Cryptos

[Cryptos]

*points his finger threateningly*

Everybody move over to the official forums, or... I'll hold my breath until I become blue in the face!

[Cryptos]

If I were to hypothetically ask players to hypothetically click repeatedly on hypothetical Google Ads, would anybodyhypothetically do so?

[fred]

Level 34. I'm following the notion that we're looking for the word that completes the equation 5D= and that that word is a kind of wine, the same way the first 8 words are. The numeral/letter codes will somehow get us to the answer. I've looked at Kuang's idea of hex codes but don't see anything there yet. Is there any kind of numerical progression involved? Could this be yet another kind of cipher? Are teh painting and mirror in any way involved?This is making me thirsty.

[kuang]

Given the the names don't refer to a consistent type of thing, I can't help but think that chasing the name of a wine might not be the answer. My instinct is that the letters themselves combined with whatever their codes refer to will give the answer as this appears to be more of a crib than a cipher. I was wondering if A and D stood for Across and Down earlier, but couldn't find any offsets of those letters that made any sense.

[Jase]

I had tried that too Kuang ... got jibberish .... and what about the 0's? ... but seems funny that 5d is the only d:

EDIT: the only codes I got were Key: K = Keep (will improve), D = Drinking now, P = Past its best, 10 = Outstanding.

Been trying to manipulate the wine list too ... mirrored ... ie. starting from that back ... thought i had analyse but nope ... close though and those 0's still throw me and even wrote the numbers backwards to see if it spelt anything

[fred]

I tried the mirror in 2 ways: 1) reversing the codes to A0, A1, D5, etc. No relation that I can spot. 2) Also noted that the list is mildly palindromic, leaving 2 wines in isolation. They form major ingredients to South African "cape blends." But, I fear it is another false lead. Not much to go on here, so the solution is probably remarkably simple. Wine combos are too numerous, so it is likely to be found in another direction. It is not merlot. Wish we could identify the painting.

[armadillo_pie]

Lock, stock, and barrel

I, too, have been through numerous wines. For a minute I thought this may have something to do with

Edgar Alan Poe and "The Cask of Amontillado"

but nothing helpful down that path. I also thought the wine bottles/mirror in the painting might be related to

Rene Magritte

but no joy there, either. I've tried relating wines to the planets (space for nine on the list), and gone though mythical references as well. I just can't suss out what those Number/Alpha codes could refer to. My brain is starting to hurt.

[fred]

I keep hoping to find some algorithm in the no/ltr codes that will allow 5D to generate the answer, since the empirical stuff on wines is so open-ended. Hex code? Some other base? Something in the letters of the existing wines? Is the order of the list important? Does Magritte live in Napa Valley?

[kuang]

As the names in the list refer to a number of different things (albeit all related to the wine world) I don't think their nature is important. I'd imagine the words themselves will be the key.

I'd be interested to see this painting is if it's a real one, because I still think we may be dealing with co-ordinates or something that would make a simple reminder like the one this character used earlier.

[Jase]

maybe as the title suggests ... lock, stock and barrel ... we have 2 of those ... may have to look for the stock ... what grapes are used for each????

[Jase]

I do believe that with his break, Cryptos has become far more devious I have no clue ... well we all do but not seeing them!

[Cryptos]

Well, we've added Google Ads to the bottom of each page, and I hope they're not too disturbing (or could they be clues?)... Unfortunately, they appear to be referencing the text on the levels, so, you guessed it, ads about shipping on dock pages and ads about wine on the level you're working on, etc.

The way I've calculated it, we need 33 hits to make a dollar, and then we don't get sent any money until we make over a hundred bucks. I guess it could be a form of donation, but... has anybody ever considered donating directly through Paypal or something?

[kuang]

White wine can be made from any grapes - reds are made from the same grapes, but with the skins left in the mix. Some of the items in the list are types of grape, but the others are generic wine types, regions, etc.

Looking logically at it, the word that appears to be missing should be the lock code. That might imply that the others are also lock codes but for different circumstances, with the circumstance being determined by the preceding code. As the others all have 'A' in their prefix, it's probably more likely that they're not codes, but key elements in determining the code. Thinking aloud, so far we have:

- There are four consecutive prefixes for the eight words given

- Some prefixes have more than one word attached to them, suggesting that the prefix implies a process to be carried out on the word, or some sort of homophone. Is the order of the words important? Do the prefixes imply an order of precedence?

- The prefix for the missing word is numerically higher and uses a new letter. Does this suggest the process to be carried out on the result of the above calculations?

- The words refer to different aspects of the wine trade, but nothing more specific

Hmm.

[Cryptos]

$5.98 today. Not bad.

(Keep those clicks coming!)

[dresherm]

To piggyback off of kuang:

- I believe the order is important, each equation from top to bottom might represent the letters of the password from left to right, respectively. If not, then why weren't the equations with the same prefix grouped together in the note....

- If we think of the prefixes as functions, then processing the first 8 functions will give us information to plug into the 9th function and give us the answer...