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How to show symbols in a mystery cache


GrateBear

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I take it that these symbols are actually images, hosted somewhere?

If so, what you really want to do is build the needed ones into a single image, and let gc.com host that.  You can do that by picking them out individually with a screen capture program of some sort, and pasting them all together after the fact.

Please provide a little more information on the symbol source.  It may turn out to be easier than the brute force method I've described.

 

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I've tried both Geocaching Toolbox.com and  CacheSleuth.com.  Entering the coords gives the string of symbols.  But, when I copy and paste them, it either gives the URL, or just one of the symbols.  I've tried saving them as a photo, in another tab, as a picture.  So, those show the string, but I cannot figure out how to separate each symbol by it self.  For example, when I highlight the entire string of figures, only the first one shows, like this image.png.72835d0ac08ec28d2a9402ab7a56745c.png  When I paste it into the description for the cache setting up the hide, it shows the URL.  Not sure if that helps.

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3 hours ago, GrateBear said:

I've tried both Geocaching Toolbox.com and  CacheSleuth.com.  Entering the coords gives the string of symbols.  But, when I copy and paste them, it either gives the URL, or just one of the symbols.  I've tried saving them as a photo, in another tab, as a picture.  So, those show the string, but I cannot figure out how to separate each symbol by it self.  For example, when I highlight the entire string of figures, only the first one shows, like this image.png.72835d0ac08ec28d2a9402ab7a56745c.png  When I paste it into the description for the cache setting up the hide, it shows the URL.  Not sure if that helps.

 

Can you right-click an image and save it?  If not, or if it's an image in a weird format, I sometimes just use screen capture (PRINT SCRN in Windows) and then crop it in Photoshop Elements.  Most any photo editor can do the job.  As ecanderson mentioned, paste all symbols together into one image if possible.  It's much less of a headache to display one image than to try to format a bunch of little images correctly on a cache page.

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15 hours ago, kunarion said:

 

Can you right-click an image and save it?  If not, or if it's an image in a weird format, I sometimes just use screen capture (PRINT SCRN in Windows) and then crop it in Photoshop Elements.  Most any photo editor can do the job.  As ecanderson mentioned, paste all symbols together into one image if possible.  It's much less of a headache to display one image than to try to format a bunch of little images correctly on a cache page.

Thanks--I'll try that.  

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21 hours ago, GrateBear said:

I'm setting up a mystery cache, and instead of using a cipher that uses letters or numbers, I want to use one that uses symbols for the code.

 

Please keep in mind, that this is OK for the web-page based puzzles.  If it is required to solve a stage or something like this in the field, only smartphone users will see the symbols, for Garmin GPSr users, symbols will not be displayed on the screen.

 

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19 hours ago, ecanderson said:

Looks like you gave up and just went with straight ASCII text.

 

Haven't given up.  Wanted to get it published, so went with another one I wanted to try.  Still am going to work with symbols--I mostly use a MacBook, but haven't tried on a Lenovo laptop yet.  As for ciphers, I'm still trying to find a way to encode using Turtle.  There's a local cache that used that, and I found a decoder.  Can't find one to go the other way.

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On 1/28/2021 at 5:38 PM, GrateBear said:

Update--well, apparently I found a cipher that was more difficult than I imagined it would be.  10 days and no find yet.  Funny thing is, the first time I saw a cache with this cipher, I Googled it and found the correct cipher right off.  

I just glanced at the cache and have a question: are there clues on the page as to what type cipher you are presenting or is it just a guessing game?  I ask only for consideration and discussion, not for you to answer, I don’t want you to spoil your puzzle. My limited experience is more solvers prefer a logical path to a solution rather than a “what it is?” puzzle. Maybe this is a factor in slow FTF?  

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11 hours ago, GrateBear said:

As for ciphers, I'm still trying to find a way to encode using Turtle.  There's a local cache that used that, and I found a decoder.  Can't find one to go the other way.

I'm still not exactly sure what you mean by Turtle. My best guess is the Python Turtle.

Could you please tell me if the code looked something like this?

import turtle
pendown()
turtle.forward(50)
turtle.right(90)
turtle.left(50) 
turtle.backwards(90)
penup()
goto(50,50)
stamp()

Or used any of those lines of code?

 

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On 1/30/2021 at 12:46 AM, GeoTrekker26 said:

I just glanced at the cache and have a question: are there clues on the page as to what type cipher you are presenting or is it just a guessing game?  I ask only for consideration and discussion, not for you to answer, I don’t want you to spoil your puzzle. My limited experience is more solvers prefer a logical path to a solution rather than a “what it is?” puzzle. Maybe this is a factor in slow FTF?  

No, but appreciate you asking.  Most caches like this in my area do not give any hints as to what cipher to use.  There are a couple that are totally baffling to me.  A couple have said "maybe later".  But, I'm thinking I might have to.  Just not sure what to say so I don't totally give it away.  If you have a suggestion, that would be appreciated.  

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On 1/30/2021 at 2:06 AM, mustakorppi said:

This wouldn’t have lasted an hour where I live. 

