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Sooo... Can someone explain what a pigpen cipher is? Is it just a substitution cipher or something more complicated?
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May 14, 2015 20:21
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 14:30 |
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It's just a substitution cipher. Ostensibly more 'secret' because the symbols look weird, but made easier to encode/decode because the letters are usually arranged in a simple pattern. The symbols all come from the subdivision of a larger shape with letters placed in it (e.g. one shape may be a tic-tac-toe diagram; the encoding is the shape of the lines surrounding the letters). I don't recall ever checking what patterns were used for this cipher, if any.
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May 14, 2015 20:44
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I'm honestly surprised Anna remembered something from her childhood. That's drat good memory.
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May 14, 2015 22:30
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 A whole bunch of stuff in this part--we begin with the most annoying maze ever in an adventure game though! Click on the image to watch the video.  Finally all four characters are gathered together and now we can really start to investigate what's going on. As you saw, there are a few things to do (and characters who have volunteered to do them), so that's what we'll be taking care of in the next few parts. We also got a glimpse at a part of the pigpen cipher used for Dr. Morales's journal (although, to be completely honest since it's really just a substitution cipher, it's easy to break it even without any help). Either way, we'll take care of that soon.
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May 17, 2015 13:31
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Oh man, at some of the tunnel corners there were loving scratch marks, like someone was marking the days. Poor Anna. I like that disorienting mechanic though. Does that white splotch that sometimes appears mean the monster is nearby? I can't actually tell what it's suppose to be.... And what the hell were those hand/claw prints?  And ok, sure buddy. You'd think that he'd go with a positive description of this game's 'unobtanium' instead of btw guys, this thing makes death! Death everywhere between points A an B!
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May 17, 2015 18:52
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Wedemeyer posted:Oh man, at some of the tunnel corners there were loving scratch marks, like someone was marking the days. Poor Anna. I like that disorienting mechanic though. Does that white splotch that sometimes appears mean the monster is nearby? I can't actually tell what it's suppose to be.... And what the hell were those hand/claw prints? There is no time limit or monsters/enemies of any kind in the maze--you can explore as much as you like, although there is nothing to be found apart from memories and those incidental details. Considering that it's all supposed to be Anna's dram, I guess it comes somehow from her own experience, but probably exaggerated/distorted in some way. Although the game is pretty clear about her having been abused in some way as a child (and there is more coming on this topic).
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May 17, 2015 19:35
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I'm excited to see where this goes.
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May 17, 2015 20:02
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I finally caught up and I'm enjoying this LP. That envelope at the end is really suspicious.
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May 19, 2015 04:05
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I thought it was weird that Anna's first thought was that someone broke into her house. I honestly thought it was Detective Bennet, so I didn't get the urgency in barring the door and escaping out the window until the actual bad guy showed up. If Gravity Falls has taught me anything, it's that I'm bad at cyphers, so I'll just wait until the solution is revealed.
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May 19, 2015 06:44
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 It's time to get on with the previously mentioned tasks--so Anna and Ray will set out to obtain those financial records. Click on the image to watch the video.  It's nice to see some follow up on that whole online dating thing with Emma, pretty funny. Other than that, we've accomplished the first task and we have a new location available to us, the Tortoise Security, whatever that is. Next time we'll take a break and deal with deciphering that journal.
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May 20, 2015 21:51
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Would giving Ozzy the real medicine come back to bite us in the rear end, or do we just lose out on those points?
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May 20, 2015 22:55
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So you can leave people in a certain place and go back for them, like you did with Ray. Do they stay there forever?
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May 21, 2015 03:57
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SSNeoman posted:Would giving Ozzy the real medicine come back to bite us in the rear end, or do we just lose out on those points? You just get an extra point and Anna makes that comment about placebos if you use them. There are no other consequences for using real drugs. ViggyNash posted:So you can leave people in a certain place and go back for them, like you did with Ray. Do they stay there forever? I think not in general, believe it or not I've never actually tried--but this situation was a special case as Anna will always go to the morgue alone. So whoever she's with (if anybody) will not follow. And it case it wasn't obvious, actually none of the actions we did in this part required the characters to go anywhere together, it could have all been accomplished by returning to the baseball field a few times to exchange items and such. 
