Secrets Inside the Box

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Wuzzy
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Secrets Inside the Box

by Wuzzy » Post

Inside The Box is one of my favourite servers. It also has a couple of nice secrets. In this thread I like to collect them. ALL OF THEM! :D

WARNING: For obvious reasons, this thread will contain a ton of spoilers. Do not read ahead if you do not want to get spoiled. You have been warned!
Spoiler
The Nexus
OK, this might not even be a secret.

In the middle, there is a large Nexus block with the text “The Nexus” written above. That's not a secret.
But the point of this large Nexus block remains a mystery. Why is it labelled “The Nexus”? Why “THE” Nexus? Is it the Nexus of all Nexusses? What makes it special? Why is it larger than all other Nexus cubes?

There seems to be no way to interact with this block in any way.

This block might or might not hide a secret. Probably not. Maybe it's just decoration. But sofar seems to remain a bit secretive about this. Hmmmm …

Feel free to post your wildest speculations! :D
Spoiler
Soft spoiler 1: On the Main Islands (spawning area, when you join the server), there are a few small secrets and hidden areas.

Soft spoiler 2: Most Tutorial levels have hidden areas with a secret story behind them.

Soft spoiler 3: Box number 8 has an easter egg in the form of a sign.
Spoiler
MAIN ISLANDS
The spawning area (which I call “Main Islands”) hold a couple of interesting secrets, and maybe not all of them have been discovered yet. I will discuss this below:

Meeting Room
At coordinates (-50, -14, 45) and (-50, -14, 25) on the Main Islands, there are doors to a locked and very dark room with a sign “Meeting room”.
These doors are shut, and there seems to be no way to enter.
Through the door you can see something like tables. From one side you can see two switches.
Image
Image

If you take a screenshot and jack up the brightness, you can reveal a message on a “whiteboard”:
Image
Transcription:
Todays topics:
- erase the board after
meetings
- make difficult boxes
- clean up creative
inventory
EDIT: On November, 2018, it was discovered by me that the text has been changed! The new text is:
You forgot to erase the
sign, again!
Forest Pedestal
The Main Islands have an area with a large forest on it. If you explore it, you will quickly notice there is a strange pedestal in the middle.
Image
It it possible to reach this pedestal by a hidden path through the leaves. Go to (-65, -23.5, 115) to find the entrance. Once inside, you can walk to the pedestal and you will see a sign. The sign has no text. Interacting with either the pedestal or sign by hand has no effect.
You can leave the forest by going to (-63, -24.5, 99) and following another path through the leaves.

I find this place quite puzzling, it raises so many questions:
  • What is the purpose of the pedestal?
  • Is there a hidden Nexus block? If yes, where can it be found? And what happens if you place it on the pedestal?
  • Are there other hidden pedestals in the Main Islands?
There are two possibilities:
  • Three is no Nexus block, and the secret ends here (or is not implemented yet).
  • There IS a Nexus block, but it's really well hidden. In that case, I am almost certain something truly crazy will happen if you put it on the pedestal. Maybe a pathway into a dungeon will open. Maybe you learn the secret which opens the Meeting Room. Maybe you will teleport you to secret box. I have no clue!
What we know for sure is that the Nexus block (if it exists) does not come from the tutorials:
sofar wrote:
Christian_Soldier wrote:Does any of the other boxes' "extra" content have anything to do with the secret pedestal in the forest biome?
You can't take any nexus blocks out of boxes, so, that would not be possible.
The Scores Pressure Plate
On the Main Islands, on the Island named “Scores”, there is a hidden pressure plate near coordinates (23, -14.5, 94). This is the first hidden mechanism that has been found on the Main Islands.

If you step on it, there is apparently no change. At least, no change has been observed yet. Also, no sound of anything being triggered (like a door) can be heard. It is currently unknown if this triggers anything or is just a decoy. My hypothesis is that it is NOT a decoy and possibly related to the Forest Pedestal. But it has not been discovered yet if this actually triggers anything, and if yes, where and how.

