A new surprise - Easter Egg!

[belgarathmth 21]

Well, this game continues to surprise me.

 

I'm playing this week with my first Pole Arms Shadow Warrior with Astral Lord aspect; he's up to about level 33.

 

Tonight, I noticed that the Staff of Metal Mastery from the Blind Guardian quest has a Pole Arms modifier in it, so I decided to try it.

 

I couldn't believe this - it actually whistles the Sacred song hit by hit. "I'm ... bleed .. ing ... I'm ... fad ... ing ... here...in ... my .. .fi ... nal ... hour" It gets through the whole line if you don't miss, but starts all over if you miss or run out of enemies to hit. It often doesn't reset and starts in the middle of the phrase when you start in on a new mob, making it very tricky to hear the tune. You have to have a high attack bonus before you will begin to hear it.

 

Over and over, hit by hit, it plays the tune. I think I'll keep using this weapon all the way through Silver until I can get the next one in Gold, even though it will become outdated in its damage potential rather soon. Maybe I'll switch to something stronger for bosses, but for trash mobs, this weapon is just too much fun!

 

I can't get the siren's call of that whistling out of my head! How delightful!

 

It's kind of a weird weapon - it responds to Pole Arms skill, but it also has an Armor Lore based speed boost. Does anyone know if it responds to Magic Staff skill?

[Stormwing 40]

Can't really say for sure. I've only ever fiddled a little with the Blind Guardian weapons. Though I remember I've read about it some time ago in a different thread. The other weapons should play tunes too as you smash your enemies with 'em. Talk about "power metal".

Shoulda get 'em up whenever I reinstall Sacred 2.

[Furian67 15]

Excellent, you made it work. When I was on Xbox, when Sacred 2 first came out, I could get the Guitars to work like this also. Forgot how I did it. When I can to PC I tried again, but for the life of me I could not get the Guitars to work. Even ran the build up to over 140......But that was also the beginnings of my Ultimate Warrior Build.

[wolfie2kX 528]

Well, this game continues to surprise me.

 

I'm playing this week with my first Pole Arms Shadow Warrior with Astral Lord aspect; he's up to about level 33.

 

Tonight, I noticed that the Staff of Metal Mastery from the Blind Guardian quest has a Pole Arms modifier in it, so I decided to try it.

 

I couldn't believe this - it actually whistles the Sacred song hit by hit. "I'm ... bleed .. ing ... I'm ... fad ... ing ... here...in ... my .. .fi ... nal ... hour" It gets through the whole line if you don't miss, but starts all over if you miss or run out of enemies to hit. It often doesn't reset and starts in the middle of the phrase when you start in on a new mob, making it very tricky to hear the tune. You have to have a high attack bonus before you will begin to hear it.

 

Over and over, hit by hit, it plays the tune. I think I'll keep using this weapon all the way through Silver until I can get the next one in Gold, even though it will become outdated in its damage potential rather soon. Maybe I'll switch to something stronger for bosses, but for trash mobs, this weapon is just too much fun!

 

I can't get the siren's call of that whistling out of my head! How delightful!

 

It's kind of a weird weapon - it responds to Pole Arms skill, but it also has an Armor Lore based speed boost. Does anyone know if it responds to Magic Staff skill?

 

Er.. Weird. Every single instance I've gotten of The Staff of Metal Mastery has the Magic Staff modifier on it. That's regardless of level (Bronze, Silver, Gold) and regardless of which character I played at the time.

 

So in that regard, it should boost your Magic Staffs skill - depending on level.

 

Which version of Sacred 2 are you playing? I noticed the pic on the wiki appears to be a picture taken of someone's TV (Console player) and it has a Pole Arms mod on it. Maybe it got changed along the way?

 

Here's a pic I took of the one in my TG's inventory - which is why it's in red...

 

 

Kudos, btw, for figuring out what the tune was. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a big enough mob together that needed enough hits to generate the entire verse. More often than not, I got a note here, a note there - none of it in any sort of cadence that would ever had me guessing that song.

[Furian67 15]

There used to be pictures of the Blind Guardian Instuments on the Wiki. Mysteriously missing now.

Edited March 8, 2011 by Furian67

[wolfie2kX 528]

There used to be pictures of the Blind Guardian Instuments on the Wiki. Mysteriously missing now.

 

Odd.. I am seeing pics up there - and nothing else for most of them. I just redid the Staff of Metal Mastery page, but the others are totally lacking anything except a screenshot that looks like it's from a console.

 

* Blind Guardian

* Heavy Metal

* Drumstick

 

The Shield of Mirrors is the only one that looks like it was done according to the style the rest of the wiki was done up in.

 

Btw.. If anyone feels like mucking about with the frame around the pics on the staff of metal mastery page - go for it. I tried it and it came out looking like a horrid mess.

 

Edit 2: But come to think of it... Yeah.. I DO seem to recall other pics having been up there. One with a seraphim swinging a flaming guitar overhead...

 

Edit 3: The pics are still there - just a different size.

