The weird thing is that it happens on firefox to.
On an unrealated note, the text on https://www.thestormseeker.com/thepizzaisalie/1001085139140914.html says " they will pay, they will definitely pay"
The two HECU soldiers in On a rail who have the “who is this guy freeman” conversation, end with “he’ll pay , he will definitely pay.” I wonder if there is a correlation between the two.
I don’t think there is a correlation.
Here is the Text from the Website:
They stole the lie, as if that matters to me, HALOS is far too complete to stop now. They can’t hide there, not now, not now I have this, this holds the key to all things… they CAN’T hide from me. I will follow them, I’ll set up a link and this to remind me. Perhaps I should hide it on the secure site, perhaps that would be best. I’ll find them though and they will pay, they will definitely pay. Dr Marcel was right when he said, “When you’re building a cage for Satan, you don’t ask him to wait around whilst you put the doors on.” Welsh is probably behind this, but he won’t get away with it.
I have read the text once more and here is a crazy Theory.
HALOS is a Quantum Computer and is in the test phase. “They stole the Lie” means that a pizza box full with it has been stolen. I think stormseeker wants revenge for something but who are “they”. Also he said, he’s setting up a link and this site as reminder.
I say that the HALOS file was a transmission for setting the final test pattern and when it is finished, dr. horn can use the AI.
Hey, first time poster here. I decided I’d stalked this place for long enough, so here I am.
Just wondering, do we have a solid storyline so far?
Thats all of @0418_08151814 posts he has made. https://forums.blackmesasource.com/index.php/SearchResult/65559/?highlight=
I remember you talking in another post about a 3rd Party. Assuming Dr Welsh and Dr Stone are 1 side of the Triangle, Dr Horn and Dr Bottomley are another, the only sensible 3rd party is either US the Player, Gordon Freeman or the G-Man.
Just dragging an old comment in so we have something shiny to look at for a while. At this point, I’m willing to cash out until the ten-year Hex Code anniversary comes around, but I keep coming back to this for more. It’s always lurking in the back of my mind, and when I get bored at work or a light is taking too long, I’ll sort through all of the events and clues to this point. I recalled Code/0418 giving us advice for Code D, and I thought of this post. Even here, prior to the Code D solution being revealed, we are being told to build the story. He also references the others in the ARG story. Three other points stick out to me, and I think we should abide by them. First:
“I think the IRC clues are storyline based, in this case the transporting of an element needed for a project. I don’t think they are clues, as nothing in there seems relevant to a cipher.”
This means we can probably ignore IRC messages 1-3, as those were before the Code D solution. The others, in conjunction with the Tempus page, are likely important. There seems to be a common denominator amongst the forums of people reading into the “time reveals all” portion–in my opinion, it’s just the heading for the wiki page because it was released at a specific date/time (12.12.12).
"You don’t create a small grouping of starter puzzles and then have the final gateway puzzles solution split into a separate release way down the line."
Just like the current puzzle, perhaps we should keep this in mind. Here we are running about losing our damn minds over every lead, but we still don’t have the basics: the gate puzzle solution. The websites may be hints to help us with the current puzzle, or they may simply be sitting there waiting for us to find the solution (much like Stormseeker’s “pizzaisalie” page).
"As for the final puzzle, it is definitely a cipher of somesort. We’ve had a simple substitution cipher, a picture puzzle and an encode. I doubt we would get another code based puzzle, but instead a more complex cipher. Usually the last trailhead puzzle is designed to test the ability of the players, in order to construct further puzzles along the lines of the story"
There are a couple things we can deduce from this regarding the current puzzle. First, the jump between Codes A-C to Code D was rather large, from simple puzzles to a complex cipher. We can assume a similar jump in this puzzle, at least if the Hex Code is a gate. Second, the mention of “further puzzles along the lines of the story” makes me think that the higher-level methods Storm PM’d would make perfect candidates for future puzzles, which would mean that we are right in the DES - cascading ciphers range. I know this isn’t a revolutionary thing to say, but I think it is important that we narrow our efforts.
EDIT: Come to think of it, has anyone taken a different route and tried the VIC Cipher on this bad boy? I know it’s not a standardized encryption method, like the ones suggested in Storm’s PM, but that could be perfect considering his other direct comment on the forums regarding encryption not being the answer. Some things that stuck out to me:
On this page:
The VIC cipher can be regarded as the evolutionary pinnacle of the Nihilist cipher family.
