Anyways, since I have yet seen no reason to stop trying to solve this "mystery", a question @Tyminator:

You said you "checked out" the balloon in the SE ez. North to Mos Ila.

http://imageshack.com/i/5nxwr5j

http://imageshack.com/i/f3nza2j

 

Given that there are no screens of it, question is - have you actually managed to get ON the balloon? or at least get close to the spot it supposedly lands and tried to jump on?

We went through the exhaustion on the Mos Ila side of hte balloon's path, there is a "safe zone" by the balloon. It "lands" on the side of a mountain which we could NOT get up to (but we went on the back and front of the mountain and there's nothing), we tried numerous knockbacks/pulls etc.

We followed the balloon to the big mountain range in the middle of Tatooine.

We climbed into those mountains and it was nothing but sand/glitchy terrain. We explored the entire mountain range, from the peaks, to the ground..nothing. We saw were the balloons path ended and it turned around, a bit above the ground near some random sand. Nothing of importance where the balloon landed or took off, and all glitchy/buggy terrain making it almost certain we shouldn't be there.

The balloon never makes contact with the ground and is not low enough to launch onto. I believe this to be ruled out.

From what I understood is that he contacted CS in order to get it, not from a loot. ie, he figured out how to get the item but he needed CS in order to do it. So he lied to them about something and that led him to the crystal.

Whether they gave him the crystal or another item, it was a CS exploit and not an in-game one.

I heard that as well, but i believe that wasn't officially confirmed either. And it doesn't fit with Reids statement. Even the average player can try to fool the CS, but the average players don't force push each other to places that aren't intended to be reached. But like i said, it is indeed just speculation on my part, i'm far from having any proof. To be honest, i'm just as clueless as the rest of us, maybe i'm even more puzzled due to the many different statements we get from various members of the CS.

I have a different theory now :

From the linked ForceJunkies article :

Right now, it is not possible to legitimately obtain a White Lightsaber Crystal in the game through any gameplay method. In the future, it will be possible to legitimately obtain. When that day comes, we’ll let you know so you can go about obtaining the crystal for your characters.

I tend to believe that it might have been an item exclusive for a selected number of players.

Be it mouse buyers, preorderers, game journalists, or even an developer exclusive item.

The formulation of this quote - in my ears - essentially means that this item is an limited item ("not possible to legitimately obtain a White Lightsaber Crystal in the game through any gameplay method"), and limited to those who DO KNOW the method to legally obtain this crystal.

The knowledge about this method is the limiting factor here. Only a select few people might actually learn about it one day, und the method - the way to "legally obtain it" is seemingly deeply hidden within ... something. Be it the game itself ("in the game through any gameplay method"), or in an database, or in hand-written notebooks somewhere.

Plus, the method must be so complex, or barred by so heavy obstacles, that it isn't able "to legally obtain [it] in the game through any gameplay method". These obstacles are there, intended to hinder people from getting it through gameplay.

Only knowledge that is passed around in RL is able to get it - and this is the point why an CS was needed for its discoverer. Because in-game, it was not reachable, because in-game, neither the method could be deduced from what is there in-game, nor does any player know the method to reach it. The knowledge lies outside of "player-space".

And in-game, there are too heavy obstacles. Which cannot be overcome without knowing the method to overcome them. And only an CS might have known it at one point. And any CS is "outside of player-space".

When that day comes, we’ll let you know so you can go about obtaining the crystal for your characters.

Of course they can write this, because they are within what i call the "method-knowledge-space". Players aren't. So, we are fully dependent on them sharing the knowledge / the method [to overcome the obstackles] or not.

Which leads me to the assumption that this cystal is - imho - NOT the riddle there - if an riddle ever existed there in the Outlaw's Den.

IF there is a riddle, THEN it must be something else.

And if the inventor of these riddles has already left Bioware, then he might never be able to tell us if there are any secrets or riddles left because of NDA.

And if the inventor of these riddles has already left Bioware, then he might never be able to tell us if there are any secrets or riddles left because of NDA.

Oh noes. That would be something.

