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3) There are three, interactive, doors in the abandoned portal Corp Base to the far north west.
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These doors are very likely to be enviroinmental(spelling?)because they likely picked a King's Row-like warehouse and slapped it there tho 
Had a look at the GM walls - I don't think they have anything to do with the solution, they merely seem to be creating a living barracade, blocking off the most obvious routes to attack Hami (for non-flyers). So, I think we can scratch them off the list...
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All 3 of the forest are accessible, however there's always 3-4 monsters inside.
We tried to clear one a while back but we found out nothing useful..
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What about clearing all three forests simultaneously with 3 different groups? Has this been tried in the US, any idea?
I've been pondering what we have in The Hive and what could be done to activate this magical debuff.. Before I start, it's 2:30 am here in Finland, so bear with me if all I'm saying is nonsense. Lot of this has been said here before, but this is all I've come up so far:
The Urban Legend tells us that Hami should be beatable with 27 heroes - 9 groups of 3 people, or 3 groups of 8 + one group of 3 perhaps. 27 isn't a number that divides into equal-sized groups well. Is it a hint on how we should start to solve the puzzle?
There are no NPCs in The Hive, so it can't be activated by talking to someone within the hive. Is it possible there is an NPC outside The Hive who is connected to Hamidon somehow?
There are 3 normal doors in The Hive (at PC area) - if the "Trial" (should such exist) has an indoor mission, it will likely be in one of these. For now, these do nothing.
There are no objects or other interactables in The Hive we know of. /targetcustomnext hasn't at least revealed any to me and none has been reported before. It doesn't mean there aren't any - The statistic terminals in city zones are examples of items that can't be targeted, but can still be activated. This means that the Forests are still a viable option for some sort of an activation mechanism. Perhaps holding all three forests at a time while (if the 3x8 + 1x3 group formation is the correct one) one group goes and does something completely different, like talks to The Woodsman.
There are 9 "cavelike" formations in the anthill spires. These are in my current opinion nonimportant - they can't be affected and they disappear if you move a bit further from the anthill while having world details on a low setting. I think it is unlikely this would happen if they were set to play a major part in the "Hami Trial".
There are 5 types of spawns at the Hive, these are:
- Hamidon (+ Mitos)
- Swarms
- Buffing Lt mobs
- "GM Walls"
- The basic mob
We know it isn't Hamidon. (duh?)
There is at least one oddly-placed Devouring Swarm near the Portal Corp area, but it's unlikely it would be the key to all this.
The Buffing Lts are there probably to make the GM Walls even harder, and were most likely destroyed as well if the Walls went down in the US, so we can pretty much rule them out.
The Walls themselves, as said, have been destroyed. For completenes sake, it should be noted, that the Walls are facing away from Hamidon, so their job is indeed keep people out, not cheer for the blob or something equally silly.
All this leaves us only one possible type of mob that could be triggering the Trial... So. Are we sure there are only one sort of basic mob in The Hive? Are all the Monsters (not counting the Walls) following the same pattern in their behaviour? Is there a specific monster we need to defeat to activate the trial? I seem to also recall that there was a mention of a stray Monster wandering in some nearby area? Could this be related?
Or should we just somehow confuse ourselves in the Tyrant mission and beat up Statesman and steal his nerf bat?
[b][color=blue]Coldest War /[color=red]/ Omega Patient[/b]
[url="http://www.the-cow.net/"][color=red]The CoW Network (Blog) /[/url][url="http://www.collegeofwar.com/"][color=blue]/ College of War[/url]
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There are 9 "cavelike" formations in the anthill spires. These are in my current opinion nonimportant - they can't be affected and they disappear if you move a bit further from the anthill while having world details on a low setting. I think it is unlikely this would happen if they were set to play a major part in the "Hami Trial".
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I would agree with this if there were 1 or 2 'caves' on the map but 9!?
I think the fact that there are 9 of them relatively evenly spaced and almost the same distance from Hami points toward design rather than chance. Thus they have a purpose in the zone. Whether that purpose is to do with Hami is another matter of course. (But sonce the whole zone is geared toward the Hami encounter I don't thik it is too much of a logical leap).
I believe that certain conditions, either within the zone or within the teams in the zone, must be met before they become active.
I know that kind of thing has not been seen in the game anywhere else but I am fast beginning to realise that The Hive is a unique zone in almost every way.
True, they are quite suspicious. Are there any "caves" in the anthills of Eden? If not, they are even more suspicious...
