To start off, as the title says, I know I am wrong about the deciphering and that the answer is already out there, but I didn't know abbreviations could be used and i figured out my own way hours before I heard about, what I would frankly say, very crucial information to know. But, it isn't really my fault or Manager's fault as he was busy atm when I asked a day before he said it, I do believe that it should've been a given rule, but it's whatever. Anyways, what I will show is how I got to my answer of deciphering this code via my version of a logic proof based on this data given. Chronospectrum, StarWarsCrazy, etc. can confirm I got this answer before Manager said abbreviations were allowed. My answer for this cipher was "if you stem gag at," and here's how I derived that:
First, let's get the terms and the givens out of the way.
Given (Premises):
1. Has a key (1 character = 1 letter) https://prnt.sc/l3elkk
2. Only letters https://prnt.sc/l3em8y
3. Proper English, a bit broken, not a complete sentence, but understandable (?) https://prnt.sc/l3emxd https://prnt.sc/l3en23
4. "if you" are the first two words that correspond with the first two terms in the cipher (guessed by StarWarsCrazy, confirmed by Manager)
5. A letter becomes unavailable if it's already taken by a symbol, unless theres another of the same symbol in which you can use the same letter
6. No abbreviations/slang (Proper English doesn't allow it) https://prnt.sc/l3emxd
Step 1. {Term 5} Include vowel excluding letters [I, Y, O, U], only "A" and "E" remain (Premise 5, vowel rule)
Step 2. {Term 5} Test "E" as first character, "ew" as a word becomes a viable option, but interjection words cannot be used at the end of phrases w/o quotations, commas, etc. in proper English, therefore, "E" cannot be used as the first character (Premise 3, step 1, interjection rule)
Step 3. {Term 5} Test "E" as second character, [me, be, we] are the only viable options as words (Premise 5, step 1)
Step 4. {Term 5} Test "A" as first character, [am, an, as, at, aw] are viable options, but "aw" is an interjection and cannot be used at the end of a statement without quotations, commas, etc., "an" cannot be used either because it is an indefinite article and a particular preposition that has not been yet seen ending a statement/sentence (http://sentence.yourdictionary.com/as), "as" is used for similies/comparisons therefore cannot be used to end a statement, "at" can be used because there are instances where it can end a statement/sentence (eg. There I was at). Only "am" and "at" work (Premise 3, interjection rule, indefinite article rule, preposition exception, step 1)
Step 5. {Term 5} Test "A" as last character, "ha" viable option but is an interjection thus cannot be used as a closer to the statement (Premise 3, interjection rule, step 1) (I'll stop stating annoying interjection rules from now on)
Step 6. {Term 5} [me, be, we, am, at] viable options (Simplification and addition Step 3 + Step 4)
Step 7. {Term 4 + Term 5} Second character of Term 4 shares the same character as the first character in Term 5, thus share the same letter which would also be "sandwiched" by two of the same letters in Term 4 (Premise 1)
Step 8. {Term 4 + Term 5} Use "me" for Term 5, "m" will go to middle character of Term 4, no viable words in proper English for Term 5, therefore "me" does not work (Premise 5, step 6, step 7) (http://www.bestwordclub.com/en/wl/3letterwordsmiddleletterm.htm)
Step 9. {Term 4 + Term 5} Use "be" for Term 5, "b" will go to middle character of Term 4, "aba" is a viable word in proper English for Term 5, therefore "be" might work (http://www.bestwordclub.com/en/wl/3letterwordsmiddleletterb.htm) (Premise 5, step 6, step 7)
Step 10. {Term 4 + Term 5} Use "we" for Term 5, "w" will go to middle character of Term 4, no viable words in proper English for Term 5, therefore "we" does not work (Premise 5, step 6, step 7) (http://www.bestwordclub.com/en/wl/3letterwordsmiddleletterw.htm)
Step 11. {Term 4 + Term 5} Use "am" for Term 5, "a" will go to middle character of Term 4, [dad, gag, pap, tat] are viable words in proper English for Term 5, therefore "am" might work (Premise 5, step 6, step 7) (http://www.bestwordclub.com/en/wl/3letterwordsmiddlelettera.htm)
Step 12. {Term 4 + Term 5} Use "at" for Term 5, "a" will go to middle character of Term 4, [dad, gag, pap] are viable words in proper English for Term 5, therefore "at" might work (Premise 5, step 6, step 7) (http://www.bestwordclub.com/en/wl/3letterwordsmiddlelettera.htm)
Step 13. {Term 4} Viable words are [aba, dad, gag, pap, tat] (Simplification and addition Step 9 + Step 11 + Step 12)
Step 14. {Term 5} Viable words are [be, am, at] (Simplification and addition Step 9 + Step 11 + Step 12)
