Silver Coins......

[Jaime and Mike]

Hi all..... We are now the proud owners of a silver coin. Most of the time silver coin winners don't post much about their adventure, so we thought that we would have a go and see if people agree with what we think!!

We had been working on the Yorkshire pyramid for some time, with a trip already made to try and locate the actual site of the Pyramid.... unfortunatly we were slightly off on the location, but never-the-less we still went back to the constant googleing and searching, sure that we must be close.

We have been busy this year, as we are moving away from the UK soon and have had lots of planning to do, so we have not been on the forum as much as we would have liked... but we have still managed to keep up with peoples psotings.

We were obviously disappointed when we saw the posting that someone had finally solved the Yorkshire pyramid (Congratulations Hannah) as I'm sure everyone who has been concentrating on one pyramid can understand. But obviously at the same time couldn't wait to see the full solution.... to see where we had gone wrong with our own thoughts and searchings. It was good to read the entire posting, but frustrating that we had ALMOST found the location on our own (we had been about 1 mile away).

We planned our trip back up to Yorkshire yesterday, and sure enough found the shop the pyramid is located in. The pyramid was opened, and a silver coin gained... but we couldn't help but feel a little dissapointed.

The pyramid keeper 'Mrs Doc' was very nice, its good when the keepers take up the adventure as much as the actual adventurers, and after browsing around the shop we purchased an item from the shop with the promised £50 discount for claiming a silver coin!!

We then had a browse around Bedale before jumping back in the car for the 3 hour journey back. Abviously a lot of time to talk, and we agreed that we did feel like we had 'cheated'. As we had not actually solved the location of the pyramid ourselves.

now we had a few thoughts.... It is a good idea for pyramid solvers to post their solutions as it does give people an idea of what thinking has gone into setting up the riddles, and obviosly the jubilation that must be felt when you have finally managed to claim that gold.... of course you want to tell everyone how you managed to get to it!!!

We think it would be an idea for the part of the riddles that solves the password to be posted, leaving the locatoin a mystery still for all other hunters. Then if you do finally find that location you will still have solved part of the riddle.

We undertsand that some people will say that it was still our choice to go to that pyramid, but with the rising costs of fuel, the majority of people will only go for the pyramid that is closet to them.... And the amount of hours already spent in trying to solve that pyramid would have been all for nothing otherwise. If we were staying in the UK we may have switched track to a different pyramid, but with the upheavel of moving and the imminent (said with tongue in cheek) release of ISIS II, we wanted to finish our ISIS I adventure.

Just our thoughts on our adventure..... It has still been an enjoyable one.... Roll on ISIS II.

Jaime And Mike

[antp]

Well done for sticking at it i think that a lot have just given up, I think that you are wright it would feel better if you do part on your own and just get a bit of help you feel like you have acheved something then. Good luck with the move and i hope you join in the isis II adventure, i hope that you get a pyramid where you get posted next.

[Dr Iguana]

Comments and suggestions on JaimeandMike’s post.

Congratulations on the silver. You should have told me you intended to visit us yesterday; I would have liked to pop over to the shop to meet you. I would have told you that it was you who persuaded me to join in the forum back in January. I had been thinking about it for a week or so but when I saw your post in mid-January saying that your search had taken you to Leeming I finally decided to stick in my two penn’orth. After being so close I think you could be justified in clearing your minds of thoughts that you had cheated in any way.

That the location of a pyramid should be kept secret after the first finding and opening is certainly what Sonicwarp had in mind when the idea was first mooted and put into practise; it would certainly be the ideal situation now if it could be brought about. SW probably assumed that the silver coins would move fairly quickly once the gold had been taken but this is not proving to be the case. The value of a standard silver coin, at £20, is low in relation to the cost of following the search and not many hunters wish to remove themselves from the game for that value. Even at my wife’s increased offer of £50 they are moving only slowly and at the present rate this means that it could probably take up to a year to move out all ten of the silver coins that were in the pyramid. I understand that the silver coins in other opened pyramids are moving even more slowly than that.

With the open forum that we enjoy it would be virtually impossible to keep the location a secret for all that time; and if it cannot be hidden for the whole life of the silver coins, why try to keep the secret at all? Add into this matter the fact that the local PR that any sensible pyramid keeper will go for will put the location in the public eye anyway then the secret becomes a somewhat open one. Those who buy their Isis from the store that has a pyramid already know the location and many pyramid locations seem to be well known even before the first opening.

So how can SW put the fun back into the search and help hunters like JaimeandMike to gain their prize without feeling slightly uncomfortable about it? Some suggestions.

