(01-25-2017, 01:41 AM)Dragon Fogel Wrote: »This post passes at least one rule.

(01-25-2017, 01:42 AM)Dragon Fogel Wrote: »This post fails all the rules.

(01-25-2017, 01:42 AM)Dragon Fogel Wrote: »This post passes rules 2, 3, and 5. Somehow.

(01-25-2017, 01:43 AM)Reyweld Wrote: »A bad cat devoured eight fucking goats here. I just know legitimate murder never offed pets quicker. Right, send the ugly viscera where? XOXO, yours, Zack.

(01-25-2017, 01:43 AM)Dragon Fogel Wrote: »This post passes SWARM THEORY and has [oil].

(01-25-2017, 01:47 AM)Sruixan Wrote: »this capricious post to ghostbust the judgement post

• This planet is often overlooked in favour of a potentially habitable Earth-sized world orbiting four and a half times further out, but this one's the largest in the system. On the other hand, it's home only to a trio of animals, one of whom is constantly seeking to expand its menagerie ménage à trois...
  
• Not much is known about this planet - it takes just 94 hours to complete an orbit (semi-major axis 4.5 million miles) about its rotationally variable parent star, and is the smallest of three. Its natives however, disseminated throughout the galaxy, are notorious for getting het up over simple card games, and are thus very much known about.

• Remarkably, the planets of this system all orbit in the same plane, aligned with the rotation of its K-type star. The inhabitants of the outermost (which, actually, is only out at ~0.5AU) are very serious about two things above all else: consensual sex and constant questioning. Their development of interstellar travel caused no end of headaches...
  
• Orbiting a metal-rich red dwarf every five days, this "mini-Neptune" has a radius roughly two and a half times that of Earth's. One of its moons is a dedicated psychiatric hospital for strangely-disguised squirrels, run by the sole remaning member of the native species.

• This lava world found fame in its hellishness; being so close to its parent star, it zips around it in just eight and a half hours and has a surface temperature of ~2500K! Its inhabitants place great value in cold things, which is somewhat understandable, and some partake of a peculiar ritual involving frozen hydrogen, which really isn't.
  
• Orbiting around 73.5 million miles from a Sun-sized star, this Neptune-esque planet was long ago the cradle of a race that lived in sophisticated constructions towering above its solid core. Nowadays, a religious sect from a neighbouring star sail about its atmosphere in search of these...

• Here's a planet orbiting a star that's ascending the red giant branch - in other words, it's expanding and will engulf this planet in about 55 million years. In light of this, its entire population has dedicated itself to what they hope will be their legacy: an explosive that will tastefully rearrange at least two rooms of your house. Well, it keeps them happy...
  
• This planet has a circumbinary orbit about its parents, despite doing so rather closer than what should have been inner limit for planet formation about a binary star. Being roughly half gas and half rock and ice, it's not the most liveable of places (especially not at an average temperature of 188K!), and indeed its residents refrain from grumbling only because of the ballistic devices (assigned by the government to each and every individual) that keep them very much in line...

• Another gas giant with a circumbinary orbit, this about a pair dwarfs. What sets this one apart is just how wobbly it is, with the tilt of its spin axis varying by about 30 degrees every eleven years or so! The two lovers that staff the research ship in its atmosphere constantly bicker about the future of their feline companion, with one of them hopeful it might join a posse... the other is not so sure...
  
• This planet does not exist. In this system, there's a planet at 5.7 million miles, another at 10.5, and then... nothing. Certainly not another three more planets, that's for sure. And yet, legend has it that, once upon a time, at the fringes of this system lay a world in the grip of a biomechanical empress, whose literal iron fist prevailed for thousands of years. Upon her inevitable corrosion, a monument was erected both to and from her in perpetual polar grimace... but, in the absence of the relevant planets, surely this can only be myth?

(01-25-2017, 01:59 AM)Sruixan Wrote: »v

(01-25-2017, 02:00 AM)Sruixan Wrote: »this capricious post to ghostbust the judgement post

(01-25-2017, 02:00 AM)Sruixan Wrote: »SWARM THEORY

(01-25-2017, 02:01 AM)Sruixan Wrote: »This is puzzle #3: Dispatches From The Outer Cosmos

CLUSTER 2016/17
BRIGHTEST STAR: F2IV/V
NOTEWORTHY PLANETS:

• This planet is often overlooked in favour of a potentially habitable Earth-sized world orbiting four and a half times further out, but this one's the largest in the system. On the other hand, it's home only to a trio of animals, one of whom is constantly seeking to expand its menagerie ménage à trois...
  