[b][color=blue]Coldest War /[color=red]/ Omega Patient[/b]
[url="http://www.the-cow.net/"][color=red]The CoW Network (Blog) /[/url][url="http://www.collegeofwar.com/"][color=blue]/ College of War[/url]
[ QUOTE ]
Or should we just somehow confuse ourselves in the Tyrant mission and beat up Statesman and steal his nerf bat?
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im always up for this, but then again, dont actually think we need to have a reason to beat up states? 
bout the summary, you summarized it pretty well and basically my current thoughts as well. My thought is the walls force you a way around the hive and that this tour must be "completed" in a specific way. Done some extra research and it does seem the hive is a trial zone rather than a hazard zone. Then again, RCS is a trial zone as well which doesnt make sense.
As stated before, if there indeed is a trial there should be a contact triggering it. The new colorcoding system should prove finding the contact easier if there is any. However, if there indeed WAS a contact starting some kind of hami trial, dont you think the americans wouldve found him/her?
Woodsman indeed seems like the most likely person to talk to, however seeing he already gives a TF i doubt he triggers something with hami.
Which leaves us PC, the badge there is called "time bandit". We also know that hami used to be a human. So might it be able that hami somehow is turned back into his human equivalent? Wild guessing here and doubt its the solution, but it WOULD make sense. Personally if there is any alternate solution I reckon it has to do something with the DE storyline. After all it wouldnt make sense gamewise to have a solution completely different from the story line?
Clearing the forests, storywise, also could have a reason. Seeing hami likes to devour the earth, its odd that these forests still exist. They arent devoured yet... coincidence or a reason? If you look closely though, these forests are all at the warwalls so it may just be that they should be linked to the eden forests and added for some extra scenery.
Bout the clickable doors in PC, if a mish aint triggered in one of those buildings, I doubt they should be used.
Anyway, pretty tired now and thinking too much makes my head hurt atm.. Think i'll go have another look in the hive one of these days.
"god, how many devs did hami have to sleep with to get ED?"
Total Cat @Stagefright
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Then again, RCS is a trial zone as well which doesnt make sense.
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RCS is a trial zone because you can start the 3rd respec in it, I think..
But it's 2:20 and I may be wrong.. 
Yup, Major Richard Flagg is in the Crash site and is the 3rd Respec contact.
Hence the trial zone.
Didn't know the Hive was atrial xone though, curiouser and curiouser.
And the greatness that is British Summer Time means it is only 1:30 am here. Britain FTW! 
If we look at the placement of GM walls, they make a route that goes clock wise around hami through both forests in south-west and PC and ends somewhere north of Hami(thinking of a non flyer/tper).
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Then again, RCS is a trial zone as well which doesnt make sense.
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RCS is a trial zone because you can start the 3rd respec in it, I think..
But it's 2:20 and I may be wrong..
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true, however it only has a contact starting the trial which is in Terra Volta. The other trial zones (faultline, eden and terra volta) have (or in the case of faultline used to have) an entrance to a trial map (the dam, eden spire, terra volta core). RCS doesnt have this thats why it doesnt make sense to me. Not sure bout hamidon, might be called a trial zone cause its linked to eden.
"god, how many devs did hami have to sleep with to get ED?"
Total Cat @Stagefright
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Then again, RCS is a trial zone as well which doesnt make sense.
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RCS is a trial zone because you can start the 3rd respec in it, I think..
But it's 2:20 and I may be wrong..
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true, however it only has a contact starting the trial which is in Terra Volta. The other trial zones (faultline, eden and terra volta) have (or in the case of faultline used to have) an entrance to a trial map (the dam, eden spire, terra volta core). RCS doesnt have this thats why it doesnt make sense to me. Not sure bout hamidon, might be called a trial zone cause its linked to eden.
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That's what I was thinkin and wasn't unsure about RCS for this reason.
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true, however it only has a contact starting the trial which is in Terra Volta. The other trial zones (faultline, eden and terra volta) have (or in the case of faultline used to have) an entrance to a trial map (the dam, eden spire, terra volta core). RCS doesnt have this thats why it doesnt make sense to me. Not sure bout hamidon, might be called a trial zone cause its linked to eden.
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I think RCS was originally supposed to have a supergroup trial similar to the Faultline one, but it (like Faultline's) was pulled last minute and has remained a dead zone ever since. RCS's Trial map was supposed to be (surprise, surprise) the Spaceship.
[b][color=blue]Coldest War /[color=red]/ Omega Patient[/b]
[url="http://www.the-cow.net/"][color=red]The CoW Network (Blog) /[/url][url="http://www.collegeofwar.com/"][color=blue]/ College of War[/url]
Regarding the presence of a contact related to a hami "trial"...
