The Mysterious Orb Laid to Rest!

[Demise News Network]

The Mysterious Orb Laid to Rest!

In August of 2006, a mysterious orb appeared in Luna, and with a few side tricks like changing colors or producing a floating book, the orb became one of the most frustrating puzzles introduced to Demise. The orb started out as casual fun on the UOGamers: Demise shard but soon turned into a serious riddle with those trying to solve it posting questions on websites such as Able2Know.com, Yahoo Answers, and Topix.com. The orb riddle even made it’s way to different online blogs and received comments such as “This one is more like ‘barbecue your neurons’ than tickle your neurons.”

The orb has not been a simple online gaming challenge for the players. Several have spent months looking for its answer while others have thrown their hands up in defeat and moved on to bigger and better things on Demise.

But the orb riddle is no more because Demise player Homer has solved it. Now the buzz around the orb can be more of who solved it and how in the world he did it. The Demise News Network was able to sit with homer and have a chat about the orb.

DNN
How does it feel knowing you are the first person to solve the mysterious Luna orb, after hundreds of others have tried and failed, it has been posted all over the internet with no success at finding an answer, and that others were still attempting to solve the riddle?

Homer:
I WIN UO! *pauses and laughs* ya, that works. *smiles* Great, I guess. Highly amused as usual, etc.

DNN
I bet it was quite a charge the first moment that you saw the orb’s reply to your answer had changed.

Homer:
O ya. *thinks for a moment* stunned for a second.

DNN
How do your friends feel about your solving the orb, or have you told them yet?

Homer:
I’m letting you tell everyone. I’ll just wait until they see the hood. *smiles*

DNN
Ahhhhh a very tricky plan *smiles* Approximately how many total hours have you spent trying to solve the orb?

Homer:
I have been at it on and off for a month, probably a total of 12 hours. Scarlet was looking at it a lot with me too, so that means I have to let her wear my hood *pauses* ONCE AND ONLY ONCE! *laughs* She is my real life girlfriend so if she doesn’t give it back… well *leans back and smiles*

DNN
Well, that is very generous of you *laughs* So, you speak of this “hood” – would you like to disclose what you got as a prize for solving the orb puzzle?

Homer:
Sure. A Hooded Shroud of Umbra and a 1 million gold check.

DNN
Awesome! So that makes your shroud a one of a kind on shard *smiles* Very cool. *looks at notes* So, I have to ask – do you have any personal, educational, or career experience that benefited you in trying to solve the puzzle?

Homer:
Well, not really. I spotted the information I needed from the clues. But, had I taken the approach that Asayre had intended, my work would have definitely applied.

DNN
Do you mind sharing the logic that you used to help solve the orb?

Homer:
Sure. It was as obvious as he claimed it was. They dropped the “42” hints all over the place. That much was painfully obvious including the thing about “30 people will kick themselves 12 times over.” 30+12, again 42. This hinted that the solution would be mathematical too. Then I spotted the squares at the end of each line, and with the four sections in each line, for some reason an obscure game called foursquare came to mind, then it hit me – not “square” but squared. MATH! So I tried putting 4 squared in as many ways as I could until I got it. *smiles*

DNN
Very clever!

Homer:
Scarlet did help though. She claims she would have gotten it herself, but… pfft. I WIN UO! *laughs*

DNN
*laughs* If you don’t mind my asking, how long have you been on Demise?

Homer:
My paperdoll says 136 days, so I guess that’s it.

DNN
Wow, a relatively young player for the shard. As a newer player of roughly 5 months, do you think the orb increased your game play experience for Demise? and not just the prizes *winks*

Homer:
Actually, a lot of things have. They are things that wouldn’t happen on OSI. But ya, the orb was definitely an added interest.

DNN
Would you like to see more puzzles like the orb in the future?

Homer:
Sure. This stuff keeps people’s attention. Its entertaining if nothing else.

DNN
And finally, before we wrap up this interview, is there anything you would like to say to the creator of the orb puzzle?

Homer:
Give me my shroud. *laughs hard*

DNN
*laughs*

Homer:
No… really, it was a sickly ingenious logic behind it. Or… there was. *laughs*

The orb definitely was not an easy undertaking, and now, over a year later, the orb puzzle can finally be laid to rest. In our interview, Homer made mention of the intended way to solve the puzzle. If you are interested in reading the creator’s “sickly, ingenious logic” behind the orb, then feel free to follow the link below and don’t forget to take a look at the number of pages of the file.

Solving the Orb - a document

 

[LadyCrimson]

Re: The Mysterious Orb Laid to Rest!

Congratulations, Homer!!!

 

[LadySiren]

Re: The Mysterious Orb Laid to Rest!

Very well done!

 

[Serenity]

Re: The Mysterious Orb Laid to Rest!