That's exactly what I thought!  There are some very clever cachers here who have solved ones much more difficult than this one.  The fact that I was able to solve one using this cipher made me think it would be fairly easy.  I am not very good at these.......

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On 1/30/2021 at 6:11 AM, TmdAndGG said:

I'm still not exactly sure what you mean by Turtle. My best guess is the Python Turtle.

Could you please tell me if the code looked something like this?


import turtle
pendown()
turtle.forward(50)
turtle.right(90)
turtle.left(50) 
turtle.backwards(90)
penup()
goto(50,50)
stamp()

Or used any of those lines of code?

 

The cache is GCYF01.  At least he gave a hint!  If you can tell me what it is, I would appreciate it.

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6 hours ago, GrateBear said:

That's exactly what I thought!  There are some very clever cachers here who have solved ones much more difficult than this one.  The fact that I was able to solve one using this cipher made me think it would be fairly easy.  I am not very good at these.......

 

Without knowing the right method, this cipher is pretty hard to solve. After analyzing the data, I made a sophisticated guess and used a tool made for this cipher. The whole process took about 15 minutes. I was lucky because I knew this cipher already. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to solve it at all.

 

 

Edited by arisoft
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9 hours ago, mustakorppi said:

While you are right of course, there’s an online tool that guesses the correct cipher from the encrypted text of this particular puzzle.

Haven't run across an online tool like that.  There's a standalone *.exe called CryptoCrack that does a half decent job of ranking the most likely possibilities for cypher type.  What is this online tool?

 

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On 2/1/2021 at 11:03 AM, HHL said:

Thanks, I was on the wrong track with solving it:D

On 1/31/2021 at 8:44 PM, GrateBear said:

The cache is GCYF01.  At least he gave a hint!  If you can tell me what it is, I would appreciate it.

So basically what you would have to do is program it for every move to spell out the coordinates.

RT 90 FD 30 RT 90 FD 90 RT 90 FD 30 PU RT 90 FD 45 RT 90 PD FD 30

This code for a really simple number 3. Basically, this is giving the turtle super specific instructions on how to move the right ways to draw the number 3.

Turn RighT 90 Degrees, Go ForwarDs 30 steps, RighT 90 Degrees, etc.

What I'm trying to say, is that you can't really have an Encoder for it (I'm sure there's one out there somewhere, but I'd think the chances of finding it are pretty slim) , you have to act as the encoder yourself.

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17 hours ago, TmdAndGG said:

Thanks, I was on the wrong track with solving it:D

So basically what you would have to do is program it for every move to spell out the coordinates.

RT 90 FD 30 RT 90 FD 90 RT 90 FD 30 PU RT 90 FD 45 RT 90 PD FD 30

This code for a really simple number 3. Basically, this is giving the turtle super specific instructions on how to move the right ways to draw the number 3.

Turn RighT 90 Degrees, Go ForwarDs 30 steps, RighT 90 Degrees, etc.

What I'm trying to say, is that you can't really have an Encoder for it (I'm sure there's one out there somewhere, but I'd think the chances of finding it are pretty slim) , you have to act as the encoder yourself.

Ah, got it!  Thanks for the explanation.  

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Offtopic: Your mystery cache (GC956T8) hasn't been found three weeks after the publish date. Are you sure difficulty 2.5 is correct here? Perhaps that's more of a difficulty 4 (plus) cache?

I published a D4 rated cache once and after two weeks without founds I made it diffculty 5 as usually in our area the cachers will solve any hard riddle very quickly. Sometimes you have to notice that your feeling how easy/hard it is to solve a cache is wrong - it may be some kind of easy (to you) but hard for the solvers and in this case D2.5 is surely a little low!?

 

Best wishes

Jochen

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Solved the puzzle in about 5 minutes with the help of a nice website.

Without any further information in the cachedescription I would rate it a 3 or higher.

And I don't like this kind of mysteries where you have to guess the encryption and all the parameters for it. I think there should be hints for the used encryption and parameters in the description.

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2 minutes ago, arisoft said:

 

Hints are in the code. The problem is to know what to do with that knowledge.

Quote

Cache is not at the listed coordinates.  Solve the code, and there you'll find it.  Rather busy area, so be stealthy.  Also, please don't close the container too tightly--might make it difficult for the next cacher.

I dont see any refrence to an encryption system, but it might be me ...

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On 2/8/2021 at 7:40 AM, frostengel said:

Offtopic: Your mystery cache (GC956T8) hasn't been found three weeks after the publish date. Are you sure difficulty 2.5 is correct here? Perhaps that's more of a difficulty 4 (plus) cache?

I published a D4 rated cache once and after two weeks without founds I made it diffculty 5 as usually in our area the cachers will solve any hard riddle very quickly. Sometimes you have to notice that your feeling how easy/hard it is to solve a cache is wrong - it may be some kind of easy (to you) but hard for the solvers and in this case D2.5 is surely a little low!?

 

Best wishes

Jochen

I'm thinking the same about the difficulty.  I put it at 2.5 as I had solved one using the same cipher by using Google.  And, I am not very good at all solving these.  Thanks for the input!

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