One Hour One Life Forums

Portager wrote:

Your mother would first have to initiate the conversation with a code word, "EXP" or something like that.

Then you can reply back with a code indicating that you can help her build the camp.

I think some people may have misread this and took it to mean that the baby is supposed to say three letters, not the mother. xD

So it would look like:
[baby is born]
Mother: EXP?
Baby: Q (or X or whatever)

I like this a lot, partly because an added advantage might be that experienced players who don't use forums may still figure out what the question is trying to ask and be able to type 'Y'. Because while I agree that most players who use forums probably know the game well, I'm sure there are also players who know the game well but don't use forums.

For example, I've been pretty familiar with the entire tech tree since well before I joined the forums or Discord (and even now I'm not very active on either)--I learned most stuff in-game, looked stuff up on the Wiki if I was completely stumped, and kept up with content updates by looking at the update logs on the main page. I'm sure there are many others like me, and even players who don't go on the forums at all but manage learn everything either in-game or on the Wiki.

So I think we should focus more on coming up with good Y/N prompt questions rather than secret letters, for the same reasons that it would be useful to have a signal letter like Q in the first place. (And if it's really important there could still be a secret letter response to these same questions which would just give you the extra information that the player also uses forums).

I see a lot of people ask "Are you new?" but I find that a little too vague (since someone who's been in the game for a while might not know certain things). And of course there's always "Do you know ___?" but it can get old to ask many times. So something like "EXP?" or "Are you experienced?" or "Do you know all tech?" could be a good alternative.