10011 wrote:

Conrac wrote:

Did the matrix characters assigned to various data items on the Pamela images have any significance. If so what did it mean ?

I'm not entirely sure what you mean, but I'm guessing you're asking about the significance of the images and text in the Joker nodes.

To write the Joker nodes, I really just put myself into the twisted state that allowed me to RP 991 and then just wrote stream of consciousness about whatever came to mind. Then I added excerpts from my girlfriend's psychology textbooks, Sun Tzu's Art of War, various articles about the future of AI, some pieces of art that I seemed to suit 991's interests. The result was a 88-page word document of 38,000 words. I added some player artwork and tried to connect relevant text with it. I also raved about various characters from the Matrix universe and speculated on their true intentions.  I really loved the twisted images of the Oracle that I did with my basic photoshop skills at the time. There was some stuff about players that was either from previous Joker encounters or intended for future ones. And I also threw in a few interesting forum threads that nobody probably noticed. One about whether machines could lie and... I forget the other one. I was really trying to add a lot of player recognition to the nodes. I wanted people to say "Hey, that's me!"

Umm... I'm not sure if I've really answered your question... Moving on...

Yeah I guess i could have phrased that better, but the genesis of the Nodes was interesting background as well.

I was asking about the Matrix font characters appended to the various data tags in the Pamela target images.

I very much enjoyed working on your puzzles, 13. They kept my mind active when I was going through some tough times dealing with a failing hip joint.

Thank you very much for the hard work to put into the game for all of us to enjoy.

There are a few unanswered questions about the Joker story that I have for you.

First of all exactly what was "The Tower" ?  I had a few possibilities I came up with, including a web blog for hard core gamers I ran across one day or a reference to a Tower I ran across in the Prima guide. What did you have in mind ?

Were you trying to talk Rare into allowing us to make a trip to the "ascension" island construct that was never released into the game as part of the Joker event ?

I had a problem getting three of the  "ley lines" to converge ... I managed to resolve two of them (although factoring the outgoing frequencies still proved to be a problem. however the one I marked Mara 3 (on page 9 of the unidentified Broadcast thread) ran of in the direction of tabor Park. What was that all about ?In one of the Pamela Target images an area of the image was marked as anomalous .. Was that a easter egg reference to the Morpheus Sim ?  Was it desgned to be RP'ed out some way ? If so what happened with that ?

Did the matrix characters assigned to various data items on the Pamela images have any significance. If so what did it mean ?

Finally, What was the encryption method used on the primary node. I know the first pass was base64. what did you do to generate the numbers ?

Best Regards,

Con

Thanks for checking into this Commander.  I suspect that the level 50 stuff on the list are legacy CR1 items that were updated to CR2 buffs but retained their odd difficulty and coding cost compared to the new enhanced items added with CR2.

Both the jackets that Nicks and Jardiniere supplied me had a 5832 info coding cost and a 50 coding difficulty as opposed to the 122K cost and 55 difficulty of the the new CR2 level 50 items. It is my suspician that these old CR1 legacy items are no longer in the loot tables. The only legacy items I have acquired in the last few years have been through player trades.

This trading request was a way of testing that theory. 

Thanks Raviola. I have that one already ... thanks to Tygrius.... That shoe is very similar buffs except it has 2% TDamB instead of the 2point of Decompile skill.  In the first go around I forgot to list the decomp pair as a needed one.

On another note .. my thanks to Jardiniere for suppling the weapon crafting Avero suit coat.

Thanks Nicks !

Thanks Tygrius.

Wish list updated

Will pay 2 million for each of the following items

Lvl 47 Barrelhead Gauntlets                         TVB 31p  Sneak-SpeedB 1%,BDefB 2%,Code-Writing 2p
Lvl 48 Brown & Dk. Purple Dada Short Boots          MVB 32p  VAccB 3%
Lvl 49 Black Avero Open Heels                       MTB 32p  IS-CostB 2%,SweepB 1%,TDamB 2%

