Did you liked the challenge?
sabretooth and Alice know how it works and they could give a little help.
It took a lot of sideways thinking to complete this one! Probably one of the most rewarding challenges to complete ever.
Hmm, not sure why so few people have solved this challenge. I guess people are either not trying or affraid of asking for hints.. Well, either way this is a very good challenge and deserves more attention. So let me give you some analysis tips for this one.
Lets start by discussing the category of this challenge: ??. That doesn't say very much, but we actually know a little more now. We can see this challenge is a crypto (it says so in the challenge description!), but what is the other category this would fit in? That's part two.
Getting back to the first part. You are presented with 3 word/number pairs. That's not a lot, I agree, but you can actually find some interesting properties of these numbers. For example, a short word means a short number and a long word means a long number. Coincidence? I think not.
So while you are looking for common properties, also try to use/decrypt the title hint. This is by far your best lead to understand the system used for encrypting the words. The hint is a little obscure, mostly because Bregi understands/made the algorithm in a weird way, but nonetheless it should provide you with at least one thing that you will know is important immediately.
Ok, that's about it for now. Leave a post when you are working on this challenge but aren't making any progress. This will give me (and others) a better notion of the difficulty of this challenge and we may provide a few more tips.
Once again, this is a great challenge by Bregi.
I think I have the number of letters to find.
is there only ONE answer possible with this algorithm ?
pixelie wrote: I think I have the number of letters to find.
Assuming you have figured out how the numbers for the given words are calculated, it should be pretty clear how many letters the missing word has. Once you have that, apply the formula to every word of that length in, say, the unix system dictionary, and you'll end up with probably 2 or 3 words that match the number. At that point, it should be pretty obvious which one of them is the right one. Feel free to pm me if you have any more specific or spoily questions.
Keep in mind, too, that this is only one half of the answer.
Alice wrote: Keep in mind, too, that this is only one half of the answer.
Meanwhile I had figured out that and realized I was missing one step.
So I had found 9 possible words.
Thank you Alice for having helped me to understand where I was.
I can't help myself, but this came to me as rather easy challenge. I found harder ones for me at the site.
Think of the title and think of what you got for your initial calculations.
I am not sure if I can give you more without giving too much away. PM me if I was not too clear.
I have solved the first part, I think! (The word I have fits the algorithm and the tone of the challenge).
But I am stuck on the second part. I have found what's important now, but I have no idea what to do with it.
smutley wrote: I have found what's important now, but I have no idea what to do with it.
If you are after a method then this part links with the 1st part.
Follow the same kind of pattern and you should find it easily enough.
You know where I am if you need anything else.
I have the 1st part.
Is the 2nd similar and instead of decimal I have to use hex??