I have been informed of the madness that is image size restrictions in signatures. The achievements are 10 pixels too big to be posted in a signature, and the system doesn't care if they're in a spoiler or not. I only have to trim off 10 pixels, but it's a pain re-uploading and fixing all of them. They will be fixed by tomorrow.
Current Status: 12 puzzles solved, 3 puzzles failed. [80% success rate] Puzzle solved
D E F E N D / Y O U R / N I N J A : T H E / F L A S H / G A M E
Unplaced Letters: R, S, E
(non-underlined letters were filled in by solving puzzles)
(italics and underlined letters were letters that would have been place had that riddle been solved in time)
(normal underlined letters were never associated with a riddle; they were filled when player_03 correctly guessed the project name)
Current Riddle:
Contest Over!
Hint for this week: Contest Over
Contest Over
It's a puzzle!! The purpose of this puzzle is uncover what Exüberance's secret project is by completing a bunch of ambiguous non-googleable (you can if you want, but it probably won't help you) riddles. Each of these riddles represents a letter of the alphabet. This letter is contained somewhere in the name of my secret project. The overall goal of this puzzle is to find the name. PM me if you think you know what it is, and include the ENTIRE NAME in your message. You only get 1 attempt at guessing the name, so don't waste it! But aside from the main objective, there are others too. Whenever a riddle is solved by someone, I add the letter above in its correct location and post a new riddle. If a riddle goes for 7 days without being solved, I post the solution to it, but do NOT position the letter (however you will still know that letter exists somewhere in the name).
Each riddle represents a letter. PM me your guess WITH EXPLANATION AS TO WHY YOU THINK IT IS THAT LETTER. SIMPLY GUESSING THE LETTER WITHOUT ANY EXPLANATION WILL NOT GET YOU ANY CREDIT. IT IS POSSIBLE TO WIN WITH THE WRONG EXPLANATION, AS LONG AS YOUR EXPLANATION MAKES SENSE AND ISN'T TOO FAR-FETCHED (and you get the right letter)
You get 1 guess per riddle. Once the riddle is done, you get to guess again on the next one. The main puzzle (figuring out the name), however, gets only 1 guess for the entire contest. Solving riddles or the entire contest gives you sig tags.You are looking for a letter. The clue should point to a letter. Finding a word, then taking the first letter of that word will never be the solution unless specifically stated. (well, yeah. It might happen to be (like in the first riddle), but the letter was Q (well, R because I said letter after) because queue is pronounced Q, NOT because it's first letter is Q.
EDIT: New Rule!
There is one thing I will allow you to do to account for the fact that you may not be online when a critical letter is placed:
You can give "conditional guesses" when you sumbit a guess for a letter.
NOTE: This must be YOUR guess. You cannot do this for someone else's guess otherwise everyone would just submit all possible solutions so they win whenever a letter is added
For example, say that a mystery word (imagine the whole puzzle was a word. You CANNOT guess 1 word at a time) is U _ _ _ (this isn't part of the name, obviously, just using it as an example) and you think that the current riddle is pointing to the letter R:
You may send a message like this:
If the word was UBER, you would win the letter and the entire puzzle.My guess for this week's puzzle is R because <insert reason here>.
If this guess is correct and it's placement does not contradict m guess, then I think the word is UBER.
If this guess is wrong or it's placement contradicts my guess, disregard this.
If the word was URGE, you would win the letter, but I would ignore the word guess (I would neither confirm or deny the word guess since it contradicts the condition. You may then guess again)
If the word was UNDO, you would lose the letter, but I would ignore the word guess (same as above)
If the word was USER, you would win the letter, but since your condition is met (R is the last letter) but your guess is wrong, you are no longer able to guess the solution.
In this case you could also say:
If you're wrong about the letter, I ignore the word guess.My guess is R
If this is correct my guess is either UBER or URGE depending on it's placement.