Edited March 8, 2011 by wolfie2kX

[Dragon Brother 619]

Thats a cool easteregg. Having only ever completed the quest once just for the video I've never used the weapons before so thats one cool piece of info to me.

[gogoblender 3,072]

Belgara, what an amazing Easter Egg find! Is there a vid of this anywhere in action? Hail the Ascaron Easter Egg!

 

 

gogo

[belgarathmth 21]

I don't know of any videos. Sorry, but I'm not skilled enough with file manipulation to do one myself. Maybe somebody who already knows how to make videos and post them will come along and decide to try it.

 

I also don't know why or how it got Pole Arms skill put into it. Maybe it was by accident during one of the PC patches for Fallen Angel. It looks like a staff and it has "staff" in the name, but it has "Pole Arms +4" in it and it does accept your Pole Arms skill bonuses. (I checked my inventory screen). I'm glad it did though, because I would have probably never tried it if it only worked as a staff. On paper, it looks like a terrible weapon, which is why I never tried it before and why most people probably never do.

 

Anyway, I'm having a great time playing with it and trying to get more notes out of it. Since it plays hit by hit, it mostly plays single notes, but sometimes when there are eighth notes or syncopations in the rhythm of the melody, it plays two of the notes together. It was the positioning of those double notes in the sequence that got me to start realizing what it was playing. That, and I had read a long time ago in another post about someone getting the guitar to play the tune.

 

(I've played a lot with the guitar, and it has such a harsh distort turned on that I never really could hear much melody in it. The clear whistles of the "staff" make much more pure pitch and make it much easier to identify pitch.)

 

It helps to start to perceive the melody if you activate a combat art like Frenzied Rampage, because that gets you more notes played without pauses in between. Hearing it is a lot like staring at those old 3-D prints with the color splashes that were popular in the 80's. Some people could see the picture and some people couldn't. (I never could.) It's probably the same way with this staff. You have to have a really good musical ear with a strong melodic perception before you start to get it; at first it just sounds like random notes, and if you miss a lot it starts to do an electronic feedback squeal that kind of punishes you for missing.

 

I'm having a lot of fun with it.

[Furian67 15]

I noticed the same thing when I used those instruments. SW Frenzy and a huge group of mobs really gets it to play. If you miss it's like guitar hero when you miss a note. The discord can be harsh. I have not been able to make the guitars work on PC though.

[belgarathmth 21]

Yeah, I like that "Guitar Hero" comparison. After playing with it some more, I'm noticing that the notes seem to start playing out of order the more you miss. The tones only start to arrange themselves into coherent fragments of the melody when I get a whole bunch of hits in a row without missing, and usually it needs me to get some double hits as well as regular hits.

 

To hear its full capability and to find out exactly how much of the melody it plays, I think I will need to master Pole Arms skill and put most of my attribute points into strength, and then get into an area where the enemies are very thick. I also need to get rid of any "chance to fear" items and not practice on rangers, because every time an enemy disengages and runs, the staff seems to count it as a miss and the notes randomize again.

 

If anyone isn't sure of the tune I'm referring to that it tries to play, it's what that bard sings in his tenor voice in all the towns. From what I've heard so far, it never does the notes from "and a voice keeps calling..."; it stops at "long lost memories return"; so far, I mostly hear fragments of "bleeding ... fading ... final hour (tricky because the first three syllables are the same note) ... when long lost (takes a really good sequence of hits to get those three notes)... "memories return".

 

The song is in E minor (or within a half step of that), and the melody does a lot of repeated E's and B's. "I'm (B)... bleed(high E)... ing (B)... I'm (B)... fad (high E)... ing (B) ... here in my (F#,G,A)... final hour (B,B,B,low E)... When long lost (low E, F#, G)... memories (B,B,B)... return (high E, B)

 

Also, since this thread seems to be getting a little more attention than I thought it would, I need to add the disclaimer that I cannot absolutely, 100% confirm that it's really doing what I think it is. So far this is a hypothesis based on my musicianship and my experience playing with the weapon in the game.

Edited March 8, 2011 by belgarathmth

[locolagarto 15]

I have no doubt that you are on to something. I wonder if critical hits is a factor?

[Furian67 15]

Awesome work, your doing what I had tryed to repeat from Xbox. I had no idea about song notes but I could tell it was playing a tune the more solid sure hits you got on target.

[belgarathmth 21]

I have an update on this topic. I just spent the last week rebuilding my character with Pole Arms skill maxed, taking everything in strength, so I could more thoroughly test the staff.

 

The staff only has five notes in it: low E, G (rare), A, B, and B-high E (or A-high E?).

 

That's enough notes to play "when(low E)" - "long(G)" - "lost(A)" - "mem(B)" - "or"(A) - "ies re(B(or A?)-high E)" - "turn(B)".

 

also: "fin(B)" - "al(B)" - "hour (B, low E)".

 

also" "all(B)" - "dead(G)" - "and(D, missing)" - "gone (A)".