1. Abandon the silver coins altogether and have lots more pyramid locations with just one gold coin. When it’s gone, it’s gone, tell the world about it.

2. Reduce the number of silver coins to five, make the password necessary for silver but taking silver does not remove you from the game. Try to keep it out of the forum. Keeper waits till all coins have gone before PR announcement.

3. There are just three coins in each pyramid, Gold, Silver, and Bronze (acknowledgements to Sue) with Silver and Bronze being, say, two thirds and one-third of the Gold prize. Passwords necessary. We may stand a chance of keeping the location and password a secret for this length of time (say three months).

As Sue says, let’s try to get the fun back into it.

[evilkeen]

Thank you for some thoughtful and good suggestions, Jaime and Mike and Dr Iguana. A few more thoughts ...

I agree, I don't think it is realistic to keep the location secret once the gold has gone. I also don't think it would be realistic to post the solution to the password and not the location, because part of solving the riddle is working out which part of the clue relates to location and which to password. Personally I would be very frustrated if I located a pyramid and solved a password only to find that the gold had already gone, especially if I had done a lot of travelling, so it seems reasonable that these details are posted.

However, given the relatively small prize associated with a silver coin, I am not surprised that they are slow to be taken. When Hannah took her gold coin in Yorkshire I could have claimed a silver there and then, but why would I want to be out of the game and lose any chance of a gold just for £20? (Sorry Doc £50 in your case).

The idea of Gold, Silver and Bronze I am not so sure about either. From the keeper's point of view I would think that any PR when the Gold is claimed needs to happen straight away to be effective, not months later when all three coins have gone. Even more importantly though, it would encourage 'multiple' claims - we have recently seen a case of someone with two ISIS claiming a gold and silver at the same time, and I can see friends who might be working on clues together anyway going along with a correct password and three keys to empty the pyramid!

Much better I think is the idea to have more pyramids, each with just a gold coin. After all, 10 silver coins worth £20 each is £200, nearly half a gold coin already! Effectively that's what already happens with the virtual pyramids. Maybe some of the pyramids could have a coin worth £250 (a new incarnation of the 'silver' coin) instead, with a slightly easier clue, which would encourage some of the poeple who have bemoaned the fact that the clues are too hard.

That would surely help put the fun back into it!

[Jaime and Mike]

Hey Doc..... It was a bit of a last minute thing... like i've said we're pretty busy at the moment what with packing and all, but i managed to persuade the old ball and chain that a nice trip up to the Yorkshire country side would be a nice diversion.... As it turns out we had to drive through awfull torrential rain, and upon arrival had to dig the umbrella out of the boot of the car..... Still we did go to a cafe/bakery up the road and treated ourselves to bakewell tarts!!!!

It would have been nice to meet you... with a bit of forward thinking, we should have contacted you..... maybe next time.... if there is a next time!!! thank you for the encouraging comments, maybe you'll get to meet the next Pyramid hunters!!!!

BTW, it seems you are an avid fan of the ISIS adventure, did you ever think about trying any of sonic warps other products e.g the NKrypter, or even the new NKUBIT (When it is finally released!!!???). I realise it doesn't involve the same adventure as the ISIS but i believe your not allowed to take part in this adventure???!!!

Hey you could even try this Geocaching that everyone else keeps going on about

[LouIsis]

The gold-silver-bronze option by the Doc is a great idea!
We know there already are pyramids of which the gold is gone while nobody (but the finder, keeper, and Puzz) knows about it. The next adventurer going there with a password (verified on-line or not) is probably going to be really disappointed.
Finding either 2nd or 3rd prize is definitely more satisfying then finding one of the about 250 existing "not first" prizes, which seem to be not so 'wanted' at this moment even when the pyramid location is known.
There could even be an indication on the pyramid page when the 1st or 2nd prize has gone, still keeping the location (if not publicly known already) and password a secret.

I vote for the gold-silver-bronze option, which has the additional benefit of being easier to explain & understand than the current system.
Of course there shoud be max 1 prize per person (per pyramid) then.

Another nice side-efect would be that SW will have over 200 silver coins left, which could then be hidden as free search tokens!

[Sue]

Perhaps three sets of clues and three coins are required for each pyramid.

One clue for the location, if you crack it you can collect a Bronze coin which is just a coin and has no value but you remain in the adventure.

An easier set of clues for a silver password, the silver would be for a voucher redeemable with the pyramid keeper and you would still remain in adventure.

