[X4 / XR] The missing link - April Fools joke

Rail_Balco · Post by **Rail_Balco** » Mon, 3. Apr 17, 07:27

Or thargoid hunt in elite dangerouy

Post by **X2-Illuminatus** » Mon, 3. Apr 17, 09:53

Rail_Balco wrote:btw whats this?
http://blog.abalakin.de/wp-content/uplo ... /mb_02.jpg

And this?
http://blog.abalakin.de/wp-content/uplo ... /mb_26.jpg

Art (not related to X) by Alexander Preuss, who is Art Director at Egosoft. See also the rest of his gallery.

Rail_Balco · Post by **Rail_Balco** » Mon, 3. Apr 17, 10:03

Yeah I saw rest of his gallery and it is amazing! Sometimes i feel pitty X series are only games and I'm really looking forward to VR coming into X universe

Post by **Tamina** » Mon, 3. Apr 17, 13:24

UniTrader wrote:He used to be a Moderator, but has resigned from this Post. Explaination enough?

Yes, okay, not so harsh.

Yet, these two persons made it into the rhyme without contributing to the rhyme. It could have as well been
"Uni is not my bookie, but Sparky ate my cookies".
Just saying.

Post by **Sparky Sparkycorp** » Mon, 3. Apr 17, 13:34

Nom, nom, nom!

Profitgier · Post by **Profitgier** » Mon, 3. Apr 17, 20:43

Lino: You are good! Respect for the idea.

And now the solution.

Tamina wrote:
Information are rare and I can't say something for sure,
but maybe I can show it to you in pure.
Find the key and follow the link
but don't wear your glasses in pink
two times one, one times two, and three times three,
the game I'll show you doesn't rhyme with 3D.
The cake is lie, but there are still
Pancakes, pizza and pie
Stefan is not my bookie, but
TSM ate my cookies

No pink glasses: pink is #FFC0CB
two times one, one times two, and three times three: 112333 is http://www.color-hex.com/color/112333

And now

sd_jasper · Post by **sd_jasper** » Mon, 3. Apr 17, 21:51

Information are rare and I can't say something for sure,
but maybe I can show it to you in pure.
Find the key and follow the link
but don't wear your glasses in pink
two times one, one times two, and three times three,
the game I'll show you doesn't rhyme with 3D.
The cake is lie, but there are still
Pancakes, pizza and pie
Stefan is not my bookie, but
TSM ate my cookies

"Information are rare" ?? Why not "... is rare..." ? Maybe there is more to the words themselves? Though the last worlds in each might just be there for rhyming.

"Glasses in pink", Some roses are pink (and even red can become pink if transparent), so this might be a reference to "Rose colored glasses" which refers to looking back nostalgically.

Hm... that's all I got.

Rail_Balco · Post by **Rail_Balco** » Mon, 3. Apr 17, 22:29

sd_jasper wrote:
...
"Information are rare" ?? Why not "... is rare..." ? Maybe there is more to the words themselves? Though the last worlds in each might just be there for rhyming.

"Glasses in pink", Some roses are pink (and even red can become pink if transparent), so this might be a reference to "Rose colored glasses" which refers to looking back nostalgically.

Hm... that's all I got.

No.
He gave us a clue and we should follow it to get on cookies and pies (X4 concepts?), but we shouldn't wear pink glasses when we find it (we shouldn't be expecting too much, looks like Lino is shy

). Profitgier and sd_jasper are overthinking imo

First two messages are decoded rightly by The Q. Third one however...

"Find the key and follow the link" Look at Lino's profile.
https://forum.egosoft.com/profile.php?m ... e&u=425824
DeviantArt link! (More on this further in post)

"two times one, one times two, and three times three,
the game I'll show you doesn't rhyme with 3D. "
That is really reference to X:T and XBTF (2x1), X2, X3R/X3TC/X3AP, as The Q said.

"The cake is lie, but there are still " Teasing us.

"Pancakes, pizza and pie" Junkie, he got some fine stuff somewhere. Maybe his supplier of SpaceWeed went around...

"Stefan is not my bookie, but" No idea, might be some reference, but without further clue we probably won't know.

"TSM ate my cookies" "Nom nom nom

On his profile here on forums, there is a link to his deviantart. From there ( http://linolafett.deviantart.com/art/Se ... -658512539 ) you can get to his ArtStation profile. From there you can get to Alexander Preuss ArtStation profile, where he posted some old XR concepts, and one old, but lately reworked concept for XR ( https://www.artstation.com/artwork/daArW )
Edit: by a bit of searching on ArtStation, you can get even to Christian Hercher ( https://www.artstation.com/artwork/3Bvxo )
I believe we can find another clues somewhere in ArtStation or DeviantArt profiles. Or maybe they will post later, don't know that. However I will watch these link closely in future. You are under 24/7 surveillance, Mr Lino Thomas!!