 

also: "I'm bleed(B-high E) - "ing(B) - "I'm fad(B-high E)- "ing(B)" - "here(low E)" - "in(G)" - "my(A)" - "fin(B)" - "al(B)" - "hour(B-lowE, or maybe A-G, have to listen to the bard again)"

 

You can get "oh(B)" - "it's(B)" - "now(B)" - "or(B)" - "nev(A)" - "er(G)", but you can never get to "we shall stand to-" because there's no C.

 

It's still possible that I and the other people who have played with the instruments have imagined the phenomenon, because the bard's Sacred chorus is in E minor, and the staff plays G pentatonic (missing the D), which sounds like E minor if you put the low E on the bottom.

 

What bugs me and makes me hold onto my idea, though, is that double note on B- or A-high E. Why put that there if the staff is random, when the Sacred verse contains those notes in that rhythm? It seems like too big a coincidence.

 

I don't think it's a good idea to put this idea in the Wiki without certain confirmation. At least, there needs to be an "unconfirmed but reported" caveat in the Wiki entry.

 

In the meantime, I am still having a lot of fun playing with the staff and finding out what it can play.

Edited March 13, 2011 by belgarathmth

[gogoblender 3,072]

Extraordinary work. My appreciation for what you've found and documented is coming from the five years of piano lessons my parents made me take as a kid. K, I actually liked it but don't tell 'em This last information you've added increases my appreciation of the depth of what the sacred 2 devs have covered when they rushed to put this game out.

 

A question..is it just the staff that can play music, or do any of the other instruments have abilities, the shield, the drumsticks?

 

So, after reading your last post here, I decided to see if I can help out with uncovering more of this mystery. I'm a bit of a sound fanatic myself, and had conducted an interview with Lars Hammer, the guy in charge of Sacred 2 sound, right here at DarkMatters:

 

DarkMatters Presents - Interview with Lars Hammer on the Sounds of Sacred 2

 

If anyone would know more secrets about what's going on, it would be him. I've sent him pms and emails with the information I had, and even forwarded them over at the German Sacred Forum to see if anyone knew where he could be reached. Maybe someone else here will have info on getting to him?

 

Belgarthmth, I do hope you will consider adding all this information you have found into the wiki Easter Egg page for Blind Guardian here:

 

http://www.sacredwik..._Guardian_Quest

 

You have discovered, tested, explored and explained a very substantial and highly delightful Easter Egg. Yes, I can copy and paste it in, but it's your work, and you should have your name on it. You can add a another section on that page regarding your find, just log in using your same log in name and password as you use here at DarkMatters and you can edit that page.

 

Press preview to see if I you like what you've added, and if you press submit... done!

 

Thaniks for article, it's first class.

 

Here's to hoping one of the original Sacred 2 Devs can help us with this mystery.

 

 

gogo

[belgarathmth 21]

Gogo, thanks for the interest and the help.

 

The wiki link in your post doesn't work for me. It says something about "fatal error - require once admin" and a whole bunch of other stuff I don't understand. I'll try going to the Wiki page directly and see what I can do.

 

I wasn't really trying to discover anything new when I posted about this, I was just having a lot of fun with the staff, and I wanted to share my delight and my perception that it seemed to be playing the Blind Guardian Sacred song.

 

I am fairly certain I have found all the notes it can play - low E, G, A, B, and A-highE. And those notes can be used to make the lines from the song that I have posted above.

 

However, because of the nature of music based on pentatonic scales (played rapidly and randomly it makes lots of melodies by accident), I still cannot be certain that the song fragments I hear are not by coincidence.

 

The guitars (the axe and the sword) seem to work the same way as the microphone. I tested the drumstick with the cymbal-shield, and I didn't hear anything special from them. The guitars make it very hard to hear pitch because of the distort function typical to electric guitar sound.

 

Also, it is very hard to get a good sequence of hits, even when almost every attack is successful, because the enemies run, or get knocked back, or suicide themselves suddenly against damage reflection, and every time that happens, the staff seems to go back to the beginning of its sequence.

 

So, what we have here may still be a myth which has its origins from the nature of music, music theory, and scales; combined with the rapid-fire nature of the notes heard, because of good attack speed; combined with the fact that few players ever spend time with the Blind Guardian weapons due to their relatively low damage output; combined with a lack of documentation from the producers (which you are working on - let's hope they will finally clear this up once and for all).

 

I like to be very, very careful what I put in a source like Wiki, because I respect the process of sharing knowledge. I often say careless, off-the-cuff, and emotion-based things in a forum thread that few will read anyway, but thinking about putting something in a reference source brings out the scholar in me, and I put on my skeptic's cap.

[locolagarto 15]

Believe me this kind of stuff is interesting to all of us Sacred lovers. I will have to explore a build that can replicate some of the sounds you are hearing. I also think there is a possibility that Ice and Blood may have changed some of the functionality of the instrument weapons. As Furian67 noted, we have had trouble replicating the sound machine from our XBOX days. But what you have diagnosed with a learned ear is incredibly impressive to one such as I will only a bystanders appreciation of music.

[belgarathmth 21]

Okay, I went to the Wiki and added a small edit under "Staff of Metal Mastery". Feel free to edit it further.