Return to Unfiction unforum
 a.r.g.b.b 
FAQ FAQ   Search Search 
 
Welcome!
New users, PLEASE read these forum guidelines. New posters, SEARCH before posting and read these rules before posting your killer new campaign. New players may also wish to peruse the ARG Player Tutorial.

All users must abide by the Terms of Service.
Website Restoration Project
This archiving project is a collaboration between Unfiction and Sean Stacey (SpaceBass), Brian Enigma (BrianEnigma), and Laura E. Hall (lehall) with
the Center for Immersive Arts.
Announcements
This is a static snapshot of the
Unfiction forums, as of
July 23, 2017.
This site is intended as an archive to chronicle the history of Alternate Reality Games.
  

The time now is Tue Nov 12, 2024 4:14 am
All times are UTC - 4 (DST in action)		 View posts in this forum since last visit
View unanswered posts in this forum
Calendar
 Forum index » Archive » Archive: Ephemeral » ARG: Intimation
SFTA Communication
View previous topicView next topic
Page 6 of 6 [87 Posts]   Goto page: Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Author Message
catherwood
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee

Joined: 25 Sep 2002
Posts: 4109
Location: Silicon Valley, CA
MrToasty wrote:
A new image goes along with each of the links above, but I hesitate simply posting them as attachments (since you can see them, no spoiler tags) if others do want to find them for themselves. If so I can always zip them up and attach.

I have 4 more links to go I believe, but one may suffer from a typo and the other 3 require one more step. I may go ahead and post those images and let you guys finish them off.

Thank you for the links. Do not attach the images here. Do continue to spoiler the links, as the links themselves are the solutions to the puzzle. As long as the site stays live, the links will be fine.

I have not had time to work thru any solution on my own. You said i had the right file, and implied i had the right idea, but didn't say anything further. For the sake of completeness, I hope you do explain the method you are using to extract the text strings that lead to these links (but of course put such an explanation inside a spoiler), for the sake of posterity and others also without the time or tools to work thru the solution on their own.

once again, thank you for what I assume to be a lot of busywork.

PostPosted: Sat May 29, 2010 10:28 am
 View user's profile AIM Address Yahoo Messenger
 Back to top 
MrToasty
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee


Joined: 03 Aug 2004
Posts: 4310
Location: Des Moines, IA

 		OK, I'm attaching a PDF with a very short, rough description of how to solve this along with all the visual goodies. Let me know if there are any glaring problems. The first page contains a description of how to go about solving, without showing any of the final solutions, so if you still want to go through the process but need a better idea of where to start then just read that page and stop. Also note that there are at least 4 more easter eggs to be found from this image.
QABG-H3_Solution.pdf
Description 
pdf

 Download 
Filename  QABG-H3_Solution.pdf 
Filesize  113.69KB 
Downloaded  264 Time(s) 

PostPosted: Tue Jun 08, 2010 11:08 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
Shad0
I Have No Life


Joined: 20 Jun 2004
Posts: 2180
Location: Southern California, USA

 		Re: SFTA Communication
Re: QABG-H3 Solution
Amazing job! Regarding the layer that has yet to be solved (Level 6), could it be a visual depiction of Five-bit Communication Protocol? For example, Blue 6 might give us BSBYXXCTXQXGAAQS and VLFGIJKRDSQWCSTB... if those are valid pathlocks, which I have no idea.
_________________
These were the puzzles that would take a day, these were puzzles that would take a week, and these puzzles they'd probably never figure out until we broke down and gave them the answers. ... The Cloudmakers solved all of these puzzles on the first day.

PostPosted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 11:41 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
Rogi Ocnorb
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 4266
Location: Where the cheese is free.

 		That really is an amazing bit of deconstruction!

@Shad0

While I consider myself pretty good with analysis of binary data, I can't figure out how you came up with the characters you did on your post.

Here's a link to a google spreadsheet that has the Blue 6 binary converted to pretty much any and all 5-bit encodings and parity variants I'm aware of. These include the base encoding and the reverse (flipping the order of the 5-bit values). The process is repeated on a 2nd sheet with the ones and zeroes flipped.
So, that's about 200 in all.
I entered the bits going left to right and top to bottom in the image.
_________________
I'm telling you now, so you can't say, "Oh, I didn't know...Nobody told me!"


PostPosted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 5:14 pm
 View user's profile AIM Address Yahoo Messenger MSN Messenger
 Back to top 
Shad0
I Have No Life


Joined: 20 Jun 2004
Posts: 2180
Location: Southern California, USA

 		Re: SFTA Communication
Re: Five-bit Communications Protocol
Rogi Ocnorb wrote:
I can't figure out how you came up with the characters you did on your post.

