Part 9: Metapuzzle

[FM Ferengi]

Part 9: Metapuzzle


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcUE_r0VGqY

Morale ran low. FM Cafarelli sat paralyzed in shock when FM Bishop announced his evil plans for sabotage. The fleet ran out of morale, food, and water, and the humans soon perished. The last human to go was FM Phelps who torched the place to gain some last satisfaction that the cylons aboard the fleet would die, too...

You wake up in what seems like a bathtub. Three copies of FM Bishop are there to greet you.

“Don’t be scared,” FM Bishop says. “You are aboard a Cylon Resurrection Ship. Your former body has died, but your consciousness has been transferred to a new Cylon body. Try not to move around too much, and wait for the pain to subside.”

The second FM Bishop tells you, “We have used the humans to find all the clues to find the road to Earth, but we need your help in using the previous solutions to solve the final metapuzzle to come up with the final answer to the puzzle.”

The third FM Bishop scribbles something down in his notebook, nods, and walks away, already at work on finding the last solution.

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Use the answers to the previous parts to solve for the final answer to this puzzle game.

As was hinted earlier, the thirteenth tribe that was leaving hints to find the way to Earth never managed to actually find the way to Earth... But they did find the way to [redacted] which is the setting of FM19. The answer to this puzzle provides a significant hint to the theme of FM19.

This puzzle will remain open for as long as it takes to be solved. Certain things may trigger RP hints or some kind of indication that you are on the right track.

The Cylons have won, but for sketchy RP purposes all humans have awoken as Cylons and you all can work together on determining the final solution.

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Cylon Overlord - FM Bishop

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Links:
Setup: http://www.sc2mafia.com/forum/showthread.php/19732-Battlestar-Galactica-The-FM-18-Reserve-Dead-Chat-Puzzle-Game
FAQ: http://www.sc2mafia.com/forum/showthread.php/19735-FAQ

List of Players:
FM Walter
FM Skyler
FM Hank
FM Marie
FM Flynn
FM Saul
FM Gustavo
FM Mike
FM Gale
FM Holly
FM Badger
FM Ted
FM Krazy 8
FM Combo
FM Hector
FM Tuco
FM Pete
FM Jane
FM Gage
FM Bishop
FM Becket
FM Cohen
FM Morgan
FM Colmyer
FM Biggs
FM Ballard
FM Bekowsky
FM Hogeboom
FM Monroe
FM Dunn
FM Black
FM Cafarelli
FM Phelps

[FM Cafarelli]

oh man i found the way to solve them all, doesn't that count? i would've done more if you told me i was right and have to do so

also why didn't i trigger hints which could give us resources?

oh yes i failed twice ;)
3) i calculated in hex but my calculator used only ints so it was rounded to the correct value and i assumed it's equal
10) i counted the alphabet wrong -.- P is 16 and thus 25 not 15 & 24. O and N were subsequent errors


and 14 was shit. how should we figure out it's ten when all (from 4) are possible?

[FM Cafarelli]

btw would there be more puzzles if we had survived?

[FM Monroe]

Use the answers to the previous parts to solve for the final answer to this puzzle game.

As was hinted earlier, the thirteenth tribe that was leaving hints to find the way to Earth never managed to actually find the way to Earth... But they did find the way to [redacted] which is the setting of FM19. The answer to this puzzle provides a significant hint to the theme of FM19.

This puzzle will remain open for as long as it takes to be solved. Certain things may trigger RP hints or some kind of indication that you are on the right track.

That's the last puzzle. Must have something to do with the recipe.

[FM Bishop]

First hit for the google search "planet galaxy sigma" is the Ancient Ones. The planet in question is Sigma 957. Babylon 5 theme?

Other famous planets/system in fiction are:
Sigma Draconis -> Star Trek Theme (+recently a movie was released)
Sigma Octanus IV—a colony planet, significant because the Halo's "coordinates" were discovered there -> Halo theme
Too many sigma planets in popular culture. Sigma Draconis could also be a hint on Dune, as that takes place near that planet. (I don't actually know if it is a planet or some other astronomical formation. )

Star Trek seems to be the most likely one.

