86 replies to this topic

[fabpig]

Spoiler for Explanation...I hope

The key letters in the puzzle are A, B, O, R, D.
These are ignored when at the beginning of the reversed state name and also act as the "flipper" i.e. they switch the password letter from "1 above" to "1 below" alphabetically (and vice versa) when encountered. I based my first guess on ROAD (as in the road to destruction). Why ABORD? I'm guessing that's as close as possible to ABORT (which couldn't be used as all letters would be ignored) but only octopuppy can tell us for definite.

[fabpig]

As for feedback. It took a little while to get into the swing of things - being not really sure what was going on - but really enjoyed it when I thought I was on to something. I most definitely wouldn't have got the answer without the comments of the other players. It'll be interesting to see a similar thing can be done again without becoming 'stale'. I guess the only way to find out is for someone to start a new one.

[octopuppy]

I was thinking in this code:
UQPCBSSN
but then I see the A which will convert the last three letters,so It should be:
UQPCBUQP

I think you're thinking along the right lines but there's a letter wrong there

[octopuppy]

Spoiler for Explanation...I hope

The key letters in the puzzle are A, B, O, R, D.
These are ignored when at the beginning of the reversed state name and also act as the "flipper" i.e. they switch the password letter from "1 above" to "1 below" alphabetically (and vice versa) when encountered. I based my first guess on ROAD (as in the road to destruction). Why ABORD? I'm guessing that's as close as possible to ABORT (which couldn't be used as all letters would be ignored) but only octopuppy can tell us for definite.

You've essentially got it right,

Spoiler for just to clarify on the letters...

The "flipper" letters also include "P" and "Q", although you couldn't know from the available information. Their defining characteristic is simply that they have a closed loop (as a capital letter, otherwise "e" and "g" would join the club). As a means of adding a twist to a code, it struck me as being easy to implement but very unexpected.

As for feedback. It took a little while to get into the swing of things - being not really sure what was going on - but really enjoyed it when I thought I was on to something. I most definitely wouldn't have got the answer without the comments of the other players.

I'm glad. It was looking a bit low on interactivity for a while there.

It'll be interesting to see a similar thing can be done again without becoming 'stale'. I guess the only way to find out is for someone to start a new one.

That is the real game. A test of how much you can obfuscate the code while still making the technique simple and consistent (with that thought I've added a fourth algorithm rule - see earlier post for that). Everything so far was intended as a preliminary experiment. If no volunteers are forthcoming I have a second algorithm which is quite different in style, but I'd like to see what other people come up with instead.
Certainly we need to roll out the clues a bit quicker next time. I think 3 at a time would be about right.
If others are up for it I'll start a new thread with the updated rules, but in the meantime I'd like to invite as much feedback as possible, and especially any volunteers to create a code!

[Izzy]

Izzy gets to keep Massachusetts for now.

Yay, but *kicks Framm*.

[octopuppy]

[whoops did a post by accident ]

[Cherry Lane]

Hmm...no takers. Let's see your second algorithm, octopuppy!

I'm intrigued by your idea of using such an algorithm for password control. Too bad not all password requirements are the same: some require special characters while others don't allow them. Some need to be exactly 8 characters, others can be shorter or longer. I have one that must be a minimum of 12 characters! If the site would list what the password requirements are on the login page, I could use that to help me recall my password, but usually they don't.