Lvl 49 Black Avero Open Heels                       MTB 32p  IS-CostB 2%,SweepB 1%,Decompile 2p
Lvl 50 Black & Silver Dada Short Boots              MTB 33p  Invisible-SpeedB 3%   
Lvl 50 Eggplant Parish Jacket                       MVB 33p  Invisible-SpeedB 2%,MAccB 1%,Craft-Apparel 2p
Lvl 50 Magenta Smoke Velvet Trench Flipcollar       MTV 33p  IS-CostB 2%,Health-MaxB 1%,PowerlessB 2%
Lvl 50 Gray Avero Suit Coat                         MTV 33p  Craft-Weapon 3p   
Lvl 50 Bright Purple Arasiki Sleeveless Vinyl Dress MTV 33p  StunB 1%,RootB 2%,Craft-Apparel 2p
Lvl 50 Lt. Teal Arasiki Sleeveless Vinyl Dress      MTV 33p  StunB 2%,VDamB 2% 
Lvl 50 Amethyst Sif Open Corset w/ Mesh             TVB 33p  SweepB 3%   
Lvl 50 Green Dress Shirt                            MVB 33p  TDamB 3%   
Lvl 50 Indigo Sleeveless T-Shirt                    MTV 33p  RootB 3%   
Lvl 50 Dim Purple T-Shirt                           TVB 33p  EnrageB 2%,Health-RegenB 1%,PowerlessB 2%

the following was posted on the ishtarII data drop, today

From: Data Drop <hvcft.ishtarii@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 3:24 AM
Subject: ATTN OPERATIVES
To: HVCFT.ISHTARII@gmail.com

ATTN ALL OPERATIVES.

FURTHER ACCESS TO THIS ACCOUNT HAS BEEN RENDERED FUTILE. INFORMATION PERTAINING TO THE ZION HOVERCRAFT NOVALIS II AND ISHTAR II HAS BEEN CLASSIFIED "NEED TO KNOW." YOU ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT ALL IP ADDRESSES HAVE BEEN LOGGED, AND FORWARDED TO THE PROPER INVESTIGATIVE OFFICERS. YOU ARE ORDERED TO CEASE ANY DISCUSSION REGARDING THIS SUBJECT.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

-- CONTENTS OF HVCFT.ISHTARII@GMAIL.COM INBOX REDACTED.
-- ADDRESSES OF ALL FORWARDED COPIES NOTED.
-- LEVEL 315 AUTHORIZATION IMPOSED ON ALL INFORMATION.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

There is no identification of the command authority that issued this order .. it can be any Tom, Richard or Harriot. So until I am notified by an appropriate officer a in my chain of command your investigating officers can kiss my grits...

that's C-O-N-R-A-C  just so we are absolutely clear.

This morning began much like any other, in fact they have all merged into a gray continuum of mission after mission extending back to rebirth and projecting forward to a yet unrealized death. Along the way, you may be fortunate to lend a hand to others in need as they follow there own paths.

Syntax.EmergencyBeacon whispers>Th---- Versal of --e Ishtar II, bro--ca-ti-- an e---g-ncy tran--iss-on--Ple-se--espo-d. Rep--t, thi- is --rsal, --- operator of --- Zi-- Ho---cra-- Is--ar II. W- re--ire eme--ency a--ist--ce, c-n an---e re--?

whisper to Syntax.EmergencyBeacon>Istar II you are breaking up ... state nature of your emergency

Syntax.EmergencyBeacon whispers>H--lo? I'm gett-ng y-ur --gnal, but it-- break-ng up! E--rgy reser---is a- mi--mal, and we re--ly nee- help! I've on-- been abl- to b--adcast th-s beaco- -- short -ursts, so-- k-nd of in--rfer-nce!

whisper to Syntax.EmergencyBeacon>understand Ishtar II ... what is your location ?

Syntax.EmergencyBeacon whispers>We c--sh-landed -- the real, ---ve be-- here - long tim- ---. Ou- missi-- was -- as----ain t-- f-te of --- Nova--- II. Th-t wa- months ago.

Signal Lost

As an ex-waterman one can not ignore a call for help .. please render all assistance to this ship in peril and the souls aboard.

image 9

Mara 78   -5

Conrac

Murasaki -375 121

Conrac

Image 5

Mannsdale Housing Projects 466 -629

Conrac

Conrac

Edgewater -1460 -896

Conrac

Lamar 500 -59

How about giving us the ability to specify the Map Flag color or select from a set of icons so that we can mark say the new style chapter spawns differently ...

No Live Events ?

