Decoding the Mount Chiliad Mural

December 23, 2013

@MrMunchs

Didn't even know there was another vid. Would have saved a bunch of time.

December 23, 2013

Oh, haha. I don't know if this is a compliment or not. Anyways, I'm at work and it's a slow day so I can check the forums, hehe. But I have seen this before especially with San Andreas, the Bigfoot Myth. It went the same route as this. First there was hope, then came alot of fake videos and pictures and then it went dead. I hope that the last part will be different this time but I'm starting to lose hope. But let's hope I'm wrong.

The real professionals are reverse engineering the game's script right now. And I'm making wild guesses for the sake of my own enjoyment. I think if anything is hidden within the game we will know within the next two weeks. Anything else is just innocent masturbatory speculation, only useful to confuse credulous 12 years olds (who are actually not supposed to play this dirty X rated game anyway). Man this is just like back in the old days of Pokemon!

Edited December 23, 2013 by HonestOG556

December 23, 2013

Okay, I've tried lining up the image of Mt. Chiliad with the image on the mural. They really don't jive. Now, if you look at Mt. Jessup from the side of Ft. Z, you'll notice that the mountain is a pretty accurate depiction of the mural.

Secondly, the image on the mural IS a mountain. Sure, there are squiggle lines underneath, but, the SIDES of the mountain continue down to indicate it IS in fact a mountain. The other squiggle lines are what looks to be ridge lines, as on the sides of a mountain, or the sand under the ocean.

Thirdly. the "wall" next to the mural doesn't look normal. If you look at a side view of the upper area, it is DEFINITELY wider than what would be just a wall. Also, on the back side of that wall, there are two air handler units mounted toward the top of the building.

Lastly, the cameras mounted at the top of the lift. Each is directed toward an "approach" angle. From either the trams themselves or from the sides. Also, there are NO cameras at the bottom area of the lift, JUST THE TOP. It might suggest that you need to be wearing an appropriate disguise. An alien costume or a G-man outfit. The only G-man outfit I can find is a dlc but I think its for your avatar and not in-game. I also have not been able to find an alien mask at the mask store.

Anyone able to fill in the blanks here?

Mount Jessup?... You mean Josiah, right?

I'll check that out, but most likely (I believe) finding a mountain or view of chiliad that matches perfectly is irrelevant... early on I felt that was important to some extent, but at this point it looks less and less likely... I'm pretty sure the mural is just a free-hand depiction of Chiliad.

I could be wrong... nothing in this game is certain... if Rockstar even finished this mystery or if it even is more than just a bunch of eye candy and movie and cultural references, when we do "crack" it, it'll probably be something stupid like Chop's doghouse is the entrance and inside you find an I OWE YOU card with a picture of a jetpack.

As far as the Motor-house at the top of the mountain (where the tram cars go)... as far as I'm aware that whole building is one mesh (more or less a solid model)... so it doesn't really matter what the textures or details suggest, there is no separate parts for opening areas. As far as I'm aware, even if there is nothing behind a door and it loads to a cutaway scene, the designers usually use a separate door (separate from the rest of the model)... this is usually how people can tell if a building might have (or might have been meant to have) an interior.

A weird story about Mount Josiah... Probably about two months ago, I was flying over it at night and for a second as I passed over the north side (I think) swooping down to the valley, I saw what looked like a zig zag multicolor-pulsing-glowing trail... I freaked out (with joy)...(beer based)... I swung my helo around to see nothing... I scoured the face of the mountain up and down and was about to turn away when it popped up again... HOLY CRAP! ITS THE ZIG ZAG PATH FROM THE GLYPH!!... I beat the crap out of my buzzard trying to land it quickly before the event ended, but as soon as I got out it stopped... I went over to where it was and it turned out to be a stream... I got back in my chopper and after I got back in the air it appeared again... it turned out to be some weird reflection glitch triggered by the navigation lights on the helicopter. It was very apparent that the pulsing exactly matched the timing of the navi lights when I paid close attention... I flew off disappointed and with a smoking, sputtering wreak...

Never mentioned it before, because it was nothing, but I figured I'd do so now, in case anyone else sees it if they check out Mt. Josiah too.

Edited December 23, 2013 by McGyver55

December 23, 2013

Oh, haha. I don't know if this is a compliment or not. Anyways, I'm at work and it's a slow day so I can check the forums, hehe. But I have seen this before especially with San Andreas, the Bigfoot Myth. It went the same route as this. First there was hope, then came alot of fake videos and pictures and then it went dead. I hope that the last part will be different this time but I'm starting to lose hope. But let's hope I'm wrong.