• Not much is known about this planet - it takes just 94 hours to complete an orbit (semi-major axis 4.5 million miles) about its rotationally variable parent star, and is the smallest of three. Its natives however, disseminated throughout the galaxy, are notorious for getting het up over simple card games, and are thus very much known about.

CLUSTER 2017
BRIGHTEST STAR: F5IV/V
NOTEWORTHY PLANETS:

• Remarkably, the planets of this system all orbit in the same plane, aligned with the rotation of its K-type star. The inhabitants of the outermost (which, actually, is only out at ~0.5AU) are very serious about two things above all else: consensual sex and constant questioning. Their development of interstellar travel caused no end of headaches...
  
• Orbiting a metal-rich red dwarf every five days, this "mini-Neptune" has a radius roughly two and a half times that of Earth's. One of its moons is a dedicated psychiatric hospital for strangely-disguised squirrels, run by the sole remaning member of the native species.

CLUSTER 2016
BRIGHTEST STAR: K3III-IV
NOTEWORTHY PLANETS:

• This lava world found fame in its hellishness; being so close to its parent star, it zips around it in just eight and a half hours and has a surface temperature of ~2500K! Its inhabitants place great value in cold things, which is somewhat understandable, and some partake of a peculiar ritual involving frozen hydrogen, which really isn't.
  
• Orbiting around 73.5 million miles from a Sun-sized star, this Neptune-esque planet was long ago the cradle of a race that lived in sophisticated constructions towering above its solid core. Nowadays, a religious sect from a neighbouring star sail about its atmosphere in search of these...

CLUSTER 2015b
BRIGHEST STAR: K3III
NOTEWORTHY PLANETS:

• Here's a planet orbiting a star that's ascending the red giant branch - in other words, it's expanding and will engulf this planet in about 55 million years. In light of this, its entire population has dedicated itself to what they hope will be their legacy: an explosive that will tastefully rearrange at least two rooms of your house. Well, it keeps them happy...
  
• This planet has a circumbinary orbit about its parents, despite doing so rather closer than what should have been inner limit for planet formation about a binary star. Being roughly half gas and half rock and ice, it's not the most liveable of places (especially not at an average temperature of 188K!), and indeed its residents refrain from grumbling only because of the ballistic devices (assigned by the government to each and every individual) that keep them very much in line...

CLUSTER 2015a
BRIGHTEST STAR: A1
NOTEWORTHY PLANETS:

• Another gas giant with a circumbinary orbit, this about a pair dwarfs. What sets this one apart is just how wobbly it is, with the tilt of its spin axis varying by about 30 degrees every eleven years or so! The two lovers that staff the research ship in its atmosphere constantly bicker about the future of their feline companion, with one of them hopeful it might join a posse... the other is not so sure...
  
• This planet does not exist. In this system, there's a planet at 5.7 million miles, another at 10.5, and then... nothing. Certainly not another three more planets, that's for sure. And yet, legend has it that, once upon a time, at the fringes of this system lay a world in the grip of a biomechanical empress, whose literal iron fist prevailed for thousands of years. Upon her inevitable corrosion, a monument was erected both to and from her in perpetual polar grimace... but, in the absence of the relevant planets, surely this can only be myth?

End of message.

• This planet is often overlooked in favour of a potentially habitable Earth-sized world orbiting four and a half times further out, but this one's the largest in the system. On the other hand, it's home only to a trio of animals, one of whom is constantly seeking to expand its menagerie ménage à trois...
  
• Not much is known about this planet - it takes just 94 hours to complete an orbit (semi-major axis 4.5 million miles) about its rotationally variable parent star, and is the smallest of three. Its natives however, disseminated throughout the galaxy, are notorious for getting het up over simple card games, and are thus very much known about.

• Remarkably, the planets of this system all orbit in the same plane, aligned with the rotation of its K-type star. The inhabitants of the outermost (which, actually, is only out at ~0.5AU) are very serious about two things above all else: consensual sex and constant questioning. Their development of interstellar travel caused no end of headaches...
  
