+Max and 99 Posted June 25 Share Posted June 25 From today's blog post: Cosmic Quest Thanks to help from geocachers around the world, we deciphered the intergalactic communication we received last week. Here is the message: Hello, earthlings! We have come across a reference to “Geocaching.com” on a metal creature roving the planet Mars. It seems this ‘geocaching’ is an activity meant to further exploration and community. We would like to better understand this interesting human activity and we are traveling to Earth to learn more. We only hope we’ll have enough fuel in our spaceship to keep exploring! We’re excited to take this opportunity to further intergalactic friendship! Our friends from outer space are here and having a blast geocaching, but now they need our help. Their spaceship is running out of fuel, which they need in order to continue exploring other planets and galaxies. Luckily for us, we’re able to help them by doing what we do best: geocaching! The fuel their spaceship runs on is positive energy and what better way is there to build positive energy than getting together with friends and finding geocaches? Join us on a Cosmic Quest from July 22 through September 1 as we help our friends fuel their spaceship. During Cosmic Quest, different geocaching activities will generate different amounts of fuel. If we reach 15 million units of fuel, the spaceship will be all set to launch our friends to their next cosmic destination. During Cosmic Quest we will use the leaderboard to track the community’s progress toward this goal. On the leaderboard, players will be able to see how many units of fuel the global community has generated, available campaign souvenirs, and information about how many units of fuel different geocaching actions generate. See the table below for information about how many units of fuel different geocaching actions generate: Activated a trackable 1 Attended an Event 3 Received a Favorite point on an owned geocache 2 Found an EarthCache 5 Found it* 1 *Logged a Found it on any other cache type, excluding Webcam Caches. If we successfully fuel the spaceship, not only will we have the satisfaction of achieving a difficult goal as a community, all geocachers who took part will also earn a unique digital souvenir commemorating this visit from our intergalactic friends. In addition to the Lift off souvenir that will be awarded if the goal is achieved, players will also have the chance to earn up to two souvenirs based on their individual contribution to the community goal. Players can earn the Super fuel cacher souvenir by generating 20 units of fuel and players can earn the Ultra fuel cacher souvenir by generating 100 units of fuel. Geocachers can also get into the spirit of Cosmic Quest with all kinds of merchandise from Shop Geocaching and international distributors! Items in the Cosmic Quest collection include a geocoin and tag set, character trackable tags, patches, stickers, and more. You can find answers to some frequently asked questions below. How do I participate? From Monday, July 22, 2024 at noon UTC through September 1, 2024, find geocaches and Adventures, attend Events, and activate trackables to generate units of fuel for our friends’ spaceship. When does Cosmic Quest start and when does it end? Cosmic Quest begins on July 22, 2024 at noon UTC and lasts through September 1. How do I generate fuel for the cosmic visitors’ spaceship? Geocachers can generate fuel for the cosmic visitors’ spaceship by finding geocaches and Adventures, attending Events, receiving Favorite points on their owned geocaches, and activating trackables. These different actions will generate different amounts of fuel. Above we have a table showing how many units of fuel different geocaching actions generate. Where can I see how many units of fuel the community and I have generated so far? Players can see the community’s fuel total and their individual contribution to that total on the leaderboard in the mobile app and on the website starting on July 22. How do I earn souvenirs? There are three available souvenirs for Cosmic Quest. To earn the Super fuel cacher souvenir, players must individually generate 20 units of fuel. To earn the Ultra fuel cacher souvenir, players must individually generate 100 units of fuel. All participants will earn the Lift off souvenir if we generate 15 million units of fuel as a global geocaching community. Where can I see my souvenirs? On the website you can view your souvenirs on the souvenir page linked on the dashboard, or on the Souvenirs section of your profile. In the Geocaching® app, you can see your souvenirs by tapping on the Souvenirs section in your profile. The units of fuel aren’t adding up correctly, help! If you change a Write Note, DNF, or other log type to a Found it log, it will not be recognized for Cosmic Quest. You logged on Monday, July 22 before noon UTC (convert to your local time here). We suggest that you wait to log until AFTER Monday noon UTC—which in some places like New Zealand is Tuesday at midnight. Otherwise, the points will not count. You saved a Draft on a Monday, July 22 before noon UTC. If you have already posted your logs, go to the log, select “View / Edit Log / Images,” then click the pen icon and “Submit Log Entry” on the website*. Your logs should now be counted towards your total. *At this time, you can only edit your logs on Geocaching.com, not in the Geocaching® app. What does UTC stand for? Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the basis for civil time today. It is the time standard (not a time zone) commonly used across the world. You can convert UTC to your local time here. 2 2 Quote Link to comment