[FM Ferengi]

oh man i found the way to solve them all, doesn't that count? i would've done more if you told me i was right and have to do so

also why didn't i trigger hints which could give us resources?

oh yes i failed twice ;)
3) i calculated in hex but my calculator used only ints so it was rounded to the correct value and i assumed it's equal
10) i counted the alphabet wrong -.- P is 16 and thus 25 not 15 & 24. O and N were subsequent errors


and 14 was shit. how should we figure out it's ten when all (from 4) are possible?

I was sleeping when you posted x____x also after Part 1 I stopped giving so many hints and auto-solving puzzles for you guys.


btw would there be more puzzles if we had survived?

No. It was pre-planned to have 9 parts.


First hit for the google search "planet galaxy sigma" is the Ancient Ones. The planet in question is Sigma 957. Babylon 5 theme?

Other famous planets/system in fiction are:
Sigma Draconis -> Star Trek Theme (+recently a movie was released)
Sigma Octanus IV—a colony planet, significant because the Halo's "coordinates" were discovered there -> Halo theme
Too many sigma planets in popular culture. Sigma Draconis could also be a hint on Dune, as that takes place near that planet. (I don't actually know if it is a planet or some other astronomical formation. )

Star Trek seems to be the most likely one.

"planet galaxy sigma" is not the answer to the meta puzzle.

[FM Bishop]

"planet galacy sigma" wasn't solution I got. It's a guess to find the theme. I was under the impression that the final location is the planet the 13th tribe found. Thus it isn't on Earth. The sum-Symbol is a capital sigma and there are a lot of planets out there with sigma in their name. This motivated me to use the search terms above to try to find such planets.
The way to the solution might not be the intended one, but I think I am pretty close to it regardless. But I could be totally wrong about that. lol

So my guesses on the solution of the last part would be "Sigma Draconis" or "Sigma 957".

[FM Bishop]

Could you reveal who the other cylons were and when they got their cylon role card?

[FM Monroe]

I was a Cylon since I first got here. I wasn't much help though :p

[FM Bishop]

I was a Cylon since I first got here. I wasn't much help though :p
That means you did your job. :p

Maybe we got to use the last line of the receipe in combination with our only extra clue "letterpositionsmod26". As this is a Meta puzzle we can try to apply this somehow to the locations or maybe other solutions of the puzzle. Even the text of the puzzles in the crisis phase could lead us there.

I think that the result from the locations is "sigma" but only a part of the final solution.

[FM Monroe]

Just as a warning: The final piece of the recipe may not make as much sense as the previous parts. The eighth part of the puzzle when completed, will have everything you need. It will take seven locations. There will be seven lines to the recipe. Plot every location on the map and see what directions you are given. Use this area to cook the recipe. There may be information left over from the previous puzzles. We are members of the thirteenth tribe. We never found the location of Earth. But we are happy here. Midewi. The answer to the puzzle contains a definitive vision of the future. What do we mean? Solve the ninth puzzle and see for yourself.
This seems like it could be important.

Maybe plotting Zambia on the map would be a good start, because it hasn't been done yet.

[FM Monroe]

Stuff we know:
All the locations start with an M

Recipe
add egg beef cabbage
breadcrumbs and onion
milk, mustard and ketchup
salt n pepper n sugar
stirs and put in oven
nsaythemagicwords

waknbodxtzyxdjnnl


letterpositionsmod26
If it's just shifting letters 26 positions it makes no sense, since then you'd just end up with the same letters. If it has something to do with modulo I'll leave it to you. That math never made sense to me.

[FM Bishop]

The location of all cities on the map (including the one in Zambia) form the capital sigma. So it has been done actually.
Hmm, modulo isn't really a complex operation. It's just the remainder of a division by X (X being 26 in our case).
The question is where do we apply it. The position of some letters seems to be of relevance. Mod26 ist likely used for another conversion into letters.
Example: We take our last line and for each letter add the position of the letter in the city, county solutions together. Then we apply mod26 and get another letter. If the letter isn't in the city or country the position is set to 0. So if the sum of positions of the letter w was 5, our resulting letter would be E. If it was 31, it would be E as well.
Obviously that is not the right answer. But we are exploring possibilities here.

[FM Monroe]

Oh right, that's what modulo was. Basically just the % operation in some programming languages.

I was thinking of something else.