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May 21, 2015 06:00
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I'm pretty sure that within a chunk of action, you can leave characters hanging out in quite a number of places. It's not really an issue, though, what with the restrictions on when you can switch, and the fact that the plot progresses as the puzzles are solved. Anna's seems conflicted about giving out false prescriptions, but has no qualms about stealing hospital property. (I guess since it's an adventure game world, stealing itself is not actually a crime; people must rely on expensive vaults and security systems because of this. Only the ultra-rich can hold on to their own stuff.)
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May 21, 2015 21:03
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 The second task we need to accomplish is to have a look around the cemetery for any clues about that "your uncle holds the key" thing. As was already mentioned, this task will be taken up by Anna and Ed. After that, Anna takes a crack at the journal. Click on the image to watch the video.  So, as was already commented a few times, the journal cipher was an extremely simple substitution cipher--so much so, that you don't even need that memory to be able to break it; you can just start guessing words and it will all come out in a few seconds. In fact, the cipher has a slight variation--a few letters can be represented by multiple different symbols, but since it's all so simple, you'd hardly even notice. It doesn't look like the journal holds any information that will be helpful in the future, although it certainly provides a lot of backgrounds on events that have lead up to this point. Now we can proceed with the last bit, which is to get the laboratory blueprints from the police building. This one will take quite some effort and practically our entire team to achieve it--in fact, only Ed will be sitting that part out.
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May 23, 2015 17:00
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Fez has a similar puzzle in which you have to decipher the game's unique alphabet. The game gives you a brilliant an imaginative means of decoding it. (There was a 100% lp of it recently, check it out.) By comparison, this cipher is rather disappointing. But it's not a bad puzzle, and I like the way it streamlines the decoding process. Plus it plays in well with the narrative.
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May 23, 2015 17:35
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ViggyNash posted:Fez has a similar puzzle in which you have to decipher the game's unique alphabet. The game gives you a brilliant an imaginative means of decoding it. (There was a 100% lp of it recently, check it out.) Yes, I have actually seen the LP by frozentreasure if that's what you are referring to. Honestly, this cipher literally couldn't be any simpler even if it wanted to. Funnily enough, you only get the memory that gives you part of the cipher if you completely solve the dream maze (it's possible to exit from it without finding everything), but ultimately it (like pretty much any normal substitution cipher really) is solvable without any help, purely through the characteristics of the language and guessing the words that are likely to appear so you don't even need help. And finally, this task (deciphering) is completely optional and you don't need to do it to solve the game--as seen, it only provides some background but no real clues how to progress, so the whole thing is kind of meh. They did make a nice interface for solving it though, so you don't have to use paper or whatever. In a Crocodile Dundee movie, FEZ would come to this game and say That's not a cipher! THIS is a cipher. Oh, btw, those of you who haven't seen the FEZ LP by frozentreasure, go and watch right now, you can thank me later!
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May 23, 2015 18:23
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Yeah we really didn't learn anything new from that huh? Other than that there is 20 devices and someone stole 1 of them.
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May 23, 2015 18:37
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 We are moving closer to the vault! In this part we go and visit Tortoise Security and learn a whole lot more. Click on the image to watch the video.  Turns out, it seems that this plot runs deeper than we at first thought! Next time, we'll finally work on actually getting the blueprints. All pieces are in place, but as mentioned, it will take some effort! Oh, does anybody want to know what's the Collatz Conjecture? P.S. Apologies for a couple of small audio glitches in this one. I am running a Mac version of this game, and unfortunately, it's just a WINE wrapper around the Windows executable so it can be a bit temperamental at times.
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May 25, 2015 11:57
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I'm curious, what is a Collatz Conjecture?
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May 26, 2015 21:24
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As a mathematician, the first thing Ed should be doing is measuring that hole and using the formulas he was working on to figure out exactly how far away the devices would have to have been. It's quick number-plugging, and could give them a good guess at who is behind this, by drawing a circle on a map and seeing what places it goes through. I'm liking the game so far. Thanks for the LP.
