+/-?
Man, that's a good puzzle! So good I couldn't get to it!
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How am I supposed to get to it if I can't scan the code? Not everyone has smartphones, or any phones, you know.
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You don't really need smartphone. Interwebz is all you need:)
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you dont actually need a smartphone
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Thanks, didn't know about that. Sorry everyone, couldn't find anything myself.
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Bump for good puzzle, questions 2 & 3 of the last part are eluding me though.
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Thanks for the great puzzle, but I'm stuck on Part 3.
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Q2 may be hard. It took me couple hours of thinking to get that idea:) Q3 shouldn't be a big problem.
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in fact, i got question 2 first 0.0
i may be just too old XD
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Well, maybe i just got used to it too much, back in the times, hope thats not too much of a hint
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Nah, it's ok. You didn't gave direct answer. BTW: i was affraid that people from Russia and other countries that don't use latin based alphabet may have problem with it. Hint under the question was mainly mentioned to help them. Maybe this one will be a help to everyone:)
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Same here I'm waiting on the hints for p3 good puzzle so far.
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They didn't help me at all, guess I'll try again later
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Ditto. Going to try Q2 again later.
EDIT: Solved! Thanks for the puzzle!
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I'm with you, mate, need a hint on two of those...
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This is awesome, i'm in part 2 ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ
edit: part 3 yey
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Stuck at the 3rd part and I'm low on sparetime.. guess I'll give up here.. thanks for the first two parts ^_^
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Part 3 is absurd. I don't even know where to start with Q2 and Q3 due to not even knowing the pattern or even where to look. I don't study cryptography and I'm not familiar with ciphers. At least tell us where to start our search or which code or cipher to use. (I hope me mentioning those don't break at rules, since it's not useful information.)
This is very frustrating because I've gotten this far already. Now, I feel like I've wasted my time because I've reached an insurmountable obstacle.
With all due respect, there needs to be at least some hint or clue as to where to start the search for these sort of questions. People like me, who aren't familiar with these sort of problems, are completely deprived of even a chance. I don't know if that was your intention, but I can't finish this puzzle without some layman guidance.
Thanks for the puzzle, I guess. It sucks that I can complete it.
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Read other comments. They may contain something usefull for you. I can't give too many hints because it will ruin the fun. Think about the satisfaction you will get when you finally figure it out. You will be able to say: suck it emgieer86! I eat your puzzles for breakfast.
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I'll keep monitoring this thread in the hopes that some of the other comments might elucidate and point the way, but I'm not very confident. I understand your sentiments with regard to giving hints, but unfortunately some of us need it. Perhaps some initial hints could be provided in the future, but they are optional and those who wish to ignore them can? Regardless, thanks for the giveaway. Hopefully those who completed the puzzle and accessed the giveaway enjoyed it. For what it's worth, what Part 1 taught me about that certain something was interesting.
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Every information on how to solve puzzles here on steamgifts is written somewhere in this forum. And part of the puzzle and fun actually is to find out how it's solved - alone.
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Well, I'm aware of the guide, but I don't think that has the information I seek. As for solving puzzles, yeah it can be fun, but when I have no idea on where to even start, it can be a bit frustrating. That's like giving someone a box full of 5 thousand-piece jigsaw puzzles and not telling them that it's meant to be five different puzzles. Bad analogy, I know, but it's meant to convey that without at least some preliminary information, it may take an absurd amount of time before this information could be gleaned, let alone the answer itself.
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That was my first puzzle here. Now i know, that i need to work harder on initial hints (and if i do some more puzzles, i will definitely try to provide better ones). I really appreciate your feedback. Additionally monitoring this forum can be really helpfull. Most puzzle creators posts answers which can be usefull in solving next puzzles.
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I have found some information on the forums which have helped me a bit, though I'm still drawing blanks. It appears that Q3 has a multilayered encryption. If not, then I guess I'm just decoding it improperly. Whatever the case, you certainly made a great puzzle for your first time (and this is coming from a novice solver)! It's just I, being new to puzzles, am not familiar with this level of difficulty. If you intended to screen out novices like me, then that's totally fine and it's your decision to do so. I'm just saying that from the perspective of someone unfamiliar with puzzles, this can seem very intimidating and confusing; so if you intend for this puzzle to be solvable for general audiences, it may be a daunting task for those uninitiated to the puzzle scene.
Also, I'm not sure if this was intentional, but the hints for P3 are stuck at 1-hour for me. Is this a bug, or a problem on my end?
