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Re: The Return of Dr Sloth (split 4)

Wed Feb 06, 2008 9:35 am

Here is something I am using for the symbols which I am finding helpful in solving the 3-mod 6-symbol part

I use V=0, X=1, Z=2, mushroom=3, 8=4 and C=5, and use a mod 6 calculation
Using that if you add C+C+C+C you get Z (=20 mod 6=2)
The others are also working fine till now (fingers crossed).

BTW, Great observation on the codestones.

Re: The Return of Dr Sloth (split 4)

Wed Feb 06, 2008 9:56 am

B55B55 wrote:
Daze wrote:The "C" is a Lu Codestone.
Image
The "T" (mushroom or paintbrush) is a Main Codestone.
Image
The "X" is a Mau Codestone.
Image
The "O" or "circle" one is an Orn Codestone.
Image
The "V" with a dot is a Tai-Kai Codestone.
Image
The "8" or "B" is a Vo Codestone.
Image
The "Z" or "%" is a Zei Codestone.
Image



my three code puzzles have also contained the Har Codestone
but only as a Result, not as a key or target
Image

Has anyone seen the eoImage or bri Imagecodestone symbols?


I believe I have seen the Bri codestone symbol, I'll check my screenshots...

Re: The Return of Dr Sloth (split 4)

Wed Feb 06, 2008 10:32 am

There's a reason why this encryption is "military grade"... it's EXTREMELY tedious to crack by brute force.
There must be a pattern to this... and it seems like it's harder than the LDP.

The X doesn't usually combine with other letters, but the T (paint brush, ice lolly, mushroom, etc.) seems to have an overriding effect on some other letters.

Re: The Return of Dr Sloth (split 4)

Wed Feb 06, 2008 10:35 am

My boyfriend and I were also able to solve the system for one set. The symbols represent a numeric system in base seven. (values 0-6).

Warning: If you switch puzzles the mapping between symbols and values may change.
So you need to consider each puzzle individually and not close a puzzle and re-open it.

The first thing we did was look at the sums of 4 of the same symbol for all possible symbols. (not all symbols were present in my key).

If you can find a case where 4 of one symbol gives that same symbol then that symbol must be 0. For example if z + z + z + z = z then z = 0, similarly if z + z + z + v = v then z must be 0.

Once you know what symbol is 0 then you can start to work out 2 symbol equations and combine those to determine the other values. For example...

1. o + o + o + o = o so o = 0
2. o + o + c + v = T
3. o + o + c + B = o
4. o + o + c + T = x
5. o + o + c + x = B

We see that c + B = o = 0 so that's a good place to start. We can substitute for B using equation #5 and get:
c + B = c + c + x = 0 from there we can substitute in equation 4 and get:
c + c + x = c + c + c + T = 0, repeat with equation 2 and we get:
c + c + c + T = c + c + c + c + v = 0
Now since this is base 7 this really means that 4*c + v = 7 or some multiple of 7. The easiest solution here is to assume that c = 1 and v = 3 (although it turns out there are multiple possible solutions for any value of c).
If c = 1 and v = 3 then T = 4 (equation 2) so x = 5 (equation 4) and so on.

Hopefully that example makes sense. For the math nerds out there this is just a case of manually solving a system of linear equations and a better (and faster) solution would be to construct a sufficiently large matrix of equations and use Gaussian elimination or some other technique to solve for the symbol's values.

Ok so we now have a value for each of the symbols, unfortunately the puzzle isn't solved yet. Now you need to go back through all the possible modifiers and find a set that actually produce the correct result.

Edit:
There's probably a reasonable way to automate this. I'm trying to think of an elegant solution that would not require a user to solve their system, and then manually enter the numeric versions of their, key, solution and all possible modifiers (or at least the first few digits of each modifier) in order to brute-force a solution. I may work on that tomorrow.

