araver

Indeed maquis +10 _ _ E E _ PLEAT - 1 STARE - 0 PLANE - 0 START - 0 SLEET - 2

_ _ _ _ _ PLEAT - 1 STARE - 0 PLANE - 0 START - 0 Sound logic, but it is not the case.

_ _ _ _ _ PLEAT - 1 STARE - 0 PLANE - 0

And to keep up the pace (as Sunday was unusually quiet): WASHINGTON SJINIVON WESTVIRGINIA VXJTHJNI WISCONSIN TDQNUJNX 15 down, 36 to go ...

I enjoyed it very much, thanks for the challenge Well, I can explain how I arrived at my rather complicated formula because of IOWA. This state systematically broke every relation I was able to come up ... I understand that it's not the function either of you use and it just *coincidentally* gives the same results for 8 letter passwords, but I still don't see a simple function Can you express it in terms of a recurrence and show it step by step for IOWA? Thank you.

3 more states RHODEISLAND OEGITMBP PENNSYLVANIA GOOUYMWA OKLAHOMA LBJONAPK

Thank you for checking

Coming right up ALABAMA MBDCMAAM MISSISSIPPI TSJTSJQP TENNESSEE OOFUSGFU

What I meant by no more examples is that I think there's enough information for someone to solve it. It's actually very hard to judge how difficult a puzzle is when creating it. If it does not happen in say, 4 days, I'll start adding more examples. I don't want it to remain unsolved

3 more states: CONNECTICUT QNOFCTIE GEORGIA GOTHJBGG MASSACHUSETTS ASSADHUT It is just the beginning. After a while, given enough states, people usually begin to see patterns. Check out the list of the other games and try for yourself

_ _ _ _ _ PLEAT - 1 STARE - 0

And the first 3 states are: OREGON TEIPNOTE NEWHAMPSHIRE XICMPSJI ALASKA MBSMCAMB

One player plays the Evil Mastermind (that's me) who nukes the states of the USA 3 at a time, the other players play Hackers who seek to stop the Evil Mastermind. The Evil Mastermind plays by posting commands which activate missile strikes. Each command has a unique password, which is derived from the command by a hashing algorithm. The Evil Mastermind devises a different algorithm at the start of each game, and posts the passwords along with the commands. The Hackers will see the commands and passwords and from this they should try to deduce the hashing algorithm. The Hacker who does this first, and correctly figures out the password to the command "ABORT", stops the Evil Mastermind and wins the game. Anyone can join in at any time as a Hacker. Now hashing algorithms can be exceedingly difficult to crack, but there are restrictions placed on the kind of algorithm that the Evil Mastermind can use: Commands There are 51 commands, these being the names of US states (used by the Evil Mastermind to nuke another state), plus the word "ABORT" (used by hackers to stop the Evil Mastermind). Game Play The Evil Mastermind posts 3 commands at a time, with their passwords. The interval for doing this is undefined, no point in imposing restrictions. The Evil Mastermind chooses the commands, but should generally do requests as soon as possible. Each Hacker may make one guess at the password for "ABORT" each time the Evil Mastermind posts commands. If someone makes multiple guesses in between clues, only the first one counts, but if they make a mistake and correct it, the Evil Mastermind can accept the correction. There is no need for spoilers when guessing the password, although please use spoilers if you reveal the algorithm. The first one to get the password for "ABORT" wins. P.S. Alternatively if you've cracked the algorithm you can just use it to blow up more states if you're that way inclined (**per original Evil Mastermind's rules!)

EDIT: Nevermind.

EDIT: Later thought Second EDIT:

Thanks maurice. OK, _ _ _ _ _ , go!

Yup, there can be more than what I said

Then I will open a next CtC challenge soon, later today, while waiting for Vineetrika.

Ok, it is less far-fetched once you can actually see So, if it is correct and we move on to the next CtC challenge, I had a question: I also have developed an algorithm, I'm not sure of the difficulty though. So if it at least sounds less difficult than the one octopuppy suggests ... should we do it next or after?

DROOL