Easter Eggs & Real World References (Spoilers!)

Discussion in 'Player Created Resources' started by Rinaldi, Sep 5, 2016.

  1. ConjurerDragon

    ConjurerDragon Avatar

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    Perhaps another Princess Bride reference - in the movie the villain who abducted the princess continues to say "Inconceivable" whenvere the hero overcomes an obstacle and still follows them. So often that Diego remarks that he thinks that he does not really know what the word means.

    Ingame the Obsidian Elfs who fight at the three-way-battle (Frostgeists-Guards-Obsidian Elfs) at the farm in Highvale Outskirts say "How.... Inconceivable" in their dying sentence.
     
    Last edited: Nov 18, 2022
  2. ConjurerDragon

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    And it refers to the movie from Monthy Python: "Knights of the Coconut" in which Arthur talks with two people from a village who do not recognize him as King of England with almost the same words (I thought we are a Anarcho-syndicalist commune...)..

     
    Last edited: Nov 18, 2022
  3. ConjurerDragon

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    Banker in Castle Atos when banking "As you wish." Sentence used by Wesley in Princess Bride.
     
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  4. FrostII

    FrostII Bug Hunter

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    On a related note, Monty Python and the Holy Grail is available on Netflix as we speak..... :)
    So bring out yur dead and watch a bit of it together, eh........
     
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  5. ConjurerDragon

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    I have already seen it thrice and thrice is the number to see it. Not twice. Nor quadruple times. Once is all out, as it quintuple times or Netflix. I´d rather hit myself on the head with a wooden board ingame.
     
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  6. ConjurerDragon

    ConjurerDragon Avatar

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    Has someone already mentioned that the Knights of Norgard demand that no coconuts be imported to Norgard? I heard it when asking around for passage by boat from Harvest.
    Seems to refer to the Knights of the Coconut, too.
     
    Last edited: Jan 6, 2023
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  7. Rinaldi

    Rinaldi Bug Hunter

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    Easter Egg: references to songs
    in Ardoris

    If you speak to Chen (a shrine caretaker in Ardoris), and ask him about "Love", part of his response will include the phrase "love lifts us up where we belong".

    [​IMG]

    This phrase is essentially the same as part of the chorus from the song "Up Where We Belong", which was performed by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes, and was featured in the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman. The actual phrase in the song is "love lift us up where we belong" (lift is used instead of lifts).

    The song was (and still is) very popular. Its many accolades include a Grammy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a ranking of #75 of the top 100 songs in American 20th century cinema.

    Thanks to @Barugon for finding this ! See his 2 posts in this thread where he reveals his discovery.
    His finding inspired me to look further, and I found an additional references:

    If you speak to Yen (a shrine caretaker in Ardoris), and ask him about "Love", part of his response will include the phrase "love is a many splendored thing".

    [​IMG]

    This phrase is the same as part of the chorus from the song "Love is a many splendored thing", which was first released in a movie by the same name in 1955. The song won the Academy Award for best original song in 1956, and has been used or referenced in many movies such as Grease, The Nutty Professor, and Moulin Rouge.

    When you ask an NPC about "Love", many of them will respond "Love is all we need", which is a reference to the Beatles song "Love is all you Need."
     
    Last edited: Apr 23, 2023
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  8. Rinaldi

    Rinaldi Bug Hunter

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    Hidden Dialogue (sometimes related to an Easter Egg)

    Hidden dialogue is a NPC text response that must be discovered by typing in the correct trigger word (i.e. the trigger word is hidden from the list of keywords until it is discovered). Sometimes this hidden dialogue is part of a quest (For example, NPC#1 tells you to mention a specific word to NPC#2. When you mention that keyword to NPC#2, some hidden dialogue will be revealed). However, often times the hidden dialogue is not related to a quest, and you have to discover it by guessing. In some cases the keyword works on most NPCs, while in other cases it only works on a specific type of NPC (such as a beggar), on one particular NPC, or on NPCs in a certain region or town. I have listed some examples below:
    More hidden keywords (that are not shown below) which you can try for yourself: sex, love, cough, listen, smell, poo, see, boy, red, yellow, blue, purple
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Some NPCs have hidden dialogue to the Keyword "Lord British" (make sure you use a capital L and B).
    This was found on a Beggar in Central Brittany. Unfortunately, many of the NPCs in Central Brittany don't know who Lord British is (they give a generic "I don't know" type response).
    [​IMG]