I have posted a deep analysis of the pressure plate here: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=20925#p356691

The Cracked Box
There is an area in the Main Islands at roughly (-13, -2, -40) that seems impossible to reach, which I call “The Cracked Box”, due to it shaped like a box with a large crack at the bottom.
Image
You can have a glimpse into this area through holes and cracks, but nobody seems to have found a way inside yet.
It seems to be kinda connected to the broken boxes which you reach after you completed the tutorial, but even from there I failed to find a way inside. :-(

Maybe this means nothing, and it really is impossible to reach and it's just decoration. Or it might hide a real secret, who knows? If you found a way inside, please post about it, thank you very much! :D
Spoiler
TUTORIAL SECRETS
Most tutorial levels have well-hidden areas with tell a bit of a secret story behind them.
There is quite a lot to find here, but I am too lazy to write it all down here, maybe someone else will.
For now, let's just say, if you explore the levels a bit, you have a chance in finding them.

In the Inside The Box thread a few people have written some useful hints, but it's pretty chaotic. Would be cool if someone could write a guide.

Posts with hints (need to be structured):
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=18406&start=300#p320893
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=18406&start=300#p320903
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=18406&start=300#p320904
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=18406&start=300#p320941
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=18406&start=300#p320980
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=18406&start=325#p323440

EASTER-EGGS IN BOXES
At least one non-Tutorial box has a little easter-egg with a hidden sign: Box number 8. If you have managed to reach the hut near the exit, inspect all 4 outside walls. There is a funny sign on one of them.

It is possible there are more easter eggs in other boxes. Boxes by sofar might have even more easter eggs, as box 8 and all tutorial boxes are made by sofar. But this is just speculation. I am not yet aware of easter eggs in boxes by other players. Or I have forgotten about them. xD
If you found any secret, please post them. :) If you think you have a clue to something, but did not yet quite solve the mystery, that's also nice. Wild speculations are also fun.

Maybe one day the collected secrets will be posted on the Minetest Wiki to make it all more readable. Maybe.
Last edited by Wuzzy on Tue Sep 10, 2019 01:13, edited 3 times in total.

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Re: Secrets Inside the Box

by Lone_Wolf » Post

Big thanks to my slow internet. I caught a glimpse of this before a mapblock loaded
Image
activated nexus block, a few torches. and a tunnel that goes down and then stops. Possibly unfinished?

And about the meeting room: It says 'Erase the board after meetings'. It's not erased. So wouldn't that mean the meeting was still going on?
Something might be invisible...
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Re: Secrets Inside the Box

by v-rob » Post

Actually, in the meeting room, there are three switches. If you look at your screenshot with the brightness, there is a switch next to the whiteboard. So that makes three switches: Two turned off, and one turned on.

As for the broken box with no entrance, the entrance does exist. Go to the tutorial and look straight up right next to the teleporter. It's not a very helpful entrance, but it is one nonetheless.

Another, rather useless, secret is that you can go to the buildings with the ratings above them in the Play section and go to the one with the flat eyes and mouth. From there, you can jump to the top of the tutorial area, although there's nothing on top of it.

Of course, something might happen if you toggle the correct switches in the library under the Build section, but I doubt it.
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Re: Secrets Inside the Box

by Wuzzy » Post

That is quite an amazing fine, Lone_Wolf. But I also guess it's just an unfinished section, especially since there is already a Nexus block placed.
As for the broken box with no entrance, the entrance does exist. Go to the tutorial and look straight up right next to the teleporter. It's not a very helpful entrance, but it is one nonetheless.
That path does not lead you to the huge broken box, however. You can replay the tutorial to get teleported to the place you went to after getting introduced to the Main Islands. You might remember … The downside is, you have to replay the ENTIRE tutorial. But you will not teleport to the large broken box, but something else. Look around carefully. From up there, you can see the broken box, too, but I have found no way to reach it.

