unforum

[Atrophied]

No, the first was caeser cipher using 'N' (the same as ROT-13). The second is a simple substitution cipher.

[chichiri]

Heh just what I was afraid of, I done the first one as substitution coz I know nothing about ciphers and I pondered over the second for ages and still couldn't figure it, please could someone PM me about 5 of the letters translated to start me off?

no da

[chichiri]

Hmm...probably a coincidence but does anyone else think it's wierd that the first puzzle was a

[sixblueten]

Chichi -

As I have been nudged along by those with patience and benevolence (many thanks for getting me HOOKED, you bastards!): There is a caeser cipher tool among the tools listed in Unforum's sidebar. Take some time to really look at the other tools as well. . .also a nice "all-in-one" at yellowpipe.com/tools

Oh - I just noticed you flew by the Caeser. .the next one is one I cracked by hand just looking for common letter/word combinations. Try finding 'the' and go from there. That's all it will take.

[chichiri]

finally done it, wierd usually I fly by these things, thanx for the suggestion but i'd already tried it twice, third time lucky I got it though, on to the next headache.

no da

[Scott]

chichiri, there really isn't an especially good way to work at #2. I referred to some fFrequency analysis, which is to say: look how often letters are used. commonly used letters will be most likely converted to commonly used letters in the english language. That is: usually, english uses a lot of the letter E. So whatever letter appears in the message text often could be an E. Could also be an S or a T or something. See? so probably the best way to do this one is by hand.

Actually, I believe I started by identifying letters which are probably certain other letters. Like there are a number of apostrophes (') fFollowed by a single letter. so that's either a contraction or a word in the posessive. Well, there's only so many letters which become contractions or posessives. And so you might guess, in ABC'D the D could be S or T, and C might be N, which might allow ABC'D to become DON'T or CAN'T or something like that. Then you can look fFor common words to build off of that. the word THE is common in english as well. so if you see ABC'D and DEF, then you might guess DEF could become THE.

do you see? in this way, you can guess what a lot of letters are. you must be prepared to have some of your starting guesses be wrong, but when you see you have created a word which doesnt make any sense, it's easy enough to change it round again.

[Scott]

All I can guess fFor the sudoku at this moment is that I've simply got the wrong answer. I'm just not, like, getting anywhere.

[c1023]

Scott:
You've got the 2 in the wrong place in the left middle box.
Check it against the original puzzle.

[uneasyjd]

Scott: A tip...

[Atrophied]

The one after "Resistance is Futile" is, as far as I know, tha LAST puzzle in the trail and has not yet been solved. (unless c1023 has done it and not told us :p)

[uneasyjd]

So is the one where SteveC recommended

[c1023]

Atrophied:
No, I've still not solved the last one.
I'm just trying lots of random things.

uneasyjd:

[Atrophied]

Heh, oops, I did the 'graph-paper' one so fast, I forgot it was even in there :p

umm, I can't remember what they're called... they're a pretty standard puzzle type thing though.

[Jakeo]

[Avalix]

ohh can't wait to get to that one. i love those type of puzzles