The VIC cipher has several important integrated components, including mod 10 chain addition, a lagged Fibonacci generator (a recursive formula used to generate a sequence of pseudorandom digits), a straddling checkerboard, and a disrupted double transposition.
Until the discovery of VIC, it was generally thought that a double transposition alone was the most complex cipher an agent, as a practical matter, could use as a field cipher.
And on this one:
EDIT2: This too, from the Wiki page:
The ultimate development along these lines was the VIC cipher, used in the 1950s by Reino Häyhänen. By this time, most Soviet agents were instead using one-time pads. However, despite the theoretical perfection of the one-time pad, in practice they were broken, while VIC was not.
We just had a one-time pad prior to this puzzle, so it’s possible this would be Storm’s next progression.
Some more thoughts on 21 into 1:
If the hint refers to xen crystals, take note that the budget whiteboard mentions a specimen transfer from the Lamba labs.
Also, regarding the possibility of multiple HALOS, the whiteboards mention that dielectric properties were present in the entire EP- series of xen crystals.
Finally, considering yet another interpretation of the hint:
“this unlocks at the start of the end”
This might refer to the location of the key to the HALOS file.
I’ve always found the pairing of start and end, rather than beginning and end, a bit strange. The IRC messages often have designated start and end points. Also, a rarely mentioned point regarding the message hidden in the grilled pizza image is that the binary also encodes ASCII control codes for start and end.
You know I just realized something. You know the hint that Stormseeker gave us “This unlocks at the start of the end.”
It might just be a play on words.
There’s an old logical puzzle similar to this phrase but instead it’s “What is at the beginning of the end?” Well what is at the start of the end?
The letter E?
Maybe there’s a certain sector named E?
You’re gonna like this, sector E is the biodome complex
https://wiki.blackmesasource.com/Black_Mesa_Research_Facility#Sector_E_-_Biodome_Complex
By the way, I pondered a bit on the hint stormseeker gave when he said “Its all around you, someone is very close” or something to that extent.
I was thinking, there is a certain set of numbers that appear everywhere in the game
“348 976 512” and are sometimes arranged differently.
Also, I was thinking props, as some props have cypher like codes written on them. A good example would be “TESUP419648”
both of those are all over the game.
Just my two cents.
EDIT
Now that I think about it, if we’re supposed to look in the biodome complex, there was a patter that kept showing up on computers. Probably nothing but the way it made out seemed that the red blocks could represent things to keep (or remove)
Here’s an attached pic. The thing I’m referring to is called “databank server write”
@Gunsrequiem - the problem with a VIC cipher is; how would you apply it to the hex code? One of the steps is a straddling checkerboard, and I don’t think that works with hex.
Going back, I’m not sure we ever figured out the use or significance of the Nb isotypes, did we? The best we did was find a link in that the section on TOR is mostly about beta decay, which is referenced on one of the whiteboards. I think that’s about it. The thing is, 0418’s last post on this forum suggests there’s a link between the isotopes (why specify “isotopes”?) and AI… but I haven’t found it yet. If he meant the Niobium in general, then it’s probably the already mentioned quantum computing… in which case this is apparently important, but again, we haven’t found out why yet.
This whole train of thought is not new - @flavrans9 seems to have been trying to figure this out roughly 2 years ago. Between December 2012 (when TOR was released) and May 2013, from what I’ve read in this topic, there was little progress except brainstorming about the purpose of the Niobium, writing a storyline (by @Gunsrequiem) and attempts to use DES, Three-DES and related ciphers (I’m pretty sure I saw some attempts by @faed?). Seeing as halfway through May 2013 Stormseeker said that “someone is already close” (or was, at that time), and assuming everything there is to know was posted in this topic, I’m thinking these three are some of the most likely subjects to have been close. I’m not saying others did not make valid contributions, mind you. I’m just trying to figure out who Storm meant, and I have to start somewhere.
My personal take on the comment is that, at that point in time, there was the highest likelihood of someone solving the puzzle simply because people were very close in terms of both the method and the key.
Considering the meaning of “Tempus omnia revelant” and the mention of a holding puzzle in the PM from 0418, it is possible that this was Storm’s own admission that we had not been given enough information to solve the puzzle once HALOS was found.
Consider the timing issue. HALOS.txt appeared almost immediately after IRC 5 was solved (IRC 6 was virtually concurrent, and did not need solving).
Then, “Tempus omnia revelant” appeared a month later, on 12/12/12. The date itself may have some significance, or it might have been a stylistic choice.
