockets are used by Space X. No idea if that is helpful to jog another train of thought… Maybe Vulcan has something to do with satellites?