Website: TapJoint.com

Originally posted by ChaoticOrder
reply to post by neogia

 

Hmmm... well this is odd. If you send a message on key 14 it sends 3 different version of the message to the server. For instance, if I send "who is garrison butler" on key 14 is sends this:

word=who is garrison butler,jcb lt ypffltbv xusiqf,sbq jh oniijhqv muxfri

It appears to be ordered like this:

word=key14,key15,key16

So "sbq jh oniijhqv muxfri" is "who is garrison butler" in key 16.

However, if you use key 16 and send a message it looks like this:

word=asdf,asdfwho is garrison butler

I assume that it's actually meant to look like this:

word=asdf,asdf,who is garrison butler

The first two are just replaced with nonsense since they don't seem to be necessary when using key 16. However, it does look like they've made an error, because they've left out the second comma which separates the middle segment from the last segment, and that could be why we are always getting "command not valid". Either way, I'm beginning to think we've hit a dead end because they actually haven't built the next part of the game yet. That sucks...

edit on 4-3-2012 by ChaoticOrder because: (no reason given)

After reviewing your analysis, I have a few comments and thoughts. I noticed that the XML that is returned from the server does not always encapsulate all the possible replies. It appears that many of the default replies are in the returned XML, but there may be a primary "special command" interpreter before the URL is constructed for the server.

That being said, it is possible that Key16 only responds to "special commands". If this were the case, the easiest way to make Key16 always return a default reply is to leave out the comma. That way, only the special command interpreter will be activated if a string is a match and all others will blow through.

I can give several examples of commands we have typed where the response we receive on the site cannot be obtained from the server you linked to, which means other code is in play.

Just some food for thought. I have not downloaded the swf or other files, I only used the link provided in the thread above.

EDIT

Not to belabour the point, but here's a simple example:

Q: war
A: We are fighting to end the lies

or alternately:

A: We're at war for the truth

Here is the URL to query the server for 'war'
URL to server for WAR

Here is the result from the server:


The displayed reply text on the TapJoint website does not hail from the referenced server. I'm just guessing, but I don't think the game is broken. But I guess we'll find out.

I'm done with tech-time, back to cold onion noodles for me.

reply to post by Ubiquitous


I'm still wondering if AMP might not be part of some larger organization. When we were still thinking that the city might be in Japan I was thinking that maybe this was an alternate timeline where the Allies invaded Japan instead of dropping the bomb. As a result Japan is still occupied by Allied forces and heavily regulated. I don't really have any evidence to support this theory though.

reply to post by Xcalibur254


I think the main, uh, thing/plot driver/world difference is this focus on energy. Everything seems to stem from the extreme regulation of energy. Drinking was Wasteful Intoxication, and energy use was recorded on the citation. Even the punishment was "regeneration". I'm assuming that means regenerating energy.

Whatever happened in the apocalypse, something caused energy to either be in short supply, or maybe that's the lie. AMP, and whoever controls it (I think you're right about that) has much more power than they let on, and our revolution group is looking to expose that lie and share the energy.

Hell the PQA is another group of people who guard and regulate energy. Energy very clearly is /the/ driving force behind the main overarching story affecting this world.

reply to post by Xcalibur254


I like the idea of this being some kind of alternate history. I'm pretty sure the location is somewhere in China since the "show me the money" request give you old Chinese coins and if you ask "can we see the ocean from here" it replies with no so it might not be Japan, but definitely somewhere in mainland Asia after the 20th century.

reply to post by Ubiquitous


I've actually tried to find out the cause of the energy shortage but everything comes back with the bit about PQA monitoring energy use. However when you ask about them monitoring energy usage the response is "To control the city." I've also got a response that was something along the lines of "Those the control the truth have the power." I can't remember what exactly my question was but I'm pretty sure it had something to do with AMP and PQA. So it does seem like the claims about an energy shortage are fabricated so they can control the population and that by getting outside the city we can learn the truth. I am however interested in the ancestors that mentioned in a radio broadcast that were worried about an energy shortage. I haven't been able to get any kind of real response though.

I'm wondering why it seems so hard to leave the city. I haven't been able to get any answer of this. Although the mention of the sky train not going to the distant precincts did remind me of the film Dark City. It also makes me wonder whether Dick Jacobs was actually murdered or if he committed suicide.

Q: What happens now?
A: A revolution is mounting.

Q: What happens after March Ninth?
A: (I am handed a brassknuckle with CC written on it)

Q: What does CC stand for?
A: (I am handed Carr's dog tag)

Q: What broadcasting devices are there?
A: I am here

Q: Why do they monitor the electricity?
A: To control the city.

That's all for today. I am going to bed.

reply to post by InTheFlesh1980

there may be a primary "special command" interpreter before the URL is constructed for the server.