Since the hidden message “seek Code out” and such was present from the creation of the page, its possible that contact with 0418 in this sense could have been made anytime after 12/12/12. For example, if someone had made the connection and contacted 0418 on the 13th, they might have received the same PM Gunsrequiem received almost immediately.
Looking at the structure of the PM, considering it as a hint rather than a normal communication between two people, I get the feeling that it was setup in advance, probably during the month-long delay between the discovery of HALOS.txt and the appearance of the TOR page.
Also, since the the TOR page hinted at the steps necessary to receive that PM, I would group it in with the same set of clues.
Regarding the specific purpose of the two clues–TOR and the PM–I feel fairly confident that the PM was meant to clarify the method of encryption for HALOS.txt
Red-herrings are one thing, but when the creator of an ARG spends a ludicrous amount of time trying to drive home a point (especially when they bring up technical explanations) they are usually providing a genuine hint. The PM probably provides an accurate indication of the method for decrypting HALOS.txt.
The PM, while making a hard-sell for the method, does not provide (as far as I know) much hints towards the key, mentioning only that it was probably hinted at somewhere indirectly. I assume the TOR page is what was meant to point to the key.
Lastly, regarding Storm’s comment that someone is close, recall that solving this problem requires knowing both the method and the key. Since that comment was made after 12/12/12, according to my theory, it was conceivable that someone could have found they key. Then, if the forum discussion had already gone over (or come very close to) the methods later mentioned in the PM, then it would be possible for someone to simultaneously guess the method and key, thus solving the puzzle.
Thus, Storm’s comment was made to reference the fact that the necessary clues to find the key (the TOR page) was already released, and the method (or something close) had already been mentioned on the forum.
My personal recommendation would be to look over the TOR page for hints towards the key, and the PM for hints towards the method.
Yeah, it would have to be converted to decimal form, first. It fits that we would jump from one-time to VIC (due to succession), but it also makes sense that we would jump from one-time to modern encryption (due to the big jump mentioned by Storm during the Clue D fiasco). Remember, he did mention in his PM that he suspected the hex was a “secondary encode” to avoid data corruption during transmission.
The only problem with that is finding a reliable VIC decryption method online (CrypTools doesn’t have it).
We would probably have to append the decimal output if it were VIC–again, it was just speculation. Here’s the spaced-out version of the decimal conversion if anyone wants to utilize it:
17943 05853 18622 11028 71243 61937 92012 56677 02094 91671 97751 84472 54322 43497 87119 36121 35220 33246 44212 24461 45195 17810 31816 91712 02237 17529 78113 78234 30135 20551 19919 91134 94815 61964
01418 03661 17842 40682 49207 98150 21719 12475 71266 71441 52127 23050 32181 32282 12017 91657 99322 01051 17250 42477 31321 58269 88990 15999 11714 91456 12242 16258 17256 14069 25115 71331 22541 45536
52141 92131 15224 22001 31501 68472 23040 29982 52220 79231 22810 62331 28119 72006 18017 10022 75818 54415 01344 66139 12221 92153 14418 45626 02181 21211 82127 22816 21589 15515 27109 72251 91991 85831
40238 99145 68244 21971 86146 22825 41172 93036 44216 14381 21414 98115 21351 91061 24211 70189 12364 47334 16548 16931 23151 02204 17919 35770 58126 14415 45517 01346 31781 20525 21514 91921 56140 12161
26121 14710 64101 70178 76154 98155 38194 20642 75228 14388 15455 95235 11531 19617 13492 17132 14024 81584 13114 81135 11511 26542 47174 13740 12372 14143 84105 14094 91801 03702 46118 90111 12718 37222
16421 81764 25418 21510 17693 62810 55414 91366 12033 32302 51254 25118 49041 14514 81285 41654 393
Page source code of Black Mesa Source has 654 lines, while code of Local Desert Singles 634. I don’t know if it is anything, other than “same stuff, different code”, but I though it should be mentioned.
EDIT: Only difference I’ve found so far is in first few lines of code, and it is some kind of script.
//<![CDATA[
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//]]>
That script appears to cache a CloudFlare variable. if (!window.CloudFlare) means the code will only execute if there is no CloudFlare variable, it then sets the variable “var CloudFlare”. “var” means variable, and CloudFlare is the name of this variable. It then proceeds to setup CloudFlare by sending tokens and api keys. CloudFlare definition: “CloudFlare is a US-based company that provides a content delivery network and distributed domain name server system, sitting between the visitor and the CloudFlare user’s hosting provider, acting as a reverse proxy for websites” -Wikipedia. This means we cannot access the server directly, and instead data is sent through a middle man (CloudFlare).