If you're right, but the R is in neither of those places, I ignore the word guess. (I can't think of a word that fits in U _ R _. Whatever. Pretend there is one)
If you're right and the R goes in one of those 2 places, you automatically geuss UBER or URGE. (So you win if the word is UBER or URGE, but lose if it's something else with an R there, like USER)
About hints:
About 3 days after a new puzzle has been posted, I will post a hint for the puzzle. This means that if you're not sure about your answer, you might want to wait for the hint before submitting since you only get 1 shot per week. The danger in this is that your answer is correct and someone else might be confident enough to submit it before the hint. I hope that I've made the puzzles such that if you figure out the solution, it should definitely make sense and you should be pretty sure you got it right, but this might not always be the case. It's pretty hard to judge the difficulty of your own riddle!
The contest is over when someone guesses the name of the secret project or a week after all the riddles have been solved or failed. (then no one wins :()
So, in summary:
Main Objective:
Guess the name of Exüberance's secret project.
Other Rewarding Objectives:
Solve a riddle by guessing the correct letter, with explanation.
Get "achievements" by solving riddles. These do not award userbars, but are merely for bragging rights and excitement. (kind of like ahievements in games!)
EDIT: I decided I will give rewards (lil' images for your sig if you at all care) for achievements.
Rules:
- 1. All guesses are to be sent to Exüberance by PM. Don't post in the thread. If you do, people are free to steal your guess and will get credit for it!!
- 2. You are allowed ONE guess per riddle. Once the riddle is over, you can guess again.
- 3. YOU MUST EXPLAIN YOUR GUESS. IF YOU JUST SEND A LETTER AND NO EXPLANATION, I WILL PROBABLY IGNORE IT, EVEN IF IT IS CORRECT!! You can still win a week with the 'wrong' (unintended) explanation, so long as the letter is correct and the explanation makes sense. If you follow a chain of like eight implications though, I'll probably say "yeah right". Don't guess and make up some reason. The reason has to be believable
- 4. You get ONE guess for the name of Exüberance's project for the whole contest. Don't waste it.
- 5. You are free to use Google, Wikipedia, wise grandfathers, spies, and the force to figure out the clues. Probably won't help you much, though.
- 6. You can colaborate if you really want to, BUT ONLY ONE PERSON will get credit for each guess and for the whole thing. If you submit it as a group, I'll give credit to whoever sent the PM, so solve it yourself, but be free to help/mislead everyone else in the thread if you wish!
- 7. Your guess must be sent in within 168 hours (7 days) of the riddle being posted. If I'm a bit late, just wait.
- 8. Have fun!! (Anyone who defies this rule will be labeled 'noob' and be cast out of the community!!)
Rewards: (The awards of Puzzle Smashing are all sig tags/userbars/whatchamacallits)
- [Copper Award of Puzzle Smashing]: Awarded at the end of the contest for solving exactly 1 riddle. View
- [Silver Award of Puzzle Smashing]: Awarded at the end of the contest for solving exactly 2 riddles. View
- [Gold Award of Puzzle Smashing]: Awarded at the end of the contest for solving 3 or more riddles. View
- [Puzzle Smasher's Signet]: Awarded for solving the main goal and ending the contest. View
- [???]: Wait, what?
And Also:
- [Achievement Badge]: Awarded for every achievement you get. A different badge for each achievement. View
- [Metanet Science Weighted Companion Gold Throphy]: Awarded to the user who earns the most achievements over the course of the contest
View
The current riddle is at the top of the post.
Also, this time I did the smart thing and made a bunch of riddles beforehand, so there will be little delay between riddles once one is solved.
Past Riddles and Winners:
Riddle 1 Solved by: no one (1 week timeout)
Clue: letter after FIFO
Main Hint: FIFO is a clue for a letter. Find the letter after it
Answer: R
Reasoning: FIFO stands for First In First Out, which describes the properties of a queue (pronounced Q), and the letter after Q is R
Riddle 2 Solved by: player_03 This earned player_03 1 new achievment
Clue: Festive Food
Main Hint: Christmas Candy
Answer: J
Reasoning: What shape is a candy cane?