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Re: Secrets Inside the Box

by v-rob » Post

Wuzzy wrote:
As for the broken box with no entrance, the entrance does exist. Go to the tutorial and look straight up right next to the teleporter. It's not a very helpful entrance, but it is one nonetheless.
That path does not lead you to the huge broken box, however. You can replay the tutorial to get teleported to the place you went to after getting introduced to the Main Islands. You might remember … The downside is, you have to replay the ENTIRE tutorial. But you will not teleport to the large broken box, but something else. Look around carefully. From up there, you can see the broken box, too, but I have found no way to reach it.
Well, what I mean is the place in the nexus where you go to replay the tutorial, not after the tutorial. The entrance is straight up and impossible to get up, but it is the only path there that I can see.
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Re: Secrets Inside the Box

by Wuzzy » Post

Oh, now I understand! That's interesting. I never noticed that drop hole.

Speculation: Maybe you get teleported to The Broken Box after completing the tutorial in a special way, or finding a secret exit, or something. There are quite a few secrets in the tutorial, after all, and maybe not all of them have been discovered yet.

Hmmmmm …

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Re: Secrets Inside the Box

by Christian_Soldier » Post

I think that the "entrance" to the broken box is actually an exit.
plz see my map from The Stanley Parable. viewtopic.php?f=12&t=19944&p=0&e=0

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Re: Secrets Inside the Box

by Christian_Soldier » Post

Lone_Wolf wrote: And about the meeting room: It says 'Erase the board after meetings'. It's not erased. So wouldn't that mean the meeting was still going on?
Something might be invisible...
Maybe the people that used to be there (in the story of Inside The Box) had to leave before they could finish...maybe because of an emergency...
plz see my map from The Stanley Parable. viewtopic.php?f=12&t=19944&p=0&e=0

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Re: Secrets Inside the Box

by sofar » Post

This thread is awesome. It may just be enough motivation for me to add more content again - I've been really really busy with work, but we're headed into the darker winter months and I will have some more time to sit down soon, I hope.

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Re: Secrets Inside the Box

by Christian_Soldier » Post

sofar wrote:This thread is awesome. It may just be enough motivation for me to add more content again - I've been really really busy with work, but we're headed into the darker winter months and I will have some more time to sit down soon, I hope.
Awesome. :)
plz see my map from The Stanley Parable. viewtopic.php?f=12&t=19944&p=0&e=0

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Re: Secrets Inside the Box

by Christian_Soldier » Post

Hey, do you guys know how to get into all of the Tutorial secrets yet?
plz see my map from The Stanley Parable. viewtopic.php?f=12&t=19944&p=0&e=0

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Re: Secrets Inside the Box

by v-rob » Post

Christian_Soldier wrote:
Lone_Wolf wrote: And about the meeting room: It says 'Erase the board after meetings'. It's not erased. So wouldn't that mean the meeting was still going on?
Something might be invisible...
Maybe the people that used to be there (in the story of Inside The Box) had to leave before they could finish...maybe because of an emergency...
Well, if you look at some of the later tutorials and the broken boxes in the nexus, that actually seems rather probable. There are quite a few things to support that claim.
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Tutorial Secrets

by Wuzzy » Post

I am starting to write down the first Tutorial secrets. But first, something about terminals:
Spoiler
Terminals have some things going on that are not obvious to everyone.

You probably found a couple of locked terminals in the game. In the locked state, all commands will fail. These terminals tell you you have to type “unlock”, but it turns out you are never allowed to do that. But here's the trick: In most boxes, there is usually another way to unlock them. Anything that can trigger stuff (switches, buttons, placing a Nexus cube on a pedestal, ...) can unlock a terminal. If you managed to unlock a terminal, it will behave like a normal terminal and you can access all its files.
Note there is no guarantee that all locked terminals in a box are actually unlockable.

Terminals can also serve as triggers themselves. They trigger as soon you open them. Which means things might happen just for opening a terminal.
Spoiler
Tutorial 1 of 8
There is a terminal in this room, but it starts locked. To unlock it, simply place the Nexus cube on the pedestal, then you can access its contents.

