*** Space Train - Birth/Cake Day Celebration ***

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

DO NOT REPLY TO FIRST AND SECOND POST!

REPLY TO THE THIRD POST ONLY IF YOU WISH TO ADD ANY GA TO THIS EVENT, PLEASE. THANK YOU!

Small prelude of context:

(You can skip this part if you want)

Hi everyone! :)
So, it's been a whole year since i joined this great community and i decided to make something (hopefully) a little more special for you guys.

So, my Cake Day was on the 20th, when this was supposed to have happened. Long story short... hard drive partition going belly up screwed my plans big time, hence the delayed cake day celebration.
My Birthday is on the 7th of next month (which is also when all GAs end), hence the somewhat early birthday celebration.
It was merely meant to be a cake day celebration, wasn't that keen on advertising birthday date, but given the circumstances, seemed fitting, given the day, the number of trains, GA per train, etc.

The main reason i wrote the above text is because there is a plot. And it's mostly... well... thin / shallow some times (if not often times).
I had a comic strip done for this (yes, i had made a cartoonish comic strip for the whole thing... that went completely belly up, fml), and as they usually say... a picture is worth 1,000 words. Especially pictures that require quite a bit of describing through text. Let's just say my patience wore thin very early on, trying to sub what was accomplished with the images with just plain words. Not to mention how incredibly dull i felt it would be for most people to read through as well.

As for the plot... it's a silly parody.
A very silly one, maybe you'll find some of it witty, i am quite disappointed with the end result given what i mentioned before, i just find it dumb.
But oh well, it was what was possible and i grew tired of postponing this.

DISCLAIMER:
The parody includes names of SG users that have been altered one way or another, some in a goofier way than others.
All the users being mentioned are mentioned as a homage.
Nothing is meant to be offensive or insulting, but if you happen to be one of the users mentioned and feel offended, just tell me and i will remove the altered form of your username entirely. And i obvisously apologize in advance, if that happens to be the case.

That's it. That's all the context. I hope it wasn't too much. :)

THE PUZZLES / GAS

There is a total of 58 GAs. And yes, there is a Puzzle for every GA.

Trust me, seems more daunting than it is.

The vast majority of the puzzles are NOT that hard.

27 of the 58 GAs are level 1+ (should have been 28, but i screwed one up making it level 2+), and 31 of the 58 GAs are level 2+.
The GAs are spread into 7 trains of 7 GAs (total of 49). The first 4 of each of the 7 trains (barring the one i screwed up) are the ones at level 1, the rest are all level 2. At the end of each train you collect a bit of info for the 50th GA.

You need to complete all 7 GAs to have the info you need to access the very easy Puzzle for GA #50.

After you've accessed GA#50, you have an additional harder puzzle for #51.

There are also 7 additional easter egg GAs for the grand total of 58.
The info to access the Puzzle for those 7 easter eggs is scattered across the other 49 Puzzles / GAs.
There is a pattern that you will uncover (somewhere) to make it easier for you to know how to combine the scattered info so you can access the easter eggs.

There may or may not be red herrings. You have been warned. Don't hate me.

THE HINT SECTION - NOT AS COMPLICATED AS YOU THINK (SERIOUSLY) - JUST A BIT OF A READ (Sorry :/)

There are no hints added as of the start of this thread. I decided to make the hint process a bit different than what you're used to, to make it more interactive and hopefully a fun process as well. Also, it's not convoluted, it's quite simple, if you just read this not so tiny section.

Hints will be added TO MY 2ND POST as described below when the criteria also described is met:

THROUGH PUZZLE PROGRESS:

• If you are one of the first 7 to finish any puzzle leading to a GA, you can choose from 3 small hints scattered randomly all across the several puzzles OR you can take your chances in 1 single roll in the Wheel of Fortune (WoF) which will be described at the end of this section and illustrated with a picture.

