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Thread for Q&A about the #BarrensMysteries. Post your questions here, and I'll respond while I can!

Thread for Q&A about the #BarrensMysteries. Post your questions here, and I'll respond while I can!

  • Chadd Nervigg
    Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
    Thread for Q&A about the #BarrensMysteries. Post your questions here, and I'll respond while I can!

    • flyfer_15
      Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
      @Celestalon Where is Mankrik’s wife?

      • Chadd Nervigg
        Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
        @flyfer_15 I have some bad news for you...

    • Raktoner
      Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
      @Celestalon You're clearly a creative person, I was curious if you also do creative writing of any kind on your own time? Stories, poetry, etc? I am curious to see if your creativity for puzzle making translates to other creative outlets!

      • Chadd Nervigg
        Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
        @Raktoner Not really. I love imagining stories and characters, but significant writing has never really been my style. I appreciate good writing, but my attention span is honestly pretty short; I'm much more visual of a person.

    • ArchivistOwl
      Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
      @Celestalon Were there any scrapped ideas that didn't work out because of technical limitations?

      • Chadd Nervigg
        Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
        @ArchivistOwl Yes, most definitely. *coughdrumscough* But if I told you about most of them, that means I couldn't use them for the next puzzle (if there is one) when I DO have the tech. ;)

    • RTwoCTwo
      Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
      @Celestalon I found that the buy/sell was super hard on mobile because I couldn’t read the buff names on the friendly minions. I was following a guide, so it didn’t really matter, but curious if that’s something you were aware of?

      • Chadd Nervigg
        Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
        @RTwoCTwo Yes! I forgot to to mention that in the main thread. The enchantment banners for listing the commodities for sale/buy on the minions in the Bazaar were cut off on mobile and super tiny in some locales. I didn't realize that until way late in the process, too late to revise. :(

        • Chadd Nervigg
          Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
          @RTwoCTwo That's definitely something I'd love to have found a better solution for, if I could go back in time. Sorry about that, mobile users. :(

    • kilmarnok1285
      Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
      @Celestalon What part of watching the community solve the puzzles surprised you the most?

      • Chadd Nervigg
        Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
        @kilmarnok1285 Hmmmmm... Good question... I think the sudden solution of the Riddles. I blinked and suddenly you went from 'we have no idea what we're looking for' to 'there are riddles and we've solved 3.5 of them'.

        • Chadd Nervigg
          Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
          @kilmarnok1285 Oh! And running into certain Grandmasters in the secretfinder discord, working on solving the puzzles, mere hours before their games for the week! ;) ;)

    • MichaelLoda
      Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
      @Celestalon How do you even start designing something like that one with merchants? I still don’t understand how that works and what the goal is, so many steps...

      • Chadd Nervigg
        Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
        @MichaelLoda Man, I don't even know sometimes. Add 5 parts logic, 4 parts math, 3 parts iteration, a heaping cup of sadism, and mix it all together in a spreadsheet-induced fever dream, and you get puzzle magic. I don't even know how my brain works, dude.

    • KyoyaSSBU
      Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
      @Celestalon I really enjoyed the puzzles but why did you guys decide to make the final puzzle that difficult? I typically enjoy figuring those kind of things out myself but that final one was really discouraging

      • Chadd Nervigg
        Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
        @KyoyaSSBU I try to create a wide variety of difficulties, so more people can get involved and contribute to the overall community event. While I want some of it to be solvable by individuals, I also want to tune parts of it for the global collaboration, to help bring people together.

    • itsgiansousa
      Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
      @Celestalon I remember seeing this achievement right after the Barrens update. Did I saw things, or you guys removed it quickly?

      • Chadd Nervigg
        Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
        @itsgiansousa Nope, wasn't there until 20.2 (though much of the data for it was in 20.0, just incomplete).

    • PetrosmanHS
      Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
      @Celestalon When did you start thinking about doing something like this? There were some easter eggs and puzzle solving stuff before, e.g. transfer student, but when did the idea to make something so complicated for the community to solve come to be? And do you plan doing this more often?

      • Chadd Nervigg
        Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
        @PetrosmanHS Answered that somewhat in the other thread. I did these things on WoW (first inspired by @Muffinus), and wanted to bring that feeling to Hearthstone.

    • Chadd Nervigg
      Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
      Oh, I didn't mention this anywhere else, but wanted to mention inspiration for this sort of stuff elsewhere in gaming. Various games have done hidden puzzles, like the Sombra ARG.