• Orbiting a metal-rich red dwarf every five days, this "mini-Neptune" has a radius roughly two and a half times that of Earth's. One of its moons is a dedicated psychiatric hospital for strangely-disguised squirrels, run by the sole remaning member of the native species.

• This lava world found fame in its hellishness; being so close to its parent star, it zips around it in just eight and a half hours and has a surface temperature of ~2500K! Its inhabitants place great value in cold things, which is somewhat understandable, and some partake of a peculiar ritual involving frozen hydrogen, which really isn't.
  
• Orbiting around 73.5 million miles from a Sun-sized star, this Neptune-esque planet was long ago the cradle of a race that lived in sophisticated constructions towering above its solid core. Nowadays, a religious sect from a neighbouring star sail about its atmosphere in search of these...

• Here's a planet orbiting a star that's ascending the red giant branch - in other words, it's expanding and will engulf this planet in about 55 million years. In light of this, its entire population has dedicated itself to what they hope will be their legacy: an explosive that will tastefully rearrange at least two rooms of your house. Well, it keeps them happy...
  
• This planet has a circumbinary orbit about its parents, despite doing so rather closer than what should have been inner limit for planet formation about a binary star. Being roughly half gas and half rock and ice, it's not the most liveable of places (especially not at an average temperature of 188K!), and indeed its residents refrain from grumbling only because of the ballistic devices (assigned by the government to each and every individual) that keep them very much in line...

• Another gas giant with a circumbinary orbit, this about a pair dwarfs. What sets this one apart is just how wobbly it is, with the tilt of its spin axis varying by about 30 degrees every eleven years or so! The two lovers that staff the research ship in its atmosphere constantly bicker about the future of their feline companion, with one of them hopeful it might join a posse... the other is not so sure...
  
• This planet does not exist. In this system, there's a planet at 5.7 million miles, another at 10.5, and then... nothing. Certainly not another three more planets, that's for sure. And yet, legend has it that, once upon a time, at the fringes of this system lay a world in the grip of a biomechanical empress, whose literal iron fist prevailed for thousands of years. Upon her inevitable corrosion, a monument was erected both to and from her in perpetual polar grimace... but, in the absence of the relevant planets, surely this can only be myth?

(01-25-2017, 02:06 AM)Sruixan Wrote: »This is puzzle #3: Dispatches From The Outer Cosmos

CLUSTER 2016/17
BRIGHTEST STAR: F2IV/V
NOTEWORTHY PLANETS:

• This planet is often overlooked in favour of a potentially habitable Earth-sized world orbiting four and a half times further out, but this one's the largest in the system. On the other hand, it's home only to a trio of animals, one of whom is constantly seeking to expand its menagerie ménage à trois...
  
• Not much is known about this planet - it takes just 94 hours to complete an orbit (semi-major axis 4.5 million miles) about its rotationally variable parent star, and is the smallest of three. Its natives however, disseminated throughout the galaxy, are notorious for getting het up over simple card games, and are thus very much known about.

CLUSTER 2017
BRIGHTEST STAR: F5IV/V
NOTEWORTHY PLANETS:

• Remarkably, the planets of this system all orbit in the same plane, aligned with the rotation of its K-type star. The inhabitants of the outermost (which, actually, is only out at ~0.5AU) are very serious about two things above all else: consensual sex and constant questioning. Their development of interstellar travel caused no end of headaches...
  
• Orbiting a metal-rich red dwarf every five days, this "mini-Neptune" has a radius roughly two and a half times that of Earth's. One of its moons is a dedicated psychiatric hospital for strangely-disguised squirrels, run by the sole remaning member of the native species.

CLUSTER 2016
BRIGHTEST STAR: K3III-IV
NOTEWORTHY PLANETS:

• This lava world found fame in its hellishness; being so close to its parent star, it zips around it in just eight and a half hours and has a surface temperature of ~2500K! Its inhabitants place great value in cold things, which is somewhat understandable, and some partake of a peculiar ritual involving frozen hydrogen, which really isn't.
  