I knew you would get it!
Congratulations

 

[Oaks]

Re: The Mysterious Orb Laid to Rest!

Hehe I don't even know how to make a squared number with a keyboard so I was doomed to fail from the start!

 

[drak-]

Re: The Mysterious Orb Laid to Rest!

Thanks, I had a blast breaking it =] but thats what I do best, break things!

 

[lordwolfx]

Re: The Mysterious Orb Laid to Rest!

whats the stats on that hood? and why isnt it inquisitors? -=/

 

[Dexter-LoM]

Re: The Mysterious Orb Laid to Rest!

whats the stats on that hood? and why isnt it inquisitors? -=/

dood wtf u mean stat on the hood ... its a robe that you wear with the hood on your head

sweeeeet congrats dood

 

[lordwolfx]

Re: The Mysterious Orb Laid to Rest!

hhmm,, a deathshroud? no mods? -=/
might be usefull for stealing powerscrolls or something i dunno

 

[psz]

Re: The Mysterious Orb Laid to Rest!

I would just like to point out that two days ago on IRC, drak (jokingly) said "the answer is 42, 4 by 4, and cherry pie" (or something to that affect), followed by "I don't care if it's wrong, I've changed my brain to think it's right
"

I immediately went into the staff channel, of course, pasted it and said

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA



Unfortunately, none of the "in the know" staff was on at the time to share my mirth at how close it was V_V

 

[bzk90]

Re: The Mysterious Orb Laid to Rest!

congrats to the winner...Personally I would be pissed if I got a shroud ;/

Elven robes really took away from the prestige of owning a shroud

 

[uome]

Re: The Mysterious Orb Laid to Rest!

Well done "drak/Homer" for solving this and ending my torment.
Congratulations and thankyou.

 

[marcusstone]

Re: The Mysterious Orb Laid to Rest!

I knew you were gonna do it drak... I saw all your work on irc, and to be honest, no one deserves it more...
However, I stand by my belief that the answer was penguins... They just changed the answer because they felt sorry for you....

 

[Nottheking]

Re: The Mysterious Orb Laid to Rest!

Congrats; the orb's insanity effect reached me too quickly, so I was never able to spend more than perhaps 5 coherent minutes straight thinking on it. I'm pretty sure you'll look pretty sweet in your new shroud. You may only have been here 5 months, but you've definitely earned yourself a good spot.

To the others... Why whining that the item isn't PvP gear, or namely, a pair of Inquis? It's your own rumors that came up with the idea that the inquis were the prize. (my own hopes, TBH, were on a ridable polar bear ethy)

It's pretty absurd if there was a contest where a SINGLE person on the shard got a POWERFUL and UNIQUE item: that would give a single person too much of an advantage. It's just a silly idea: the staff have shown that when it comes to running a shard well, they know very well how to keep it good and prevent it from sliding into crappy oblivion.

 

[Andrey the Killer]

Re: The Mysterious Orb Laid to Rest!

when i saw the thread title, the first thing which came to my mind was Lamb of God, hmm......

then i read the orb was answered and am very impressed/ now just oen thing, after reading all the explanations, i still can't understand the answer lol. any help lol

 

[drak-]

Re: The Mysterious Orb Laid to Rest!

It's pretty absurd if there was a contest where a SINGLE person on the shard got a POWERFUL and UNIQUE item: that would give a single person too much of an advantage. It's just a silly idea: the staff have shown that when it comes to running a shard well, they know very well how to keep it good and prevent it from sliding into crappy oblivion.

The items I personally pictured being there were nowhere near the potential value of a one-off wearable item (not that I will even consider selling it). Artifacts, artifacts .. thats what doom is for. And one day that puzzle WILLwork, and inquis will slowly drop in value while my robe is a one of a kind on demise. I am more than happy with the robe .. now if they would only get the color right and give it to me ........!

thanks to everyone who had nice things to say.

 

[Ulrich]

Re: The Mysterious Orb Laid to Rest!

Congrats man

 

[Pont]

Re: The Mysterious Orb Laid to Rest!

By any stretch of the imagination the answer could have been anything just as easily as it could be 4 squared. It reminds me of the puzzle made by russian scientists sent to Americans that had no unique answer, it was designed to keep the minds of the Americans busy in the hope that if they were busy solving this they would have less time to deal with other things.

 

[Digatalas]

Re: The Mysterious Orb Laid to Rest!

wow dude, nice job. i bet people will be begging for the shrowd....never give it up. not worth it.. its one of a kind and you deserve it more than anyone

 

[pbguy434]

Re: The Mysterious Orb Laid to Rest!

In my totally honest opinion, I see the cloak being more of a burden then anything. I'd only wear it afk or just to completely flaunt it in people's faces - I'm sure I could get some people extremely jealous (like the real life kind of jealous). It's pretty cool stuff overall, though. Be sure to have some fun with it for me.

Grats.