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May 27, 2015 01:53
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So behind the door that requires a secret knock and is related to a shady organization is a Japanese woman with a (fake?) baby who hands you a document about the vault from the set of documents that were stolen from the security company that designed the vault by the guy who entered the door. That is a bizarre list of connections. Also: Mraagvpeine posted:I'm curious, what is a Collatz Conjecture?
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May 27, 2015 04:01
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Mraagvpeine posted:I'm curious, what is a Collatz Conjecture? It actually doesn't really have anything to do with the game. As Ed said it was formulated in 1937 by a German mathematician Lothar Collatz: quote:Take any natural number n. If n is even, divide it by 2 to get n/2. If n is odd, multiply it by 3 and add 1 to obtain 3n + 1. Repeat the process indefinitely. The conjecture is that no matter what number you start with, you will always eventually reach 1. So far it hasn't been proven or disproven, funnily enough. Or as XKCD put it, much more entertainingly:  And as for the other thing, don't forget that the door is numbered 11, and that the strange person that Ray has been talking to via email is involved with something called "The Eleven Foundation".
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May 27, 2015 05:59
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I kinda understand why it works in an abstract sense, you are dividing even numbers by two until you get 1, and if you get any odd numbers you make them even. I don't know how the hell you would prove that mathematically though, as the problem seems to depend on whether n is odd or even.
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May 27, 2015 07:38
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 The time has come to get those vault blueprints! And, as mentioned, it will not be easy. Click on the image to watch the video.  Seems, there is lot of block pushing in this one, huh? Especially the tortoise puzzle brings back memories of Sokoban--hopefully it was clear from the video how it works, but if not, ask and I will explain in more details. As for the rest, I'll just say: the plot thickens--not to mention that there is the whole OTHER side of plot (The Eleven Foundation) that we have barely even touched upon still.
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May 27, 2015 22:00
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Your audio is out of sync in that video. Or is that in the game too?
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May 27, 2015 23:00
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SSNeoman posted:Your audio is out of sync in that video. Or is that in the game too? I'm pretty sure it's not like that in the game, but unfortunately it would be difficult to fix since it seems some sort of a "drift" is happening over the course of a video--this one had a lot of editing so probably that's what's caused it. I'm probably going to leave it as is as the only part that is really very noticeable is the ending scene, but I was planning to include a repeat of it anyway at the beginning of the next video (because the scene continues from there). I'll make sure that the next video doesn't have this issue. Sorry. 
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May 28, 2015 18:21
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 Let's see if we can enter the vault! That is, if we even want to. Click on the image to watch the video.  Knowing what you know after watching this video, it's interesting to go back and see certain people's interactions in a very different light. I'm not going to say anything else for now to give people a chance to watch this first without being spoiled. Other than that, we finally encounter this game's equivalent of cat hair moustache puzzle--it's not as convoluted but it makes just as little sense. I was also a bit disappointed that the pencil solution was used twice in quick succession, it seems to me that this could have been done in a better way. But anyway, the question is... where do we go from here?
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May 30, 2015 16:41
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All I can say is holy poo poo.
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May 30, 2015 17:58
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Ed, you creepy, creepy bastard. Now the simple question is, was he in on the conspiracy or did he just go loving nuts for the sake of science. Either way, put a bullet in him!
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May 30, 2015 18:24
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Well. gently caress.  Though I wonder how the hell Ed will manage to escape a sealed room that Tortoise made.
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May 30, 2015 18:47
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legoman727 posted:Ed, you creepy, creepy bastard. Now the simple question is, was he in on the conspiracy or did he just go loving nuts for the sake of science. Either way, put a bullet in him! I think regarding him the game does pull a neat trick in leading you to believe that he is the protagonist of sorts, but in fact after the initial section at the labs he more or less completely fades into the background and doesn't really have a significant role until now. Another thing is to watch part 5 video again, after having seen this part, things that are said by him there can take a slightly different meaning. Also, unrelated, and it's kind of a blink and you'll miss it thing, but Bennet is gay.