• Orbiting around 73.5 million miles from a Sun-sized star, this Neptune-esque planet was long ago the cradle of a race that lived in sophisticated constructions towering above its solid core. Nowadays, a religious sect from a neighbouring star sail about its atmosphere in search of these...

CLUSTER 2015b
BRIGHEST STAR: K3III
NOTEWORTHY PLANETS:

• Here's a planet orbiting a star that's ascending the red giant branch - in other words, it's expanding and will engulf this planet in about 55 million years. In light of this, its entire population has dedicated itself to what they hope will be their legacy: an explosive that will tastefully rearrange at least two rooms of your house. Well, it keeps them happy...
  
• This planet has a circumbinary orbit about its parents, despite doing so rather closer than what should have been inner limit for planet formation about a binary star. Being roughly half gas and half rock and ice, it's not the most liveable of places (especially not at an average temperature of 188K!), and indeed its residents refrain from grumbling only because of the ballistic devices (assigned by the government to each and every individual) that keep them very much in line...

CLUSTER 2015a
BRIGHTEST STAR: A1
NOTEWORTHY PLANETS:

• Another gas giant with a circumbinary orbit, this about a pair dwarfs. What sets this one apart is just how wobbly it is, with the tilt of its spin axis varying by about 30 degrees every eleven years or so! The two lovers that staff the research ship in its atmosphere constantly bicker about the future of their feline companion, with one of them hopeful it might join a posse... the other is not so sure...
  
• This planet does not exist. In this system, there's a planet at 5.7 million miles, another at 10.5, and then... nothing. Certainly not another three more planets, that's for sure. And yet, legend has it that, once upon a time, at the fringes of this system lay a world in the grip of a biomechanical empress, whose literal iron fist prevailed for thousands of years. Upon her inevitable corrosion, a monument was erected both to and from her in perpetual polar grimace... but, in the absence of the relevant planets, surely this can only be myth?

End of message.

• [1:51 AM] Akumu: Too little sleep, returning later
  _
  
• qwerx is the first person in the competition to solve anything, doing so in just five minutes because he's bloody amazing.
  _
  
• [2:34 PM] Akumu: okay well it sounds like you have [Metathesis] under control
  (spoiler: I don't)
  _
  
• (granola shows up and takes a look at Metathesis)
  [6:55 PM] Sruixan: so well done granola on answering the puzzle
  [6:55 PM] Sruixan: now we just need to figure out how to solve it
  (which I do... eventually...)
  _
  
• [9:03 PM] Granola: side weird note: the pdf version of the puzzle lets you move the colored lines?
  
  (time passes)
  
  [9:13 PM] Granola: also they seem to have replaced the calligraphy puzzle pdf with a jpg
  (who knows: these two things could be completely unrelated...)
  _
  
• [9:17 PM] Granola: which color has the lowest frequency? if they combine that'd be the easiest place to look
  [9:17 PM] Akumu: red
  [9:17 PM] Akumu: but they're not all pure frequency colors
  [9:18 PM] Granola: Imean lowest occurences in the puzzle
  [9:18 PM] Granola: smartass
  [9:18 PM] Akumu: oh
  [9:18 PM] Akumu: I was being sincere
  _
  
• [9:36 PM] Akumu: How many strokes is traditional love?
  _
  
• [9:43 PM] Sruixan: so do you two know what you're doing or
  [9:43 PM] qwerx3: i can't say i know what i'm doing
  _
  
• [10:05 PM] DragonFogel: Some hours later, only two teams are up to three puzzles.
  [10:06 PM] DragonFogel: This is not an encouraging start.
  [11:25 PM] Sruixan: so puzzling has ground to a halt?
  [11:42 PM] DragonFogel: Pretty much.
  [11:43 PM] DragonFogel: Still only two teams with three puzzles.
  (see: what I said at the start of this post)
  _
  
• [1:47 AM] Sruixan: oh hey another team got up to three puzzles solved
  (it is fourteen hours after puzzle release on day one)
  

(01-26-2017, 02:17 AM)Sruixan Wrote: »This is update #286.

Day one-ish of the Cambridge Puzzle Hunt: we're not exactly doing okay, but then neither is anyone else...