P. S. Alrik, have you played Memoria yet? If you like DSA-stories, you gonny love that game. I did.

Thanks for the detailed recap of what you did @Tyminator.

I honestly don't think that BW would actually lose knowledge about ingame "stuff" by sacking an employee, unless he created the ("we don't know whether there is one") riddle in the Outlaws Den all by himself and has never told anyone else about it, which would be rather unlikely, but not impossible tbh.

And if I recall it correctly, hadn't CDW first received the White Crystal and then afterwards was seen stalking the Womp Rat in the Den? So I don't think they are necessarily related.

P. S. Alrik, have you played Memoria yet? If you like DSA-stories, you gonny love that game. I did.

I haven't yet, but it's high on my list. I saw the preview of it at the RPC.

You know you can already get a White Lightsaber crystal legitimately in the game right?

We were talking about a user (CatchDeathwalker) who got the white crystal in January 2012, when Bioware stated you could NOT obtain it by legitimate means.

I simply connected this incident with the question, if there's a riddle in the outlaws den, Alrik stated his theory of Biowares intentions about the white crystal back in the early days of SWTOR to underline that he doesn't agree with my theory.

The fact, that you can obtain the crystal now legitimately was never the question.

We were talking about a user (CatchDeathwalker) who got the white crystal in January 2012, when Bioware stated you could NOT obtain it by legitimate means.

 

I simply connected this incident with the question, if there's a riddle in the outlaws den, Alrik stated his theory of Biowares intentions about the white crystal back in the early days of SWTOR to underline that he doesn't agree with my theory.

 

The fact, that you can obtain the crystal now legitimately was never the question.

Okay, okay, no need to get defensive

Okay, okay, no need to get defensive

I just wanted to clarifiy my earlier comments to prevent a further misunderstanding. If i appeared defensive, i apologize, english is not my native language. I try to be easier to understand in the future.

I heard that as well, but i believe that wasn't officially confirmed either. And it doesn't fit with Reids statement. Even the average player can try to fool the CS, but the average players don't force push each other to places that aren't intended to be reached. But like i said, it is indeed just speculation on my part, i'm far from having any proof. To be honest, i'm just as clueless as the rest of us, maybe i'm even more puzzled due to the many different statements we get from various members of the CS.

That is true, and I couldn't actually find the relevant post (doesn't really matter).

However, isn't possible that the force pushing etc etc is meant as he found this puzzle interesting and the not the whatever he exploited ? I remember reading about someone who actually followed him (stealth follow) in outlaw den and didn't see anything beyond that (as he already had the crystal).

Anyway we could send Eric a private message -but not today, perhaps on Monday- asking him to clarify this for us.

I think there has to be a real solvable puzzle here. If it was just broken the devs or CM team would have chimed in by now. Keeping silent implies there is something.

But there is no logical reason why they couldn't give us the simple "Yes, there is a puzzle / No, there isn't a puzzle (atm.)" - this guessing game should be about the actual puzzle, and not about whether there is a riddle or not.

So I personally think this is again more a lack of actual "Customer Service" if you see the commitment of several players to the cause and not even bother to tell them, though highly requested, if they are wasting their in game time or not.

And btw - has anyone found "Sandclaw" yet?

just as a recap do you know what your looking for an item, door, ect ect. kinda got lost towards the end of posts

Truth is, nobody knows. The user "swtor_miner"'s from reddit said, that you need a fourth buff to activate the ancient tome, in addition to the three buffs you can get from aggroing the vendors in the outlaws den. This fourth buff should have been obtainable by defeating an enemy named "Sandclaw". Since "Sandclaw" is not ingame (At least, nobody has discovered him yet), there's no way to activate the tome. "swtor_miner" also mentioned a clickable door he was going to investigate, but i've never asked him about it. Since nothing new has been revealed from that, i assume it was a dead end.

Take it with a grain of salt, it's your own choice if you trust "swtor_miner"'s information. I do trust them, he has proven himself on more than one occasion, but as he said himself, bioware constantly changes data files, removes them, adds them, let them lay dormant for months etc.. There's always the possibility that something slipped through unnoticed.