One clue for the Gold which will be far more difficult but the prize would reflect this. Gold takes you out of the adventure.

Each pyramid would contain 1 gold, 5 silver and 10 bronze

They can be taken in any order.

You can only take one coin per Isis key at that location.

Professionally written clues is a must.

[Lodgecrest]

Sue I too like this idea, There must be different clues becasue it would be far to easy for someone who has solved it to PM his forum buddies the location and password and claim any prize money.

So by removing any larger 2nd/3rd prize it does keep people looking.

I have a three Sliver coins now Two from Pyramids and one from a free hunt. I have only register one coin to claim the £20 prize money, the other is travelling the world

http://www.geocaching.com/track/map_gm.aspx?ID=894047

[Sue]

Thank you. None of my post are meant to be negative; they are ideas to keep everybody happy, the continuation of the adventure and SW.

There are a great many of us who bought an Isis purely to join the adventure, we are treasure hunters, we don’t do it for monetary gain we do it for the challenge of correctly interpreting the clues and there are a lot more of us than you would imagine.

[Dooners]

I personally like reading about the gold finds, and how people worked out the clues. It does help to understand, just how obscure Puzz is!

People should (and from what I have see do), just make the post clear about what is being revealed. Then if someone still wants to work out the riddle for a silver, they should just make sure they don't read the post!

simple, right onto world peace......

[kitkit]

I take it as i'd rather get a gold coin as i need the money, and to me a silver coin isn't really worth it, if the silver was worth like £100 then yep i've go for it. The whole revealing how they worked out the password is also nice, as it then gives you an insight into what the riddles can be like, and perhaps help boost your confidence in being able to solve it and where to start etc. That's what i found with the Cornwall pyramid solution. Also the idea with being able to remain in the adventure is a good idea, it'd certainly get me trying to hunt down as many siler coins as possible, although you'd perhaps have to keep that solution secret as they'll then have to keep changing the riddle to get a silver coin, or they limit it to one silver per pyramid? once you've taken a coin from a pyramid, you can then no longer take another coin until the riddle has been changed - perhaps when it's restocked if they don't want to have to keep finding new pyramid locations?

I like the whole adventue etc but when times are rough and money is tight, i just wish i had the time and the ability to solve the damn password so i could get a gold coin and hopefully then solve some of the other problems going on in my life! Instead i don't really get anywhere with the password and end up not sorting something else out
I'm just being stubborn and don't want to end my Isis I adventure with going and getting a silver as i then won't really be happy as i've not really gained financially like i know i could... although i do like the idea of only having one gold (silver and bronze) coin in each pyramid, and then once a coin goes then it's put up somewhere so you know... just can't stand the idea of working on the password to only have the gold taken out the week before and you then only ending up with a silver.
It's a bit like the free searches, unless you check the forum right before you go and that no-one else is going for it that day, then you can never know if someone's just picked you to it. It was the one thought on the way back from Barton Fell after finding the free search, that any of the other walkers up there could've been a lurker looking for it too, but i've just picked them to the post and they'll then spend the rest of the day looking for it etc.

Sorry that's my thoughts... if i've repeated anything or said anything daft please bear with me... kind of reaching my bed time! lol

[bluesign2k]

...Also the idea with being able to remain in the adventure is a good idea, it'd certainly get me trying to hunt down as many siler coins as possible, although you'd perhaps have to keep that solution secret as they'll then have to keep changing the riddle to get a silver coin, or they limit it to one silver per pyramid?...

I like the idea of being able to stay in the adventure too, but I think it would present too many problems.
Firstly, the locations would have to be kept secret, so when they get solved you wouldn't have solutions posted on the forum, hence less insight into the thinking behind the riddles.... doesn't really bother me but I know some people like having the solutions revealed.
Secondly, I think it'd bring back the whole problem of morons posting lists of pyramid locations around the internet. If it were possible to collect multiple coins using one ISIS then you'd just get people searching out such lists, looting all the pyramids and having the potential to collect hundreds of pounds... so then there would have to be pyramid passwords for silver coins that would need to be changed after every silver is claimed... and I cant see that going down too well

...I'm just being stubborn and don't want to end my Isis I adventure with going and getting a silver as i then won't really be happy as i've not really gained financially like i know i could...

Stick at it!
There were many times when I was tempted to goto the Selfridges pyramid in Birmingham to pick up a silver coin (before the pyramid was removed), but I didn't, I stuck at it and now Im glad I didnt Yeh, it took a hell of a long time to get a gold but it was well worth it! Don't give in to the silver coins