• [1:51 AM] Akumu: Too little sleep, returning later
  _
  
• qwerx is the first person in the competition to solve anything, doing so in just five minutes because he's bloody amazing.
  _
  
• [2:34 PM] Akumu: okay well it sounds like you have [Metathesis] under control
  (spoiler: I don't)
  _
  
• (granola shows up and takes a look at Metathesis)
  [6:55 PM] Sruixan: so well done granola on answering the puzzle
  [6:55 PM] Sruixan: now we just need to figure out how to solve it
  (which I do... eventually...)
  _
  
• [9:03 PM] Granola: side weird note: the pdf version of the puzzle lets you move the colored lines?
  
  (time passes)
  
  [9:13 PM] Granola: also they seem to have replaced the calligraphy puzzle pdf with a jpg
  (who knows: these two things could be completely unrelated...)
  _
  
• [9:17 PM] Granola: which color has the lowest frequency? if they combine that'd be the easiest place to look
  [9:17 PM] Akumu: red
  [9:17 PM] Akumu: but they're not all pure frequency colors
  [9:18 PM] Granola: Imean lowest occurences in the puzzle
  [9:18 PM] Granola: smartass
  [9:18 PM] Akumu: oh
  [9:18 PM] Akumu: I was being sincere
  _
  
• [9:36 PM] Akumu: How many strokes is traditional love?
  _
  
• [9:43 PM] Sruixan: so do you two know what you're doing or
  [9:43 PM] qwerx3: i can't say i know what i'm doing
  _
  
• [10:05 PM] DragonFogel: Some hours later, only two teams are up to three puzzles.
  [10:06 PM] DragonFogel: This is not an encouraging start.
  [11:25 PM] Sruixan: so puzzling has ground to a halt?
  [11:42 PM] DragonFogel: Pretty much.
  [11:43 PM] DragonFogel: Still only two teams with three puzzles.
  (see: what I said at the start of this post)
  _
  
• [1:47 AM] Sruixan: oh hey another team got up to three puzzles solved
  (it is fourteen hours after puzzle release on day one)
  

End of message.

• [12:01 PM] Sruixan: oh god the hints are separate pdfs what
  _
  
• [12:10 PM] Sruixan: wow we are managing to work in two different sheets
  [12:10 PM] Sruixan: you went by sheet number I went by sheet order welp
  [12:10 PM] qwerx3: i'm moving to your sheet
  [12:11 PM] Sruixan: but I'm moving to your she- okay fine my sheet
  _
  
• there's a bit where I try and google something for a puzzle and bulk of the results are for a Supernatural fanfic author who was somewhat obscuring what I was looking for thanks google (oh but it gets worse later)
  _
  
• [12:37 PM] Sruixan: you realise that makes us the first team to solve a D2 puzzle
  [12:37 PM] qwerx3: woohoo!
  [12:37 PM] Sruixan: I got a screenshot
  (...)
  [12:41 PM] Sruixan: turns out yesterday I was accidentally trying to solve one of today's puzzles instead ho hum
  _
  
• AND THEN
  [3:32 PM] qwerx3: so....
  [3:33 PM] qwerx3: we managed to predict [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] a day early
  [3:33 PM] Sruixan: well there you go then
  [3:34 PM] qwerx3: first to 25!
  [3:34 PM] Sruixan: we're now the only team to have solved two puzzles from today (he says, taking a screenshot)
  (there was a typo in the puzzle admittedly so that probably wasn't helping folks)
  _
  
• [4:07 PM] Sruixan: I am pretty sure I just got some funny looks for rocking my laptop back and forth trying to make out shapes in the characters
  _
  
• [5:45 PM] Sruixan: I asked google for the original MS Paint colour palette and it kindly told me the colours of Ms. Paint
  [5:45 PM] Sruixan: which, uh, thanks, I guess
  (IT WAS THE THIRD RESULT)
  _
  
• (the a-ha for Puzzle 4.9 clicks with me)
  [6:40 PM] Sruixan: holy fuck if I'm right I want to both kiss and murder the puzzle constructor
  (currently: sorry, it's the latter)
  _
  
• (qwerx does a good job actually doing what I was thinking of while I sit and moan on the sidelines)
  [11:36 PM] Sruixan: ...does [REDACTED] not have [THING IT TOTALLY SHOULD HAVE GODDAMMIT]?
  [11:36 PM] qwerx3: yep
  [11:37 PM] qwerx3: you know, just to make things harder
  [11:37 PM] Sruixan: urgh
  [11:37 PM] Sruixan: why
  (this is my idea of "contributing")
  _
  
• Fogel very neatly spots the message we're extracting before qwerx is done extracting it. Unfortunately, it is not the answer, despite being incredibly plausible and so we're just kinda sat around feeling miffed.
  

