Closing chat again to create puzzles...

I just realized that@randal'thor has as many bronze badges on Puzzling as I have across the network (on 200+rep sites)...

I can tell that geocache puzzle is using a counting system, but I can't quite wrap my head around it. I feel like I'm close though

@Randal'Thor Careful with your language. You were already flagged once for such foul-mouthedness! :P

OK, I just gave my first try on the TM puzzles :)

Beware the Chaotic antelopes!

well, they can break stuff in a glass shop I guess :D

@dcfyj now is your chance for a revenge on me :P

Probably not, I've got to go, I'll be busy the next few hours.

@GentlePurpleRain ... joke, right? :-)

@Sconibulus Wow, that was fast.

@Randal'Thor Hence the :P.

@Randal'Thor Oh, and thanks for the compliment (that probably should have come first...).

I've been doing a lot of alphabet math in the past hour or three...

stupid tree puzzle

well, it was quick - I expected someone to solve it quickly :)

@MariaDeleva Very sneaky, to make the spottable pattern in the right-hand column! I was going through all the Chaotic Words to try to work out what they had in common ...

@GentlePurpleRain :-)

@Randal'Thor still not sneaky enough to last more than 5 minutes :)

Perhaps "Chaotic" gave away too much, but I second Rand in that it was a nice twist that the right hand side had the defining pattern.

thanks. I will keep that in mind for the future - if I ever come up with another idea

yeah, pattern in the right was pretty neat

usually I look over there to break a pattern, and happened to see it this time

Since there have been a number of comments here recently about time-to-solve and the related difficulty, let me draw everyone's attention to a post that might provide some insight:

Basically, I don't think that a puzzle that gets solved quickly is necessarily a bad puzzle.

@Phlarx Hi! Nice work on my puzzle.

Am I barking up the right tree?

Or at least in the correct forest? :)

@Phlarx Well, you put my ciphertext through your program, and how many different symbols were there in your output? And roughly how many would you expect, given what the question said?

@Phlarx I say go on, try to decipher your output, and see what you can find. And if it looks random, then perhaps you were barking up the wrong tree. But...

@Randal'Thor Is that really lateral thinking?

I was reading it as formal logic

@Sconibulus I'm pretty sure it's reading the question in a way it's not intended to be read, so yes.

@RosieF Well, when selecting specific numbers as prefixes, the total number of potential elements is (10 * num_prefixes) - num_prefixes, which gives 28 for two of them. 5/7 gives 28 symbols, 5/6 gives 27, and 6/7 gives 26. The solution is English text, so 26 for the alphabet. It may or may not contain spaces/periods/etc., so there could be a couple more.

it was the only way I could figure out both the question, and the number

@Sconibulus My answer shows that if you interpret "two" as "exactly two" (and so on), then there is a unique solution for the number of truth-tellers, which can be found by plain logical deduction, which is what the OP intends. I'm pretty sure that with your interpretation, there would be more than one possible solution :-)

@RosieF I'll keep at it, and maybe I'll come across something tonight

Your answer doesn't solve for what the last person said though

I think mine does?

@Phlarx It contains spaces but not punctuation.

@Phlarx Good luck.

@RosieF Cool, thanks!

I thought of my answer because 1 wasn't "There is 1 Truth Teller" it was "There is ONLY 1 Truth Teller"

oh, wait, never mind

Drat, I was just writing up another comment on John's answer when he deleted it.

I fixed mine to assume exactness

@Sconibulus Hmm ... that's also a valid solution. I assume we were supposed to assume that the last speaker also made a statement of the form "exactly n of us are truth-tellers", so that the solution is unique.

I still don't think yours is right, because it doesn't solve for the statement

and that's part of the question asked

Um, @BeastlyGerbil?

Your latest edit just changed the question completely.

Oh, OK - you just put them in increasing order.

I was confused for a moment there - thought you were pranking us or something.

It still makes my answer look wrong though, since I've got them in the original order.

And there's nothing wrong with having them not in increasing order.

I'm going to rollback.

I am stuck at one spot in diamond 2...

Can we somehow help?

without spoiling the puzzle, of course

Not really, unless someone wants to create a private room and give up on solving the puzzle when it comes out.

Does it involve those barcodes and QR thingies again?

Nope.

Only one. Maybe.

If so, I probably won't mind giving up on solving it.

OK

I still haven't decided whether or not to include that one...

@Sconibulus ^

I forgot, only diamond mods can own private rooms...

@Mithrandir Only diamond mods can create private rooms.

So you need a mod's help for the room :)

Technically they're only supposed to be used for moderation stuff, but I doubt anyone would mind if we set one up briefly to discuss the making of your puzzle.

The alternative would be discussing it off-site like you do with Sci.

Impossible :P

I can speak with Sci IRL.

The only reason I'm stuck on my puzzle is because while I don't hate math, creating equations is boring and hard.

@Sconibulus ^

Eh, I'd already pretty much decided it wasn't actually soluble

when I ended up with two distinct formulas and had to choose between them

It gets kinda gloomy here in Tauremornalómë.

Ok, I started doubting google's sanity: fairies. actually assholes; gossipers; probably laughing at you; diet is composed entirely of sugar; steals the sound from bells; will trip you with invisible thread

this is one of the results' brief description when I searched for Tauremornalómë

Seriously?

Tauremornalómë is the name of the forest of the Ents.

didn't know that :)

It means 'gloomy twilight forest'.

The more popular name is Fangorn. :P

Tauremornalómë is only mentioned in a song.

'gloomy twilight forest' sounds like it should be Mirkwood over Fangorn

but maybe I'm crazy

google does say it means gloomy twilight forest

Fangorn felt more... massive and uncaring than gloomy

Mirkwood became better after Sauron moved out

Legolas is from Mirkwood.

Hoom, hoom.

Yeah, and he's way Gloomy, for an elf, much gloomier than say, Glorfindel

Eh, actually, I mostly remember Mirkwood from The Hobbit, don't remember many other mentions

I'm sure there are some, they're just not in my brain right now

I just reread LotR, so everything's fresh. :P

It's like run #36.

It is now hometime for me

take care

I currently have a few very different ideas for puzzles in my head and don't even know which to pursue. :)

All of them, or course!

The more puzzles the better!

Well, that will take some time :)

@Mithrandir Are you still picking up new things even on the umpteenth reread that you hadn't noticed before?

I will be paying the bed a proper visit, so, good night whoever is still here. :)