Discussion for the 11th puzzle

I am starting this thread for any members who wish to discuss any ideas about the 11th and final puzzle to the current cryptology game.

Reason being, there is 4 pieces given already to us. Meaning the final puzzle has technically already began, and it is our discretion to try and figure it out, although it is quite impossible to figure out the final puzzle at this point, this will be worth it for when the time comes we can have all the information already set up in this thread for reference and analysis.

The final puzzle is going to be the most difficult ATS has ever seen.


The current pieces to the 11th puzzle:


#1#2 #3#4


Basic Information on the Puzzle Pieces:

Each Rewarded Puzzle Piece has an interesting numerical name for the image.

#1-32424003
#2-123687893450
#3-3409837421237
#4-875468

Each puzzle piece has at least one, 5x4 (5 down, 4 across) mini square graph design.

There is at least 1 filled in black mini square, which gives the effect of a missing mini square piece of the 5x4 square which makes up a puzzle piece.



Defined Puzzle Pieces:

Puzzle Piece # 1

Info: Three 5x4 squares, missing one mini square piece from each square.
Three 5x4 squares (now a rectangle) with a total number of 54 mini pieces at 5 x 9.

It is at 5 x 9 (5 down, 9 across) because there is 3 missing pieces, without any missing pieces it would be 5 x 12 (5 down, 12 across) which is 60.


Missing Mini Square Graph

For a graph representation ofthe missing mini squares, Numbers and Letters for each square at 5 down and 4 across will be administered.

We would have numbers at 1-5 down, and letters at A-D across.

For the first square in puzzle #1, the missing piece would be as such.

Square #1
1,B
Square #2
3,C
Square #3
1,B


Puzzle Piece # 2

Info: Three 5x4 squares, missing one mini square piece from each square.
Three 5x4 squares with a total number of 54 mini pieces at 5 x 9.

Missing Square Graph

Square #1
5,C
Square #2
3,C
Square #3
1,B


Puzzle Piece # 3

Info: Three 5x4 squares, missing one mini square piece from each square.
Three 5x4 squares with a total number of 54 mini pieces at 5 x 9.

Missing Square Graph

Square #1
2,D
Square #2
5,D
Square #3
2,D


Puzzle Piece # 4

Info: Two 5x4 squares, missing one mini square piece from each square.
Two 5x4 squares, with a total number of 30 mini pieces at 5x6 = 30

Missing Square Graph

Square #1
2,D
Square #2
4,B





Disclaimer: In no means do I wish this thread to be a distraction to the current game puzzle being solved. I wish that all members respect this thread for a cataloging and discussion of the 11th puzzle and its pieces.

If anyone else has any questions about the thread please u2u me, I would like to keep on topic for this thread, so that every post will have ideas or facts for reference, catalog and analysis.



[edit on 11-8-2008 by ragster]

Are you sure it's the 11'th puzzle? I think it might just be a reward puzzle like it says, something to make solving the last puzzle easier.

If anyone else has any questions about the thread please u2u me, I would like to keep on topic for this to be a reference and cataloging thread of facts and possible ideas.

[edit on 11-8-2008 by ragster]

BUMP, Lets get started on cracking this last code. I have a few ideas I'm working on, hopefully I'll have time for lunch first. The last puzzles were solved too fast, I had a shower and one was solved then I took my brother to his friends house and another was solved. Slow down people slow down.

Wow! I slackly go into work, and when I get back, we're on the final puzzle! Congrats, sos37 and americandingbat; great job..

Man alive!! I go to work for 8 hours and when I get back, you crazy kids are on the last puzzle! Good job to all who solved the puzzles in between. I'm a bit burned out on puzzle-solving since spending so much time on puzzles #4 and 5, so I'll just spill my assumptions for this puzzle and let whoever needs the help take it.

I could be totally wrong, but I figure this puzzle is similar to the last part of the "Jumble" puzzle that appears in many daily newspapers. For those who aren't familiar with Jumble, it starts where you unscramble these words, and then certain letters in each unscrambled word are circled. Then you take all the circled letters and unscramble those for the final answer.

So far, it seems like most of the puzzles have had a couple missing or incorrect letters in them. Likely, the reason for this could be to throw off any automated cryptogram-solving programs, but another possible reason could be that these letters are the "circled" letters that need to be used in the final puzzle.

Further evidence toward this is that for the triangle puzzle (#5), while there were a couple different misspellings, there was only one letter that was completely omitted. And then if you look at the 5th piece of this final puzzle, there's only one box there, which would fit this. As far as I can tell, the missing letter from that puzzle is "I." In my original answer to that one, I said one of the words was "INSTALLMENT," but after going over it again, I'm 99% sure that the word was actually "INSTALLATON," or, installation minus the "i."