    In Castle Atos, many of the NPCs have some minor hidden dialogue for the keyword "Atos"
    Note that some NPCs in castle Atos will give a different response than the one shown below.
    [​IMG]

    Examples of Hidden Dialogue for a Specific NPC (spoilers ahead!):

    Hidden Dialogue for Helen's Ghost (In that post, see "Spoiler: Helen's Hidden Dialogue")

    Hidden Dialogue for Owen's Ghost (In that post, see "Spoiler: Owen's Hidden Dialogue")

    Hidden Dialogue in Lord British's Safe

    Hidden Dialogue for Farrokh Bulsara


    I am sure there is more hidden dialogue out there...so try mentioning new words to the NPCs and see what you find!

    Equip-able Items that Alter Your Avatar's Chat
    Although not directly related to what is described above, this surprise occurs when you have a certain item equipped and you type specific keywords in chat and press return: it will change the text you broadcast in chat.
    The items and keywords are described in this post.
     
    Last edited: Dec 4, 2023
  9. Rinaldi

    Rinaldi Bug Hunter

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    Easter Eggs & April Fools

    On April 1st 2023, a combination of an April Fools joke and some Easter Eggs were added to SOTA for only one day (as a celebration for the 10th anniversary of SOTA). This surprise was accessible to most players who logged in to SOTA during April 1st 2023 (starting from 00:00 UTC and lasting 24 hours). New players who had not yet completed the Battle of Solace Bridge scene did not experience this surprise.

    When you logged into SOTA, instead of going to the overworld or to the last zone you were in, the game loaded into a scene called "Remnant of the Past", where you appeared in a dark room that contained the following:
    1. A lit torch (which could be extinguished and re-lit)
    2. A chicken with 2 hit points, which if killed, yielded the usual chicken loot of raw eggs, feathers, and a chicken carcass. It re-spawned a few minutes after killing it.
    3. A pedestal with a book on it (the book was titled "The Tale of Ye Old Chicken Room")
    4. A sign post that read "Chicken Room II (Once more, with feeling!)"
    5. A light beam that shined from a pipe in the ceiling, and radiated to a spot on the wall.
    6. Eggs with a decorated shell (Easter Eggs!)
    7. Other decorative items: a wood pile and a wooden chair.
    Dark room without Night Vision
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
    Dark Room with Night Vision Active - the chair is difficult to see, but it is near the sign post.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Here are more details regarding the scene, its surprises, and its Easter Eggs!


    The Book
    "The Tale of Ye Old Chicken Room" describes the development and content of SOTA release 1 (which was released in 2013). The only content in release 1 was a dungeon-like room with a torch, a chair, and an unkill-able chicken (later, a woodpile was also added). Ten years later, all of these items were recreated in the Chicken Room II, although the chicken was finally kill-able. The book recounts this SOTA history and includes a nice "Thank you" from the developers to the players. The avatar could take this book and use it as deco.

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG] [​IMG]


    The Light Beam and Beyond
    The beam created a circle of light on the wall, which was a hint to inspect the wall in that location. Within the circle of light, there was a camouflaged stone switch that opened a secret door. The secret door revealed a staircase going down.
    As you descended down the stairs, you encountered a sign on the wall that stated "Is this trip really necessary?"

    [​IMG]

    With Night Vision Active
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    At the bottom of the staircase was a small room that contained a sign post, a chest, and a wooden door. The sign post stated "Happy Aprils Fools' Day!"
    The chest contained some gold, red worms, and a package called "Bundled April Fools 2023 Treasure".
    The bundled package contained only one item: the April Fools' Jester Staff 2023 (later, this item was renamed to "April Fools' Jester Scepter 2023").
    You could exit this scene by clicking on the wooden door, and it would take you to the zone (or overworld) where you were heading before you were temporarily diverted to the Chicken Room II.