The contact for the hydra, for example, is not in the same zone as the trial. So, we can say, that, if there's one, s/he might be outside the zone.
However, I don't think that there's any NPC to see for that.
I'd say that we must think of that contact in an abstract way, that I'd call a 'trigger'.
But that leads me to the following : we stopped focusing on Hami itself to look at the zone. So far it doesn't make sense at all. So I think we might have to get a broader view again and consider Eden too.
For example, there are rows of DE growing carnivorous plants and saying "for Hamidon" there. It might be too obvious, but, hey, did anyone try to clear those before entering the hive ?
There's still the fact that we didn't try to activate the three doors at the same time.
And, I'd still would like to know if the devs answered anything useful to the mail that was sent to them regarding this topic.
the response was "my lips are sealed" from states
also i doubt that the growing of plants in eden and saying for hamidon is the clue. After all, all the DE say something like that. I think it more means something like "we serve hamidon", growing plants to devour the earth
"god, how many devs did hami have to sleep with to get ED?"
Total Cat @Stagefright
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the response was "my lips are sealed" from states
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If that's not an indication there is more to this than meets the eye, I don't know what is.
[b][color=blue]Coldest War /[color=red]/ Omega Patient[/b]
[url="http://www.the-cow.net/"][color=red]The CoW Network (Blog) /[/url][url="http://www.collegeofwar.com/"][color=blue]/ College of War[/url]
[ QUOTE ]
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the response was "my lips are sealed" from states
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If that's not an indication there is more to this than meets the eye, I don't know what is.
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Now im starting to get really interested..
Me and Stagefright are organizing an expedition into The Hive in couple of hours. If you are interested in joining us, we're meeting at The Hive at 6pm BST. You can message either me (in-game Coldest War or @Alvan) or Nefarious (Stagefright or @Stagefright) for further details.
Stagefright has also put up a Global channel for this puzzle called "Riddle of Hamidon", so if you have a channel-spot left, please join us - helps organizing meetings at The Hive to have an in-game communication channel as well.
[b][color=blue]Coldest War /[color=red]/ Omega Patient[/b]
[url="http://www.the-cow.net/"][color=red]The CoW Network (Blog) /[/url][url="http://www.collegeofwar.com/"][color=blue]/ College of War[/url]
[/color]<blockquote><font class="small">En réponse à:[/color]<hr />
the response was "my lips are sealed" from states
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Either there's something or they're still laughing about it.
[/color]<blockquote><font class="small">En réponse à:[/color]<hr />
also i doubt that the growing of plants in eden and saying for hamidon is the clue. After all, all the DE say something like that. I think it more means something like "we serve hamidon", growing plants to devour the earth
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Well the DE in Eden don't do this anywhere else.
I just don't want to rule out anything without giving it a try.
About the text, I play in french, so I just translated their speech back to english. These inaccuracies are to be expected.
the things they say are iirc "for the hamidon" and "the hamidon will be pleased" though i doubt it has further meaning
"god, how many devs did hami have to sleep with to get ED?"
Total Cat @Stagefright
Today's expedition yielded no real results, except we ruled out the "click 3 doors simultaneously" theory. Assuming the Hamidon Trial exists, we are still missing a contact or another way of activating it.
I'll keep looking.
[b][color=blue]Coldest War /[color=red]/ Omega Patient[/b]
[url="http://www.the-cow.net/"][color=red]The CoW Network (Blog) /[/url][url="http://www.collegeofwar.com/"][color=blue]/ College of War[/url]
aye, plus the (prolly trivial) fact that the day-night shift takes way longer than the night-day shift.
A following expedition will prolly need about 30 heroes so we can do some monsterclearing
"god, how many devs did hami have to sleep with to get ED?"
Total Cat @Stagefright
I just wish I knew for certain whether there is actually something to find!
Logic seems to indicate that there must be but it would be nice to know.
I have a nagging feeling that the Devs are laughing at us. Either because there is nothing to find or because there is and it is so stupidly obvious and we are not seeing it.
Oh well the search continues. When we manage to get ~30 heoes together for an evening we may have more luck.
Another trivial notice from patrolling The Hive - There is a Devouring Swarm spawn a bit south-east of Time Bandit badge (directly north from the fallen skyscraper), that doesn't seem to follow the reqular "along the hill-lines" -pattern.
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[url="http://www.the-cow.net/"][color=red]The CoW Network (Blog) /[/url][url="http://www.collegeofwar.com/"][color=blue]/ College of War[/url]