Re: The Return of Dr Sloth (split 4)

Wed Feb 06, 2008 10:40 am

I don't get it :x :x :x :cry:

Re: The Return of Dr Sloth (split 4)

Wed Feb 06, 2008 10:44 am

I'm in the most terrible situation. Well first of all I don't even know how to operate these codes, and next there's a 1 modifier which although I tried every 10 codes it still doesn't work... totally impossible.
And WOW, I do the next 1 modifier puzzle and that aoutomatically is done. BUt still can someone explain to me how these things work and how to crack these out, I have no idea of what to do.

Re: The Return of Dr Sloth (split 4)

Wed Feb 06, 2008 10:48 am

I don't get it AT ALL can someone explain it to me, clearly, how to match the symbols because I honesly DON'T get it and it's SO frustrating :x :x
I can't even gte past the 2 modifiers, let alone the 3 :x

Re: The Return of Dr Sloth (split 4)

Wed Feb 06, 2008 10:59 am

This is ridiculously hard. We need a Neopets Military Grade Code Decryption for dummies.

Re: The Return of Dr Sloth (split 4)

Wed Feb 06, 2008 11:00 am

BabyCatjuh wrote:I don't get it AT ALL can someone explain it to me, clearly, how to match the symbols because I honesly DON'T get it and it's SO frustrating :x :x
I can't even gte past the 2 modifiers, let alone the 3 :x


If you're really struggling with mod 2 the easiest way to do it (no thinking involved) is to just try

1+2
1+3
1+4
1+5

and so on until you've tried them all. Then try

2+3
2+4
2+5
2+6

until you've tried them all. Then try

3+4
3+5

Etc etc. It can be a little tedious but you'll get the combination you need eventually.


I'm finding mod 3 difficult, I can't help but feel I'm overlooking something...

Re: The Return of Dr Sloth (split 4)

Wed Feb 06, 2008 11:05 am

Woah, this is really really hard, worse than that damned potion thing in TOW. I have 8 done, none of the three ones at all though.. my brain is shutting down hahaha.

Re: The Return of Dr Sloth (split 4)

Wed Feb 06, 2008 11:19 am

Bleeh just finished all the 2 ones..

How on earth am I EVER going to get the 3 ones :(

Re: The Return of Dr Sloth (split 4)

Wed Feb 06, 2008 11:37 am

It might just be a red herring... but I can't help the nagging feeling that the jumble of letters and numbers at the top of each message (the message ID) has something to do with helping us figure out the code.

Either that or my brain melted and I'm grasping at straws trying for the last nine three modifier codes.

Re: The Return of Dr Sloth (split 4)

Wed Feb 06, 2008 11:39 am

I give up :x

http://www.neopets.com/~charmander2058 isn't working for me either. I'm really not amused now. silly puzzle.

Not even solved 1 3 part puzzle with that website and I tried every combination that webpage said to get the correct result. :x

Can't somebody help me, it's so annoying that everyone seems to solve them and I just *can't* no matter what I try

Re: The Return of Dr Sloth (split 4)

Wed Feb 06, 2008 11:48 am

Matrinka wrote:It might just be a red herring... but I can't help the nagging feeling that the jumble of letters and numbers at the top of each message (the message ID) has something to do with helping us figure out the code.


As I've previously stated, from what I could find within the .swf file, those numbers are just randomly generated MD5 hashes - so they won't mean anything.
And before anyone asks - no there aren't solutions or how it works within the swf file (as far as I can see - if any of you are REALLY experienced with flash, PM me and I'll supply the code)

Re: The Return of Dr Sloth (split 4)

Wed Feb 06, 2008 11:51 am

Everyone, schmeryone. Even trying to count them the way B55 instructed isn't working. I was decent at equations in school, but there's just too many variables here. Trying to solve them in the way I got through the second ones (which were relatively easy), isn't working either, because again, too many variables. I'm not enough of a math nerd to *get* these. And doing it the manual way takes too bloody long.

Not feeling very happy at the moment. >:\
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