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    The picture below was taken on April 1st 2023. The following day, they renamed this item (and its pattern) to "April Fools' Jester Scepter 2023" (but the item's stats and appearance remained the same).
    [​IMG]

    Jester Scepter when Equipped

    [​IMG]
    Jester Scepter as Deco
    [​IMG]
    Exit door (in this case, I was going to Wizards Rest when I logged in, so the exit is taking me to Wizards Rest)
    [​IMG]

    All of the Easter Eggs in this Scene
    1. Literal Easter eggs - there were five eggs (each with a decorated shell) that were strewn throughout this zone (some of them were well hidden). The eggs could not be taken and they did not have any function (hovering the mouse over them or clicking on them had no effect). During the Catnip developer stream on April 3rd, a prize was given for the player who guessed the correct number of Easter eggs in the zone.
    2. Grue - Above the backside of the secret door, there was a sign that read "Beware of the Grue!" This was an Easter Egg referring to a fictional ferocious monster (called a "Grue") that dwelt in dark places (note: the secret door opens into a very dark room, where such a creature could dwell!). The term "Grue" was initially used by Jack Vance in The Dying Earth series of books. The Grue was subsequently used in several video games, including World of Warcraft and Zork (a text based adventure game initially released in 1977). Ravalox (a developer) said his inspiration for this reference was actually Colossal Cave Adventure (a text based adventure game released in 1976, and the predecessor to Zork) which used bottomless pits in dark areas to prevent players from moving around in darkness. If a player went into the darkness, they would risk falling into the pit. Early versions of Zork adopted these pits. But, Zork was set in a different environment, which led to pits appearing in unlikely places, such as the attic of a house. Thus, Zork's developer created a light-fearing, darkness dwelling monster that served the same function as the bottomless pits, and named these monsters after the "Grue" from Jack Vance's books.
      [​IMG]
    3. The Chicken Room 2 - as stated previously, this was a recreation of the content in SOTA release 1, and was an homage to the humble beginning of SOTA.
    4. "Is this trip really necessary?" - this sign is a reference to the World War II slogan "Is this trip really necessary?" which encouraged Americans to reconsider their travel in order to save oil and gas for the war effort. This phrase subsequently appeared in multiple forms of post-war entertainment, including cartoons, a Get Smart episode, and pokeman cards. Ravalox (a developer) stated that he took this reference from the cartoon episodes called "Falling Hare" and "Baseball Bugs". In "Falling Hare", Bugs Bunny talks about running out of gas because he had a "A" type gas rationing card. In "Baseball Bugs", Bugs Bunny holds up a sign stating "Was this trip really necessary?" Here is another example of the phrase in a Woody Woodpecker cartoon:

    This 2023 10-year anniversary Easter egg and April Fools was an awesome surprise ! Thanks developers! This was epic!

    For another SOTA April Fools joke and Easter egg (from 2014), see this post.
     
    Last edited: Apr 7, 2023
  10. Rinaldi

    Rinaldi Bug Hunter

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    Easter Egg - reference to Ultima, Lord British, & Richard Garriott
    In Port Harmony

    If you talk to the news-hawker named Garrulus (located near the North entrance and near the stables), his responses include multiple mentions of horses (to trigger some of the horse dialogue, use the keywords "name" and "horse"). Now type in something Garrulus won't understand (such as "zzz") and press return. Do this multiple times and you will see that some of his responses to the gibberish include the phrase "One of the horses can talk. I'm sure of it!" Of note, "Garrulus" means talkative in latin (the talkative news-hawker is apparently communicating with the talkative horse).
    [​IMG]
    This is a clue that you should try to talk to the horses in the nearby stables.

    This Easter Egg refers to Smith the Talking Horse (from Ultima), Killing of Lord British (in Ultima), and Garriott's real life adventures.

    Triggering the Easter Eggs
    In the stables, try to talk to the horses by doubling-clicking on them. Double-clicking the blanket horse will open up a conversation window with the keywords "name" and "job", but clicking on these keywords only gives horse sounds in response.
    [​IMG]

    Type in the the hidden key words "Lord British"
    [​IMG]
    Here are two of the responses based on which option you select above.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Type "Lord British" again
    [​IMG]
    Now that you have gotten the horse to speak to you, you can ask "name" and "job" to get a new response:
    [​IMG]
    Now type "kill" and then press return.

    Methods to Kill Lord British
    Keep typing "kill" and then pressing return to see all the different responses. The 6 responses I found are shown below.
    [​IMG]
    In several of the Ultima games (specifically 4,5,6, and 7), a talking horse name "Smith" dwelt in the stables. Smith eventually died from a plague in Ultima 7. In Ultima 4, talking to Smith would reveal that he was on a mission to lessen the amount of hay in the kingdom, and Smith proclaimed "Hay, thou hath met thy nemesis, thy doom, and his name is Smith!" (which are the words used by Wessen in the SOTA dialogue above).