[FM Cafarelli]

where did we get that line
letterpositionsmod26

[FM Bishop]

In one of the older puzzles. I believe it's part 3.

[FM Spartacus]

Lol The Khazar Empire? Oh no it can't be since clem sucks at history. Oh well i tried :-P

My educated guess is to check what we are cooking. Then check where this meal is comming from and BAM ... GG

[FM Ferengi]

I think that the result from the locations is "sigma" but only a part of the final solution.

Correct! The solution of the locations is "sigma"

Hint: Now try to find the solution to the recipe. The solution to the locations and the leftover solution from Part 3 should be particularly helpful.

[FM Cafarelli]

also why didn't i trigger hints which could give us resources?

and 14 was shit. how should we figure out it's ten when all (from 4) are possible?

pls answer those

[FM Bishop]

14 was a legitimate error. It just didn't come up as it was one of the solutions I guessed correctly. Equations 1 and 3 were modified for that very same reason. 14 managed to slip through, though.
Resources are granted for solving a part of the puzzle, which in turn triggers the hint for the next part of the puzzle. Most of the puzzles had 2 to 3 parts ([theme,] next location, line of receipt). The first hint would be triggered after solving the first part of the puzzle (granting a resource) or 24 hours (costing 2 of each resource).
Suppose the puzzle is a 3 part puzzle:
Part 1: Theme
Part 2: Location
Part 3: Receipt
Such a puzzle would have 2 triggered hints:
Hint #1 (triggered after solving part 1 or failing to do so after 24 hours) helps for solving part 2.
Hint #2 (triggered after solving part 2 or failing to do so after 48 hours) helps for solving part 3.
Solving part 3 would not trigger any hints but still grant a resource. (Happened to me in puzzle 7. I solved it in order 3,1,2.)

This puzzle only had one part and you didn't post the solution. -> No resource.

[FM Ferengi]

pls answer those

What Bishop said :P

[FM Ferengi]

Hint:

The metapuzzle's solution to the locations is sigma. What kind of mathematical operation does sigma represent? Try using the operation given by this answer with the leftover solution and the full recipe.

[FM Phelps]

Or ask the next FM hosts. :P

[FM Monroe]

I know what it stands for, but I forgot what exactly it was going to be used for :p

[FM Monroe]

The sum of [something] will be needed.

[FM Cafarelli]

wow i figured the sum thing last part already^^

[FM Cafarelli]

Correct! The solution of the locations is "sigma"

Hint: Now try to find the solution to the recipe. The solution to the locations and the leftover solution from Part 3 should be particularly helpful.

what is that leftover solution you're talking about.
part 3 was breadcrumbs and onion right

so the sum of all those ingredients is the thing we're cooking
also how can we figure out what we're cooking
we know the indegredients, that it is baked in an oven and that it's liquid (to some extent) because we stir it. i don't know any meal like this...
i think it must be some kind of potion. because of the magic word
so maybe fm 19's theme is some fantasy stuff

btw cylons won because humans were not active -.-

[FM Bishop]

btw cylons won because humans were not active -.-
If you think about it, it is the only way for cylons to win. Reducing the time on puzzles helps, though.

On the receipt: The positions of letters in the receipt can't be taken for the leftover solution "letterpositionsmod26". Reasons are that one of the solution was in German "Brotkrumen" and "Zwiebel" and that the exact solutions were not needed (salt pepper sugar being another one). The "and" in the solution of "breadcrumbs and onion" was just added by me and wasn't really part of the solution. Same thing is true for "milk, mustard and ketchup".

So the sigma is really intended to be used as a sum... The hint says that we should apply "letterpositionsmod26" to the receipt. If it wasn't for the point I made earlier I would be summing up the positions of the letters in the first six lines for each letter in the last line. Another thing pointing against this is that there are no letters j,x,z in the first six lines of the receipt. I could be including the ones of the last one, too, to remedy that. But as I said, the letter positions in the receipt are kinda iffy.

Doing it anyway:
FLUBKKICMOGCISBBQ is one of the gibberish solutions you can get. If you only take the first occurrence of letter position and take the next one if the letter comes up again (n,d,x) you get this: ABOEHGCMSORQDSHKN. The first one had BBQ, so it'll take it any time over the other one.

