Cryptography and puzzles

[edeholland]

Hey all,

Are there any lovers for cryptography and other puzzles here?

I have worked on notpron.com(a puzzle website with 140 puzzles, where only ~50 people actually solved them all) for a long time now, I'm about 110 levels in. They are pretty interesting and don't get super hard until lategame, so it's worth checking out.

And here is another one for @Gendarme .

"The base of the Caesar fell to enemy forces, and the Caesar himself took three steps back in shock, but he was warned - a prophecy of his downfall had he chose to ignore the numbers. The Caesar could only scream: AAaaAAAaa_Aaa_AaAAaaAaAAA_aaA_AaAaAa"

[Gendarme]

I'm on it now. Time to crack this one!

[edeholland]

Nice. I'm stuck at notpron for now so I am starting a new web-based puzzle series: http://swell.kapsi.fi.

The goal is to find the link to the next level or the user:pass to actually enter the next level.

[momuuu]

So, interesting theory I came up with: There are 4 ways to have 2 only two of the lines of the square (referring to |_ , _| and the the upper permutations). Similairly, there are 4 ways to have 2 sides of the diamond ( ^, <, >, and the lower permutation). Similairly, there are 4 ways to have the u shape of a square (3 lines of a square) and there is one way to have a full square. Then, you have created 4+4+4+1 symbols. If you then also create the same amount of symbols by adding a dot in the middle, we reach a total of 26 symbols. There are 26 letters in the alphabet, so this seems promising. From there on out, we could attempt to create an ordering in complexity. The full square would likely be number 13, the letter m, or it could represent letter number 1, the letter a, or letter 14, n, or 26, z.

Given that the letter z is rare in english and that there is no square with a dot present, my first instinct is to go from here. That would mean the dot represents letters past the 13th letter of the alphabet, and the more lines it has, the more complex it is. We now have to determine which direction of the symbols represents which letter, and if < or |_ represents a higher number (all reasoning within my theory). The letter x is extremely rare. three quarters of a square with the bottom side left open and a dot in the middle is not present, so maybe this is the x.

From here I end up getting stuck unfortunately.

[Gendarme]

"The Caesar" instead of just "Caesar" (and the general eery/weird way of writing) suggests that the story is one big metaphor.

[Snuden]

Did you crack Cicada 3301? @edeholland ?

[edeholland]

Nope :( But it's not over yet afaik

[Snuden]

I thought the same, but then this popped up (haven't watched it yet)

phpBB [video]