Agreed - I keep returning to these two myself for that reason. I’m still 99% sure the encryption method we’re looking for is AES, for the reason you mentioned - red herrings is one thing, misleading on purpose another.
… then again… “Don’t trust anyone, it’s not safe.” Hence the other 1%.
Regarding the website source: https://www.blackmesagame.com/ (also an official page) also has 634 lines of source. I’m guessing blackmesasource.com hasn’t been updated in a while because the “source” part has been dropped. In other words: I don’t think the cloudflare stuff is important. Nice eye for detail, though!
This could mean we are to ignore the information provided by Welsh and others. That highlights one of the key problems with how the ARG has developed–it’s nigh impossible to rely on some leads, seeing as how they are negated by conflicting information. For instance, that post by 0418 that I mentioned indicated that we should look at other staff members’ webpages and pet projects, yet the “Don’t trust anyone, it’s not safe” seems to indicate that we should do the exact opposite. Frustrating. The only saving grace may be that the information from 0418 was for the Code D solution, and doesn’t apply to this portion. 8|
Here’s a link to a decoder someone made https://github.com/jamestomasino/Vic , just download as a zip and open vicdecode.html.
Nice tool, haven’t had any luck though. I have tried using 12/12/2012, Sector E Biodome Complex and every number 1-16 . Still trying a few combos.
I don’t think this is a usefull information, but:
Niobium and quantum-computer are related, a few years ago I was reading how D-wave build their quantum-computer and I they use niobium as main metal into it.
about the building: https://www.dwavesys.com/tutorials/background-reading-series/introduction-d-wave-quantum-hardware
Sorry if that seemed rude. I spent the better part of a weekend thoroughly researching the relationship. The information is useful, but not new.
Notably, most of the whiteboards throughout the game contain information that can be connected, one way or another, to quantum computers.
We should probably put Niobium on the wiki if we haven’t done so already.
Onto more recent discoveries:
Regarding the TOR page, I looked into the Niobium isotopes listed on it.
Referring to the complete property table, the TOR page only lists those above Nb-95 and below Nb-104, inclusive. All of these isotopes undergo solely Beta-minus decay (except Nb-104, which rarely undergoes neutron emission). There isn’t anything very notable about this fact, since all Niobium isotopes undergo some form of Beta decay. Funnily enough, this means a cardboard pizza box would be enough to conceal Niobium from a radiation detector.
First, understand it is neither feasible nor practical to build anything out of radioactive isotopes (radioisotopes, as they are commonly known) when there is a stable isotope available. The only situation were this would even be necessary would be when building a reactor, a battery, or a bomb. These applications use different elements, with half-lives longer than those listed on the TOR page. Niobium is stable in Nb-93, and has several isotopes that have half-lives longer than human history. Furthermore, the isotopes listed in the TOR page have relatively short half-lives. There is no reason to suspect that ONLY these specific isotopes were being used in the HALOS project.
There is, however, reason to suspect that these isotopes were present in the Niobium used. This might be important. Information on the expected isotopes could be used to locate and identify a large amount of Niobium by measuring the energy of the particles emitted by the decay of the radioisotopes. It’s like carbon dating but in reverse.
All of the isotopes listed result from the decay of Zirconium
These, in turn, come from the decay of Yttrium, Strontium, Rubidium, etc. I haven’t found anything notable looking up or down the decay chain, but feel free to take a look.
The only significance I can think of regarding providing a partial list of isotopes is to specify the decay type (beta minus).
EDIT: I’ll start looking through the whiteboards that mention beta minus decay to see if anything of interest occurs.
EDIT2: Regarding the Niobium decay chain, it doesn’t work for all the isotopes listed , but part of them are part of the decay of uranium fission products. Unfortunately, the decay of uranium fission products would not result in stable Niobium.
That’s a pretty dubious decimalization of the Halos code. You just took each base 10 byte value and concatenated them together without any padding.
Thought I seriously doubt Halos is a rehash of VIC, it would make more sense to use the very large 3008-bit integer value of halos, or the Uint16 array (results in mostly 5 digit numbers, but only up to 65535). Both encodings are available on the 752 wiki page.
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.