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May 30, 2015 19:18
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A couple questions. 1. Is there any use for the third magnet switch in the Sokoban section? 2. What does to QR code on the thermal scanner have on it? 3. Can you solve the puzzle box without the sonogram? 4. Is there anything at Anna's apartment? Also, yesss, cat's hair moustache! Really, though, that puzzle isn't obscure at all- it's an adventure game classic for getting something just out of reach. Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 03:00 on May 31, 2015 |
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May 31, 2015 02:54
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For your third question, yeah it is and there seems to be a cheevo for it. How you do it outside of memorizing the solution (or just blindly bumping in the dark), I dunno.
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May 31, 2015 03:51
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Discendo Vox posted:A couple questions. A couple of answers. 1. Yes, but I guess this wasn't obvious from the video because when you first touch it it has no power connected. But the third switch is not for magnets, it's for the walkways that extend out of the floors. The switch is initially without power, but you can still turn it on and then go down to the fuse box and activate the power (which is what Ray did in the video). Doing it the other way around takes more "moves" (to activate power first and the the switch). 2. Unfortunately nothing so interesting, it just resolves to a link to game author's website: http://xiigames.com. 3. See above, there is indeed an achievement for this, but I honestly can't see how you would do it blind unless you already know the exact route to take. 4. In fact, despite it being on the map, you can't even go there--if you try, the character will make some comment about it not being safe to do so or something along those lines.
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May 31, 2015 13:29
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I don't think the fuse puzzle is all that bad honestly. You need to reach the fuse from the other side of the bars, and you have a long object to reach it (pipe) and an adhesive to grab it with (tape). Also  Speculation: Ed himself couldn't have blown up the lab though, since he was on the train with Anna. It must have been our unknown thief from the security camera. Ed could be connected to the thief if he has some connection to the Japanese woman in the alley, but so far there's no indication of that. It's also possible that the thief could be helping us from the background, which explains the papers the Japanese woman Bennet and his partner. I hope we find some clues in Edgetown to support one of these theories.
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May 31, 2015 16:51
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I managed to make it through one of the puzzle box puzzles without the sonograph. It was pretty much just tracking all the states, not really that different from a maze of twisty passages. Although I did immediately look for hints after doing one side because I figured there must be a trick I was missing. There used to be some sliding block mazes pretty similar to the puzzle box on mathpuzzle.com, but that site has changed over the years and I don't think they are there anymore.
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May 31, 2015 19:47
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 With Anna dead and Ed out at large, it is now up to Bennet and Ray to figure out what's really going on! Click on the image to watch the video.  So the various plot strands are finally coming together, it seems and we meet the elusive "A. Batra". Incidentally, I feel that this scene is let down a bit by the fact that his voice actor is the same guy who does Reggie and Saul and it's kind of difficult to get past the fact that you've JUST HEARD HIS VOICE in the previous scene! Other than that, if you are wondering about his accent, I am pretty sure it's supposed to be northern English, let's say Manchester or so (in fact, I have a friend from there and he speaks pretty much exactly like this). Other than that, it seems that game really pulled an "unreliable narrator" on us with Ed here. Because there was a whole lot he could have mentioned while we were looking around his place, but he didn't. Not only that, but it seems he's the one who stole the devices and caused the explosion. Most of his actions from the beginning of the game now look completely different in this light! Now you know why Ed was so unconcerned about calculating the location of devices.
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Jun 1, 2015 19:47
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Qylvaran posted:As a mathematician, the first thing Ed should be doing is measuring that hole and using the formulas he was working on to figure out exactly how far away the devices would have to have been. It's quick number-plugging, and could give them a good guess at who is behind this, by drawing a circle on a map and seeing what places it goes through. It wouldn't be the first time I mistook plot twist foreshadowing for sloppy writing/acting. Well played.
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Jun 1, 2015 20:54
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 14:30 |
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Well, that was neat. I wonder where the other side is?
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Jun 1, 2015 23:08
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