The real professionals are reverse engineering the game's script right now. And I'm making wild guesses for the sake of my own enjoyment. I think if anything is hidden within the game we will know within the next two weeks. Anything else is just innocent masturbatory speculation, only useful to confuse credulous 12 years olds (who are actually not supposed to play this dirty X rated game anyway). Man this is just like back in the old days of Pokemon!

Let's hope they will find something. I'm having doubts. I think it was something in the game but that it got cut. And once again, I think it's sick to see that people are talented like this but I don't think Rockstar Games made the mural so difficult that gamehacking/reverser engineering is needed.

December 23, 2013

It started with text from omega subtitles that we had never heard in game... "i thought i said i would see you on the otherside" (which "see you on the otherside brother" was the last thing he said to us) then there is also a line saying "dont hurt me humanoid" (which reoze pointed out) reoze then did his file magic on everything omega related and looked in the omega launcher script file...

sounds like something omega would say if you ran up on him when he's walking away after turning in the last part and completing his mission...i cant try this cuz i already turned in the spaceship parts but anyone reading this and getting ready to turn this mission in should try it...just run up and bump into him (if he doesnt disappear into thin air)

December 23, 2013

Nothing new in two days

December 23, 2013

... I'm pretty sure the mural is just a free-hand depiction of Chiliad.

You are correct, sir. I meant Mt. Josiah.

Yes, it is a representation of a free-hand drawing. However, some local didn't draw this mural. It was drawn by a paid graphic artist. If there is indeed a mystery to be solved in this game, they would want us to have a fairly accurate representation of what they are trying to point to. As such, I printed out a picture of the mural and held it up to my TV and the mural doesn't match Chiliad from either the north or the south. There is a bit of a "shoulder" on one side which isn't on the other side.

HOWEVER, if you do the same for Mt. Josiah, from the south, looking north, it DOES appear to be a more accurate representation of the mural.

That points to a different Mt. altogether. Which brings me to the point about the air handler units at the top of the lift station. The building itself is wide enough to contain a room. There are no "doors" into the area. If there was nothing there, why would it not be a wall thickness behind the mural instead of a room thickness? Granted, nobody has been able to detect anything there, hence, it would have to be triggered by some means. Monkey suit won't work, needs to be alien or g-man, especially if it is a government facility.

Somehow it feels like its all in the details and the trails are heading north when they should go south at this point.

December 23, 2013

maybe you have to end with a specific spaceship part

December 23, 2013

... I'm pretty sure the mural is just a free-hand depiction of Chiliad.

That points to a different Mt. altogether. Which brings me to the point about the air handler units at the top of the lift station. The building itself is wide enough to contain a room. There are no "doors" into the area. If there was nothing there, why would it not be a wall thickness behind the mural instead of a room thickness? Granted, nobody has been able to detect anything there, hence, it would have to be triggered by some means. Monkey suit won't work, needs to be alien or g-man, especially if it is a government facility.

I'm not trying to shoot you down or anything, but with this mystery (if there is one) every time I see something curious I have to stop and ask myself "why does it look this way and what is its relation to a real life counterpart"... is it just a weird looking building that has a similar structure upon which it is based in real life... is it there for some reason (mission or clue) or is it just a detail- no more than any other prop in the game.

In the case of the motor-house, there is a whole room in back of the door area, because in real life that is where all the machinery goes... although they seem small and light trams, are almost as heavy as a small bus, so the motors, pulleys and all associated machinery are quite bulky and large... trust me I've ridden in many Tramways with cars the size of the ones in the game (I've ridden NYC's Roosevelt Island Tram a million times)... the structure at the top of the mountain is typical of real life buildings... it probably represents one in California, but it reminds me very strongly of the one at Cannon Mountain in New Hampshire. The air handling units on Chiliad are nothing mysterious, NYC's Tram sheds/motor-houses are open air, yet there are huge cooling fans for the motor works. There is nothing unusual about the huge doors either (they don't use the area to store the cars, they park them at ground level), there are massive pulleys, gears and motors in these sort of structures... when they go bad they have to be replaced and small doors won't do.

To me (granted I'm not a certified tramway mechanic) there is nothing unusual about the building other than the mural on one of the walls.

Who knows... maybe if the right trigger is popped the door could spring open and lead us to a jetpack wonderland... but all I'm pointing out is that there is nothing unusual about the structure or its details (besides the mural) that (to me) makes me believe it is special or has any other purpose.

If you are going to be interested in building that don't fit in or seem to have odd details... check out the Altruist camp... the big "Barn" building is the only one with an actual foundation (the rest are on piers) and for some reason it has a door in that foundation that seems to be a separate part 9as well as a small gap below the door indicating a space behind the door)... I'm far more suspicious of that structure than the tramway house, because it doesn't really go with the nature of the other structures. But then again I also don't think Rockstar made any use of it either.

