March FArt Battle - Vote

We missed a couple people due to real-life butting in, but hopefully Techbot and Lousy Day will have time to submit something between now and June when eliminations start. Next month's theme is "Off Duty".


The Voting

Anyone can vote.
Everyone must vote for a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice.
1st choice will count as 3 votes, 2nd choice will count as 2 votes, and 3rd choice will count as 1 vote.
Voting will be open until Sunday night April 3rd at midnight Eastern time.

The secret messages are posted below all of the entries, you may change your votes at any time before the voting deadline, just edit your original post.

The Points

Everyone gets 10 points for entering.
After the voting is completed, the entrant who got the most votes will get 10 additional points plus 2 bonus points for winning the month, Second place will get 9 points, Third will get 8 points, etc.
Darth Delicious and Henri get 2 bonus points for their "Early Bird" entries.
These points will come into play starting in June.
The winner of this month will also get 10 million inf sent to them in-game through Gleemail.

Secret Message Contest

This is a secondary contest/game open to all. Each entry this month has a secret message inside it. Some are easy, some are more difficult. All of them are different from each other and the only clues are within the piece itself. Titles are listed above each piece where applicable. You can take a guess at as many of the secret messages as you wish.

The secret message contest is closed, answers at the bottom of this post

The winner of this contest is the one who correctly guesses the most entries. If more than one person correctly guesses the same number of entries, the tie will be broken by the earlier PM. If a guess is not exact, it will be determined by myself and/or the artist if the guess is "close enough". Artists may enter, but they don't get credit for guessing their own secret message. The winner of this contest will recieve 10 million inf sent to them through Gleemail. There will also be a consolation prize to the three most creative (yet wrong) guesses of 1 million inf each. The deadline for the secret message contest will be Friday April 1st by midnight. Then the answers will be revealed.

The Entries

"Rikti - Secret Message"

(animated GIF - if you can't see it correctly, the message reads: Incoming Message / Operation S K I R T / Qsfqbsf cpnc ... / xf buubdl Hbmbyz Djuz)
by Darth Delicious

"Who?"

by Henri

"Golden Bubba Wheatie"

by Tartyrsause


by Frozen Death / Battlewraith

"Xllusya needs your help!"

by Christopher Robin

"Two's Company. What's This?"

by Airhead


by Defiance Jones

And finally, not part of the FArt competition for voting purposes, but it is part of the secret message contest.

"Through the Looking Portal"

by Bubbawheat

The Answers

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darth Delicious The hint: SKIRT (Galaxy City = Galaxy Girl has huge skirt, which you can sit under... (on European servers for RP for example). The answer: Prepare (Qsfqbsf) bomb (cpnc) We (Xf) attack (buubdl) Galaxy (Hbmbyz) City (Djuz) Cracking the code... It uses the alphabet but a becomes b, c becomes d, d become e etc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Henri I've given clues and I'd like people to try and name the character in the piece. No one will know him as i've never played him so there's no problem there. There's a lottery ticket and playing cards aura featured, both indicating games of chance, and the numbers on the ticket are numeric - alpha code that spells his name. ie:1 = a, 2 = b, etc. His name is Chance.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tartyrsause The answer is lighter, it's written upside down in small letters at the top of the picture

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frozen Death My entry is one of those folding pictures like the ones they run in Mad Magazine. If you divide the picture into 4 vertical sections, and put the two end pieces together, it forms an image of Mender..whatever his name is--the one that helps you unlock the alpha slot. The text at the bottom becomes "Grind more shards!" Here's the folded in image:

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChristopherRobin Down the left side starting with K Klaatu 2nd row going backwards from right to left starting with B Barada Diagonally down and to the left starting with the far right column's N Nikto It's the phrase from the 1950's movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still" that is used to call off the attack of the unstoppable silver robot GORT. It's been remade in 2008 and spoofed in many other films (like The Army of Darkness).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Airhead Two is company. Then the words around the border start with 'a crowd'. Three is a crowd, as the phrase goes. So from the border, 4 = an ambush, 5 = a posse, 6 = a mob, 7 = a birthday, and 8 = a full team - ahah! 8 is a full team. So at that point the numeracy of the border phrases should be clear. Looking closely at the background, you see heroes there! 18 in total. Now, counting starts at 3 around the border, so clearly the two in the foreground should be part of the sum. 18 + 2 is 20 figures in the picture. The phrase equivalent to 20 is... It's a trap! Bit of an internet meme as a solution. No fancy codes, no need to name the heroes present, just a requirement to look very closely at the background. A range of answers may be considered close, if heroes are not spotted or if shrubbery is mistaken for a hero. Fenian, next to Caemgen, is perhaps one of the hardest to see. The full list of heroes on the picture is: 1. Marcus Cole 2. Statesman 3. Burnt Matchstick 4. VexXxa (looks a bit like another burnt matchstick) 5. Caemgen, 6. Alpha, 7. Fenian 8. Airhead, 9. Knitwit (or any other small person) 10. Juggertha 11. Sensei Blur (or any other slim, long-haired hero at this resolution) 12. Comrade Hero 13. Thors Assassin (and the top of his staff) 14. Mr Happy 15. Dragynn 16. Janet Planet (dropped her pistol onto another hill) 17. Pyromindi 18. Brahn 19. Darth Delicious (looking at Janet Planet's pistol) 20. Cat-tailed girl with mask (Deebs or Sapphic Neko or Feral Kat or... but I forgot the ears)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Defiance Jones its either blatantly "Please Keep Our City CLEAN!" (as it says on the sign) or its the depiction that "if you DON'T keep our city clean, its gonna Stiiiiiing!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bubbawheat The hint: The message on the ground talks about a mirror. It is addressed to Burnt Matchstick and signed by the mirror version of Burnt Matchstick, signed in their native language. That is directly copied on the ring around the portal. Using the letters in Burnt Matchstick there should be enough letters to guess the sentence "Help me Burnt Matchstick you're my only hope." Also, Burnt Matchstick is posed similarly to Princess Leia at some point during that message.

Some very interesting and diverse puzzles here, have fun people.

Edit: because OP was changed/corrected and so as not to spoil anyone else's guessing fun.
I will not post any of the answers or participate, but just watch from the sidelines for this one.

One --> Artz Giveaway <-- To Rule Them ALL!

I will settle this. ORANGE FTW! - Ex Libris

I am humbled (again) by such great entries! Here's my votes

1st) "Two's Company. What's This?" by Airhead - I just love the style and the layout and everything!

2nd) "Who?" by Henri

3rd) "Xllusya needs your help!" by Christopher Robin

And I have to say, You all are TOUGH Puzzle-masters! I honestly don't have a clue as to what any of your secret messages are!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to add one more extra mini-prize. I will be handing out three prizes of 1 million inf each to the most creative guesses, so if you can't figure it out the right way, feel free to guess your own way.

(1) Airhead
(2) Darth Delicious
(3) Defiance Jones

Alls ya'll are too clever for me on the puzzle front.

This may sound silly, but I just realized that how the secret message is implemented could affect people's voting. I think I may cut off the contest portion by Friday or extend the voting a couple more days - if no one guesses all of the messages before then. And you may change your votes after the answers have been revealed, just edit your original post.

1st: Tartyrsause; because of the art... I don't get the clue though... (possibly because I'm Dutch.. I get that a lot ).

2nd: Defiance Jones; Even though it's not finished, I can see this would have been quite awesome. (will we get to see the finished piece at some point?)

3rd: Christopher_Robin; It's the eyes... they are hypnotizing! Very lovely drawing of Xllusya!

I'll PM my puzzling part.

*waves*
DeeDee

CoH Fan-Art Sale still several slots open!

Read my in-game stories and check out my DeviantART page.
- coXso - It was a memorable time filled with art!

1. ChristopherRobin

2. Defiance Jones

3. Tartyrsauce

1. Tartyrsauce. Great fun.
2. Darth Delicious. Nice touch with the animation.
3. Christopher Robin. Nice palette. It was a close one with Henri.

Puzzle-y-ness did play a part here. I found Bubbawheat's the most frustrating, but so much more rewarding, once I got there. I was surprised to find the answer had similar inspiration to mine. But that's hardly a useful clue. I came up with answers to the rest except for Battlewraith. I expect I got CR's wrong, but I'll probably try again.

Defiance Jones' heroine with the sword looks very cool, police hat and Greek mask. Awesome basic lines. It'd be great to see it taken a wee bit further.

