AGS Cryptic

AnasAbdin · Sun 24/05/2015 07:52:57

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Limbo?

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Mandle · Sun 24/05/2015 07:54:40

Quote from: Stupot+ on Sun 24/05/2015 06:46:25
Quote from: Mandle on Sun 24/05/2015 06:26:19
Quote from: Stupot+ on Sun 24/05/2015 05:08:31
Is it
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E=mcÂ²
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?

Haha...no...
ahh damn. That explains why I couldn't really get it to fit the clue other than the fact that e m c s q are all in that list of prime letters.

Feedback and a repeated hint:

Spoiler

Switching prime numbers into letters is not the method, but "out of their prime" leads to the correct method...

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And sorry but no AnasAbdin...

Mandle · Mon 25/05/2015 00:01:06

Larger Hint:

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Once you know that "out of their prime" indicates the method to solve the puzzle the rest is just numerical

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Baron · Mon 25/05/2015 02:08:55

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Ok, Ok, Ok. So from CaptainD with Mandle's hints we have....

Quote~~Any man = Male?~~ ~~Out of their prime = Old?~~ Since there are so few letters in the answer are we looking for initial letters of five words maybe? ~~"if they did not first accept" = the order of the letters in the word perhaps?~~

And now through MiteWiseacreLives! we know it has something to do with prime numbers.

So... just going out on a limb here, but would it be an anagram of the initial letters of the prime numbered words?

Let's see.... Prime numbers are 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17.... but we probably only need the first five.

Any man could be out of their prime if they did not first accept the lack of energy which saturates their being. (5)

The first letters of the prime words are... M, C, O, T, D. So.... M^cDot?

But.... wait, why would the clue be so long? Why would the word "first" be unused in a cryptic crossword clue? It must be part of the clue! It's the thirteenth word, so.... 13, 17, 19, 23 -blast! There are only 22 words in the clue. That would give us F, O, W.... another dead end. Maybe "lack of energy" means you start rolling back down the hill you just climbed, so you are supposed to go backwards from "First" (13), so F, D, T, O, C -no, that still doesn't work. Gah! Taking non-prime numbers starting at "first" (13) gives us A, T, L, E, S -these are much more promising letters. So the answer could be slate, stale, steal, least or ....tales?

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Mandle · Mon 25/05/2015 07:29:07

Feedback on Baron's post, also containing a very BIG HINT (double-hidden):

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None of your methods are correct but...

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...the idea of non-prime numbers is a step in the right direction. This is what "out of their prime" is supposed to indicate...

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If I say any more I think it will just be basically handing the solution to you guys...

Baron · Tue 26/05/2015 01:57:36

All right....

Spoiler

"Out of their Prime" numbers are 1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22.... I'm not going to continue the list beyond the word count in the clue, because I'm still assuming the sequence of the words themselves is important. Scanning the clue for new meaning I see that "not first" probably means not using the first non-Prime number, so don't use 1. From the beginning of the clue we therefore have in slots 4, 6, 8, 9, 10 words be, of, prime, if, they, or b o p i t. Er... Bop It?

I'm still troubled by not using the last 12 words of the clue or so. It seems ...wasteful. There must be something I'm not seeing.... Let's try something different: looking at the clue meticulously I see that by letter count there are exactly five words that don't have a prime amount of letters. They are:

Any (3) man (3) could (5) be (2) out (3) of (2) their (5) prime (5) if (2) they (4) did (3) not (3) first (5) accept (6) the (3) lack (4) of (2) energy (6) which (5) saturates (9) their (5) being (5)

Interestingly the first letter of each word with a non-prime word count listed sequentially is t a l e s, which also happens to be a GIP by AprilSkies. So I'm guessing Tales again, only this time for different reasons.

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MiteWiseacreLives! · Tue 26/05/2015 04:58:29

Is it just me or this totally insane

Mandle · Tue 26/05/2015 05:08:31

Quote from: Baron on Tue 26/05/2015 01:57:36
All right....

Spoiler
"Out of their Prime" numbers are 1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22.... I'm not going to continue the list beyond the word count in the clue, because I'm still assuming the sequence of the words themselves is important. Scanning the clue for new meaning I see that "not first" probably means not using the first non-Prime number, so don't use 1. From the beginning of the clue we therefore have in slots 4, 6, 8, 9, 10 words be, of, prime, if, they, or b o p i t. Er... Bop It?