@Everybody, feel free to correct me if i mixed up something.

Truth is, nobody knows. The user "swtor_miner"'s from reddit said, that you need a fourth buff to activate the ancient tome, in addition to the three buffs you can get from aggroing the vendors in the outlaws den. This fourth buff should have been obtainable by defeating an enemy named "Sandclaw". Since "Sandclaw" is not ingame (At least, nobody has discovered him yet), there's no way to activate the tome. "swtor_miner" also mentioned a clickable door he was going to investigate, but i've never asked him about it. Since nothing new has been revealed from that, i assume it was a dead end.

 

Take it with a grain of salt, it's your own choice if you trust "swtor_miner"'s information. I do trust them, he has proven himself on more than one occasion, but as he said himself, bioware constantly changes data files, removes them, adds them, let them lay dormant for months etc.. There's always the possibility that something slipped through unnoticed.

 

@Everybody, feel free to correct me if i mixed up something.

One thing missing (but not important) swtor_miner said that there should be a beam of light that transports you to the Ancient tome. So the pushback/etc/etc method to get to it is not the intended way.

I think there has to be a real solvable puzzle here. If it was just broken the devs or CM team would have chimed in by now. Keeping silent implies there is something.

Another possibility is, that there's no puzzle currently, but bioware's planning to implement one soon, after they've seen people actually asking about the tome. That way, they don't have to say "there's no puzzle" and "now there is one!" after a few weeks. I assume that Bioware stays silent until there's a puzzle, and then they'll give the community a hint. In that case, Bioware doesn't even need to admit, that there's no puzzle at the moment.

You know you can already get a White Lightsaber crystal legitimately in the game right?

I heard about that, but never did it so far.

The fact, that you can obtain the crystal now legitimately was never the question.

I thought we were talking of *current* SWTOR. Sorry.

Another possibility is, that there's no puzzle currently,

Another possibility is that there might have been an event-specific puzzle which went forgotten.

It is odd that no reply from BW. Take the dreadful orb for example - they atl east made a crpytic comment about that in reply to someone's querying it.

Speaking of dreaful orb ( a currently unsolved puzzle ) anyone tried possibly using this or maybe the puzzle is linked to something else on SnV? Is Dash'roode a duneclaw? *shrug*

This may be a long shot, but the well-fed womp rat reminded me of the malnourished banthas that have been scattered across tatooine for a long time. They may have some sort of connection to each other, but I know from testing that getting the three buffs and killing one of the banthas does nothing, and I doubt they'd have you go that far from the outlaw's den if the puzzle is meant to be in there.

last time i went to outlaws den there was a bantha in there.... well within the path of the well fed womprat

So myself and some friends got to another location, not sure if it's been explored before or not, but there wasn't much there besides this palette of crates that seemed to do nothing. We couldn't try too much but we did try seeing if having the three buffs did anything, but nothing. Anyways, I didn't take any pictures but my friend took some video. Here's a short vid of us bringing the three buffs to the crates.

Funny coincidence, we came across those crates too, but from the other side of the mountains.

Some pics of that trip:

https://imageshack.com/a/ZwOb/1

*sigh*

I was just about to ask about that Dread Orb, but I've realized that I'll never ever going to see it - partially because I refuse to use voice chat ... So, the last few riddles are at the hands of progress guilds ...

[rant]

I sometimes wish that things weren's all solved by now ... People just don't have any riddles anymore nowadays ... Except those solved by Progress Guilds, which have seemingly monopolized riddle-solving ...

Nowadays, no newbie can ever dream of finding something important anymore ... Everything is solved now, and people can point to one who had cleared any content / solved any riddle before ... World-exclusive rights ...

Sometimes I wonder what mankind will do when all RL territories are explored, all oceans are known, all animals charactirized, everything is known about the world, and the next planets ... The ultimate boredom ... People might then just go into the stars in order to find new riddles to solve ... Or, maybe someone will create riddles to save humankind from The Ultimate Boredom ...

[/rant]

last time i went to outlaws den there was a bantha in there.... well within the path of the well fed womprat

If you mean Urtagh, he was only for the Rakghoul event.