• If you are one of the first 7 to finish one of the last 7 puzzles from each train (1-7, 2-7,... 7-7), you can choose from 3 small scattered hints AND 1 single roll in the WoF... OR you get 2 rolls in the WoF.

• If you are the VERY FIRST to finish one of the last 7 puzzles from each train, you get 1 additional roll in the WoF.

• If you are the very first to finish at least 7 puzzles total, regardless of which, you also get an additional roll, per each 7 (yes, that means tough luck if it's 6 or 13, sorry).

IMPORTANT:
Just post in the respective GA to reserve your hint choice. You don't have to choose immediately, but only the 7 first to post get to choose - there is no other way for me to know who finished first, unless people post to reserve that right (i strongly suggest you post something like a single character and edit it afterwards so you don't get ninja'd while typing :P - just edit it afterwards to Reserved or to the choice you wish if you don't want to wait).

The Wheel of Fortune:

The picture is pretty self-explanatory for the most part.
"Nothing", "small hint", "big hint", "hint on finding an easter egg" and "full answer" are exactly as it says.
The "1/49th of a hint on Puzzle 50 / 51" mean there have to be 49 rolls landing on either so you can get a hint on the respective one. The reasons being that Puzzle 50 is stupid simple and is more than doable without any hints at all and that Puzzle 51 is logic-based, so even being a bit harder is still pretty doable without 0 hints. So yes, the chance to have a hint added for any of those has to be very slim.
The hints are also global, obviously.

Now... the Jackpot! The Jackpot means you get to choose selfishly or selflessly:

• SELFISHLY: I add you and give you a bundle game from whatever i have spare (i'll do my best to go through your wishlist prior to today - October 14th - if at all possible), but you get no hints whatsoever added to the puzzles.

• SELFLESSLY: You get either 3 additional rolls and whatever you get from those rolls is obviously shared with the community. Also, no "Double-Jackpot!"... If you get a Jackpot! and choose 3 additional rolls and you draw another Jackpot on one of those rolls, all that happens is a simple re-roll.

THROUGH ADDING GAS TO THIS EVENT:

I only considered this, because i've had at least a couple of folks suggesting they might want to add GAs to this.
You don't need to, i don't expect you to and most importantly, there should be no need to just for the sake of having enough hints. The simple draws of what is mentioned above should be more than enough for the vast majority of folks to solve 90-95% of it all (yes, including 50/51 and easter eggs).

That said...

If you do wish to add a GA to this, i ask merely the following simple rules for them to be eligible to help hints being added:

• Do so by replying to the third post (the one saying POST GA LINKS REPLYING TO THIS POST).
• Leave it open for more than 48h (to give me ample time to add it to the respective post to keep it more organized - bear in mind comment notifications are disabled as of the start of this).
• Make it no more than level 2+.
• Doesn't matter if it's public or private (group/whitelist isn't obviously accepted), but do ask in the description for folks to bump this thread.

You can still ignore all of the above, but i just can't count them for the hint section.

Should you follow all of the above...

• For every 7 total GAs added to this, 1 small random hint is addded to 1 question of the 49 puzzles.
• For every 49 total GAs added to this, 1 small random hint is added to 1 question of the 49 puzzles and 1 WoF roll is done. Should a Jackpot be drawn, 3 rolls are assumed as choice.
• For every 7 GAs added by the same user, 1 additional big hint is addded to 1 question of the 49 puzzles.
• For every 49 GAs added by the same user (LOL, gotta account for the crazier than me :P), 1 additional big random hint is added to 1 question of the 49 puzzles and 1 addition WoF roll is done. Should a Jackpot be drawn, 3 rolls are assumed as choice.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:
I will not join any GA that is added to this thread, if any is chosen to be added.

THE PLOT AND SUCH

Posted in the 1st post, you will find:

• The initial very thin plot;
• The departure links for all 7 trains;
• Some pictures that may or may not be of help to either solving the puzzles, or finding even more red h... ahem... finding the easter eggs... :P