+GeoElmo6000 Posted June 25 Share Posted June 25 *continues to geocache as usual and ignore souvenirs not related to newly visited locations* 9 1 Quote Link to comment
+lee737 Posted June 25 Share Posted June 25 Interesting. Initially I thought, easy, we'll passive nail this, then realised our July road trip ends on 22 July! :O It sounds like we'll need to go EC chasing..... Quote Link to comment
+barefootguru Posted June 25 Share Posted June 25 The community failed to meet the last community goal, and we got awarded the souvenir anyway… so I'm failing to see why we should bother this time. 6 4 1 Quote Link to comment
+thebruce0 Posted June 25 Share Posted June 25 Maybe we'll get a "You Failed!" souvenir if we don't hit the mark 12 1 Quote Link to comment
+harrickson Posted July 20 Share Posted July 20 How does one decipher #s? Trial and error? Quote Link to comment
+Tungstène Posted July 21 Share Posted July 21 9 hours ago, harrickson said: How does one decipher #s? Trial and error? That's an option. It works. Another option is to identify the font used (spoiler: Modern Cybertronic). 1 Quote Link to comment
Pup Patrol Posted July 21 Share Posted July 21 20 hours ago, harrickson said: How does one decipher #s? Trial and error? 10 hours ago, Tungstène said: That's an option. It works. Another option is to identify the font used (spoiler: Modern Cybertronic). What does this have to do with the topic of this thread? --Pup Patrol Quote Link to comment
+Tungstène Posted July 21 Share Posted July 21 (edited) 29 minutes ago, Pup Patrol said: What does this have to do with the topic of this thread? I'm glad you asked. This topic is about Cosmic Quest, a "summer animation" Geocaching HQ is currently leading on their (social) medias. It all began with some cryptic messages shared on geocaching blogs, people had to decipher. Once you understood that these message were mono alphabetical substitution (i.e. each sign corresponds to exactly one letter), it was possible to translate Cosmic Quest's messages by "recognition" of patterns in words. Later on, the animation has been prolonged by small postcards. You had to find where in the world they were coming from. Their GC-code were written in the same cryptic font. And now it comes to numbers (this is how I understood the "#" in harrickson's question)... How could we know which sign equals to which number? I answered by revealing the encryption key. Does this make sense? Edited July 21 by Tungstène Quote Link to comment
Pup Patrol Posted July 21 Share Posted July 21 Thanks for that explanation. Right off the bat, I am left out of the loop about "a "summer animation" Geocaching HQ is currently leading on their (social) medias." because I don't frequent such things as "social media" if at all possible. I hope it isn't necessary to watch this animation to participate in the souvenir promotion. --Pup Patrol 1 2 Quote Link to comment
+Max and 99 Posted July 22 Author Share Posted July 22 Although not stated in the blog post or announcement, it appears that awarding a favorite point does not award cosmic points unless the favorite point was awarded during the creation of the log. Bummer. Quote Link to comment
+Sorglos02 Posted July 22 Share Posted July 22 Some of our friends have already selected fuel in the cosmic quest but in total there is still a zero for the community. How often will the total collection of the community updated? 1 Quote Link to comment
+Hügh Posted July 23 Share Posted July 23 On 7/22/2024 at 7:10 AM, Sorglos02 said: How often will the total collection of the community updated? Quite infrequently, it seems: Quote Link to comment
+Arne1 Posted July 23 Share Posted July 23 On 6/25/2024 at 5:45 PM, Max and 99 said: You logged on Monday, July 22 before noon UTC (convert to your local time here). We suggest that you wait to log until AFTER Monday noon UTC—which in some places like New Zealand is Tuesday at midnight. Otherwise, the points will not count. You saved a Draft on a Monday, July 22 before noon UTC. If you have already posted your logs, go to the log, select “View / Edit Log / Images,” then click the pen icon and “Submit Log Entry” on the website*. Your logs should now be counted towards your total. I can't help but think this is another typical HQ shortcoming. All over the world we know that the day starts at midnight, only for Geocaching HQ the day starts at noon. 1 1 Quote Link to comment