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Try reloading the puzzle site. I think the hint-timer is not dynamic and needs a reload to show proper value. Let me know if it helped.
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My last idea: Site will start the counter after first attempt to check answer. Type something in one of answer fields and hit "Check". Wait for a minute or two and then reload page. If this wont help, i'm affraid you will need to contact site creator. Email should be somewhere at the bottom of puzlle page.
EDIT:
According to informations you see when you create puzzle:
Hint Delay - The number of minutes after the first guess until the hints are shown to the player.
So this should help.
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Whoops, stupid me! I hadn't submitted any guesses yet, so no wonder it wasn't counting down! My bad. Thanks for helping the idiot. :x
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Well your analogy isn't so bad:
You just shouldn't expect to be able to solve such a complicated task, when you have never done it before. Now other players that have done loads of puzzles will notice from small hints how to approach a possible solution and will try out different things.
According to your analogy on the jigsaw puzzle: they may count the pieces for corners, they could look at the backsides of the pieces. Maybe one can even notice slight differences in the quality of the printing, and so on.
If you have never done before you wouldn't know where to start. And not every puzzle is intended for beginners.
Hint: try to solve puzzles where the giveaway is over and a solution is posted. But really try hard to do them on your own - without the given solution. That way you will learn fast and may be able to solve the next puzzle before the giveaway ends...
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Aye, thanks, mate, I figured it out by the time I posted this; it was more a plea for commiseration.
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For those who stuck on P2Q2: This conversastion may be a hint for you.
Tbh P2 was never intended to be the hard one:( Don't overthink it.
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P2 was extremely easy for me, and I'm one who usually "overthinks" things.
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hint not helped :( how many words or something, for non english speakers
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Belive me, that for Stupid part Q2 you have everything you need right in front of your eyes. If your english is good enough to understand the question, you should be able to solve it.
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One thing is to read and understand question and other- think of the answer in english, I can tell you a lot stupid answers on my language, but every culture have their "stupid part" thoughts, so no, I can't answer on this question without hint. Tried to merge it with other questions, but no. Think I will not be able to test myself on part 3 as everyone else
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because I think on my language, and all easy answers converted to english not fit
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As i said before: You are overthinkg it. Answer is much simpler.
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I think it was site bug, because I answered this as number 1 and it not said correct, but today I tryed it one more time and it worked, so really site was buged?
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It is possible i think. But it never happend to me (or i don't even know it has happend to me :O).
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back to your puzzle, q3/2 was very easy, q3/1 after find what to use also no prob, but q3/3 is something unbelievable. no wonder only 15 ppl solved. When I do translation there is something stupid came out
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Meh, stuck on the last question. I found the right start, but then..... I got stuck!!!!! Darn.
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One person solved it already. I asked him if he have something against giving more hints. If this won't be a problem to him (or if i'll fail to get response from him in couple hours), i'll try to add them. In the meantime small poll: Which question is causing biggest problems?
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No, its not a problem
For 3.3, didn't someone make a pretty similar puzzle lately?
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Updated hint to 3.3. I hope i won't be a problem to anyone.
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Damn, now I feel like people might think I solved this due to the hint. but i swear, I got there without it, whatever it is. didn't even check yet :)
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P3, Q2–3 is where I'm experiencing the most issues. The rest could be found with some critical thinking and searching on the Internet. The last two, however, are so obscure that I can't even see where to start.
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You are right. But i think that Q3 is a common thing in puzzles. Solving first part should be really easy if you have basic computer knowledge. And solving rest should be easy if:
- You have more than basic computer knowledge.
- You saw some other puzzles here.
About Q2: There are couple hints scattered in this thread. But you just need the right idea.
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Unfortunately, I may be lacking in both those departments, depending on your definition of "basic computer knowledge." I think I'm finally on the right track, but this is still quite difficult for a newbie like me.
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My definition of basic may be different than someone's else. For example i have that topic at school (i was ~13 years old). But it may vary from country to country and even from teacher to teacher in the same school (i know that from my own experience). But i'm glad to hear, that you are on the right track:)
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I'm still not gonna be able to solve it by the time the giveaway ends, so I can only hope you'll post the solutions and how to get them after it's all over, if only so that I can learn for the future. As for me, I am more technologically literate than my peers (I live in the United States), but I may not be as learned as you might expect from someone with "basic computer knowledge." I suppose it's just the Curse of Knowledge at it again.