Here's a link to a google spreadsheet that has the Blue 6 binary converted to pretty much any and all 5-bit encodings and parity variants I'm aware of. These include the base encoding and the reverse (flipping the order of the 5-bit values). The process is repeated on a 2nd sheet with the ones and zeroes flipped.
So, that's about 200 in all.
I entered the bits going left to right and top to bottom in the image.

Oh, I didn't do anything nearly that complicated:

1) Observed that the "weavings" (for lack of a better word) appear to be grouped into 5x4 blocks, with four blocks in each big line.

2) Assuming we want 16-character strings, that meant that each block could represent two or four characters, depending on whether the entire layer decodes to one string or two strings. Since each block contains four horizontal lines with a length of five, that would mean converting one or two of those horizontal lines into a letter or number.

3) Wondered how to convert a five-bit binary representation into a letter or number. Started Googling.

4) Hit this link for FCP (the link contained in my previous post)

5) Converted each five-segment line into numbers, treating the horizontal segments as 0 and the vertical segments as 1. Moved top-to-bottom within each block of four lines, and left-to-right for the blocks themselves. Observed that all values appeared to fall between 00001 (A) and 11010 (Z).

6) Made the foregoing post.
_________________
These were the puzzles that would take a day, these were puzzles that would take a week, and these puzzles they'd probably never figure out until we broke down and gave them the answers. ... The Cloudmakers solved all of these puzzles on the first day.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 5:33 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
Rogi Ocnorb
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 4266
Location: Where the cheese is free.

 		Okay. I see now.

I hadn't considered reading each group of 4 vertically, instaed of horizontally.

ETA: The "real" spreadsheet does all the work, I just paste in the binary.
_________________
I'm telling you now, so you can't say, "Oh, I didn't know...Nobody told me!"


PostPosted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 5:50 pm
 View user's profile AIM Address Yahoo Messenger MSN Messenger
 Back to top 
catherwood
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee

Joined: 25 Sep 2002
Posts: 4109
Location: Silicon Valley, CA
MrToasty wrote:
OK, I'm attaching a PDF with a very short, rough description of how to solve this along with all the visual goodies.
...
Also note that there are at least 4 more easter eggs to be found from this image.

I am finally settling down to look at this. Thank you so much for documenting the process and including the intermediate files. From what I can see, there are only 3 layers unsolved (assumed to be using the same endoding method), and a 4th layer which yielded a potential pathlock but which failed.

I'll revisit my notes to see whether those would take us up to the full number of easter eggs as originally announced. Then I'll play with that last encoding method.

(shamelessly bumping the thread without contributing much at this point)

(edit to add)
By my accounting, those last 3 unsolved layers should resolve to 6 pathlocks (strings of 16-letters each). That would bring our total count up to 48 unlocked assets, not counting other easter-eggs (like that layer with the pignose, nor the hidden messages which told us how many eggs to find) -- but I did count that "typo" layer you have in there as leading to an asset too.

(returning to add)
The one layer listed in that PDF as being a typo or not working in fact does work.
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
EDNBQNYLLZXGJZWY
http://thewaytheirworldended.com/SFTACOMM/VEIL/N46F-8VF5-WA13

yay!

(yet another edit to add)
my progress so far, taking those layers that look like woven fibers... I reversed the black/white of the pixels to make it easier to work with mentally, and I'm imagining each horizontal line as a rope which is travelling either over or under the vertical "threads". It's hard to describe in words, so here is a picture, with a green dot or a red dot at each over/under crossing. There are natural breaks which create 4 units across each "rope" with 5 binary bits in each unit, and 4 rows down would give us 16 letters in each cluster. (I just haven't found a good mapping yet of the data, beginning with a Bacon cipher template)
sample.gif
 Description   see how the overlapping fibers give 4 rows of 4 sets of 5 binary bits
 Filesize   9.01KB
    233 Time(s)

Unfortunately, this file is no longer in our archives.

PostPosted: Sat Jul 10, 2010 5:40 pm
 View user's profile AIM Address Yahoo Messenger
 Back to top 
catherwood
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee

Joined: 25 Sep 2002
Posts: 4109
Location: Silicon Valley, CA

 		bumping for (partial) success, I'll add more after the soccer game World Cup match.

on the red layer, lower right transcribed (my way):
Code:
00101 00101 11110 01001
01110 11000 01001 01101
10100 10100 10000 11001
00101 01011 11101 11001

gave me this pathlock:
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
ZZAVQGVRKKOFZTBF
http://thewaytheirworldended.com/SFTACOMM/VEIL/GH85-NS8G-F9FG


But when I used that same methodology on the red layer's upper left set, it failed for me.

