Hey guys–just wanted to update you all with a blog I’ve been working on: https://thepizzacodemystery.blogspot.com/
I will soon be updating it with some of the analysis I’ve done on the cipher and the rest of the ARG clues. Not only does the blog allow me to keep the information I’ve gathered concise and all in one place (with the inclusion of pictures of handwritten documentation), but it also prevents me from overloading the forum with overlong posts.
I can see how tridigital works to encode PT, but how does decoding work? Each number can point to 3 letters, even if I knew the key, I would have to guess, or am I just missing the obvious here?
Also, I suggest Nr. 6 being the word seperator.
Nevermind, its probably NOT 6.
Edit:
I tried dictionary attacks (for all 10 possible seperators) and couldn’t even find a partial match, which leads to one these possibilities:
Guns, here’s a 10 letter word I don’t think we’ve seen before, although I think it’s probably just an homage to fallout new vegas:
Yes, you would pretty much have to guess–each of the 9 main encoded numbers would correspond to 3 letters each, except for the number in the 2nd to last row, which would only correspond to 2. The last column would be reserved for the “space modifier” number, which would, generally speaking, be a number that is used very often and would allow enough numbers between to be large enough to be a word. I thought this to be “9”, and for the most part the single 9’s could be used to identify single spaces, and the double 9’s could be periods (not sure this is how the cipher works, however). Problem is, there are multiple instances where two 9’s enclose another number. Since there can generally only be two standalone letters–A and I–it seems odd that this would occur IF the 9’s are the space modifiers.
As with a lot of the things in BM, it could just be a nod. That doesn’t mean it’s completely unrelated–at this point, it would be hard for us to say it’s not related, y’know?
I think there is a maximum of 9.43e9 theoretical possible combinations on the checker board, which can be reduced to 3.98e5 combinations if we ignore v,k,j,x,q,z. We could further reduce the number of combination to about 2e5 by limiting the choice for the “separator”-number.
But then we would still have to check 2^n different solutions for each possible combination where n is the number of letters needed to verify that it is indeed the plain text. This might escalate quickly. 
Going back to this, has anyone checked the other homepages of other people in the ARG?
Clues/info has been found on Dr Welsh and Dr Horn’s RL pages now, so perhaps there is more on others
It’s just base64
Yeah, I’ve done quite a bit of poking around, which is how I came across the image on Welsh’s site, but nothing else. I’ve paid extra attention to OnBoardError’s and Raminator’s sites, since they have been mentioned in the ARG. Nothing for them, yet.
Maybe some secret areas are hidden much like the taco hut, just have to find the right button and teleport, I guess. I’ve been running around black mesa for a few days pressing odd buttons some go doot like nothings there an others make that noise like I activated something, but can never really figure out what.
Ok, so that’s what “The pizza is a lie” means? The large amount of pizza orders in the budget are just being used to cover up funding for something called the Halos Project that is going on inside two secret rooms in the QE labs. Do I have this right?
The pizza rations on the whiteboard show less then lab d (optronics)
The first part–yes (probably)
The second part–not really, because I think someone mentioned that the two rooms are actually the Xen environments, and are “classified” to keep them from the general facility members. I think in some of the other mods for the original half-life (“Opposing Force” comes to mind) you come to learn just how much the BM facility was really covering up.
In that regard, I don’t think it deals directly with the ARG. However, oddly enough the IRC channel chat DID mention the Xen rooms (X01 / X02). As it stands, I’m wagering that it’s simply further development of the underlying plotline Storm has developed, rather than a direct link to the ARG itself.
My money is on it being related to the secrecy of BM, but only in the regard that it’s part of the storyline.
Possibly. Some maps will restart when you try to noclip, the Surface Tension map with Dr. Horn’s shack is one of them (c2a5c). The other one I’ve seen is the one early in the game with lift and the headcrabs jumping down on you.
The level you’re talking about is bm_c1a1d with the lift. As soon as you try to noclip down the lift part without activating it first, or noclip too far outside the main level, it forces a reload. I took a peek around but didn’t see anything, but since it has the same behavior as the taco shack level, it’s completely possible there’s something hidden in the dark areas outside the main construct. Maybe worth a closer look?
Not sure if it helps, but to avoid the reload while noclipping on bm_c2a5c I’ve done the following:
In bm_c1a1d it should be something like “env_remove c1a1c_loadsaved; env_remove c1a1d_loadsaved” instead.
Sitting in the taco hut looking at the penguin picture and I think it says “bring the penguin a hat”
A HAT?
Anyone think what I think? Secret Hat, the non-achievement one? How the hell do you bring it though? That’s backtracking good three chapters!
More than likely this is just a method the developers used so you can’t bypass the lift and just slide down the shaft somehow. It might be that the level reload on Surface Tension is actually the same thing. I don’t know where exactly the shack is in relation to the cliff, but in that map there are also things that trigger a level reload as normal part of the game. Such as falling down the cliff.
After a quick second look, I’d have to say I agree with you. You can’t go down the lift area until after it’s activated, which would suggest it’s a mechanism to prevent people from just taking a dive down the shaft. And it probably extends to the outside area of the level due to coding reasons.
They probably just made the trigger volume really huge or something so they wouldn’t have to conform it to the actual playable space.
Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.