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3.2 and 3.3, and I thought my quizzes were hard :s
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Hint provided below question should be really sufficient. I assume that link i provided there will work in the same way for everyone.
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You are sure we are talking about part 2 (the stupid part)?
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You're right: I confused parts 2 and 3. There is indeed a link in P2Q3 but it seems like everyone is looking for more help with P3Q2/3.
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I really cant think about anything that will be more helpfull than hints i provided by now and at the same time wont give you almost direct answer:(
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you don't have to clear up everything in your first puzzle
look what other puzzlecreators do, unfortunatly not every one can solve such riddles
else you just could make a public GA.
for my liking, there are several posts and requests in this thread that are close to begging.
when i can't solve a puzzle, i just let it be, admit i couldn't solve it, ask the creator for the answers afterwards and learn from that.
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It's up to the creator how much he/she want to help potential solvers. It's their puzzle, after all.
For my liking, a solver complaining about the creator providing hints is a thin ploy to prevent the number of solvers from growing and decreasing their own win chance.
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go blacklist me if you want, i just said my opinion..
sure he can help as much as he wants, but i know from myself, that its hard to say no when you are new to this thing.
no offense
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In this case creator have low mental resistance;) This can be easily abused. Let's end this conversation here please. I think i gave all hints i was able to think of without ruining whole thing. And i agree with oligovore here.
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Thank you! I totally agree with you. I'ts just hard for me to leave such comments without response. Even if this will be something like: I can't give you more hints. It feels rude (even if it really isn't).
Lack of assertiveness. That's another thing to work on:)
P.S. No! I wont give you my credit card number!:D
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pls don't let me convince you in something you don't want, sure you can give as mich tips as you like,
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On Part 3, I only solved the Q1. Damn, Q2 and Q3 are so fucking hard :/ I can't solve it even with the hints
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I DID IT, I SOLVED 3.3
I have no idea what i did, but theres a nice step by step walktrough on this site that helped me
I agree with oligovore^ on the whole begging for hints thing, but then again I spent 45 mins on solving 3.3 and still don't know what to do with 3.2.....
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Evil Part 3 :/
The first part was so much fun!
The second one was something to relax the brain a bit and now this...
I have no idea what to do about it (especially as it's 2.30am here and, as far as I've read here the hints won't help me much).
I'm feeling stupid so good night all xD
EDIT:
Good morning xD
Took a look at the hints and as for the first one- I really don't think that it could be called a hint. It basically says- if you know this you will know how to solve it, if not... well...
Naturally, this is all just my opinion and in no way meant to insult the OP. I'm saying this just because it's the OP's first puzzle and he seems willing to accept opinions on it :)
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Thanks for feedback. In that hint i wanted to say, that it is possible to solve this without some specific knowledge. If you have that knowledge, then it will be much easier. Now i realized that this is a Captain Obvious hint.
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Yeah, I get what you tried to and still... xD
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So i finally created my first puzzle. 3 parts x 3 questions.
One non bundled game. Nothing special. Level 1+. You can check when GA ends on my profile.
I solved it before posting, so it should be ok. (Yay, for the first time i'm the first one who solved the puzzle:D)
No hints allowed:)
Answers
1. Cartoon-flavored part answers
Q1.
It is written in one of alien languages used in futurama.
You can decode it here
Decoding will give you: "full name of fry dog".
Q2.
It is also written in one of alien languages used in futurama.
You can decode it here
Decoding will give you: "bender full name".
Q3.
No ciphers here. This question is also a hint for solving two previous questions
2. Stupid part answers
No ciphers here.
3. Last part answers
Q1.
It is coded in pigpen cipher also known as masonic cipher. I was abe to google solution using search image by upload with keyword "cipher".
Decoded question is: "fruit main ingredient of cider".
Q2.
I would call it sms cipher. I don't know if it is common. Numbers tells which button on cell phone keyboard should be pressed. I added "-" symbol to mark break between letters on the same button.
Deciphering gives: "eulers number symbol just letter".
Q3.
First you need to run hex to text conversion. Second step is base64 decoding of result from step 1. In last step you need to run results of step 2 in simplified Ook interpreter.
First two steps can be done here. All online Ook interpreters i found was able to run simplified Ook. Here is one of them.
Decoding gives: "first four digits of pi"
As Klinge said, many information can be found on this forum. For example this guide can be helpful.
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