Riddle 3 Solved by: TribulatioN
Clue: S, V, L, ? //this is not an acronym
Hint: A long time ago, this puzzle would be trivial.
Answer: D
Reasoning: It's an exponential series of order ten in roman numerals (0.5, 5, 50, ___) where 500 is the missing term.
S means for 6 in 12 parts (or 1/2), V means 5, L means 50, D means 500. Therefore, the missing letter is D.
Riddle 4 Solved by: AlliedEnvy This earned AlliedEnvy 3 new achievments
Clue: Greek Sheep
Main Hint: Solved before hint was revealed!
Answer: Y
Reasoning: A lamb is another name for a sheep. Lamb sounds like the greek letter lambda, λ, which looks like an upside-down y.
AlliedEnvy solved this problem a different way. Here is his reasoning: Another word for a female sheep would be a ewe. This sounds like the letter U. But in greek, the letter for U is upsilon. And upsilon looks like a Y. So the letter for #4, "Greek Sheep", would be Y.
Riddle 5 Solved by: TribulatioN This earned TribulatioN 1 new achievement
Clue: First Shot
Main Hint: Think Sports
Answer: T
Reasoning: When you take your first shot in golf. You are teeing of because you drive the ball off the golf tee. (tee... T. See?)
Riddle 6 Solved by: player_03
Clue: Carrots and Sweet Potatoes
Main Hint: They have something in common. Maybe consulting the internet will help?
Answer: A
Reasoning: Simply, they are both great sources of Vitaman A. More specifically "Carrots, sweet potatoes, and other orange vegetables contain carotene, which gives them their color. Carotene is a precursor to Vitamin A, and is converted to Vitamin A when the body needs more." (quoted from player_03's submission)
Riddle 7 Solved by: 999_Springs This earned 999_Springs 2 new achievements
Clue:
1 1
0 1
0 0
Main Hint: Puzzle solved before main hint revealed!
Answer: D
Reasoning: This 3x2 matrix represents the letter D in braille where a 1 represents a bump and 0 represents the absense of a bump.
Riddle 8 Solved by: pete d This earned pete d 1 new achievement
Clue: Always Giving, Never Receiving
Main Hint: Efficiency //I couldn't think of a hint for this puzzle without making it too obvious, so instead I provided another completely unrealated clue that points to the same letter
Answer: O
Reasoning (Original Clue): If you have blood type O-, you can donate to any other blood type, but can only receive a donation from blood type O-, so you are "Always Giving, Never Receiving"
Reasoning (Alternate Clue): In computer science you use order notation do describe the efficiency of an algorithm, notated O(<dominant term in running time with respect to length of argument>), giving the letter O.
pete d solved this problem a different way. Here is his reasoning: O = owe, if you are always giving people 'owe' you.