I'm still troubled by not using the last 12 words of the clue or so. It seems ...wasteful. There must be something I'm not seeing.... Let's try something different: looking at the clue meticulously I see that by letter count there are exactly five words that don't have a prime amount of letters. They are:

Any (3) man (3) could (5) be (2) out (3) of (2) their (5) prime (5) if (2) they (4) did (3) not (3) first (5) accept (6) the (3) lack (4) of (2) energy (6) which (5) saturates (9) their (5) being (5)

Interestingly the first letter of each word with a non-prime word count listed sequentially is t a l e s, which also happens to be a GIP by AprilSkies. So I'm guessing Tales again, only this time for different reasons.
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Correct in both method AND answer Baron:

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Yeah, I was going to credit you with the first correct answer even though you somehow managed to come by it with a completely wrong method...I wonder what the exact probability of that happenning even is? Must be pretty steep! But yeah, I didn't want to give it away until the method had been found because I thought the puzzle deserved it, even if just by being of a kind that is unique so far in this thread I believe...

So yeah, as Baron said: The method was hidden in the phrase "out of their prime" which meant to only use non-prime numbers. There are only 5 words in the puzzle whose letter-count are not prime numbers:

they (4) accept (6) lack (4) energy (6) saturates (9)

Their first letters spell the word: Tales, which is indeed a game in progress (as well as a released demo game) by AprilSkies, and is indeed the correct answer!

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So anyways:

NEXT!

selmiak · Tue 26/05/2015 13:55:51

wow!

MiteWiseacreLives! · Tue 26/05/2015 14:28:02

LOL I thought you would tell us "Tales" was wrong, could think of another way to look at it, oh man.. It was fun Mandle!

Mandle · Tue 26/05/2015 16:25:18

Quote from: MiteWiseacreLives! on Tue 26/05/2015 14:28:02
LOL I thought you would tell us "Tales" was wrong, could think of another way to look at it, oh man.. It was fun Mandle!

But "Tales" wasn't wrong...It was 100% right but via the wrong method...

I almost said that this was the right answer but through a wrong method but realized that in doing so I would expose a retro-engineering backdoor into the puzzle...

Which reminded of one of my favorite comedy movies of all time:

"Without A Clue"...

It's a Sherlock Holmes/Watson adventure with a twist starring Micheal Caine as "Sherlock Holmes" and Ben Kingsley as Watson...

Without giving too much away of the plot...There is a moment in the movie where a clue is figured out through a very complicated but very wrong method which turns out to be much simpler in the reveal...

So yeah anyways:

MiteWiseacreLives! spotted the word "prime" in the puzzle which should set off alarms for most adventure gamers that a maths-based puzzle was in the works...SO massive kudos to him!!!

And then:

Baron gained the win after actually winning it already by some huge coincidence...

Very dramatic round...

NEXT!!!

Baron · Wed 27/05/2015 02:19:34

Well, I think it was just a little unfair to keep us guessing when the correct answer had already been guessed, but I appreciate your reasoning.

Stinky, blind guy from Miami (7)

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AGS Related

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MiteWiseacreLives! · Wed 27/05/2015 03:29:27

Larry (hotel exotica)

Mandle · Wed 27/05/2015 03:52:04

Quote from: Baron on Wed 27/05/2015 02:19:34
Well, I think it was just a little unfair to keep us guessing when the correct answer had already been guessed, but I appreciate your reasoning.

Yup, it was a bit unfair I'll admit but thanks for taking the time to read the reasoning behind the descision.

It was a case that hasn't really come up before so I made a judgement call and:

It was a bad call...a bad call...

Anyway:

Quote from: Baron on Wed 27/05/2015 02:19:34
Stinky, blind guy from Miami (7)

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AGS Related
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Some thoughts:

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I'm thinking "blind guy from Miami" means something like "no eyes" so to take the i's out of Miami leaving "mam". That leaves 4 letters to describe "stinky" and the only word I could come up with was "rank" but couldn't fit them together in any useful way...

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Baron · Wed 27/05/2015 12:19:22

Quote from: Mandle on Wed 27/05/2015 03:52:04
Some thoughts:
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I'm thinking "blind guy from Miami" means something like "no eyes" so to take the i's out of Miami leaving "mam". That leaves 4 letters to describe "stinky" and the only word I could come up with was "rank" but couldn't fit them together in any useful way...
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Yeah, you're on the right track. But...

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a guy from Miami is not called "Miami".

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Mandle · Wed 27/05/2015 13:32:37

Okay so...

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Miamian minus both eyes (i's) is: Maman

But now we need to figure out how it is stinky at the start:

Maybe something like "Pu"?

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Stupot · Wed 27/05/2015 15:26:01

Quote from: Mandle on Wed 27/05/2015 13:32:37
Okay so...
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Miamian minus both eyes (i's) is: Maman

But now we need to figure out how it is stinky at the start:

Maybe something like "Pu"?
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Aaaaah! Nice work, dude.

Baron · Thu 28/05/2015 02:21:54

I'd like to confirm this guess but ...what guess?

Mandle · Thu 28/05/2015 07:20:44

Ahhhhhh...Me so stoopid!

It's:

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Pumaman

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I forgot to say that at the end of my suppositions before...Jeez!

Baron · Thu 28/05/2015 12:16:01

Correctamundo el stupido!

NEXT!