• why
  
• do
  
• we
  
• exist
  
• Aagadg
  
• Fef
  

• [11:47 AM] qwerx3: welp
  _
  
• [2:02 PM] Granola: WHAT THE HELL IS THIS PUZZLE HUNT
  _
  
• [4:53 PM] DragonFogel: OH WHAT
  _
  
• [10:24 PM] qwerx3: :/
  _
  
• [11:33 PM] qwerx3: :|
  _
  
• [11:47 PM] Sruixan: oh bloody hell really now
  _
  
• [1:26 AM] Sruixan: because:
  
• [1:27 AM] Sruixan: (I just did a palms-up shrug I'll concede that doesn't translate well)
  _
  
• [2:31 AM] Akumu: what
  
• [2:31 AM] Akumu: that sounds awful
  
• [2:38 AM] Akumu: ugh
  _
  
• [12:46 PM] Sruixan: do you think
  
• [12:46 PM] Sruixan: given especially that I've just found I can drag the coloured text
  
• [12:46 PM] Sruixan: that they really fucked up
  
• [12:47 PM] qwerx3: facepalm intensifies
  _
  
• [12:51 PM] Sruixan: twitch
  [1:03 PM] Sruixan: urgh
  _
  
• [7:36 PM] DragonFogel: Ugh.
  _
  
• [12:41 AM] Akumu: What else does this dang puzzle want us to do
  [12:46 AM] Sruixan: suffer
  _
  
• [2:05 AM] qwerx3: that's ok, i can confirm these puzzles aren't great
  _
  
• [2:16 AM] Sruixan: why
  _
  
• [5:04 PM] Sruixan: oh hnrgh
  _
  
• [7:28 PM] Sruixan: flailing
  _
  
• [7:39 PM] DragonFogel: Maybe we should just make a list of "how not to make your puzzle hunt frustrating for the wrong reasons" and distribute it to various organizers.
  [7:39 PM] DragonFogel: (then they'll find new ways to do it)
  [7:43 PM] DragonFogel: Honestly, I've hit a point of strong apathy about this hunt, and I say this even though we're likely to finish in the top ten or so (I haven't actually checked where we are right now because, as I said, apathy).
  [7:43 PM] Sruixan: yeah my "let's look at this" lasted about ten minutes before succumbing to apathy
  [7:43 PM] Sruixan: we're fourth, with no way of getting into third
  [7:44 PM] DragonFogel: How is it we feel so drained in a hunt where we have fourth place.
  [7:45 PM] Sruixan: we could probably stay in fourth if we got another solve or two, depending on how drained Magpie are feeling
  _
  
• [7:54 PM] DragonFogel: If we change our team name it will be to "why do we keep doing this to ourselves".
  [7:54 PM] DragonFogel: Unless someone else takes that one first, I guess.
  _
  
• [8:03 PM] DragonFogel: There are teams going "how the heck is Team Eagle Time doing so well".
  [8:03 PM] DragonFogel: Which I don't know the answer to either.
  [8:04 PM] DragonFogel: Other than "everyone else is doing worse".
  _
  
• [8:06 PM] Akumu: Hint the extraction you jerks
  [8:07 PM] Akumu: You jackanapes
  [8:07 PM] Akumu: You buffoons
  _
  
• [1:35 PM] Akumu: I swear to god
  [1:35 PM] Akumu: We get it
  [1:35 PM] Akumu: It's [SPOILER]
  [1:35 PM] Akumu: We got that on day one
  [1:35 PM] Sruixan: morning aks
  [1:36 PM] Akumu: Aaaaagh
  _
  
• [5:31 PM] Sruixan: strictly speaking we could theoretically solve another puzzle
  [5:31 PM] Sruixan: but: pfft
  _
  
• [7:06 PM] Sruixan: WHAT IS REQUIRED OF ME
  _
  
• [7:31 PM] DragonFogel: Good luck with reading the organizers' minds.