The problem with this theory is that after going over a couple of the other puzzles and trying to figure out which letters were missing or misspelled, some seemed to have none at all. But then again, I didn't spend a lot of time trying to verify that, so it's possible that I just missed them.

If this theory is correct, I figure that once you find all the letters, the dots in this final puzzle correspond to a letter of the alphabet (20 possible spots, A-T). And then there will probably be some sort of shifting cipher to muddle things up even further.

So, I could be way out in left field on this one, but as I said, I'm probably not going to be spending too much time on this one, so hopefully this will give some people a starting point, if nothing else.

I've make a list of all the gif names for each puzzle; since they weren't useful in the actual puzzles themselves, maybe they're useful for the final puzzle:

Puzzle 1: sjskwiiw991919
Puzzle 2: a9oeb3
Puzzle 3: 993jsuwvaauh
Puzzle 4: 8uhnbsgt62bs (original image)
Puzzle 5: 09djnc63jsnxhswnns
Puzzle 6: 77susjlh9 (DOESN'T WORK!)
Puzzle 7: 9i77ysysw
Puzzle 8: nhhs002hjsbs
Puzzle 9: 88usjywwyshsns
Puzzle 10: fdsunasdn8222

But I can't get the image for puzzle #6 to work! All the others are still there; can anyone verify this list and possibly correct #6?

Edit: adding link to off-site copy of original puzzle #4 image (same filename)


[edit on 18-8-2008 by Ian McLean]

Somehow I believe that these are all tied into the "dots" practice puzzle. My initial thought is that each piece goes to a single post and we are looking for either a letter or a word in that post.

reply to post by Ian McLean

---

Puzzle 4 original The link you give above is to a hint image -- did we actually get that and I missed it?

Puzzle 6 rotated to solve

I've never been able to get the link for Puzzle 6 to work -- maybe Draconian King knows?

And just to collect everything here:











The file names of these ten images are:
32424003.gif
123687893450.gif
3409837421237.gif
875468.gif
876545711111.gif
7823408345280124671515.gif
234560054.gif
09933121222209.gif
6737892487702345345344.gif
123978576458576586465.gif

[edit on 18-8-2008 by americandingbat]

party time boys

I have got to say great jobs guys, I have been moving this past week so in it all bummed out on missing the puzzles you guys awesomely tore apart with victory!

Lets see this roll!

just an idea could this be anything with morris code?

[edit on 18-8-2008 by ragster]

reply to post by americandingbat

---

I find it very interesting that not one of those 5X4 block matrices has a missing square on the far left column

Well, consider this: while we've been talking about the answers and claiming credit when we successfully complete a puzzle, there's no indication from the game site as to what the previous answers were, and no links back to the prior puzzles, in case you missed one. So, except for member cooperation, posting stuff here and on the wiki, there's no way to get that information or verify previous puzzle answers.

Would the game be structured to rely on that? That we correctly record the previous puzzle answers, images, etc.?

The final question reiterates the 'solution reward' images, all on one page. Perhaps, like the previous puzzles, it 'stands on its own'.

Here was the image for Puzzle #6

File name is 77susjlh9.gif



My observations so far on this puzzle:



1st set - Missing squares are symmetrical 2, 13, 2

2nd set - Missing squares 23, 13, 2; if you flip the first or last glyph on its vertical axis then the set of three become symmetrical like the first set of three

3rd set - Missing squares 10, 20, 10; symetrical

From here on out the squares cease to be in symmetrical order, which makes me think a polyalphabet cipher may be involved.

One last observation - the first glyph in the last set is the only one which is missing two squares - 7 and 11.

Anyone think the last part of the clue gif comes in to play?




files.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by Kellter

---

The way I read that is 'focus on the missing block in each glyph, not the blocks that are there"

But that's kind of what we've been doing anyway.

I haven't been able to decide if that refers to this puzzle or to the last one, which required sounding out the words (what is not seen).

This puzzle seems incomplete to me. How is it that a single block can have a larger number than say three blocks? I think we have to figure out the pattern with the numbers and form the complete puzzle in order to solve it. I'm looking at where the numbers seem to be in order, like 123 or 789, this should help in figuring out the number system.

[edit on 19-8-2008 by DraconianKing]

So, everyone playing it a little closer to the vest, now that it's the final puzzle? Heh.

How about the idea that the 4x5 grid is a font, and the 'hints' are dots that are present or missing in each particular letter (1 letter per 'reward group'), giving a 10-letter answer?


(sorry, a bit sloppy in places, but hopefully you get the idea)

reply to post by Ian McLean

---

I was thinking about the same thing but after looking into it for a couple hours I didn't get any interesting results.

How about you?

.

I like this idea a lot.

I don't know about everyone else, I suppose some are playing it close to their chest now that we're on the grand prize puzzle. I just haven't come up with anything worth posting. I wrote and then erased without posting a long piece on how I was having trouble getting my teeth into this puzzle