So, the main body of the code was broken by Hippo. I thought it would be interesting to make a code based on letter frequency in a language. I had a quick research and saw that there is no definitive list for letter frequency because everyone writes differently and it's impossible to come up with a direct list.
So I started thinking about how you could make a definitive list and I stumbled upon Linotypes. These machines had keyboards which were ordered from most frequent to least. I simply reversed the order they used and used them as a key to create a code from our alphabet.
Then, to stop people from just using cypher crackers online (computers break these codes really easily) I had to reverse the order of the words.
So your hints in the coloured letters were "Linotype" and "backwards" which is easy enough. The first clue "frequency" backwards in morse code is self explanatory too. (Interestingly, Morse took into consideration letter frequency when he invented his code.)
The red letters spelled "red herring" which ironically was a very decent clue for the third question.
Now onto the actual questions:
The first was a flower, well, it was meant to be. I found it surprising that no one tried to map them out sooner, thought this would be much quicker. They were just points on a grid and they made a child's drawing of a flower. The consolation prize for this one would have just been all the flowers in my items page.
The second was essentially just a task set using the code, so once it was cracked it was very straight forward.
The third was the red herring. The words were nonsense. It wasn't even a riddle. Take the first letter of each word in the "riddle", unscramble them, and you get... "screwdriver": a random item in my items page. The red letters helped you here by telling you that there was a massive red herring (the question itself).
So the answers were:
1: flower
2: attack Duke
3: screwdriver
No one won but I had a lot of fun with this, especially on the first day (when no one was whining). I'll send out a few rewards/ consolations to people because I was really impressed and surprised at your tenacity.
Hope you had fun.
:D
Staff, don't grave this please... It's all in English, that's kind of the point. If you'd like to see the answers (staff), I'm happy to provide them so long as you don't spoil the game for anyone else. I'll give a new clue every 24hrs that this has not been solved.)
Bpx cpo czq nut jcz hkjuq kkrvz ffz wqzrq: Jzkrvs tzozkipb z hp hpvs.
Hpvs sp szvo: KCU?
UOS:
Kqckjpik shul, vhpg z vspo kwnj wqzssz.Kkrvs:
- Kfjjpr hpvs kifuh:
"Do whales ever swim in rivers, can rats eat vegan rice?"
Clue 2: 3.
Clue 3: not "rehinged"
Clue 4: items from Torn
Final clue:
The first is like a pirate's map where x marks the spot, except that there's a load of spots that you yourself must plot.
The third should all be written in that awful colour red. For at the end of the day the meaning doesn't come from what you've read.
Number two has been solved though if you're asking me, do all three by yourself if you want glory.