Cryptography in Bridgeport?

[Hecateus]

I am not finding any reference to the use of cyphers or other cryptography (apart from lockpicking and One-Armed-Bandit machines*).

 

So here is a suggested reading list:

https://www.librarything.com/tag/cryptography,+fantasy

the obligatory wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptography

I could provide more but I would be boring you.

So here is a mission idea, fell free to steal it:

A 'client' hires a thief to find a missing McGuffin located in a crypt in a mansion; the lower crypt is protected by a mysterious passcode system...unfathomable clues and runes/glyphs are hidden throughout the upper crypt. The lady of the house like to play "find the clue" with her friends via hidden cryptic notes placed all over for a party starting in the morning. Puzzle solutions should include environmental clues, such as in Paintings and other art objects, flower arranging anyone?. It is plausible that a disgruntled servant or jealous suitor might sabotage the event by mixing things up. Ultimately these lead to a master book somewhere in the house which will give sufficient idea of how to solve the puzzles below the house. Don't forget household loot, the guards, and undead in a trapped lower crypt. McGuffin should be something like the Antikythera mechanism...different factions want it for different reasons...perhaps is it is thought to be a clue to solving the P=NP problem...whihc in short means "OK who want's to be a God?"

 

*Kaching! [seven][Cherry][banana] So Sorry. Insert Coin to Continue!

[161803398874989]

Solving P vs NP doesn't necessarily turn you into a god. Proof of equality could be non-constructive, meaning we can't do shit with it anyway, or the constants involved in a constructive proof could be unfathomably huge (think Graham's Number) so that the algorithm is not practically feasible. Furthermore, inequality seems pretty likely, so cases where you find an everything-breaking algorithm are extremely unlikely, even more so because people have been looking for so long.

 

Mathematical realities aside, actual cryptographic puzzle solving is not really something you put in a game, since it tends to require a piece of paper and a pen to work stuff out. Sure you can make a story revolving around cryptography (if you need any pointers I can help), but actual cryptography breaking, nah.

[VanishedOne]

You do get stuff like alternative character sets in games...

http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/onan/blog/does-fez-deserve-so-much-praise-for-its-cryptograp/93070/

...but I agree that anything beyond the simplest ciphers does risk involving too much repetitive work to appeal to many people. (Who wants to sit down and compose frequency charts?) If you rely on clues, as suggested in the OP, that's a different kind of puzzle.

Edited August 13, 2015 by VanishedOne

[Hecateus]

Most of the work should be already done in game. There should never be a need to do anything more complicated than what players regularly did to map areas with paper and pencil in the 'good old days'; simple stuff like what is found in the Boy Scout Handbook. I don't expect players to Charles Babbage reincarnated. An in-game cypher disc would be awesome.

[demagogue]

The way I'd use it is to have a hard cypher that would be a huge shortcut if you solved it, or a gratuitous but cool secret, but you can still complete the game without it. Then you don't have to feel bad about having a really tough one, and the player still gets a real feeling of accomplishment for solving it.

 

Edit: Incidentally, probably the toughest cypher I ever solved was a hint in a Thief2 FM. Well it was more of a math problem than a cypher.

It ended up being compass directions that tell you which streets to turn down to get to the entrance to a secret place.

[Hecateus]

easy ciphers would be simple morse-code, perhaps used by ticker-tape machines and telegraphs used by Inventors Guild? Also semaphore flags /Clacks Towers. In terms of encrypted cyphers, players are often happy to deal with incomplete codewheels ala Assassins Creed.

[161803398874989]

easy ciphers would be simple morse-code, perhaps used by ticker-tape machines and telegraphs used by Inventors Guild? Also semaphore flags /Clacks Towers. In terms of encrypted cyphers, players are often happy to deal with incomplete codewheels ala Assassins Creed.

Honestly, those are boring as hell. So is decoding stuff. Nothing interesting happens in anything understandable for the layman. A keyhunt with some clues, that's pretty alright. So is Portal-style puzzling.

The trick, in my eyes, is to keep it in-game and in-context. None of those stupid-ass minigames with riddles that are so easy I could solve them while passed out cold after downing a bottle of vodka.

[stumpy]

i've been working on this. it opens some doors. (a,b,c,d) when you solve it.

 

Edited August 16, 2015 by stumpy

[Hecateus]

Honestly, those are boring as hell. So is decoding stuff. Nothing interesting happens in anything understandable for the layman. A keyhunt with some clues, that's pretty alright. So is Portal-style puzzling.

The trick, in my eyes, is to keep it in-game and in-context. None of those stupid-ass minigames with riddles that are so easy I could solve them while passed out cold after downing a bottle of vodka.

I agree that for purposes of a thiefsie game, they would usually make for boring gameplay. At the very least I hope cryptography can be part of the background buzz of Bridgeport; seeing as how they were quite important in the simulated eras.