BTW yesterday I made it into Mr. Preuss' portfolio page, but that's where I had to end.
I'm not gonna be awake at 1am again!

The Q · Post by **The Q** » Wed, 5. Apr 17, 10:19

As I was asked to clarify the situation, here comes the solution:

Yes, this was an April Fools joke. No, there were no hidden messages in linolafett's signature, at least none I’m aware of. Except for the last message "TSM ate my cookies", all others were made up by me. No, linolafett was not involved in any way in this personally. He just happened to be the one of the active Egosoft devs with a somewhat cryptic signature, thus making the whole idea of "hidden" messages more believable. Where I got the power from to modify linolafett’s signature? A mighty programme every graphics enthusiast knows as "Paint", in combination with the internal screenshot feature of MS Windows. Why I didn't reveal this all earlier? Actually I did. If you check the last hint I found, and compare the binary code I posted with the actual screenshot I linked, you may notice something.

Last but not least, I would like to thank everyone, especially linolafett, who recognized this as a joke and played along nevertheless.

Rail_Balco · Post by **Rail_Balco** » Wed, 5. Apr 17, 11:11

Damn you The Q

Next time, I own YOU

Post by **Ketraar** » Wed, 5. Apr 17, 11:18

Nice one The Q, well done. As a puzzle fan I was actually hopping this to be true. You got me.

The Q wrote:A mighty programme every graphics enthusiast knows as "Paint",

You should be stoned for this heresy. Using words like "programme" "graphics" and "enthusiast" in combination with the P-word is ludricous and should get you banned from the internet.

MFG

Ketraar

Ezarkal · Post by **Ezarkal** » Wed, 5. Apr 17, 15:48

Good one. My hat (and my cookies) goes to you.

Question: Was the "unfound quote" (the one that became 6.5) part of your initial idea? If so, it was very well planned.

The Q · Post by **The Q** » Wed, 5. Apr 17, 17:06

No, it wasn't part of the initial idea. I just wanted to have a reference to the "cookies" in lino's actual signature. And as the second last sentence ("Stefan is not my bookie") had really no other purpose than to rhyme with cookies, I thought I would still need a reference to anything ingame or forum related. Hence why I choose the "pancakes, pizza and pie" sentence. While I realised that this sentence didn't rhyme with anything else, it was already quite late that day and I didn't want to spend more time on this than I already had. So I posted it as it was. Later then the obvious "the cake is a lie" sentence came to my mind as a possible rhyme, which I used in the end.

Post by **UniTrader** » Wed, 5. Apr 17, 17:35

Ketraar wrote:Nice one The Q, well done. As a puzzle fan I was actually hopping this to be true. You got me.

The Q wrote:A mighty programme every graphics enthusiast knows as "Paint",
You should be stoned for this heresy. Using words like "programme" "graphics" and "enthusiast" in combination with the P-word is ludricous and should get you banned from the internet.

MFG

Ketraar

Ban Request seconded. for precisely that Reason

Post by **Tamina** » Wed, 5. Apr 17, 21:11

Really mean! Was so looking forward to it.
Everyone fall for it besides Sparky!
Very nice idea and brilliantly executed 1st Aprils joke

Early on, (half a year from now or so?) I noticed "TSM ate my cookies" already, so I completly fell for it.
Never would I have thought you would betray us so much The Q!!
Glad you had fun destroying our dreams and hopes

Evil

sd_jasper · Post by **sd_jasper** » Thu, 6. Apr 17, 00:54

Well played, sir.

Post by **CBJ** » Thu, 6. Apr 17, 11:17

UniTrader wrote:Ban Request seconded.

Request denied. This man deserves a pancake. And now he has one.

The Q · Post by **The Q** » Thu, 6. Apr 17, 13:22

This comes unexpected...

In all seriousness, this is an honor. I would like to thank everyone who believed in me, especially the eggs and the pan - without them there wouldn't be pancakes - as well as the sophisticated art software Paint. As the Pancake Award Winner 2017 I hereby pledge to honor the pancakes and all of their toppings. I will do everything in my power to promote them as a full meal, so that hopefully one day no one has to suffer from pancake malnutrition anymore.

Post by **Tamina** » Fri, 7. Apr 17, 00:32

And rightfully so, this was an excellent joke.
The best I have read and experienced personally, so far, between all these repetitiv "spider on your shoulder"-jokes and false stories in news papers.

Watch out for April 2018

Ezarkal · Post by **Ezarkal** » Fri, 7. Apr 17, 00:44

The Q wrote:I will do everything in my power to promote them as a full meal, so that hopefully one day no one has to suffer from pancake malnutrition anymore.

Now that the subject's on the table, I guess it's been a while since I've had pancakes. Maybe this week-end...

Yup... Now I'm craving pancakes.