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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » ARG: Find the Lost Ring
[Chat] Ariadne 16 April (Re: Communicating with Theo)
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ariock
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Elizabeth123 wrote:
"Theo, I am on your side. I understand the reason for NeoPangaea. Please contact at (e-mail.)"

It can probably be finessed more, and maybe it's a little TOO short, but something like this at least would get the message across, and wouldn't have anything in it that potentially could turn Theo off. Maybe it can be included in the forum post about the new artifact, with the player hiding the code within the story of how they got the artifact?


Using whitespace instead of fonts for this particular messages means the ciphertext would need to be about 400 words long (5 words per coded letter, assuming 80 letters) vs about 400 letters long using fonts. Also, you might want to try a test run to see if various amounts of whitespace will transfer through the forum posting mechanism. For example, when victor used asterisks, the interface unexpectedly stripped one letter of two of its asterisks.

Elizabeth123 wrote:
So...Let's debate all this, rather than becoming suspicious and turning on each other. I think, especially after this debate, we should be able to trust each other to do the right thing!


I've said my piece about this. I'd prefer a community where we can trust one another to do the right thing. Of the 5 or so ARGs I've played, there were 2 instances of the wrong thing that directly involved me or my friends (ILB, SCC). Of the other three, there was either no real character interaction (LCP, YZ), or I wasn't involved with anything important enough to warrant getting double-crossed (Heist). YMMV. I personally look unfavorably on anyone who would use OOG info provided by another player against that player. And though there's not any kind of rules here at UF, I have my own rules, and that is one of them.
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 10:42 am
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Elizabeth123
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ariock wrote:
Elizabeth123 wrote:
"Theo, I am on your side. I understand the reason for NeoPangaea. Please contact at (e-mail.)"

It can probably be finessed more, and maybe it's a little TOO short, but something like this at least would get the message across, and wouldn't have anything in it that potentially could turn Theo off. Maybe it can be included in the forum post about the new artifact, with the player hiding the code within the story of how they got the artifact?


Using whitespace instead of fonts for this particular messages means the ciphertext would need to be about 400 words long (5 words per coded letter, assuming 80 letters) vs about 400 letters long using fonts.


I think using fonts it would actually be 400 X 5 letters? So not all that much shorter.

PostPosted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 10:48 am
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ariock
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Elizabeth123 wrote:
I think using fonts it would actually be 400 X 5 letters? So not all that much shorter.

The message you wrote above would be 80 letters. 80x5 letters=400 letters. 80x5 words=400 words.

so, just for the letter A, you would need either:

hello

or

Code:
Hello, my name is now Ariock.

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PostPosted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 10:51 am
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konamouse
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 		but will either show up in thelostring forums? the nuance of the different fonts - may be destroyed by the forum default font taking over. same goes for spacing with forum formatting (but still might be the best option for short messages).

also, we don't know where the next artifact p/u locations will be - so how to guarentee one of the folks who is in on the plan will be nearby and able to get a postcard with a message to leave for Theo? or are you thinking about leaving it at an old location?
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 11:48 am
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ariock
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 		There's been a suggestion by cineball to create podcasts. Imagine a dissatisfied player who compiles the theme music for the podcast. Imagine a short burst of static at the end of the music. The static could encode a binary message using bacon's cipher, ie: 00000 00001 00010 (ABC). The only problem is that it wouldn't be something that would be directly in the in-game forums.

I think any messages should probably be in Esperanto...

Other ideas?
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 12:31 pm
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bryanflurry
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 		Would it help if it's through an image?
(I got this idea file from someone in the Cloverfield thread, but can't remember who, I think it was mrToasty)
CP_Directions.jpg
 Description   hide files in an image
 Filesize   51.48KB
 Viewed   256 Time(s)

CP_Directions.jpg

PostPosted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 12:48 pm
Last edited by bryanflurry on Thu Apr 17, 2008 1:01 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Rogi Ocnorb
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ariock wrote:
There's been a suggestion by cineball to create podcasts. Imagine a dissatisfied player who compiles the theme music for the podcast. Imagine a short burst of static at the end of the music. The static could encode a binary message using bacon's cipher, ie: 00000 00001 00010 (ABC). The only problem is that it wouldn't be something that would be directly in the in-game forums.

I think any messages should probably be in Esperanto...

Other ideas?


I like the static idea. Done at the right speed, it could appear as any one of many possible innocuous telecom-related sounds. Having a call-in segment or "vioce of the listener" type of thing could allow for the hosts to play audio files collected via skype, answering machine or any number of ways.
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 12:57 pm
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VictorSueiro
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 		I think that the idea of using some kind of software to manipulate file headers could be a good idea. There is also an app named Camouflage.

PostPosted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 12:59 pm
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lhall
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 		I think mrjudkins found that you can check source code to find font changes by the poster, but I'll double-check to be sure. The forum does preserve spacing, though.

http://utilitymill.com/utility/Steganography_Encode and http://mozaiq.org/encrypt/ seem like good utilities for hiding stuff in bmp or png files.
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 1:03 pm
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Rogi Ocnorb
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee


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 		For the forum posts version, can you define your own font color?
(Sorry. I haven't ever posted, IG.)
WHICH LETTER IN THIS SENTENCE IS IN A DIFFERENT COLOR?
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 1:16 pm
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lhall
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Rogi Ocnorb wrote:
For the forum posts version, can you define your own font color?
(Sorry. I haven't ever posted, IG.)
WHICH LETTER IN THIS SENTENCE IS IN A DIFFERENT COLOR?


Is it... F? L? Very Happy

(I know it's F because I just looked, but my eyes said L was the different one.)

On Ariadne's forum you can change color, it's not easy to spot by eye or using Photoshop, but I'm sure it does show up in the source.
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 1:21 pm
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Rogi Ocnorb
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 		No. It was the "L" (000001)
All the other letters are 000000.

If you can spot the difference between those, you've got some pair of eyes. Wink
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 1:36 pm
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DavFlamerock
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 		Yay we're back on track. I'd totally volunteer to be a double-agent. I could also help code stuff if we want someone else to be our double-agent. However, if we need our double-agent to place the note then I'm not your man--the SF artifact has already been acquired (unless they have an East Bay artifact Surprised)

And I forget--what language was Theo's message to us in? That's the language we should use. I think it was English.

PostPosted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 1:54 pm
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Oriza
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 		I'm not all that good at encoding stuff (though the Sophia part of me absolutely loves decoding stuff), but again, I'd really love to be the double-agent that communicates with Theo. I'm a Thumos, and that's supposed to be our 'secret'-mission, right?

However, I'll be unable to leave artifacts anywhere other than somewhere in southeast Michigan. But since we seem to be picking them up in major cities, I could conceivably drop it off in Detroit or Lansing if need be.

We might want to make a list of possible volunteers Wink
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 2:51 pm
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sapagoo
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 		I've got some javascript to encode a message using a Bacon cipher - I'll try to upload it in about an hour.

PostPosted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 3:14 pm
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