The Watchmaker strikes again...

this one is pretty straight forward, though tedious (though I haven't solved it completely yet)

Just got through it. Seems to just be story, nothing point related.

This may be a useful tool for working through such ciphers... Each line of this particular message uses a different shift value, and I'm not quite sure why each one is what it is, but with a little patience, you can get through the messages.

http://rumkin.com/tools/cipher/caesar.php

There is a repeating pattern that occurs when solving the chiper -- the number of characters shifted each line -- perhaps that forms a word or phrase?

UPDATE: I figured out the pattern... each number is based on previous numbers... which implies that the numbers themselves are irrelevant.

There is a definite logical sequence to the shift value, so you can go through the text and decrypt each line in order. Not seeing anything beyond that, or if the clue in the watchmaker's post is only referring how to get the sequence.

(still working through the code...)

UPDATE: I'm seeing some inconsistencies in the sequence. Not sure if that is significant.

Yeah i see some inconsisentcy too. which makes me think the numbers that break the pattern are significant!!!

The clue was count the lines ¤ still working on it here too

new watchmaker post referring to code inside the cipher. Not seeing it.

Thanks for the heads up Poinky!

I just noticed that the watchmaker's encrypted documents are separated by _lines_ of different length. Can't get anything out of them though. Red herring?

Turns out the lines meant nothing. Thanks to Dev for unlocking the achievement, and getting me focused in the right way! (and congratulations on being the first to solve it, I think? As part of a gang of four maybe?)

I thought the person on the top is the first to unlock. So wouldn't it be puddleofsick? Not that big of a deal, just curious how that works.

Now I've gotta figure this out! :)

Can someone put me on the right path? I see the pattern in the cipher, i see the inconsistencies that Poinky mentioned...

From there I'm not getting the connection to chemistry... tried everything i thought was relevant but failed there...

EDIT: Never mind. I'm dumb. figured it out.

Congrats to the Watch grabbing the top 8 position because of this. I've been away all day so I haven't had my crack at it yet.

Hmmm. Does this "chemical" have to do with the actual written information that you can read after you decipher it... Or should I be looking more at the reason for the differing letter-shift values for the different lines? Thanks.

yah any help on this one would be awesome. I just cant see it @.@ I have it decrypted but poinky says the numbers dont mean anything and has to do with chemicals. and that stumped me.

Poinky,

When you say "the lines meant nothing" are you telling us that the length of the lines meant nothing?

I'm convinced the secret is in the pattern of the shift values. Can you or someone else confirm that for me?

JJJ,
Neither the lines nor the shift values have anything to do with the solution.

So the answer lies in the decoded text??? I've got that but I'm still not seeing it!

Yah there is so much going on in this forum that it is confusing me and g0bsm4ck3d. We arnt sure what to even search for at this point.

Yes, the information you need for Brewer achievement is in the deciphered text, not the cipher or pattern of shift values.

Also, and this has NOTHING to do with this achievement, did anyone else notice the Fibonacci pattern in the shift values? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_number) That must be more than a coincidence, but I'm not sure if it actually means anything. Thoughts?

Finally, people were mentioning inconsistencies in the shift values... I see only one, and it occurs on line 28 of the first meeting section, but that line doesn't have any significance that I can see :-( Any chance this was a mistake?

UPDATED: ooops I realized that I had the converse for one of the numbers as the source of one of the errors in pattern. I now concur only one error. I have edited this comment to show the pattern with only one error -- line 28 of the letter/correspondence.

Since the numbers are not the key to the puzzle, and everyone knows now how to decode the text, I don't think it is a big deal to post this.

Notice that there is one place (bolded) where the four paragraphs don't match up.

Columns from left to right are 1st through 4th letters/correspondence. You might have converse numbers if you used a different cipher engine (25 for 1 for example). Not sure of the significance of the shift error.

1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1
2 2 2 2
3 3 3 3
5 5 5 5
8 8 8 8
13 13 13 13
21 21 21 21
8 8 8 8
3 3 3 3
11 11 11 11
14 14 14 14
25 25 25 25
13 13 13 13
12 12 12 12
25 25 25 25
11 11 11 11
10 10 10 10
21 21 21 21
5 5 5 5
5 5 5 5
5 5 5
10 10 10
10 10 10
15 15
25 25
14
14
1
14
15
3
18
21
13
8
21
3
24
1
25
25

does it have to do with speakeasies?

nevermind i got it. think of chemistry and formulas

A brewer needs to know certain chemistry.

A bit THANK YOU to dccircuit for posting the Caesarian Shift tool (http://rumkin.com/tools/cipher/caesar.php) I spotted the cipher right away, but there is NO WAY I'd have had the patience to decrypt all that drivel by hand!

JJJ, in your post of September 27, 2009 - 12:36pm, did you notice the pattern? The shift value of each line is the sum of the shift values of the two previous lines unless the sum of the previous two lines is >= 26, in which case a line's shift value is the sum of the previous two lines modulo 26.

@FosterFamily "did you notice the pattern?"
Yes, I know. That's why I posted it.

It's a Fibonacci sequence but it breaks down at some point. Not sure of the significance of the break down though.

Perhaps there is something special in line 28 of the first letter?

Ugh, this acheivement is making me feel really dumb. I have it all decoded and have now become an expert at staring at it, looking confused.

There are some other things I don't understand.

10
21
5
5 <--- Shouldn't this be 26?
5 <--- Shouldn't this be 10?
10
10 <--- Shouldn't this be 15?
15 <--- Shouldn't this be 20?
25

I can see why they wouldn't use 26 for a shift value (we'd see plain text) but I don't see a rationale for the others (unless they are trying to foil those of us who might write a decryption program.)

@FosterFamily

I agree those are strange too. But, I'm assuming that there are no more eggs in here, so I'm ignoring it and moving on.

-JJJ

okay... is this the type of thing where I will know it's the code when i figure it out, or do I just have to keep guessing related things?

UPDATE: Got it, finally! I was on the right track, just always a little off.

More was just posted.. more cipher stuff. No hint about an Easter Egg, just the need to decipher it.

@Foster Family: A shift of 26 wouldn't be encrypting at all (it'd be plain text), so it looks they just skip it and move to the next. Make sense?