[FM Ferengi]

If you think about it, it is the only way for cylons to win. Reducing the time on puzzles helps, though.

On the receipt: The positions of letters in the receipt can't be taken for the leftover solution "letterpositionsmod26". Reasons are that one of the solution was in German "Brotkrumen" and "Zwiebel" and that the exact solutions were not needed (salt pepper sugar being another one). The "and" in the solution of "breadcrumbs and onion" was just added by me and wasn't really part of the solution. Same thing is true for "milk, mustard and ketchup".

So the sigma is really intended to be used as a sum... The hint says that we should apply "letterpositionsmod26" to the receipt. If it wasn't for the point I made earlier I would be summing up the positions of the letters in the first six lines for each letter in the last line. Another thing pointing against this is that there are no letters j,x,z in the first six lines of the receipt. I could be including the ones of the last one, too, to remedy that. But as I said, the letter positions in the receipt are kinda iffy.

Doing it anyway:
FLUBKKICMOGCISBBQ is one of the gibberish solutions you can get. If you only take the first occurrence of letter position and take the next one if the letter comes up again (n,d,x) you get this: ABOEHGCMSORQDSHKN. The first one had BBQ, so it'll take it any time over the other one.

Can you walk me through your solution? Really not sure what you are doing here... ?

[FM Buchwalter]

The only puzzle that I was close to getting right, I failed at because my keyboard is not "standard".

My question is however. What happens now?

[FM Ferengi]

The only puzzle that I was close to getting right, I failed at because my keyboard is not "standard".

My question is however. What happens now?

I qq while waiting for you guys to solve the puzzle T.T

[FM Cafarelli]

The only puzzle that I was close to getting right, I failed at because my keyboard is not "standard".

My question is however. What happens now?

ppl should know that there is qwertz here and qwerty in english ;)

[FM Bishop]

How to get gibberish:
1. Take the receipt and remove all white spaces, punctuation and new lines. [optional: remove "and" as well] This will be called RECEIPT.
2. For each char x in "waknbodxtzyxdjnnl" {
int y = 0;
For all x in RECEIPT {
y+=x.position; // x.position is the index of the character in the String
}
y=y mod26;
Convert y to Letter;
Add y to solution;
}

[FM Cafarelli]

so good luck bishop i won't look into this before monday ;)

[FM Ferengi]

How to get gibberish:
1. Take the receipt and remove all white spaces, punctuation and new lines. [optional: remove "and" as well] This will be called RECEIPT.
2. For each char x in "waknbodxtzyxdjnnl" {
int y = 0;
For all x in RECEIPT {
y+=x.position; // x.position is the index of the character in the String
}
y=y mod26;
Convert y to Letter;
Add y to solution;
}

So if I understand correctly you're not adding in the last line of the recipe since you're setting y=0? Or is that just to set the initial value for each position to 0?

[FM Bishop]

The latter. It's just initializing. The last line is part of RECEIPT otherwise I would not be able to find the positions of the letters j, x and z.

[FM Ferengi]

Can you post the exact text you are using for RECEIPT?

[FM Ferengi]

Also as a side note, Rezept = recipe. I got really confused about it in my German lessons since it looks like a loan word.

[FM Bishop]

addeggbeefcabbagebreadcrumbsandonionmilkmustardand ketchupsaltnpeppernsugarstirsandputinovennsaythema gicwordswaknbodxtzyxdjnnl

[FM Ferengi]

addeggbeefcabbagebreadcrumbsandonionmilkmustardand ketchupsaltnpeppernsugarstirsandputinovennsaythema gicwordswaknbodxtzyxdjnnl

That's the problem! You didn't follow the recipe to the letter :p

[FM Cafarelli]

Also as a side note, Rezept = recipe. I got really confused about it in my German lessons since it looks like a loan word.

you learned german? where do you live^^

[FM Bishop]

I also tried the string without any occurrence of "and". But I won't be getting my spreadsheet anytime soon to doublecheck that. And I am not sure if I should use the german solution.

[FM Phelps]

They learn German in Switzerland together with French, Italian, English and another language nobody really cares about because only a small group of inbreds on some mountains speak it.