+lee737 Posted July 23 Share Posted July 23 My suspicion has been that noon UTC was chosen as this reflects times in the morning on the start day in the US..... maybe they can't stand the thought that some Kiwis and Aussies might get to log finds first?? 1 1 1 Quote Link to comment
+MNTA Posted July 24 Share Posted July 24 8 hours ago, Arne1 said: I can't help but think this is another typical HQ shortcoming. All over the world we know that the day starts at midnight, only for Geocaching HQ the day starts at noon. My guess cost to implement and support would be fairly high. It really is a harder problem then you think. The system works on UTC otherwise there is lookup of local times oh and then this area observes day light savings this one does not. Not all localities change on the same dates and sometimes governments change them. Then you have a promotion that affects some people now and in an hour more people could be a nightmare. What do you do if you log a challenge cache 5 time zones away does that count too or not. Instead they Use a fixed time in the system to turn on for everyone. Maybe they could put a table in with a few slots to make it easier to figure out exactly when it starts. For me its 5am west coast of the US, hopefully I am sleeping then. Most of Europe its 2PM and New Zealand 11PM. Quote Link to comment
+barefootjeff Posted July 24 Share Posted July 24 1 hour ago, MNTA said: New Zealand 11PM Actually noon UTC is midnight in New Zealand as they're 12 hours ahead of UTC. I guess making the start and end at noon UTC means it's Monday in most parts of the world, but this only becomes an issue for leaderboard-based promotions where it gets activated and de-activated at a specific instant globally. For other promotions and souvenirs, they just go by the local-time date of the log although that's been known to have occasional hiccups. Quote Link to comment
+pluholo Posted July 31 Share Posted July 31 Does somebody noticed hidden TB code on the spaceship? It looks like that 106 geocachers already did Any idea where to search? Thanks, pluholo/Honza Quote Link to comment
+van der Decken Posted July 31 Share Posted July 31 (edited) I'll just say that it's not too hard to find once you start looking. Talk about hidden in plain sight! Edited July 31 by van der Decken 1 Quote Link to comment
+Hügh Posted July 31 Share Posted July 31 2 hours ago, pluholo said: Any idea where to search? Our friends' spaceship would be the place to start. Remember that there are... different versions of the art out there. 1 Quote Link to comment
+billy robson Posted August 3 Share Posted August 3 I can only find two copies of the spaceship. Any idea where to look for other one? Quote Link to comment
+Hügh Posted August 3 Share Posted August 3 24 minutes ago, billy robson said: I can only find two copies of the spaceship. Any idea where to look for other one? https://shop.geocaching.com, and in particular https://shop.geocaching.com/default/new-items/cosmic-quest, shows some unique versions of the spaceship. Quote Link to comment
+MNTA Posted August 15 Share Posted August 15 I feel dumb. Was about to give up then gave it a shot. Quote Link to comment
+fizzymagic Posted August 15 Share Posted August 15 In the initial announcement of Cosmic Quest, it said that: Quote During Cosmic Quest, different geocaching activities will generate varying amounts of fuel. I took that to mean that during the quest the amount of fuel generated for different activities would change. It seems I was incorrect, as they have all stayed the same. Which is too bad, as it would have been fun to do something different each week or so. Did anybody else have the same interpretation? I mean, technically, what they said did not promise any changes, but if not, why not say what counted for what at the beginning? 2 Quote Link to comment
+hzoi Posted August 16 Share Posted August 16 (edited) On 8/14/2024 at 11:17 PM, MNTA said: I feel dumb. Was about to give up then gave it a shot. Me, too. Like so many things in life, I made it much harder than it needed to be. Ah, well. What was the line about the short-lived challenges? Make better mistakes tomorrow? Something like that. Edited August 16 by hzoi 1 Quote Link to comment
+geodarts Posted August 17 Share Posted August 17 Aura Raines, the captain of the Clarian Fleet and a friend to geocachers all, has long engaged in a cosmic adventures. Aura wanted to help out with the fuel problems faced by these space adventurers but the Galactic Council has limits on what can be done. Nevertheless the positive energy drive is an important development that could replace the rare Beryllium Spheres as a fuel source. May the Quest succeed. 1 Quote Link to comment
+MamaHoof Posted August 24 Share Posted August 24 Has the end date for the Cosmic quest changed? My leaderboard is saying it finishes on Sept 8, I thought it was finishing Sept 1... Quote Link to comment
