You eventually put all the pieces together and crack the code.
It was a tough one and you've wasted quite enough time on it.
The gift is not a real gift in the end, but just a chance at it. Could it be that this guy really thinks the puzzle itself is supposed to be the gift, pheraps? Some sort of "it's not the destination, it's the journey" kind of shit?
You can't help but ask yourself: "Was it worth it?"
Well, I hope so guys. I think I overdid a bit this time, but still, a hard puzzle is okay once in a while I guess, better chances for the solvers ;)
Bump, please!
Very cool puzzle Dog, keep em coming!
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Man, if I hadn't knew that this was the price, I would have stopped long ago.
The tipps you gave helped after thinking about them a longer while. My initial issue was that you started with imgbb but the codes were for imgur. I had the first one found pretty fast but it didnt work with imgbb. But with the hint, I found the second code and no matter how I converted it, I always got the same from the ASCII's. So, I was more prone to think that the code is correct and the platform is wrong.
From there I tackled the second part. The NAC was solved pretty fast, as the initial searched found the drugs, but the natural area code on Wikipidea fitted with the theme. So, I had two more words remaining. Capital was the next I solved as you specified not being for upper/lower case. So, I considered the capital of some countries which would fit with the imprecise NAC on the postcard. The prime was the last. Translation-wise I wasnt 100 % sure and I considered it as "First" for a short time. But the hint with 11 and 13 helped me there as well as puzzles usually lead to five digit codes and the numbers from 1 to 12 contain exactly five prime numbers (debated a short time if "1" is considered prime or not ....).
Then came another awful part because i didn't find a single converter where i could enter the two digit combinations and he would jump to that point. I tried a lot of different sites and nothing worked. In the end, I just snapped and manually clicked me through the world using this site: https://coordinates-converter.com/en/decimal/50.461001,8.838501?karte=OpenStreetMap&zoom=8
Since it it systematic the search didnt take that long although I feared about that there are some imprecisions. Especially, the European area made me nervous. There was also the point that I wasn't 100 % sure which spelling for the capitals you used (English or as in the country itself?). The happier I was as my first try of a five digit code led me directly here.
Tell me if you need more bumps in the main thread.
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I didn't use imgbb.com only because I feared people would keep searching for metadata that way.
I added a hint about the converter knowing that one was kinda faulty. The hint was the one with "converter", "coordinate" and "nearby" in italic. I was trying to point you to this site http://www.nearby.org.uk/ that works quite well.
Anyway, I'm glad someone eventualy solved it 💪
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Ah, okay. I didn't get that hint then ^^' But there are workarounds for this even if a bit annoying. Will see if others have the same issue or if they find a converter with a better usage.
Seems, I am only the second person to solve. Tomas even got there without that many hints.
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He kinda betatested it, since he owns the game already. I thought of the hints based on his feedback mostly.
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The problem with imgbb is that you also need the filename. I assumed it would be Picture2 and Picture3.jpg, but no dice.
As Imgur also use 7 characters I quickly tried that out too.
I made the same mistake as you, assuming 1 was a prime number 😂
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Finally landed here, thanks to the hints, to be honest. I still don't know how I didn't notice the Canon ASCII right away when I was checking the properties of the image, but after seeing your hints it was quite straightforward from that point (but just like in case of Adelion, my journey here came to a halt because of the ASCII conversion, but finally the good old dcode.fr came to the rescue).
For some time I thought the hint about the number of lines that could have been 11 and 12, but not 13 was pointing towards hours, but then I realized I haven't used the prime part yet, and eventually all came together.
I'm not entering the GA as I'm not interested in the game itself, but I'm always up for a great puzzle like this one :)
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I noticed that many sites won't decrypt it correctly if you don't put the right spacing between the numbers.
Anyway, thank you, glad to see that you've made it ;)
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I assumed the metadata was legit from a cursory glance. If it weren't for the hint I would not have given it a second look. :D
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Wow, one of the hardest puzzle ever!
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Reached the end because of the hints, very fun puzzle, but I had no clue how to start without the hints
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The puzzle was very cool, thanks! And very hard indeed, no way I'd make it without hints.
The hardest part for me was to move from imgbb to imgur 😐 With the updated hints, the rest was pretty much a matter of technique.
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Finally solved.
I was close for a while but was stuck on the last step, because I didn't notice Nearby was wrong about the country, Congo instead of Cameroon.
Thanks for the puzzle and the GA !
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I didn't notice the mistake there. I just looked at the map and what was written in the white box over it. My bad.
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No problem, the correct info is there, just have to look in the right place.
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I fell for the same mistake :'(
Thanks Dog for another great puzzle!
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Thanks for the nice puzzle :)
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I definitely needed the hints, but I'm glad I made it to the end. Thanks for the puzzle!
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Took some time to figure it out... Thanks for the puzzle!
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Finally, took entire afternoon to get here :)
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Finally! took so damn long.
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Thank you for the puzzle. It's been a while since I did one and it was fun!
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Really enjoyed the puzzle ... waiting for more puzzles from you Dog
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Glad to be here, it's really a good (and hard) puzzle ;)
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Probably the most challenging puzzle I've managed to solve! 🎉
Also learned something new - NAC. I like how you can "customize" its precision. 🙂
I was stuck on the last hint (prime) for way too long. "Could be 11 or 12 but not 13"? But 12 isn't a prime number! That tripped me up. 😀
And when I finally figured out I needed the first 5 prime numbers, I used 1, 3, 5, 7, 11 🤦♂️
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Ok, the last step was the most difficult. I almost tried to ask you on Steam if my previous steps were right. But it was really awesome puzzle
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Can't believe I got to it at the end, thank you so much for the epic puzzle and great giveaway!
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thanks for the chance
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You're welcome. Next time I'd really wish people won't resort to multiaccounting just for a dumb giveaway. That's a good way to make me stop doing puzzle alltogether.
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I would suggest reporting them. Once they are suspended, that is grounds for a reroll.
In the future, setting a higher level will help. While that still isn't a 100% guarantee, it should keep out a majority.
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Wow finally my "puzzling" efforts have paid :D
Thank you very much for this great game Dog, it was another clever puzzle and I will definitely enjoy your gift!
Have a nice day!
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