Riddle 9 Solved by: no one (1 week timeout)
Clue: Randomness
Main Hint: STAND BACK
Answer: S
Reasoning: In science, entropy is a measure of the disorder or randomness of a system. Entropy has the symbol S. The clue STAND BACK was referencing my avatar at the time of the riddle (and since the new forums started), which is telling you it has to do with science
Riddle 10 Solved by: no one (1 week timeout)
Clue: Oilers
Main Hint: Immutable
Answer: E
Reasoning: In math/physics/CS/enginering/etc., the letter e (usually with an exponent) represents Euler's Number. Euler is pronounced "oiler". As for the hint: if something is immutable, it cannot be changed (or mutated), thus it is a constant. Euler's number is a constant. (Arguably the most used mathematical constant, but that probably goes to pi. It really depends on what you're doing)
Riddle 11 Solved by: TribulatioN This earned TribulatioN 3 new achievements
Clue: C, V, B, _ //this is not an acronym
Main Hint: Solved before hint was posted.... like minutes after the puzzle was posted! Apparently I made this one too easy <_<
Answer: N
Reasoning: Bottom row of keyboard: Z X C V B N M
Riddle 12 Solved by: 999_Springs
Clue: Subtext
Main Hint: Shorry, no hiint
Answer: F
Reasoning: It's been fixed back to normal now, but this is what the paragraph below the riddle on the first post read during Puzzle 12:
Notice anything? Scanning through it, you may notice the mispelling "exifts" or "positioin". Read through it again and you'll pick up some more. Co-incidence? I THINK NOT! Let's see what it says:It's a puzzle!! The purpose of this puzzle is uncover what Exüberance's secret project is by completting a bunch of ambiguous non-googleable (you can if you want, but it probably won't help you) riddles. Each of these riddles represenths a letter of the alphabet. This letteer is contained somewhere in the name of my secret project. The overall goal of this puzzle is to find the name. PM me ilf you think you know what it is, and include the ENTIRE NAME in your message. You only get 1 atteempt at guessing the name, so don't waste it! But aside from the main objective, there are otthers too. Whenever a riddle is solved by someone, I add the lettter above in its correct location and post a new riddle. If a riddle goes fore 7 days without being solved, I post ther solution to it, but do NOT positioin the letter (howevers you will still know that letter exisfts somewhere in the name).
T-H-E-L-E-T-T-E-R-I-S-FIt's a puzzle!! The purpose of this puzzle is uncover what Exüberance's secret project is by completting a bunch of ambiguous non-googleable (you can if you want, but it probably won't help you) riddles. Each of these riddles represenths a letter of the alphabet. This letteer is contained somewhere in the name of my secret project. The overall goal of this puzzle is to find the name. PM me ilf you think you know what it is, and include the ENTIRE NAME in your message. You only get 1 atteempt at guessing the name, so don't waste it! But aside from the main objective, there are otthers too. Whenever a riddle is solved by someone, I add the lettter above in its correct location and post a new riddle. If a riddle goes fore 7 days without being solved, I post ther solution to it, but do NOT positioin the letter (howevers you will still know that letter exisfts somewhere in the name).
(THE LETTER IS F)
Also, notice the mispelling in the hint? H-I (I was going to do HINT but, meh. I thought that might be too obvious? Maybe not?) Turns out there was a hint after all, and that hint was saying there was none! Ha! I also gave a second hint in this post.
Riddle 13 Solved by: player_03 This earned player_03 2 new achievements
Clue: G, C, R, _ //this is not an acronym
Main Hint: Puzzle solved before main hint revealed!
Answer: L
Reasoning: Anyone heard of the DVORAK keyboard? Top row of keyboard excluding non-alphanumeric keys: P Y F G C R L. Yep, it's a remix of puzzle 11! Same puzzle, different keyboard. (No more keyboard-related riddles, I promise)
Riddle 14 Solved by: TribulatioN This earned TribulatioN 2 old achievements
Clue: A Z, Y N, M _ //This is not an acronym... or keyboard related
Main Hint: Puzzle solved before main hint revealed!
Answer: F
Reasoning: Notice how there's a , every other letter. That means that it's a list of pairs:
[A, Z] first letter / last letter (opposite)
[Y, N] yes / no (opposite)
[M, F] male / female (opposite)
Riddle 15 Solved by: 999_Springs This earned 999_Springs 1 old achievement
Clue: H, S, I, _ //Once again, not an acronym
Main Hint: Puzzle solved before main hint revealed!