Yes, that is possible. It could be fudging the url on purpose, unless it receives the right commands. But that would mean the right command is probably hidden in the source code of the SWF file. I might take a look at the source later, because I'm getting sick of trying to figure this out properly.

reply to post by ChaoticOrder


If you want to paste the source code in something like a Pastebin, we could crowdsource crawling through the code. I didn't realize it was possible to pull the code from something like that, is it not compiled?

reply to post by Ubiquitous


You can decompile swf files fairly easily. You can download the source of both swf's here: www.filedropper.com...

I've added the decodings of keys 14, 15, and 16 on the wikia along with the instructions to enable the keyboard for type 14 and 16. tapjoint.wikia.com...

Ok, I found the bug in the code. It is in fact a bug and not intentionally fudging the output based on if you have the proper keywords. Now... I know -nothing- about swf compilation. If you make the change, can you recompile it to a working swf and run it? If so, we might see some progress.

Line: 2401-2403

if (Globals.CHEATENABLED == 2)[
return (("asdf,asdf" + _arg1));
];

Should be changed to:

if (Globals.CHEATENABLED == 2)[
return (("asdf,asdf," + _arg1));
];

Let's hope ChaoticOrder can recompile this into a working swf, and we can blow past this wall!

Its obviously intentional. No need to go digging in the source codes to "get ahead"

this is not the intended function. Lets use clues, not SWF cheats

Originally posted by PoliceState
Its obviously intentional. No need to go digging in the source codes to "get ahead"

this is not the intended function. Lets use clues, not SWF cheats

It's not a "cheat". CHEATENABLED is a flag used to determine which key is currently being used (14,15,16). It's a pretty obvious syntactic flaw to leave the comma out. I've made similar mistakes when concatenating lists of strings myself. Besides, if they really didn't want us to find out anything from key 16, they would (and might possibly have already) disable it on the server side.

I think the interesting lines start around 2816, where they're parsing out the string we pass in, but conveniently looking for some literals. Now as much as I want to stay up, I really need to get to bed, but one that really jumped out at me was line 2932

trace("Amp Knobs")

Is Knobs a black market trader, but also a member of AMP? An inside man? That'd make sense why when asked who Knobs works for, we're told Loman and Carr.

And even more interesting is line 3026

trace("Danger Radiation")

That's the first I'm hearing about it, and I'd love if people could start trying to combinations of questions involving that. I'm sure there's more below that, I think we've struck a goldmine of places to start going with questions.

Also, "Prio Rows", "Generals", and "Last Generals" to be brief about it. And interestingly everyone we know about our revolution team has AMP next to them in the trace() call.

And I think we have a lead on why Key 16 is busted, it'd be great if we can fix that, which I'm hopeful we can (I'm not a flash guy so I can't saw whether we can or not).


Edit: Neogia's right. Cheat is just telling which key it's in, and that is very obviously a syntax error, not an on purpose error. If that was on purpose I'd say there would be a comment about it in the code next to the line.

That being said, the lines I'm pointing out are more along the lines of cheating in that we have some prompts to go off of now. I don't consider it a real cheat in that we don't know what to ask or what the response will be, rather it's like a hit, a direction we can take we didn't know about before. It also means we need to discover what clues we missed that lead us to these new directions.

Originally posted by PoliceState
Lets use clues, not SWF cheats

I think PoliceState means that we should be trying to find clues inside the game instead of trying to crack it open and find the answers.

Personally, I'm against it. Crack away, I want a waveunit

I only looked at the source to find the bug, not to find petty "cheats". IMO, we can't really progress until we can talk to knobs on key 16. Which we can't do as long as there is a bug in the source.

reply to post by neogia

It's not a "cheat". CHEATENABLED is a flag used to determine which key is currently being used (14,15,16).

Well I'm not 100% sure about that. I find it a bit suspicious that they check the cheat variable on those lines. Let me ask this, has everyone here who tried to check the URL playing it with the cheats enabled? Perhaps we should disable the cheats then try to see what the URL looks like for key 16 messages?


reply to post by Ubiquitous

Neogia's right. Cheat is just telling which key it's in, and that is very obviously a syntax error, not an on purpose error. If that was on purpose I'd say there would be a comment about it in the code next to the line

It just seems too obvious imo. They may have done it stop anyone with cheats enabled from cracking the clues on key 16.

reply to post by AislaraJaison


They used a phone number to advertise the movie, "District 9". When you called it, it told you to report any aliens in the city. My guess is that this is a clever viral marketing campaign and the phone number is nothing to be worried about.

Also, I couldn't resist creating an account on here to get to the bottom of this.

reply to post by ChaoticOrder


I haven't used any cheats, only the online version. But I still get the "asdf" in my outgoing urls. Hope that helps.

reply to post by neogia


Hmmm, ok, well that is weird. It must be a bug in the code then. I'll see if I can fix it and recompile it. But I don't think it will help much. As I said, they probably haven't made any more of the game, because they would have noticed such a trivial code error during testing if they had.