The Guardian Ruins Puzzle
08 Nov 2017Robert Phillips
Having accepted Ram Tah's mission, I began my investigation into the Guardians' Ancient Ruins.Some prior research had gone into the Guardian sites already by the Canonn Research Group. In summary, there are hundreds of Guardian ruins sites scattered all across the galaxy, all broadly following one of 3 layout types:
Alpha:
Beta:
Gamma:
At each site were numerous immovable obelisks laid out in a pattern:
Most of these obelisks were broken, or inactive. Some, however, became active and responded with a glowing blue light when my SRV was within a couple of metres range:
Scattered around each site were several ancient artefacts:
Relic:
Totem:
Tablet:
Orb:
Urn:
Casket:
There were at least 2 of each artefact at each site. Scanning active obelisks while carrying any combination of artefacts (a maximum of 2 at any time) resulted in a data packet being received. Ram Tah analysed this immediately and I received one of 3 outcomes:
- A message from Ram Tah saying the combination of artefacts is not correct for that obelisk.
Result: Failure
Description: This meant none of the artefacts being carried at that time were compatible with that obelisk, so I had to try another combination. - No message or response.
Result: Clue
Description: This meant that one of the artefacts in my cargo was compatible with the obelisk, but the other artefact required to complete the scan was not. If I was only carrying one artefact, it meant *that* artefact was one half of a successful combination. If I was carrying 2 artefacts, I had to determine which one of the 2 artefacts was compatible. - A message from Ram Tah saying he was able to successfully decode the data.
Result: Success
Description: This meant that one (or both) of the artefacts were compatible and yielded a successful result. That obelisk would not provide any further data, so could be ignored from then on. I got paid 1 million credits for this data packet.
A single artefact could yield a different data packet when paired with another artefact. Working on the assumption that all possible combinations of pairs were valid (including identical pairs), I could calculate all possible permutations using a simple maths formula used for set calculations:
nr
Where n = the number of items/artefacts (6), and r = the number of elements/combinations in each set (2). This gives us 36 combinations, +6 more for singletons, making a total of 42 possible combinations.
That seemed rather low since I knew Ram Tah said there were at least 101 possible combinations. So what was I missing?
The answer later revealed itself upon collecting the actual data - different site types yielded different results with the same combination of artefacts. Therefore it was impossible to collect all the data without visiting all 3 site types (Alpha, Beta and Gamma).
So, I approached this as follows:
First, I downloaded a list of sites to visit (Cannon's website at https://ruins.canonn.technology/ was particularly helpful here). A recommended list that was known to contain all data points was:
- PLANET: SYNUEFE TP-F B44-0 CD 1
COORDS: 31,88, -100.05
TYPE: Alpha - PLANET: HIP 39768 A 14 F
COORDS: -0.01, -149.47
TYPE: Beta - PLANET: SYNUEFE ZL-J D10-109 E 3
COORDS: -26.65, -148.43
TYPE: Beta - PLANET: COL 173 SECTOR OE-P D6-11 B 3
COORDS: -26.65, -148.43
TYPE: Beta - PLANET: COL 173 SECTOR LY-Q D5-59 8 B
COORDS: -6.34, 130.67
TYPE: Alpha - PLANET: COL 173 SECTOR XG-J C10-17 A 2
COORDS: -17.00, 44.24
TYPE: Beta - PLANET: COL 173 SECTOR UU-O D6-20 6 D
COORDS: -17.39, -104.85
TYPE: Alpha - PLANET: COL 173 SECTOR UU-O D6-30 4 D
COORDS: 24.73, -133.21
TYPE: Gamma - PLANET: COL 173 SECTOR YG-A C15-20 A 1
COORDS: 69.19, -63.96
TYPE: Gamma - PLANET: COL 173 SECTOR YG-A C15-20 A 1
COORDS: -71.00, 169.85
TYPE: Beta - PLANET: COL 173 SECTOR OC-C B29-1 A 4
COORDS: 21.11, 54.58
TYPE: Gamma
At each site:
- I scanned each active obelisk with one artefact in my cargo hold.
- If Ram Tah messaged me to say he had successfully decoded the data, then this obelisk only required one artefact anyway and could be safely ignored from then on.
- If Ram Tah *didn't* message me to say that it was an invalid combination, then this artefact was 1 of 2 artefacts that would provide data from that obelisk.
I made a note of the artefact that was compatible with that obelisk. - I re-scanned each obelisk from (3) using the compatible artefact combined with all other artefacts (including another of the same artefact) until the information was successfully decoded by Ram Tah.
- I returned to step (3) until I had successfully downloaded all data from all obelisks at this site.
NOTES:
- Once an obelisk's data had been successfully decoded, the obelisk could be safely ignored from then on.
- I made a note of each data type downloaded from each obelisk so I didn't end up trying the same combination of artefacts at the same site type, since this would just result in downloading data that had already been received. A spreadsheet was helpful here to keep track of it all.