+Max and 99 Posted August 24 Author Share Posted August 24 (edited) 15 minutes ago, MamaHoof said: Has the end date for the Cosmic quest changed? My leaderboard is saying it finishes on Sept 8, I thought it was finishing Sept 1... It has! From the blog: Update 22 August 2024: Cosmic Quest will now continue through September 8. Read this blog post for information about the updated timeline. Our friends from outer space will extend their visit! Exciting news, geocachers! Our intergalactic friends are enjoying their time on Earth so much that they decided to extend their visit. We now have an extra week to fuel their ship! The Cosmic Quest leaderboard will remain active through September 8. Even if we hit our 15 million fuel unit goal early, we’ll still have a few extra days to see if we can generate even more fuel for our cosmic friends! Edited August 24 by Max and 99 Quote Link to comment
+CAVinoGal Posted August 25 Share Posted August 25 21 hours ago, Max and 99 said: Our friends from outer space will extend their visit! Exciting news, geocachers! Our intergalactic friends are enjoying their time on Earth so much that they decided to extend their visit. We now have an extra week to fuel their ship! The Cosmic Quest leaderboard will remain active through September 8. Even if we hit our 15 million fuel unit goal early, we’ll still have a few extra days to see if we can generate even more fuel for our cosmic friends! Haha, just saw this...wonder if they "extrapolated" the fuel generated so far, and didn't think we'd make it?!? Now we have another week. Oh joy! We haven't been actively trying to get to the 100 points needed for souvenirs; our normal, cache when we feel like it, has given us, barely, the 20 needed for the first souvenir and we are not pursuing the second. If it happens, it happens. We DID attend an event on International Geocaching Day to get that souvenir, but only because there happened to be one timed just right as we were on our way to visit family; we knew all the locals and usual suspects, and dropped in to say Hi, and got the souvenir. Extending the Cosmic Quest for another week will not change anything for us, and we will likely not get the 100 points needed. Oh, well.... Quote Link to comment
+fizzymagic Posted August 25 Share Posted August 25 On 8/23/2024 at 8:26 PM, Max and 99 said: It has! Quelle surprise. A marketing campaign that didn't work? I am shocked. Shocked. It's especially funny because this isn't the first time. 1 1 1 Quote Link to comment
+hzoi Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 It's been hotter than the hammers of Hades in south Texas this summer, so I haven't been getting out caching as much as I'd wanted during this souvenir campaign. It looks like about two thirds of our points so far are from receiving favorite points. I did try to bag an earthcache yesterday, but right as we were starting our observations, the youngest third of hzoi started griping that her feet hurt, and we cut things short. (She did just get diagnosed with quite the bunion, poor thing, so I chalk it up to a legit complaint and not just tween drama. Hopefully the podiatrist will have a solution short of foot surgery.) It's a cute enough campaign. I don't get why anyone would be rooting against it; generally speaking, what's good for Groundspeak is good for geocaching. But whatever. I did notice little alien dude animations popping up in the app when I was logging finds this weekend. Is that just an Easter egg, or is clicking them supposed to do anything? I wasn't able to trigger anything when I tried. 1 1 Quote Link to comment
+fizzymagic Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 (edited) 6 hours ago, hzoi said: It's a cute enough campaign. I don't get why anyone would be rooting against it; generally speaking, what's good for Groundspeak is good for geocaching. But whatever. Don't misinterpret my remarks as rooting against it. I've been doing my part as well as I can. My issues have been with the implementation, not the idea itself. I think it has yielded valuable information: souvenirs are much more of a motivator for long-term cachers than they are for new ones. I also think that the promotion would have worked better with some changes in point values during the promotion period, and a few other things. I am still hoping that we make it by the original deadline. My snark had more to do with marketing departments always over-estimating the impact of their activities. Not just at Groundspeak. Everywhere! Edited August 26 by fizzymagic 2 2 Quote Link to comment
+hzoi Posted August 28 Share Posted August 28 On 8/26/2024 at 4:38 PM, fizzymagic said: My snark had more to do with marketing departments always over-estimating the impact of their activities. Not just at Groundspeak. Everywhere! Fair enough. Meanwhile, we're up to 12.6 million and counting, so we might pull this off after all. And thanks mainly to folks' generosity in leaving favorite points on our caches, I now just need to get 30 to bag the second souvenir. With a long weekend approaching and temps dipping below 100 F, insh'allah, my lazy butt can pull that off without getting heat stroke 2 Quote Link to comment
