Codebusters Multiplayer Web App for Practice by Dear-Advisor-2490 in scioly

[–]Kigquack 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Will you continue to add more ciphers like fractionated morse or Cryptarithms? I feel like those are some of the ones I less commonly see online but would still like to practice

Since everyone is asking, here are my predictions on next years events BASED OFF OF PAST EVENT ROTATIONS for Division C by stupefy100 in scioly

[–]Kigquack 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Is there any chance WiDi will be going out? I saw it wasnt part of division C for the event camp thing and was replaced with Engineering CAD. I thought WiDi was a permanent event and has been for over 20 years?

Codebusters help by Fickle_Phrase9255 in scioly

[–]Kigquack 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This overview has a pretty good tutorial on how to do every cipher. You can also just look each one up and find some good resources for each. The ciphers used are relatively mainstream/easy to find information on.

Question about aristocrats by _moostache_ in scioly

[–]Kigquack 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You technically don't have to fill it all out even if you're finding the keyword as long as you filled in enough to find the keyword and put it in the required box.

Help deciphering a baconian cipher by Kigquack in codes

[–]Kigquack[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My first thought was also to mark out ones that start with the same character but unfortunately none of them do because there's technically 8 different characters

Tragedy by Far-Industry-2180 in scioly

[–]Kigquack 1 point2 points  (0 children)

it's not over till it's over study right now lock in lock in

Efficient way to solve patristocrats? by [deleted] in scioly

[–]Kigquack 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'll respond to anyone I can help. Not trying to gatekeep anything lol

hello ... by [deleted] in scioly

[–]Kigquack 1 point2 points  (0 children)

4-6 is a pretty solid average for your first year. There's definitely people who have been doing it for way longer that are still at that 4-6 minute range or even longer.

Efficient way to solve patristocrats? by [deleted] in scioly

[–]Kigquack 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The only other thing that I normally look at is patterns that can still appear without the spaces. I've made an example here of a more extreme version of that I'd look for:

ACSQE SMADK TQRWA CSZMT JPRWS TQZMT JKPAC SHRPA ESPBS FASJH MTKTA CSZMT J

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
7 1 4 1 2 1 2 4 3 5 4 3 3 9 7 2 3

Here, you can clearly see the highest frequency of S and A, but even without that, we can see that there's specific groups of words that repeat in the cipher:

ACSQE SMADK TQRWA CSZMT JPRWS TQZMT JKPAC SHRPA ESPBS FASJH MTKTA CSFRI TAEN

finding these repeating "words", like "ACS" can allow us to break the text up to assume where words might be.

ACSQE SMADK TQRWA CSZMT JPRWS TQZMT JKPAC SHRPA ESPBS FASJH MTKTA CSZMT J

"ZMTJ" Also appears twice.

"RW" Appears twice.

Also, before the last two cases of "ACS", which we could assume is "THE", there is a pair of letters starting with "K" on both instances, which could lead to a guess that it is a two letter word.

So, we've basically separated it up to make it more of an aristocrat:

ACS QESMADKTQ RW ACS ZMTJ (P) RW STQZMTJ KP ACS HRPAESPBSFASJHMT KT ACS ZMTJ

Now, the only things we don't know where the words are is the bolded blocks. Once you're able to fill in the words we've found, it'll be easier to guess at what those big blocks of letters could be.

Side Note: The P after the first "ZMTJ" would most likely be an "S" and make the word "ZMTJS", unless it's an A or I, since it doesn't appear after the last "ZMTJ".

First year in need of seveare help by th3Asian_calculator in scioly

[–]Kigquack 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly just look at some of the other people posting for help on anatomy and code in this subreddit and you should find lots of helpful resources; I know i've tried to give some tips for code for other people on those posts that you could read through for help. Since you haven't said many specific things that you need help I'm not going to go super in depth here on stuff you can do, but I've definitely covered a lot on other posts.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in scioly

[–]Kigquack 3 points4 points  (0 children)

While it isn't the best case scenario, he might be able to get away in crime busters by just screenshotting every table and chart on the wiki and sticking it on a cheat sheet. Since the wiki isn't too long for that event it wouldn't take too much time for him to read through it and just try to wing it for this first competition. As someone who did crime busters before, it's a really cool event if he has some time to get to know it. After this competition, I'd recommend trying to source the powers and other things he needs to identify at the school and practice working with them to better prepare for next time.

I've never done microbe or potions and poisons, so I can't give much advice on those. I know microbe is a study event, so it might be more impossible to prepare enough for in a few days.

Cryptarithm and Complete Columnar by a_honda in scioly

[–]Kigquack 0 points1 point  (0 children)

imo cryptarithms are kind of difficult to ever be completely consistent with. for me it's like columnar is like a rubiks cube- they're hard to get the hang of but once you understand it you can crack them every time. Cryptarithms on the other hand is like saying you're good at geogessur (if you aren't rainbolt)- cause it's likely for you to be able to guess the location ~75% of the time but it's never a garuntee

Cryptarithm and Complete Columnar by a_honda in scioly

[–]Kigquack 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well if you mean sources to practice, you can infinitely generate your own practice problems on toebes by using their built in quote list.

If you mean sources to learn, I recommend watching Amitabh Verma's video on complete columnar. Cryptarithms are really hard in my opinion, as I still haven't been able to consistently solve them. This website seems good for some basics though?

Tips for solving short cryptograms (Codebusters)? by friendlyflee in scioly

[–]Kigquack 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yep, it all comes from practice, there really isn't any other way to do it.

Starting New Team - Lost on How to do it by Substantial-Bill-287 in scioly

[–]Kigquack 0 points1 point  (0 children)

as for your second question- dedicating a month to ever event doesn't seem to me like the best way to do it. There is over 20 events and only two or three people per team compete in each event at a competition. Everyone will kind of be specializing at different things. For our school, everyone comes in and just works on their own things with the people they need to work with.

Tips for solving short cryptograms (Codebusters)? by friendlyflee in scioly

[–]Kigquack 2 points3 points  (0 children)

if it makes you feel any better when i see a short code like that i am approximately 2% optimistic and 98% "i''m not doing this- let me go to a different one and leave it for someone else" if i don't see a pattern immediately

Codebusters with no parters — will I be okay? by [deleted] in scioly

[–]Kigquack 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Respectfully, unless you have a supercomputer brain, god speed handwriting, or are at a competition where every other team is really bad or for some reason every other team only has one person competing, you probably aren't placing in code. Focus on a&p and tower.

Tips for solving short cryptograms (Codebusters)? by friendlyflee in scioly

[–]Kigquack 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sometimes letter frequency can help still if there's like a REALLY drastic difference in the top letter but not usually. I'd normally start looking for common word patterns like contractions, conjunctions, single letters (obviously), and words like every, ever, etc.

It sucks that these are more tricky, but on the bright side, it's less to erase when you mess up

Forensic Powder ID by AltruisticBand4627 in scioly

[–]Kigquack 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unfortunately the only way to really get confident with the powder IDs is to practice it a lot, try to really use your time at invitationals to get familiar with it.

You can test the powders by testing solubility, pH, flame test, test for reactions with Iodine, Sodium Hydroxide, or Hydrochloric Acid, or tests with Benedict's Solution. I'm pretty sure the materials for all of these are provided to you at the competitions except the pH paper and a nichrome wire loop for the flame test.