Tutorial 2 of 8
In one of the ways downwards there is a cul de sac with a locked terminal. It unlocks after you placed the Nexus cube.
Hint: To re-enter any tutorial, use the /enter command and the number in the list of boxes.

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Re: Secrets Inside the Box

by v-rob » Post

Alright, everybody! I've noticed a few updates to Inside the Box! First off, the meeting room has changed. There are more lights behind bars inside, and the whiteboard now says "You forgot to erase the sign, again!"

Also, in the Create building on the very top floor behind one of the green create teleport panels, there is a pressure plate that doesn't seem to do anything. I listened when I pressed it but I didn't notice anything.

I haven't checked out the tutorials yet, but they also might have some updates.

It seems sofar kept his word when he said that he might start making some new content again ;-)
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Re: Secrets Inside the Box

by Christian_Soldier » Post

v-rob wrote:Alright, everybody! I've noticed a few updates to Inside the Box! First off, the meeting room has changed. There are more lights behind bars inside, and the whiteboard now says "You forgot to erase the sign, again!"

Also, in the Create building on the very top floor behind one of the green create teleport panels, there is a pressure plate that doesn't seem to do anything. I listened when I pressed it but I didn't notice anything.

I haven't checked out the tutorials yet, but they also might have some updates.

It seems sofar kept his word when he said that he might start making some new content again ;-)
Awesome! I'll go back on Inside The Box again today, then.
plz see my map from The Stanley Parable. viewtopic.php?f=12&t=19944&p=0&e=0

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Re: Secrets Inside the Box

by v-rob » Post

Actually, the pressure plate was removed, so it was likely a mistake.
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Re: Secrets Inside the Box

by Nore » Post

I so loooove this topic :). Things are being added, don't worry, and there is much, much you haven't found yet. Of course, we won't tell you what -- keep searching!

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Re: Secrets Inside the Box

by Wuzzy » Post

I know there's a secret in box 260. But I'm not exposing it … yet. But I give a hint: When you have already finished the box, it should be rather easy to figure out … with an axe!

EDIT:
Spoiler
OK. Here we go:

Remember when you finally reach the stone circle and broke the center piece with a pickaxe to reach the final area? If you want to find the secret, do NOT dig the mossy cobblestone, instead, chop the tree trunks around the stone circle. Below it, you will find 4 switches in total. Flip them. Now the stone circle should rise and reveal a secret pathway to the observation deck. You will also find out why the level is called “Outside the Box”. ;-)
Last edited by Wuzzy on Tue Sep 10, 2019 01:09, edited 2 times in total.

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The Scores Pressure Plate

by Wuzzy » Post

Guys! I just have huuuge news! This could change EVERYTHING!
Note from now on I will no longer use the spoiler tag, if you're that deep reading into the thread, you have seen tons of spoilers already. Now for the news:

On the Main Islands, on the island with the name “Scores”, I have found a hidden pressure plate!!! I will dub this “The Scores Pressure Plate”.

Image

Go to these coordinates: X=22, Y=-14.5, Z=-94

Now, what does it do? No idea! If I step on it, I hear no sound. And I don't see a change … So if this thing triggers something, it must be far away. I am almost certain this thing is no accident. It HAS to mean something …

Why is this huge news? Well, it's the first hidden mechanism that has ever been found on the Main Islands! Also, it strongly suggests the Forest Pedestal could actually mean something, and there really is a hidden nexus. Why? Because if there's a mechanism, there must be something that is triggered. And if there is something that is triggered, that could potentially open access to some secret. And that secret could be … the nexus cube that fits on the Forest Pedestal!

If the pressure plate triggers anything, the thing that is triggered has to make a sound. So it's very important to keep listening. But the fact that I hear nothing when stepping on the pressure plate suggests that either the pressure plate is a decoy or the thing being triggered is very far away. Or maybe it's part of a more complicated mechanism.