What about Ghost popping into Mannsdale last week to discuss the path of the BIP with a team farming Buck for access cards. Doesn't get much more "Old School" then that.  Will it be on the scale of the 'Lith days ? ... heck no ...

I would suggest forming teams and trying to accomplish goals in Matrix .. you might be surprized with an unexpected outcome. Big Brother is sometimes watching.

The devs might be able to help out generate these goals by sending e-mail orders to various operatives within the Matrix. It would be even better if a means could be devised to pit small groups of different orgs against one another .. i.e. figure out how to make team duel work and add a capture the flag type element to it.

I am not ready to throw in the towel yet, but can understand and sympathize with your decision. We have never met but the experience of MXO is diminished in your passing.

Take care, good luck and do check back every now and then

Regards,

Con

Mantra in actuality I used three cracking tools in concert.

There is the old standby Vigenere cracking tool at http://rumkin.com/tools/cipher/index.php.
This tool is basically a single shot key guesser.

There was a "index of coincidence" tool I downloaded from http://pajhome.org.uk/crypt/vigenere.html.
This tool requires you to make a guess as to the key length aided by some coincidence statistics and
then guess at the letters of the keyword also aided by statistics. As in most cases during this exercise
the ratio of the keyword to the message length was large so the statistics were not very good (i.e. not
enough letters for the given key position to make a good guess). It turns out that this tool will give the
solution to the message #10 directly provided you guess the keylength of 3 up front.

My main tool was a TCL/TK script I wrote to do a mass decryption of a message using about 1000 Matrix
related words and names that I took the time to compile. The database was initially confined to the
names listed in the Prima Guide but as new clues came in I had to expand the key universe to Matrix fan
sites to pull in names and locations from the movies and from the MXO storyline. I also took the time
to run around the Matrix and add information broker names and anything else not already in the database.
The script produced a scrollable list of decrypted messages that I had to look through to find the solution.
As in most things in life, being prepared up front is a great help for the time you have to put the petal
to the metal.

An interesting feature of the Vigenere Cypher is that if you input the plain text as the key to a encrypted
message the key will be displayed in the decrypt area. Since the message text for this excerise was
The Evaluator's Dossier, and since the messages where all broken at word boundaries (except for #19) one
possible strategy for cracking this code was to guess at the first word of the current message based on the
contents of the previous messages. With luck one could then recognize enough of the keyword to perform the
full decryption. I was able to use this technique in some instances to quickly scroll to the appropriate
range of keywords to find the solution.

So yes it is true we had a couple of hints up front ..

1.) The Key would have to do something with the Matrix.
2.) The messages were all part of a coherent narrative.

And finally

3.) The showdown nature of the competition and the strength of Aquatium as a competitor.
I had to do things at 1000% simply because that was what it was going to take in order
to trimuph against Aqua. Aqua simply inspired me to do the best I possibly could. My hat is
off to the man.

I didn't save any of the hint messages... but for example the message 20 hint went something like this

Below is a clue which if you understand the meaning will lead to a key for the cypher.

SOMATS

Elephant Gambit

I finally got around to doing the Chessman's new mission the other day. I was startled to see the mission
name as it sparked some old memories. Consider these pictures from the days of Joker lore.

http://z11.01mainframe.com/sk397m/t...93_files/04.jpg

http://z11.01mainframe.com/sk397m/t...25_files/26.png

One of the loose ends in the Joker node search were the three Leigh Lines that did not terminate in a Node.
One of these lines happens to run through Tabor Park. Another runs through Camon Heights and into Eschean
Projects. The third was in downtown and ran off the map into Creston Heights.

Last night I revisited the Pamela feed and verified my Leigh line data. I was chagrined to learn that I had
recorded the Downtown Leigh line incorrectly having made a significant error in the X vector component of the
Hampton Green #3 Leigh Line. After correction this Leigh Line now converges at the Torah Construction Node at
1 time units. There is still a bit of an anomaly in the Outgoing frequency however. In all other cases the
outgoing frequency of the Leigh Line was an even multiple of of the Node's Query Frequency. The Hampton Green
3 Leigh Line does not factor in a manner consistent with the a Query frequency of 21.8925 for the -769,30,550
node. Seems Pamela might have made an error in recording an outgoing freq of 4351.7475.