As far as the mural... I get that a graphic artist drew it, but that does not mean he didn't draw it freehand either, I have an Intuos Bamboo tablet I use to draw freehand details on UV maps for my own models... I doubt he/she really would have gone through the trouble of tracing it... which is sort of why I abandoned the idea of matching the mural to different views... I posted some possible views of the mountain and someone asked "why would they bother"... and I asked myself the same question... would I or other people I know bother? No most of us would just wing it freehand... unless we were told it had to match exactly.

I'm have more concern at this point over the unnecessary maze-like lines connecting the boxes in the mural... why did the artist not just draw more or less straight lines? Whats with all the zig-zags? I used to think maybe it was a overhead plan, or it lined up with some streets somewhere or was basically a map... but I'm starting to think the bastard who drew it was just trying to make the damn thing look more complex.

Once again... not trying to shoot down your ideas, just trying point out something to consider... which for all I know is dead wrong.

December 23, 2013

maybe you have to end with a specific spaceship part

I was thinking that as well. The only one that bears any significance, is the last piece. Maybe bring the final piece to Chiliad or the Sunken UFO to see if it interacts. It generates some kind of power. We know this because we hear the humming/throbbing sound when we get close to one. So, maybe we can bring it somewhere to kickstart a mechanism of some sort.

December 23, 2013

... I'm pretty sure the mural is just a free-hand depiction of Chiliad.

You are correct, sir. I meant Mt. Josiah.

Yes, it is a representation of a free-hand drawing. However, some local didn't draw this mural. It was drawn by a paid graphic artist. If there is indeed a mystery to be solved in this game, they would want us to have a fairly accurate representation of what they are trying to point to. As such, I printed out a picture of the mural and held it up to my TV and the mural doesn't match Chiliad from either the north or the south. There is a bit of a "shoulder" on one side which isn't on the other side.

HOWEVER, if you do the same for Mt. Josiah, from the south, looking north, it DOES appear to be a more accurate representation of the mural.

That points to a different Mt. altogether. Which brings me to the point about the air handler units at the top of the lift station. The building itself is wide enough to contain a room. There are no "doors" into the area. If there was nothing there, why would it not be a wall thickness behind the mural instead of a room thickness? Granted, nobody has been able to detect anything there, hence, it would have to be triggered by some means. Monkey suit won't work, needs to be alien or g-man, especially if it is a government facility.

Somehow it feels like its all in the details and the trails are heading north when they should go south at this point.

In my opinion if you draw something if its accurate you must be able to see it, otherwise must be inaccurate. So the drawing at mt chilliad its a mountain that you can see from the top of the mountain with a perfect silhouette or its a free hand of chiliad. The answer for the quest must be simple to solve, the question its to figure the point of view of the author.

Sorry for my potato English

Edited December 23, 2013 by MrMunchs

December 23, 2013

I am currently working on the mural image. For me it screams "puzzle" and my living room is covered in copies of the mural. Trying to figure out how it can be segregated and rearanged. After all the answer is meant to be right in front of us.

One other thing i am paying close attention to are the "Ron" signs, there are 3 of them and 2 of them(for me) have the angel glyph shows up at night. One of them does not. Now if we look at the mural there are 3 main boxes(ufo/egg/jetpack) and so far we could say we have found ufo(zanc/hippy) aswell as the egg(chill ufo). The only one we are stuck on and have not found is the jetpack. Could the "Ron" signs be an indicator of our progress regarding the mural puzzle? Could the angel appear on the 3rd sign once we have cracked the jetpack part. Who knows??

December 23, 2013

For me it screams "puzzle" and my living room is covered in copies of the mural. Trying to figure out how it can be segregated and rearanged. After all the answer is meant to be right in front of us.

OH OH... Please don't don't go all "Brian" on us... I'm picturing big huge piles of mashed potatoes with shrubbery sticking out of them modeled after the mountain... hundreds of hand draw pictures of the mountain with lines of string spanning the room to images of Jody Foster and Richard Nixon... the windows covered with newspaper and some guy in a tin foil hat shakily carving out sections of the carpeting while muttering "I know its down there somewhere"...

DAMN YOU ROCKSTAR!! HOW MANY MORE OF US MUST YOU CLAIM!!

December 23, 2013

Oh yeah, about the angels on the signs... I was playing an old save (22% or around that) recently and I checked on the symbols on the signs... I could still see the same two.

At that point I don't think you have really seen any big easter eggs, so they may not correspond to them.

December 23, 2013

xmas is in 2 days, maybe a present is coming?....just a thought

December 23, 2013

xmas is in 2 days, maybe a present is coming?....just a thought

A sh*tty Christmas hat, a melee candy cane that has the exact animation as the knife, and a red van with santa painted on the side.

Sounds like the present R* would give us.

December 23, 2013