      • Chadd Nervigg
        Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
        @Bungie in particular makes some similarly difficult and community-wide puzzles that are big inspirations to me. I love those. I'd love to hang out with whoever does their puzzles someday and just jam out some ideas and pick each others' brain; would be a ton of fun!

        • Chadd Nervigg
          Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
          @thislukesmith @joegoroth *coughconnectuscough*

    • RidiculousHat
      Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
      @Celestalon when did you get the question art made up for your profile pic?

      • Chadd Nervigg
        Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
        @RidiculousHat Oh! That! @RosseTweet painted that, out of the blue, 3yr ago, and sent it to me! I was flattered! Then literally the DAY BEFORE 20.2 went live, I looked around for some new profile photo that would be fitting, found that, and thought "Damn, it'd be perfect if those were ?'s..."

        • Chadd Nervigg
          Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
          @RidiculousHat @RosseTweet Sure enough, she replied to my DM that night, and was kind enough to make the quick revision, in time for me to post it before the patch launched. Huge thanks! (And the date on it was just a :chefkiss: red herring.)

    • ArbalistR
      Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
      @Celestalon What was your favorite crazy theory that the community came up with?

      • Chadd Nervigg
        Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
        @ArbalistR Oh man, there were so many. 'Drums' became this mystery's version of 'Chair', which I loved. I also appreciated how much love the Book of Mercenaries was getting. ;)

    • Tesdey
      Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
      @Celestalon What made you decide that the Druid would be the only class with 6 cards to activate the puzzle?

      • Chadd Nervigg
        Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
        @Tesdey I wanted to throw a bit of a wrench into each one. Rogue required using cost reduction, Druid had an extra card, Warrior required a damaged minion, Hunter required a Beast (though really just any minion thanks to Adorable Infestation's token).

        • VsevolodKhusid
          Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
          @Celestalon @Tesdey Wait, no. If you really must only play the combo cards on the turn, you cannot play the token, right?

          • Chadd Nervigg
            Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
            @VsevolodKhusid @Tesdey It summons one too.

    • bradstick78
      Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
      @Celestalon What was your reaction to the Millhouse / Silas solution to the hunter puzzle?

      • Chadd Nervigg
        Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
        @bradstick78 Hah, glad that that wasn't found first!

    • HoomanHMP
      Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
      @Celestalon I know it does not matter to many people, but for a group that does not have all the cards, it is not really interesting that we can not even help solve a puzzle https://t.co/aYw6BKdByc

      • Chadd Nervigg
        Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
        @HoomanHMP See the other thread.

    • TomLuca27326040
      Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
      @Celestalon Combo detection and granted secret card is server side I assume. Was something like that to ensure it wasn't datamined? (good idea if so). Did you anticipate the practice mode vs gameplay achievement confusion before you later clarified it?

      • Chadd Nervigg
        Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
        @TomLuca27326040 Correct, not being dataminable was a very important requirement.

    • TomLuca27326040
      Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
      @Celestalon FYI I checked all combinations up to 35 attacks (4,496,388 unique attempts) for any 7 same digit code. Got 49 solutions some using all boxes! All are 4444444 though. I suspect linear algebra math people could prove that a non 4444444 solution isn't possible.

      • Chadd Nervigg
        Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
        @TomLuca27326040 Hah, nice.

      • TomLuca27326040
        Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
        @Celestalon For completeness, reran with max 9 attacks per box (the mod 10 nature of box attack limit means +10 attacks to a box is a duplicate), there are 10 unique solutions out of 10,000,000 possible combinations. Confirmed there is no other possible valid box code other than 4444444.

        • TomLuca27326040
          Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
          @Celestalon 1230032 1235037 3854212 3859217 5473497 5478492 7092672 7097677 9611857 9616852 Clear pattern above of +0005005 and +2624280. I'll take my free card pack now thanks :)

          • Chadd Nervigg
            Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
            @TomLuca27326040 Nice! So there's one basic solution, but +0005005 and +2624280 are net neutral.

    • footmanfree
      Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
      @Celestalon Hi, will we still be able to complete this achievement and claim the cardback after the barrens expansion is finished in 8 weeks ish? I don't have the epics required for rogue's puzzle, and it will take me some time to get the dust for the required cards.

      • Chadd Nervigg
        Posted 4 years, 4 months ago (Source)
        @footmanfree Yes, this is a permanent addition to the game.
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