[ARG] The Pizza Code Mystery

Nonimportantuser · November 25, 2018, 4:49am

Perhaps grilledpizza.jpg or the 1001085139140914 html page has something we missed.

I have suspected the possibility of something hidden in the html page because when the page source is viewed the text is spaced and does not look this way in the normal view.

However, i could be wrong as i do not know much about the html file format.

The other idea i had was the possibility of another image hidden inside the grilled pizza image.

Part of me does feel that the ARG might be beginning to fail but i’m willing to stay and continue to play this until the end regardless how it ends.

Miles07 · November 25, 2018, 4:49am

Forget a bone. How bout some MEAT?

And yes, Flavrans has the greatest point. MULTIPLE VERSIONS of the many named ciphers given.

Pianownd · November 25, 2018, 4:49am

I’m hoping for some meat, or even a bone, in the new Surface Tension: Uncut update. It’s really needed at this point, as it’s become unfortunately convoluted at this point way past anything manageable.

If anything, we should figure out the pizza boxes arrangement in Background 13(I think at least, been awhile, it’s the one with the Dam). It’s the only thing I can think of being solveable right now.

||

Pianownd · August 11, 2020, 11:32am

Surface Tension: Uncut is out, so let’s play Good News, Bad News:

Good News:

[spoiler]

Yay more Pizza! Knew ST:U would at least have something. Also, on a side note , I’d like to mention how much better the reworked Surface Tension is. Like, I liked it before, but I love it now.

[/spoiler]

Bad News:

We have just more to speculate on the meaning of.

I think Storm is telling us to focus on the pizza boxes.

EDIT: Can someone with an Nvidia card or Intel Graphics get pictures of the pizza boxes with the new Cascade Shadow Mapping turned on? I got a AMD card, so it’s not working on my end (know bug). I wonder if there’s something to do with shadows in regards to this.

roomysman · November 25, 2018, 4:50am

Does that pole in the middle do anything? Sorry bud running a radeon 7770 .

Pianownd · November 25, 2018, 4:50am

Yeah, that’s the pole with the flag on it in the 3rd shot. I dunno if there’s anything more to it though, other than the ability to use it as the exact center of the room.

Yeah I got a dying 7950, but I’m getting a new GTX 1070 here in 26 days!

roomysman · November 25, 2018, 4:50am

That is so awesome!

Anyhow, hopefully someone here is on the green team and can help us out with a few screenshots

F_SchoManno · November 25, 2018, 4:50am

I don’t think that’s necessary. Last I checked, Cascade Shadow Mapping doesn’t work indoors.

I’ll get around to compiling a map that places these pizza boxes outside.

Nonimportantuser · November 25, 2018, 4:50am

Although it works great, i don’t think CSM will make a difference for this type of arg and for those of you who are wondering i have a gtx 760.

Pianownd · November 25, 2018, 4:50am

Yeah I was just spitting out ideas I guess because I don’t understand what the hell is going on with the way the boxes are set up. There surely is something to going on with it, just what is the question. Is there any puzzles or ARGs with anything similar to this that come to mind?

Nonimportantuser · November 25, 2018, 4:50am

In a few of those screenshots posted above it looked like the pizza boxes where doing something strange. I do not think it is arg related. However this looks identical to a glitch that happened to me.
youtube.com/watch?v=DKGCUe4Ufzk

Gunsrequiem · November 25, 2018, 4:50am

I wouldn’t worry too much about progress. Storm keeps mentioning “Time reveals all,” and while that could be a clue to the puzzle, I think it means we need to be patient. It could also be both.

We’ve obviously hit a very serious brick wall, and that’s likely due to Storm needing more time to work with the team on Xen and on his ARG. If, after Xen is released, we don’t see anything for a few months, then I’d start to worry.

CPU · November 25, 2018, 4:50am

It could actually be just that simple.

After all, we were given this info previously:
“I have a feeling this is a holding puzzle, designed to allow time to construct further aspects of the ARG or work on whatever is behind their NDA.”

OnboardError · November 25, 2018, 4:50am

Just a side note from a dev: They are hidden in each new STU map. Gratz on finding one location.

Jake_R · November 25, 2018, 4:50am

Guys, we’re so tragically bad at this, the devs feel the need to help us out just days after the update is released. Perhaps it’s time to step it up.

Pianownd · August 11, 2020, 11:33am

I think it just means we need to go back over the other maps, not just give up. I’ll go back later today after I get home from school, which I figured I needed to do anyways since I had only gone through once, and that was at the same time I was actually playing through ST:U, making them easy to miss.

Also, thank you @OnboardError for the hint! Encouragement from devs is always nice.

Johnwalter · November 25, 2018, 4:50am

I plan to explore the new maps, after i finish them normally.

Doctor_Pie · November 25, 2018, 4:50am

Haven’t been here in a while, but I have three pizzas.

C2A5G:

C2A5H:

C2A5I:

Nonimportantuser · November 25, 2018, 4:50am

I found a few things when i looked at the cliff side map that stormseeker worked on in surface tension looking in hammer today.

[attach=4815,none,640][/attach]

These are the jets that fly by at the start of the map after you exit the pipe.

[attach=4811,none,640][/attach]
[attach=4812,none,640][/attach]
[attach=4813,none,640][/attach]

This is how they look in a different view .

[attach=4814,none,640][/attach]

These jets are the ones that bomb the bunker in the distance.

[attach=4810,none,640][/attach]

They show up like this in the same view as before.

[attach=4816,none,640][/attach]

Whats strange about this is that it seems to be friendly fire.

[attach=4817,none,640][/attach]

This just might be only a coincidence but the osprey has the numbers 1001 on it, the same as code a.
bandicam 2016-05-18 18-22-07-454.jpg
bandicam 2016-05-18 18-19-42-631.jpg
bandicam 2016-05-18 18-19-29-736.jpg
bandicam 2016-05-18 18-19-18-234.jpg
bandicam 2016-05-18 18-18-12-008.jpg
bandicam 2016-05-18 18-17-54-265.jpg
bandicam 2016-05-18 18-16-52-081.jpg
bandicam 2016-05-18 18-16-36-561.jpg

Miles07 · August 11, 2020, 11:33am

Or someone is teasing us. Just showing more pizza boxes isn’t going to help us, really.

HOWEVER, someone should do a game-wide search to see if any changes have been done on non-ST levels. Specifically, investigate all (old/new) pizza box locations to see if anything has changed.
I say this, because there was one Surface Tension change that WASN’T any of the uncut maps: c2a5b had previously had the “secret” cave area filled with Barnacles and a Houndeye, but with the STU patch it’s now a toxic pool. My point is, we need to document ALL the changes that the STU patch made, and see if any of them affect the ARG in any apparent manner (changed placement of pizza boxes, for example?).

EDIT: Also, has anyone checked to see if there’s anything important in this mod?
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=673412384