nicely noticed…the number of references to outside the game is almost getting too much 
phlOgistOn and I have been investigating the VIC cipher, and the problem we’re running in to is that there is no clear implementation of it. The minor differences can make for wildly different results.
https://www.quadibloc.com/crypto/pp1324.htm
https://everything2.com/user/raincomplex/writeups/VIC+cipher
And also there’s a very similar “Secom” cipher
https://users.telenet.be/d.rijmenants/en/secom.htm
It only requires a passphrase, and not the date, id, and random number stuff.
I wrote a encoder/decoder for Secom. You can check it out here: https://jsfiddle.net/JHQFz/embedded/result/
^ what he said
VIC requires 4 different parts to be crackable
- a date (we have various options to try)
- a 20 char passphrase (referred to as the first line of a song historically, but could be “superbus via inscientiae” or “the philosophers stone” or anything else relevant)
- a short phrase for remembering the top line of the checkboard (examples from searching have been Estonia, A sin to err, At one sir - basically it should contain the most used letters from the alphabet within the first 8 characters), no idea which of these it might be, or whether the ARG might have its own.
- a personal number, 1-16. (could easily be brute-forced, or might simply be code A: 1001 = 9 in binary)
…or could be “about 7”
This is all insane!
On the plus side, I don’t think anyone has looked into the “Xen placeholder” map that crashes the game. It loads something with too many entities and the game goes kaput.
Why is a cascade cypher not relevant again? It seems as though that might hold some ground. I can’t seem to find the reason way back in the previous pages.
ALSO: Dat “Dr. Horn” viewing this thread… It’s like a taunt. (I saw a line through it after a while, it’s obviously just another troll.)
And he has zero posts…
GEEZ I WONDER WHO IT IS.
MAYBE HE WILL POST HERE.
Anyone else notice the security guard in QE say “It might be a good idea to stock up on pizzas before you head out” pause “Don’t give me that look” after the fight right before you head outside? I kept trying to talk to him to see what would happen before leaving, and thats what came out.
EDIT: Have these been noticed before? They are immediately before the room with the crazy machine you have to shut down to release the scientists, in the small airlock with two doors on either end. (Forgive my not scrolling back 35 pages to see :p)
Yeah; I checked the entire level after he said that (figured that might mean that the changes to QE as the - you know what - happens unlocks something) but aside from the lowering of some security gates, nothing.
And if you give him a Pizza? One of the scientists takes toilet paper, so it could be done.
How many and where? That could be relevant somehow.
Possibly the cascade cypher is still relevant, but on the same place as cascade was writtem, we also had various other ciphers and forms of encryption mentioned (RSA/twofish/serpent/1024bit/2048bit). There’s so much info across all the whiteboards that it’s very difficult to know what’s pertaining to the ARG and what’s just background filler/easter eggs.
The vic cipher is perhaps tenuously linked itself since we only have a coin (hopefully a nickel) and the name Victor as the hints towards it, but both of these are taken directly from clue C and so if they are hints, are from certain ARG information.
Noticed something HUGE about the equations throughout the labs in QE:
A lot of the symbols, such as the lambda symbol, the p’s, n’s, e’s, and the weird squiggly symbol that looks like a cursive “l” that is used to denote Euler’s totient function are ALL related to what is called an “RSA algorithm”.
Furthermore, one of the whiteboards in the lab says “Please use cascade ciphers only” and “1024 bit key (RSA) or 2048”. That last part refers to the structure of an RSA algorithm, which can solve a combination of numbers using a “p” “q” and “e” input. P, q and e must also be prime numbers–well, you’ll notice that a couple of the whiteboards, primarily those in the offices, say more than once that p=7. Well, 7 is a prime number AND is one of the exponents necessary to solve the RSA algorithm.
I’m thinking that with q and e, this could lead to something big. Here’s a screenshot to show the writing on the whiteboard:
EDIT: Just noticed your post, Phlog–think you might be right about that. I really think that the big block of numbers in Lab D is Code D and that the key to solving it is an RSA algorithm or something similar to the ciphers you mentioned.
I don’t think anyone has posted that. Unfortunately it falls under what could be relevant but we really just don’t know. That signifies what and how big of a hazard is there. Someone would have to look up what it means but if it matches up with what is there than it might not be relevant. I would assume that blue = water related, Red = fire or explosion related, yellow = electric related, and the while holds a symbol.
I’m also pleased to see someone has brought up that it specifically mentions to use cascade ciphers in the game. I was just looking for that image.
They’re chemical storage indicators meaning “highly flammable low flashpoint” and “highly hazardous to health” respectively.
https://www.juniata.edu/services/safety/images/diamond_000.gif
I did spend a long afternoon hoping it was RSA, using 0851 as the ‘n’ value with p and q as 23, 37 (prime factors of 0851), 3541 as a d value and 1001 as the e… this seemed to work all too perfectly with the numbers lining up like soldiers - this was using the PKCS#1 alternative mentioned on the wiki page…I cant remember why I used this other than the fact there’s a lambda symbol in the equation…
Unfortunately all I ended up with was a load of 3 digit numbers instead of 5 digit…
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Amx8uRTIfNCwdGw4QTRWQzdtaG1OT1VjUnVpRTZzdnc
^ google docs can’t cope with the size of some of the numbers so I couldn’t directly import a copy with the formulae so that’s just a copy paste of the values.
https://www.mediafire.com/view/?zt4d7mqc4rfger1 < copy of the actual .ods file direct from my PC - ask if you want an excel compatible version.
Some of the figures had to be worked out by hand first which is why they’re just typed in, I’m pretty sure I got my maths right. If anyone can convert those figures into letters then that’s more than I could 
Just replayed QE with that exact thought in mind. Took the pizza from the lounge, and set it in the lobby, then after the fight, had him say that line, and tried giving it to him, and even taking it outside with me, but alas to no avail. Re-searching the labs now that the fight is over just for shits to see if anything was triggered by him saying that.
Thanks for the info. That makes sense.
Ahh, that’s a shame. (Though I wonder if it has to be a specific pizza or something like that…)
I actually carried it through most of the level and shot it with the laser, but all it did was was disintegrate.
Also, found another pizza in a vent in apprehension.
Edit: I just found a whiteboard in AM with some really suspicious looking stuff on it; there’s a matrix and a short formula. It’s across from where G-Man is, can someone else get a good look at it?
when you play the qe code .mp3, the tags show the Artist as Dr Horn. I wonder if the series of bleeps means anything?
Already been found, that was code C