Answer: E
Reasoning: In morse code, H is . . . . and S is . . . and I is . . so the next letter in the sequence would have morse code . and this letter is E
Project Name Solved! by: player_03 This earned player_03 1 new achievement and TribulatioN 1 new achievement
Current Filled in Letters: D _ F _ _ D / Y O _ _ / N _ _ J _ : T _ _ / F L _ _ _ / _ A _ E
Unplaced Letters: R, S, E
Answer: D E F E N D / Y O U R / N I N J A : T H E / F L A S H / G A M E
Achievements Earned
(* indicates that only 1 person can win the achievement)
There's Always a First*
be the first person to solve a puzzle
player_03
The Lining is Silver*
be the first person to solve 2 puzzles
TribulatioN (Puzzle 3, then 5)
Gettin' Ahead*
be the first person to solve 3 puzzles
TribulatioN (Puzzle 3, then 5, then 11)
Won't Take a Hint
solve a puzzle before the hint is revealed
AlliedEnvy (Puzzle 4)
999_Springs (Puzzle 7 and 15)
TribulatioN (Puzzle 11 and 14)
player_03 (Puzzle 13)
24-Hour Mystery
solve a puzzle in under 24 hours
AlliedEnvy (Puzzle 4 with a time of 26 minutes)
999_Springs (Puzzle 7 with a time of 12 hours)
TribulatioN (Puzzle 11 with a time of a few minutes (5 - 10), forgot to record exact time of posting and also Puzzle 14 with a time of 1 hour, 14 minutes)
player_03 (Puzzle 13 with a time of 43 minutes)
Doing it My Way
solve a puzzle with an alternate route (same letter, different reason)
AlliedEnvy (Puzzle 4)
pete d (Puzzle 8)
On a Roll
solve 2 puzzles in a row
no one
Hot Streak
solve 3 puzzles in a row
no one
Specialist
solve 2 different puzzles giving the same letter
no one
Good Hair Day
solve 2 puzzles in 1 day
no one
Going Out With a Bang*
correctly guess the project name after winning the last puzzle OR completing the current one at the same time
no one
Dominating the Contest*
at the conclusion of the contest, have solved the most puzzles and have solved at least 1 more then anyone else (that is to say, you didn't tie for most)
TribulatioN
//Credit goes to player_03 for the pile o' ninjas. (seen in the image he made for Caption Contest week 39
It's Like Hangman, But Awesomer* For the Win* (renamed so it would fit on the graphic :D)
correctly guess the name of the secret project, ending the contest
player_03
Overachiever*
have the most achievements
TribulatioN
It's the Metanet Science Weighted Companion Gold trophy!Achievement Collectors: (the Overachiever trophy is not included in the achievement count. Poor excluded self-referential achievement.)
Name: UniqueAchievements [TotalAchievements*] *includes achievements that were earned twice
TribulatioN: 5 [7]
player_03: 4 [4]
AlliedEnvy: 3 [3]
999_Springs: 2 [3]
pete d: 1 [1]
Leaderboard
TribulatioN - 4
player_03 - 3
999_Springs - 3
AlliedEnvy - 1
pete d - 1
Puzzle Smashers' Throphy Shelves
This section shows the awards that players have won. Click on a name to view the player's awards:
[border=lime][spoiler=TribulatioN]
[/spoiler][/border][border=yellow][spoiler=player_03]
[/spoiler][/border][border=lime][spoiler=AlliedEnvy]
[/spoiler][/border][border=yellow][spoiler=999_Springs]
[/spoiler][/border][border=lime][spoiler=pete d]
[/spoiler][/border]Concluding Remarks:
Well, that was fun! I was impressed with how many and how quickly the puzzles were solved. I doubt I would have gotten many of them had someone else thought of them! The one thing I didn't like about this contest was the unfairness that is caused by timezones. Nothing I could really do to fix it though. Unless I had signups and PM'd people the riddles at their preffered times, and allowed late sign-ups. I guess that would have worked.... oh well.
Congratulations to:
TribulatioN for solving the most riddles (4)
player_03 for solving the main objective of the contest AND solving 3 riddles!
999_Springs for solving 3 riddles!
AlliedEnvy and pete d for solving one riddle!
Everyone else who submitted their guesses, making the contest a success!
[/spoiler][spoiler=Puzzle of the Exuberant!]