Arc: 379017: Outbroken See all your old friends in the Outbreak Tutorial sequel!
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1. Tartyrsauce
2. Henri
3. CR

1 Tartyrsause
2 Henri
3 Defiance Jones

err.. I resaved mine as a PNG from a JPEG cuz of the file size differance. I think it being black and white makes it better for a PNG file format then a Jpeg.. but I dont know ..ive always JPEG'ed all my images.. maybe cuz this is a black and white image, so PNG looks better and has a smaller image size then JPEG ??


..oh, and I vote:

1. Tartyrsauce
2. Chrisroby
3. Henri

Come on people, best guess so far only has 4 out of 8. And don't forget the "most creative" runner up prizes. Bring on the guessing!

Extending the secret message guessing contest one more day. I know more than 2 people can enter this. At the very least, send in your most creative/funny guesses.

the only secret message guess I can make is about my own.. and even then, I think that might be wrong. *sniffle*

Big hint on the most difficult to guess, and yet one of the more well done puzzles. Mad Fold-in

1. Tartyrsause
2. Airhead
3. CR

Anyone else having trouble opening the forums?

By the way, I don't think I've said this yet, but this has been an amazing month for me to watch. I'm very glad that everyone stepped up to the challenge and brought their "A" game in the process. It's amazing that with all the entries, not a single puzzle was the same type.

There were some similar ones, like DD, Henri, and I all used alphabet substitutions, but we all used different ones. Tartyr's and Defiance Jones's were the simplest, but Tartyr's fooled more than one person. Battlewraith's completely baffled me and everyone else, but as a huge fan of Mad Magazine back in the day I can't believe I didn't see it. (although I think I may have figured it out given enough time, at least I'd like to think so) CR's is a tough one when you don't know what you're looking for, especially when the words aren't english, I think it would have been easier if one of the three were spelled correctly left to right, as long as you knew the reference. And Airhead's is one of the most interesting and complex puzzles, yet I think also quite solvable with enough effort.

And on top of the puzzles, I think the art shined through this month as well. DD and Henri came through with some of the best I've seen from them to date. Tartyrsause gave me the best laugh in a long time, I can't tell you how much I love all the in-jokes combined (at my... expense? enjoyment? either way). Even unfinished, I think Defiance Jones has a great start there, and I hope I get to see the finished piece. And Airhead managed to take his own style and make it feel almost like a old-fashioned engraved piece, only in full color.

And as I've gone on and on about all these pieces, I honestly can't decide on a 1-2-3 ranking and will not be voting myself (although I will probably get my wife to make the decision for me). Thank you all again for participating this month.

Oh yeah, and congrats to Airhead for getting the most right: 4. He got Henri, Darth Delicious, Defiance Jones, and mine.

I was in art and never noticed???? *dies*

I really punked out on this one, didn't even try... though it's probably a good thing as most of those I would have never have gotten.


Good job all!

Gratz Airhead!

So what were the answers then? I'm very curious!
I know I got many wrong.. as I'm not a puzzler... I have the brain for it.. but not the patience *giggles*

CoH Fan-Art Sale still several slots open!

Read my in-game stories and check out my DeviantART page.
- coXso - It was a memorable time filled with art!

Thanks CR! Which 2 didn't you get? Some of them are especially badly drawn.

Thanks DD! I'd expected CR to solve everything. Bubbawheat snuck the answers into the first post of this thread, under the pictures.

Apologies to anyone not in my picture, I made the border first so I had to stop at 20. I got several ideas for the heroes from CR's art thread.

Arc: 379017: Outbroken See all your old friends in the Outbreak Tutorial sequel!
Arc: Coming Soon: The Incarnate Shadow Shard of Fire and Ice Mender Rednem needs you!
Massively.com opinion poll: Please Help Save CoH!

The two in the upper left. The long haired female who looks to have 6 eyes (or they could be brow spikes) and the one with a segmented tail.
What I'm even more curious about is if the bad pun (my favorite kind ) I got from your image was created intentionally or not?

P.S. I'm glad you found inspiration in my thread, thanks for mentioning that.

One --> Artz Giveaway <-- To Rule Them ALL!

I will settle this. ORANGE FTW! - Ex Libris