Step 15. {Term 3 + Term 5} Second character in Term 3 shares the same character as the last character in Term 5, thus share the same letter (Premise 1)
Step 16. {Term 4 + Term 5} Ordered combination of any chosen item in list corresponding to "be" will not work because verbs/nouns cannot be followed with "be" to conclude a statement (Step 14 list index 1 + Step 13 list index 1, some English rule I forgot)
Step 17. {Term 4 + Term 5} Ordered combination of any chosen item in list corresponding to "am" will not work because verbs/nouns cannot be followed with "am" to conclude a statement (Step 14 list index 2 + Step 13 list index 2-5, some English rule I forgot)
Step 18. {Term 4 + Term 5} Ordered combination of some chosen item in list corresponding to "at" will work because verbs/nouns can be followed with "at" to conclude a statement (eg. where were the dogs at, I like what you're vomiting at) (Step 14 list index 3 + Step 13 list index 2-4, preposition exception, some English rule I forgot)
Step 19. {Term 5} "at" is true (Simplification step 18)
Step 20. {Term 3 + Term 5} Term 3 shares the same letter "t" as the second character in Term 5 into its second character (Step 15)
Step 21. {All Terms in English conjuncture} A statement cannot start with a hypothetical statement such as "if you" and end with a subject followed by a preposition "at", therefore "at" has to correspond to a verb which is its list index of 2 ("gag") to be in accordance with partial conditional/conditional logic (if/if then) (Premise 4, Step 14 list index 3 + step 12 list index 2, partial conditional/conditional logic rule)
Step 22. {Term 3} All vowels are taken besides "e," input "e" to the third character of Term 3 (Premise 5, step 1, step 19)
Step 23. {Term 3} Only letters left are [B, C, D, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, V, W, X, Y], there only exists an "s" in a four lettered word that is followed by "t" from this list (Premise 5, Step 20)
Step 24. {Term 3} Only letters left are [B, C, D, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, V, W, X, Y], there only exists "m" and "p" to input as last character of term 3 as a word in proper English, therefore words "step" and "stem" are viable options (Premise 3, Premise 5)
Step 25. {All Terms in English conjuncture} Two options for decoded code, "if you stem gag at" and "if you step gag at" one of the most logical interpretations for "gag" would be choke and for stem and step it would be stop and "footstep," respectively and "at" means some sort of position (eg. "Where is she at", "at" would be the position being asked for, "you direct your hate at him", "at" shows that the hate is being positioned to the person), "if you stop choke at" would sound like a military tactic and moreso if said "if you stop choke [Point A]" with partial conditional logic to back it up. "If you step gag at" would not make sense unless given a much lengthier explanation, therefore, my pick was, and now is during this circumstance, "if you stem gag at" (Premise 3)
Whoever stayed for the ride, thank you. I probably made wording errors and other errors as well, so please point them out!
Here is a valid pigpen cipher key where Manager's code actually decodes to "if you stem gag at". Any blank space on the key could be any other letter in any order, because only used letters have been assigned. This is to prove that Maige's solution could have been valid if the key were different. (I made this in paint in 2 minutes, pls no judge)
I just want to ask, wtf is "if you stem gag at" and if that is proper english I legit don't know, i said proper english on that thread once Maige sent me his answer on discord, maybe i didn't make myself clear? I though, maige's step by step is a rather logical thought line but it is based in the premise there is no abbreviation, and that is fine, but once I said that there was an abbreviation you should go to step 7 (i believe) when you say that there can not be an M in the middle on term 4, from there you'd get _M_, what abbreviation could it be? sms it is the obvious solution imo, "oh thats not an sms it's a message or a private message etc etc", maybe im just lazy and thought you'd disregard that level of accuracy, with that M you'd get me and from there you'd get Read with the e from m, wouldn't have taken you more than 5 minutes but if you don't have to want that work it's not my prob
lastly, i never imagined this would have had this level of interest, with comment, private messages atleast 10/15 ppl took atleast some interest with this in contrast to what i did a while ago where basically no one did. If you want a real challenge in time give you guys some ig since this one was fairly quick, don't expect me to specify rules because once I do so we'll get in to some level of extra pickiness, and maige you still didn't create the 2k skin
