Wherigo with Geocaches

[+Team KG]

I am curious to know if you can have a mystery cache, and to solve it you need to complete a Wherigo cartridge? Is this alright to do?

[Ranger Fox]

Sure. Go ahead. As far as I know, all reviewers are aware people will be creating Wherigo cartridge caches. Get really creative with it. I love to see what people come up with.

 

If you have any more questions, just browse the forum and ask if you can't find an appropriate thread.

[+NevadaWolf]

According to this thread, caches can use Wherigo as part of them (as long as the cache meets the usual requirements).

 

I also heard back on the 6th that Reviewers have been told to list all Wherigo caches as Puzzles until they can sort out exactly how to treat them.

[Jeremy]

We're creating a new category on Geocaching.com for Wherigo geocaches. Once we get it up and running we'll have the change in guidelines to address them. They'll more or less be treated as a puzzle cache.

[+Parabola]

We're creating a new category on Geocaching.com for Wherigo geocaches. Once we get it up and running we'll have the change in guidelines to address them. They'll more or less be treated as a puzzle cache.

 

Does that mean a new icon??? I hope so.

[delta123]

We're creating a new category on Geocaching.com for Wherigo geocaches. Once we get it up and running we'll have the change in guidelines to address them. They'll more or less be treated as a puzzle cache.

 

But does a Wherigo geocache have to have a phyisical cache? Or can the completion of a cartridge be a reason to make a log?

[Jeremy]

We're creating a new category on Geocaching.com for Wherigo geocaches. Once we get it up and running we'll have the change in guidelines to address them. They'll more or less be treated as a puzzle cache.

 

But does a Wherigo geocache have to have a phyisical cache? Or can the completion of a cartridge be a reason to make a log?

 

Yes. That's correct. To be on the Geocaching.com web site there must be a physical cache. Just like puzzle caches must have a physical container.

 

There will also be a new icon for a Wherigo geocache.

[delta123]

I am about to publish my first Wherigo-geocache. Its in the last test-fase, there are still little bugs if you take incorrect actions but still get a good result. Ik think if i put the final cache-location in the code it will be easely hacked? what if i put the final waypoint on a JPG-file.

 

The geocache community in Holland is a bit cautious about this project because they have to have extra hardware to be able to do this cache-type. So the quality has to be reasonable to give this new function a good start.

 

It has to have a bit of a WOW-factor. In the Netherlands we have our own quality system for geocaches. People can give awards to high-quality caches. I hope this new cache-type will be a good new innovative function and that it will be a good addition to the existing geocache possibility's. I think is has good potential for high quality multicaches or for fun events(would like to try that out)

[Ranger Fox]

You could always define a very small zone that will lead people to the geocache. I noticed creating a zone 15' wide/square was a little too small to work as a zone that has an onEnter event, but just right to lead someone to a cache. You could direct people to this "nano" zone as a last stop, but have the cartridge completion flagged when the player is within proximity to the zone.

 

You have me very interested in finding some caches in your area. I'm one of a few very creative hiders in my area. All we get for our time and effort is a few DNFs and finds on the cache, people talking about it for less than a week, then hardly anyone else making an effort at it. We do maintain a "greatest hits" list for the state, but that's about it. No votes, no awards. Too many people are only concerned about quantity. No real incentive for others to spend days, much less hours, coming up with a cache. Perhaps I could start something like what you have over there...

[+Nachtraaf]

Last Friday I published the first Belgian Wherigo geocache. The cacher needs to go to a parking zone and from there he's lead to another zone (WP1). If the question on WP1 is answered correctly the coordinates to the stash are shown.

 

BUT: today I 've got a mail from someone who completed this cache successfully, telling me that the cartridge can be opened in a simple notepad or something like that (i use ultraedit) and all normal text, like message boxes and stuff are normal text in the cartridge file...

 

This way it looses all 'secrets' of a puzzle. One can just open it and go straight to the cache... I was very disappointed hearing this.

 

Is there any change that all text is scrambled in the GWC file?

 

Greetings,

Hans

[Ranger Fox]

The cartridge can be opened in a simple notepad or something like that (i use ultraedit) and all normal text, like message boxes and stuff are normal text in the cartridge file...

 

...

 

Is there any change that all text is scrambled in the GWC file?

 

Yes, this has been a documented problem. When Wherigo first came out, I opened the robot test cartridge in notepad, found the answers, and I think noted that in the forum.

 

I saw one time someone from Groundspeak mentioned something about hashing the text:

Better yet, hash the answers so that they cannot even be decrypted! Sure, most of these suggestions are not easily done by the beginner cart author, but proper protection of secret information isn't an easy concept.

 

That's all that was said on this topic.

 

There weren't any other responses to the thread I noted above, other than hiding the unlock code in a log book. Perhaps you could have the cache as another, albeit very small, zone. The player could use the Wherigo zone bearing pointer to find the cache.

 

To the Groundspeak developers: Is there a way you could demonstrate a functional hash that would also encrypt numeric characters? Or an update to the builder, compiler, and player that would replace the NoCaseEquals function call with NoCaseHashEquals? This way you automatically hash the user input and compare it to a hash value, created when the cartridge was compiled. It would be convenient to user developers and would really help this case.

[+Street Doc]

You could always define a very small zone that will lead people to the geocache. I noticed creating a zone 15' wide/square was a little too small to work as a zone that has an onEnter event, but just right to lead someone to a cache. You could direct people to this "nano" zone as a last stop, but have the cartridge completion flagged when the player is within proximity to the zone.

 

You have me very interested in finding some caches in your area. I'm one of a few very creative hiders in my area. All we get for our time and effort is a few DNFs and finds on the cache, people talking about it for less than a week, then hardly anyone else making an effort at it. We do maintain a "greatest hits" list for the state, but that's about it. No votes, no awards. Too many people are only concerned about quantity. No real incentive for others to spend days, much less hours, coming up with a cache. Perhaps I could start something like what you have over there...

 

I live just south in Fayetteville and we have quite a few people that go out of their way to hide great caches in the area. Your right though the majority are just light poles and bushes all over town. I would love to see some sort of recognition on a yearly schedule that recognised cachers that went out of their way to hide great caches. Maybe even a award that could be denoted with a icon that they could have on their page. What do you think?

[Ranger Fox]

I live just south in Fayetteville and we have quite a few people that go out of their way to hide great caches in the area. Your right though the majority are just light poles and bushes all over town. I would love to see some sort of recognition on a yearly schedule that recognised cachers that went out of their way to hide great caches. Maybe even a award that could be denoted with a icon that they could have on their page. What do you think?

Though I favor the idea, I would have to say no. Presenting awards could get too political and relationships with other cachers might turn ugly when there's something on the line.

 

I remember Fayetteville and have cached a few times down there and even attended the last Airborne Event. I've done at least a hundred there, some creative, some just an ammo can chucked out the window. Like any place, it varies. But that's getting too off topic for me, so we can continue that line of discussion elsewhere.