+threadstone Posted August 29 Share Posted August 29 Where can I find an information about the current state (fuel units)? Quote Link to comment
geoawareUSA9 Posted August 29 Share Posted August 29 2 hours ago, threadstone said: Where can I find an information about the current state (fuel units)? Check your leaderboard, on the app or on the website. It will have the community total, as well as the total for you and your friends. 1 Quote Link to comment
+threadstone Posted August 29 Share Posted August 29 1 hour ago, geoawareUSA9 said: Check your leaderboard, on the app or on the website. It will have the community total, as well as the total for you and your friends. Found it. Thank you very much!! Quote Link to comment
+hzoi Posted September 5 Share Posted September 5 Looks like we hit over 15 million this morning. And I managed to scrape together over 100 points between FPs and my own logs, so I'm doing my part, too! Quote Link to comment
+NanCycle Posted September 5 Share Posted September 5 " souvenirs are much more of a motivator for long-term cachers than they are for new ones" As a long-term cacher (first find 21 years ago), I disagree with this statement. Just about the only souvenirs I am interested in are the states I have cached in and a few special days--I even missed a couple of International Geocaching Days. 3 1 Quote Link to comment
+geoBirder Posted September 5 Share Posted September 5 (edited) 19 hours ago, hzoi said: Looks like we hit over 15 million this morning. And I managed to scrape together over 100 points between FPs and my own logs, so I'm doing my part, too! HAHA!! I recognized “Starship Troopers” even before I clinked the link. dadgum bugs 😉 EDIT: Have to laugh at the website changing my “dadgum bugs” to “dadgum bugs”. 🐞 Edited September 6 by geoawareUSA9 ahem Quote Link to comment
+thebruce0 Posted September 5 Share Posted September 5 3 hours ago, hzoi said: Looks like we hit over 15 million this morning. And I managed to scrape together over 100 points between FPs and my own logs, so I'm doing my part, too! I'm proud to have slipped in 78 points. Because every point counts, right? Right?? Quote Link to comment
+hzoi Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 16 hours ago, thebruce0 said: 19 hours ago, hzoi said: Looks like we hit over 15 million this morning. And I managed to scrape together over 100 points between FPs and my own logs, so I'm doing my part, too! I'm proud to have slipped in 78 points. Because every point counts, right? Right?? Indeed. I'd throw you some favorite points to top you off, but I haven't found any of your hides. Closest I got was driving past the spot where your Iceland earthcache was published, but I was around 10 years too early to log it. Quote Link to comment
geoawareUSA9 Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 18 hours ago, geoBirder said: EDIT: Have to laugh at the website changing my “dadgum bugs” to “dadgum bugs”. 🐞 Edited again. Please don't use symbols to get around the profanity filter. Quote Link to comment
+CAVinoGal Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 Without paying a lot of attention to this, and just doing the caching we got around to between grandkids, wine tasting trips with non-geocaching friends, and life in general, I managed 24 points. Ten of those came from favorite points being added to my hides, so on my own I wouldn't have made the 20 points needed for the first souvenir. The only specific thing we did was attend an event on Geocaching Day for that souvenir; otherwise we didn't pay much attention to this promo. :::shrug::: Quote Link to comment
+thebruce0 Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 1 hour ago, hzoi said: Closest I got was driving past the spot where your Iceland earthcache was published, but I was around 10 years too early to log it. Hate when that happens! Quote Link to comment
+geoBirder Posted September 7 Share Posted September 7 17 hours ago, geoawareUSA9 said: Edited again. Please don't use symbols to get around the profanity filter. Oops! Sorry about that. Quote Link to comment
+The Haywood Hornet Posted September 7 Share Posted September 7 It amuses me that, that word is banned on the forums. In England a word which is allowed and freely used on the forums is far worse! 1 Quote Link to comment
geoawareUSA9 Posted September 8 Share Posted September 8 17 hours ago, The Haywood Hornet said: It amuses me that, that word is banned on the forums. In England a word which is allowed and freely used on the forums is far worse! I don't make the rules, friend, I just enforce them. If you feel that too much family-unfriendly language is slipping through the cracks, feel free to suggest an update in the Website forum. Quote Link to comment
+The Haywood Hornet Posted September 8 Share Posted September 8 I have no intention of adding to the words to the banned list. As I said, I am just amused by what is such an innocuous word in this country can cause so much angst in USA. 1 1 Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.