Several hypothesis of what the pressure plate could mean:

- It's a decoy
- This is related to the Forest Pedestal and could help us finding the nexus cube that would fit on it.
- It opens a secret somewhere, once. Unlikely, that secret might have been found already. The pressure plate is not THAT well hidden and someone might already have stepped on it ages ago
- It opens a secret somewhere, but only for a limited time. I think this is much more likely. Given the huge size of the whole Main Islands, it's certainly possible the secret is very far away, and so far away that a single player couldn't reach it in time. In that case, we'd need to collaborate: One player keeps stepping on the pressure plate, and all other players run around, looking everywhere and looking and HEARING if anything happens around them.
- It triggers something, but not on its own. Maybe there are more pressure plates in the Main Islands, and each of them has to be stepped on by someone to actually open the secret.

-------------------------

In other news, I also have noticed the text on the whiteboard in the Meeting Room has changed:

“You forgot to erase the
sign, again!”

Interesting … Are THEY mocking us? [EDIT: Oops, I just realized this is an old find, dating back to 2018 … My fault!]

----------------
I have updated the first post and included both new secrets in the first post.
Last edited by Wuzzy on Tue Sep 10, 2019 01:11, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: The Scores Pressure Plate

by Christian_Soldier » Post

Wuzzy wrote:Guys! I just have huuuge news! This could change EVERYTHING!...
Wow, this IS a huge find. I also found a pressure plate in the "Create" dome. It's behind one of the green teleporters on the top floor. There's also one in the "Play" building.

I think we need to activate all the pressure plates at the same time for something to happen. Though I might be wrong, or there might even be a fourth one.

We all need to join the server together at a scheduled time so we can try this (or other things) out.

I'm so excited! We may have found the key(s) to this whole mystery! :)
plz see my map from The Stanley Parable. viewtopic.php?f=12&t=19944&p=0&e=0

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Re: Secrets Inside the Box

by Wuzzy » Post

Wow, nice!
So that makes 3 pressure plates: One for Scores, one for Play and one for Create … So one pressure plate for each of the named islands. :-)

Yes, let's meet together someday. I will be there in IRC.

By the way, my name on the server is Guest27661.

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Re: Secrets Inside the Box

by Lone_Wolf » Post

It's been a while but IIRC there were 4. I won't reveal the location of it though. There is a slight chance it was only the exit to the secret room though
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Re: Secrets Inside the Box

by Christian_Soldier » Post

Wuzzy wrote:Yes, let's meet together someday. I will be there in IRC.
Umm... I'm a little confused about what IRC is. Is it some sort of chatting program or something?
plz see my map from The Stanley Parable. viewtopic.php?f=12&t=19944&p=0&e=0

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Re: Secrets Inside the Box

by Lone_Wolf » Post

Christian_Soldier wrote:
Wuzzy wrote:Yes, let's meet together someday. I will be there in IRC.
Umm... I'm a little confused about what IRC is. Is it some sort of chatting program or something?
Google it
Spoiler
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Re: The Scores Pressure Plate

by micheal65536 » Post

Christian_Soldier wrote:Wow, this IS a huge find. I also found a pressure plate in the "Create" dome. It's behind one of the green teleporters on the top floor. There's also one in the "Play" building.

I think we need to activate all the pressure plates at the same time for something to happen. Though I might be wrong, or there might even be a fourth one.

We all need to join the server together at a scheduled time so we can try this (or other things) out.

I'm so excited! We may have found the key(s) to this whole mystery! :)
Wuzzy wrote:So that makes 3 pressure plates: One for Scores, one for Play and one for Create … So one pressure plate for each of the named islands. :-)
None of this is new. Myself and a few other players have known about the pressure plates on the Scores and Create islands for ages, and more recently the one on the Play island. We have tried every combination we could think of from standing on all three at the same time to standing on each one in turn to jumping up and down or running backwards and forwards to toggle them quickly, and nothing happened.
Lone_Wolf wrote:It's been a while but IIRC there were 4. I won't reveal the location of it though. There is a slight chance it was only the exit to the secret room though
I only remember 3. The secret room (if we're talking about the same secret room, that is) had a pressure plate inside that didn't appear to do anything and a button to open the exit.

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