    [​IMG]
    "Dumping him in the deepest trench" of the ocean refers to Garriott's trip to the bottom of the Mariana Trench (it is the deepest oceanic trench on Earth).


    [​IMG]
    May be a reference to Garriott's space travel?

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Type the Keyword "Stableboy"
    [​IMG]
    This refers to another SOTA Easter egg involving Nob the stableboy in Owls Head, and it's giving you a hint that you should ask Nob about "kill Lord British" (Nob's Easter egg is described in this post).

     
    Last edited: Apr 27, 2023
  11. Barugon

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    [​IMG]
     
  12. ConjurerDragon

    ConjurerDragon Avatar

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    Most of your links are dead. Could you add this?

    Area: Spite (Novia_R5_City_Spite) Loc: (336.238, 72.199, -156.403) DBG: Tm92aWFfUjVfQ2l0eV9TcGl0ZXx8KDMzNi4yMzgsIDcyLjE5OSwgLTE1Ni40MDMpfCgwLCAwLjg4NCwgMCwgLTAuNDY4KXw2MDguNTQzOHw0MS42NTQ0NHw0LjQyNTY0NA==

    In that screenshot I scrolled out as far as I could. You see my Avatar standing next to the Sweety Bird memorial, table with letter on the small plateau in the middle of the rock cliff. In the background you can see one of the two giant fallen trees that you need to cross to get there from the way:

    [​IMG]
     
  13. Rinaldi

    Rinaldi Bug Hunter

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    The links are not dead, and they function fine for me. The links are http: (not https), so perhaps your browser is set to block http: links.
     
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  14. ConjurerDragon

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    No, HTTPS-only mode is not enabled in my FF 102.11esr, yet I do not see any image in the post of yours.
     
  15. Anpu

    Anpu Avatar

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    Images are loading for me as well. Chrome.
     
  16. Barugon

    Barugon Avatar

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    Many of the images are not loading for me as well (Firefox), I just see the IMG tag. However, if I right click the IMG tag and select "Open Image in New Tab" then I can see it.

    When I open the image in a new tab then it's using HTTPS: https://i.imgur.com/1s5nnu7.png
    I suspect that if you edited those posts and changed the URLs to use HTTPS then it would just work.
     
  17. Aurelius Silverson

    Aurelius Silverson Avatar

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    Not exactly helpful, but for me Firefox shows the images just fine, as does opening them in separate tabs. I'm inclined to think it might be a security setting somewhere in antivirus or firewall, perhaps an adblocker, or even a browser setting - but the possible interaction of so many things makes it hard to really make sense of it happening to some and not others.
     
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  18. Sannio

    Sannio Lead Quest and Level Designer Moderator SOTA Developer

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    I have Firefox, Chrome, and Edge on my Windows PC. Chrome and Edge have default settings and both show the images. Firefox doesn't show the images, but it also has "Don’t enable HTTPS-Only Mode" turned on. Seems like a Firefox issue. I don't have any adblockers. My assumption is that the "HTTPS-Only Mode" might specifically be talking about loading web pages and images (and other links?) using http are checked blocked with a different Firefox setting.
     
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  19. Rinaldi

    Rinaldi Bug Hunter

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    I don't use firefox, so this is a guess: perhaps firefox has a separate setting that blocks the http content when a webpage has mixed (http & https) content.
    For example, the shroud forum webpage is https, but many the picture links on the Easter egg pages are http links (so, the page has a mixture of https & http).
    See this info on "Mixed Content Blocking in Firefox":
    https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/mixed-content-blocking-firefox
    If that is the issue, perhaps Firefox users can consider enabling mixed content for the shroud forums?
    I dunno....just throwing this possibility out there.
    It would take a lot of time to change all the picture links...time I currently don't have.
     
  20. ConjurerDragon

    ConjurerDragon Avatar

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    I tried that and that works for me too. FF 102.11.0esr (64-bit).
    No image in Rinaldi´s post, only the "IMG" tag and when rightclicking and chosing "open link in new tab" THEN the missing picture is shown.