Similar success with one set on the blue layer, top set:
Code:
11101 00111 00111 11110
01100 00111 01110 11110
11101 11100 00111 01110
00110 01011 11000 01100

gave me this pathlock:
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
BXXASXQABCXQYTGS
http://thewaytheirworldended.com/SFTACOMM/VEIL/FZI3-GH52-O11V


I'm prepared for there being transcription errors in my work, and the possibility that some of these flow in a reverse direction (as did other layers)

btw,
Shad0 wrote:
... Five-bit Communication Protocol? For example, Blue 6 might give us BSBYXXCTXQXGAAQS and VLFGIJKRDSQWCSTB... if those are valid pathlocks, which I have no idea.
no, neither of those strings worked on the "cornfield".

PostPosted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 12:26 pm
 View user's profile AIM Address Yahoo Messenger
 Back to top 
Shad0
I Have No Life


Joined: 20 Jun 2004
Posts: 2180
Location: Southern California, USA

 		Re: SFTA Communication
Re: partial success
At the risk of asking a stupidly obvious question: What method did you use to translate the five-digit binary numbers into letters, i.e. 11110=A, 11101=B, ... 00101=Z? Is it the inverse of that Five-bit Communication Protocol?

Edit: Yes, it is -- reading left-to-right one row at a time like a normal, logical person, instead of top-to-bottom one column at a time. Comparing my first guess for the blue layer (BSBYXXCTXQXGAAQS) with the one that worked, I see that we got the same letters, but you were intelligent enough to put them in the right order.

Assuming no transcription errors on my part (HA!), that means the bottom set from the blue layer should be VIDCLJSSFKQTGRWB?

'Nother edit: Bingo.

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
http://thewaytheirworldended.com/SFTACOMM/VEIL/DF6V-1SAC-3V2A

_________________
These were the puzzles that would take a day, these were puzzles that would take a week, and these puzzles they'd probably never figure out until we broke down and gave them the answers. ... The Cloudmakers solved all of these puzzles on the first day.

PostPosted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 1:53 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
catherwood
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee

Joined: 25 Sep 2002
Posts: 4109
Location: Silicon Valley, CA

 		Re: SFTA Communication
Re: partial success
It all falls into place. I got 5 of the 6 sets to work -- sadly, I had wasted a lot of time with that first set, which still refuses to fall, and so I must assume it has a "typo" in their image.

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
(blue 32)
BXXASXQABCXQYTGS -> http://thewaytheirworldended.com/SFTACOMM/VEIL/FZI3-GH52-O11V
VIDCLJSSFKQTGRWB -> http://thewaytheirworldended.com/SFTACOMM/VEIL/DF6V-1SAC-3V2A
(green 32)
UVSRPVNOMUEKKXER -> http://thewaytheirworldended.com/SFTACOMM/VEIL/SGF6-5F4D-Y8Y3
PKELQXTJRJWGVGYL -> http://thewaytheirworldended.com/SFTACOMM/VEIL/4AW8-EF43-AW51
(red 32)
HAQOSVAHWDSKFZXD -> (should work but fails)
ZZAVQGVRKKOFZTBF -> http://thewaytheirworldended.com/SFTACOMM/VEIL/GH85-NS8G-F9FG


and by my count, we now have 47 of the promised 48 assets. (I can post the full list if people want it)

PostPosted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 2:04 pm
 View user's profile AIM Address Yahoo Messenger
 Back to top 
Rogi Ocnorb
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 4266
Location: Where the cheese is free.

 		*Rogi directs everyone's attention to the beginning 16 cells of the following lines he posted as a spreadsheet, previously.

24, 36, 40, 44, 74, 78, 86

Guess I should have stated that I wasn't entering any codes as I didn't read back to figure out how.
_________________
I'm telling you now, so you can't say, "Oh, I didn't know...Nobody told me!"


PostPosted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 1:34 am
 View user's profile AIM Address Yahoo Messenger MSN Messenger
 Back to top 
MrToasty
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee


Joined: 03 Aug 2004
Posts: 4310
Location: Des Moines, IA

 		Very nicely done!!!
Stroopwafel Brownie Stroopwafel Brownie
Wafels and brownies all around.

PostPosted: Tue Jul 13, 2010 4:02 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
Display posts from previous:   Sort by:   
Page 6 of 6 [87 Posts]   Goto page: Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
View previous topicView next topic
 Forum index » Archive » Archive: Ephemeral » ARG: Intimation
Jump to:  


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum
You cannot post calendar events in this forum



Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group