Given that Pamela is capable of error perhaps the Tabor Park 1 Prime line should have terminated in the
Camon Height's Church Node. This particular target was of a deleted Joker. Which minutes before had
been alive and well and allowed a precise triangulation to the church and a location in Roger's Way.
There is that pesky business of the strange outgoing frequency of the Tabor Park 1 Prime line as well.

That leaves the line running to the NNE from Mara into Tabor Park and out into the Aquaduct.
The Leigh Line vectors are all correctly recorded and the possible node locations correctly plotted.
The outgoing frequency also doesn't correlate with any of the other known nodes.

This may all be a coincidence.  But then again in the Matrix is there any such thing? What does Sammy Wein
know and does in pertain to the return of the Joker? My recon of the building containing "The Vault" turned up nada.

Inquiring minds want to know !

Con

designated Lenesworth which the exiled program has successfully avoided in a previous incident.

-Conrac (Sorry for the delay ... I was slow making connections)

Although noted is machine record of deployment of a single basic removal program

-Conrac

EXPENDING RESOURCES MAY NOT HAVE EQUATED TO THE VALUE OF PROGRAM REMOVA

-Conrac

Please note that the trailing L of removal was omitted from the cyphertext. At this point this looks like a transmission error as here to fore all messages have ended neatly at a word boundary.

As minimal priority for removal or perhaps allowed it to remain as

-Conrac

THEREFORE IT IS LIKELY THE MACHINES HAVE CLASSIFIED THE NOW EXILED PROGRAM

-Conrac

THE PROGRAM ITSELF APPEARS TO EXHIBIT NO ABOVE AVERAGE PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES

-Conrac (but then again .. there is that analytical mind )

TO FEED THE INFINITE DESIRE FOR ANALYSIS RESULTS AND DATA

-Conrac (this program is my type of girl !  

ABILITIES AND PERFORMANCE VALUES WHICH ALLOW THE EVALUATOR

-Conrac

-Conrac

THIS HAS RESULTED IN A DEVELOPING OBSESSION WITH REDPILL

-Conrac

THE SYSTEM AND EXCEED VARIOUS RULES IT IS CREATED UPON

-Conrac

WENT INTO EXILE THE PROGRAM HAS RECENTLY LEARNED OF SPECIFIC

-Conrac

OVERCAME HARDWIRED ORDERS TO RETURN TO THE SOURCE AND INSTEAD

- Conrac

HOWEVER THE EVALUATORS THIRST FOR INFORMATION DATA AND RESULTS

 -Conrac

"Jim has a ETA" threw me for a loop and took me off on a unsolvable tangent of cyphers within cyphers.

The correct answer is

Examples include observing accurate time progression

Conrac

the evaluator performed diagnostic

functions fos many systems in the matrix

Please note there was a misspelling of the word for .. crypt text 133 should have been 126

The ability to define 20 or so separate e-mail folders ... Sparing that, the ability to sort Email by title

The ability to sort and/or filter the Code analyzer alphabetically.

Enable the item description popups in the Code Compiler .. or display the stats for the selected item permanently in the code progress window.

Thanks for the clarification Bayamos

I suppose in the case of Hyper-Sprint which has a 15% speed increase the bonus would be multiplicative instead of additive so in the case of a 2% Movement Speed Bonus one would really be travelling 15.3 % faster instead of 17% faster.

What is the distinction between the two different movement speed attributes on the commando boots ?

There is a Movement Speed percentage listed and a Movement Speed Bonus percentage listed .. sounds

like a bit of redundancy to me.  A percentage of a percentage for the Bonus seems a bit silly.

Absolutely Outstanding Work! 

My hat is off to all of you, named and unnamed that contributed to the compilation of this list.

Now that the 342 items are known to the red pill population, I am disappointed to see that the Meyer's Special Sniper Rifle did not get any love. Surely, a few more items can be added to the data base to bring that noble weapon in line with the rest of the sub-50 weapon lines.

 I am also waiting on definitive word about the possible bugged drop of the enhanced versions of the Royer Subnose and Royer Mk II. If anybody has collected any of these six weapons I would be more then happy to purchase them from you.

Regards,

Con

Add

Heirloom Revolver

The Party Favor

Chastity

&

Elmore's Automatic

to the list of Armor Piercing Weapons

Tis a shame this can't be re-integrated