[FM Cafarelli]

oh she's from switzerland of course, the name *facepalm*

[FM Bishop]

I reproduced my spreadsheet. But I'm not sure which are the exact solutions. I tried the closest to the original puzzles:
addeggbeefcabbagebrotkrumenzwiebelmilkmustardketch upsaltnpeppernsugarstirsandputinovennsaythemagicwo rdswaknbodxtzyxdjnnl
this yields SYEDDLDPYHTPDLDDA. Still not useful.

[FM Ferengi]

oh she's from switzerland of course, the name *facepalm*

I can neither confirm nor deny. :p

[FM Ferengi]

I reproduced my spreadsheet. But I'm not sure which are the exact solutions. I tried the closest to the original puzzles:
addeggbeefcabbagebrotkrumenzwiebelmilkmustardketch upsaltnpeppernsugarstirsandputinovennsaythemagicwo rdswaknbodxtzyxdjnnl
this yields SYEDDLDPYHTPDLDDA. Still not useful.

Remember how you commented earlier that "mustrd" was missing letters in the solution?
The exact letters are extremely important. Each line is 17 letters long. Maybe I'll just post my spreadsheet when I get back to my computer.

[FM Bishop]

Don't want to sound nagging, but that could have been another mistake. And I asked if it was intended that mustard was missing an a. Where you just said that it is of no importance. :p (In the context of extra hints it might even be untrue)

[FM Bishop]

I'll look into that 7x17 grid. New ways to sum things up.

[FM Ferengi]

I'm posting a spoiler since this is taking way too long.

http://imgur.com/f01xib4

[FM Bishop]

Where did the change mixwelln<-> stirsand come from? Didn't see that coming.

[FM Bishop]

Another way for the recipe! to make sense is when you sum the numbers for each column. The result for the one posted by Switzerland is HIYNNTSPAEHAMSTER.
If you take our variant with stirsand you get NTJCBIUFAEHAMSTER. The hamster at the end makes me think that I am on the right track. But it somehow still does not work.

[FM Ferengi]

Another way for the recipe! to make sense is when you sum the numbers for each column. The result for the one posted by Switzerland is HIYNNTSPAEHAMSTER.
If you take our variant with stirsand you get NTJCBIUFAEHAMSTER. The hamster at the end makes me think that I am on the right track. But it somehow still does not work.

Part of your solution is shifted... This is a bit strange. I'll recheck my spreadsheet when I get back to my computer, I guess.

[FM Bishop]

Back at home with my spreadsheet. I will now look into the numbers again.

[FM Bishop]

Ahhh, computer based calculations. I love it.

giantspacehamster <- solution for the "mixwelln"-variant

[FM Bishop]

So it's either DnD or Mass Effect, but much more likely the former.

[FM Ferengi]

Yay you solved it! But I know as much as you do. Many thanks to the FM19 hosts for giving me a hint to use as the metapuzzle solution to this puzzle game.

[FM Bishop]

I still wonder how we should have reached the "mixwelln-"part of the solution.

[FM Ferengi]

I still wonder how we should have reached the "mixwelln-"part of the solution.

Uh maybe it got mixed up when I was writing the puzzle. x___x I'll check when I'm back at my computer (still haven't gotten back yet)

[FM Ferengi]

Oh yeah, I was writing up this puzzle on someone else's laptop while at an airport just so I would be able to post the next part in time. Ugh I hate making mistakes. :(

[FM Ferengi]

Oh wait. I remember not being able to find a 'x' in the sourcetext for the puzzle so I changed the answer, but I think I forgot to update it on my spreadsheet when calculating the answer to the final puzzle to make things add up. My sincerest apologies. T.T

[FM Monroe]

So the puzzle can't be solved? :p

[FM Bishop]

It can - with help of the hint.

[FM Cafarelli]

good job cylons ;)

[FM Ferengi]

So the puzzle can't be solved? :p

Feels really embarrassed. T.T

[FM Monroe]

Oh, I didn't read anything before Switzerland's last post. It confused me a bit heh.

Yeah, giant space hamster seems correct.

Your theme guesses look pretty close, but Mass Effect clearly wasn't the first game from Bioware with a space hamster in it.

[FM Bishop]

Baldur's Gate is basically DnD, so I didn't include that one. Dunno about other games though.

[FM Phelps]

RIGHT BETWEEN THE EYES BOO!