I believe the "two key" hypothesis has been tested by several people, by feeding both halves separately into auto solvers such as zkdecrypto and azdecrypt. Nothing turned up from it, but maybe 170 characters are too few to guarantee the solution would be found. We need to create some test ciphers to get a handle on this, and to measure the behavior of the bigrams.

I have been looking through the 20,000 solutions, but don’t see anything particularly interesting yet. I copied the text to Word and am using the Find tool and various Zodiac words to look for a nice solution.

I have been wondering the same thing about just how few symbols AZD can reliably work with, and I think that Jarlve said that 170 would work. I made a simple test message, smokie36, all homophonic, with "I LIKE KILLING" as the plaintext and the following key:

A 1 2 3 4
B 5 6
C 7 8
D 9 10
E 11 12 13 14 15
F 16 17
G 18 19
H 20 21 22
I 23 24 25 26 27
J
K 28 29
L 30 31 32 33
M 34 35 36
N 37 38 39
O 40 41 42
P 43 44
Q
R 45 46 47
S 48 49 50
T 51 52 53
U 54 55
V 56 57
W 58 59
X 60
Y 61 62
Z

23 30 24 28 11 29 25 31 32 26 37 18 43 12 40 44 33
13 5 14 7 1 54 48 15 26 51 23 49 50 41 34 55 8
20 16 54 38 24 52 25 48 35 42 45 11 17 55 39 53 21
2 37 28 26 30 31 27 38 19 58 23 32 9 18 3 36 12
24 39 51 22 13 16 40 46 47 14 49 52 6 15 7 4 54
50 11 34 1 37 25 48 53 20 12 35 41 49 51 10 2 38
19 13 45 42 55 50 3 39 26 36 4 33 40 17 1 30 31
52 41 29 27 32 33 48 42 34 14 53 21 23 37 18 19 24
56 15 49 35 11 51 22 12 36 40 50 52 53 20 46 25 30
31 26 38 18 13 60 43 14 47 15 39 8 11 27 51 23 48
12 57 13 37 5 14 52 53 15 45 51 21 2 38 19 11 52
53 24 39 18 61 41 54 46 47 42 7 28 49 40 16 17 59
25 51 22 3 19 24 45 32 52 20 12 6 13 50 53 44 4
46 51 41 16 27 52 23 48 53 21 1 51 58 22 14 37 24
9 25 15 26 59 27 33 30 5 11 47 12 6 42 45 38 23
39 43 2 46 3 10 24 8 13 4 37 9 1 31 32 52 20
14 25 21 2 56 15 29 26 33 30 11 10 58 27 31 32 5
12 7 40 34 13 35 62 49 33 3 57 14 50 23 59 24 33
31 38 41 53 18 25 56 15 61 42 55 36 62 39 4 34 11
6 12 8 1 54 48 13 61 40 55 58 26 32 33 51 47 62

And then deleted one row at a time and tried to solve. Here are the results; I don’t understand how the scoring works exactly because some of the shorter messages had the highest scores. I marked the messages from 1-8 rows in red because there really isn’t any intelligible solution. Then all of the sudden with 9 rows, there is an intelligible solution, and I marked through 20 rows with green, although that is redundant.

Score: 24933 Ioc: 625 M: 1000 C: 17 S: 17
rsandthedinthecom
23 30 24 28 11 29 25 31 32 26 37 18 43 12 40 44 33

Score: 30753 Ioc: 330 M: 941 C: 34 S: 32
dsummericallowing
theworksandthepub
23 30 24 28 11 29 25 31 32 26 37 18 43 12 40 44 33
13 5 14 7 1 54 48 15 26 51 23 49 50 41 34 55 8

Score: 30042 Ioc: 416 M: 843 C: 51 S: 43
gwasunderingforth
ecomplayingforthe
collandandbuthisw
23 30 24 28 11 29 25 31 32 26 37 18 43 12 40 44 33
13 5 14 7 1 54 48 15 26 51 23 49 50 41 34 55 8
20 16 54 38 24 52 25 48 35 42 45 11 17 55 39 53 21

Score: 28829 Ioc: 430 M: 735 C: 68 S: 50
lhingthestocomple
astandbutallyform
andwithbringprove
dontheywillsuccum
23 30 24 28 11 29 25 31 32 26 37 18 43 12 40 44 33
13 5 14 7 1 54 48 15 26 51 23 49 50 41 34 55 8
20 16 54 38 24 52 25 48 35 42 45 11 17 55 39 53 21
2 37 28 26 30 31 27 38 19 58 23 32 9 18 3 36 12

Score: 28331 Ioc: 499 M: 647 C: 85 S: 55
ewsandforthecally
busingofthecoming
uagesoformaninted
thatwomemberherwa
stheballysconfidg
23 30 24 28 11 29 25 31 32 26 37 18 43 12 40 44 33
13 5 14 7 1 54 48 15 26 51 23 49 50 41 34 55 8
20 16 54 38 24 52 25 48 35 42 45 11 17 55 39 53 21
2 37 28 26 30 31 27 38 19 58 23 32 9 18 3 36 12
24 39 51 22 13 16 40 46 47 14 49 52 6 15 7 4 54

Score: 26649 Ioc: 529 M: 549 C: 102 S: 56
erthiswidetonumbe
rvedinalelectinga
mongtowaspringaso
ftheringthedcompu
talfromthecoulden
tinitwasmusiclyfg
23 30 24 28 11 29 25 31 32 26 37 18 43 12 40 44 33
13 5 14 7 1 54 48 15 26 51 23 49 50 41 34 55 8
20 16 54 38 24 52 25 48 35 42 45 11 17 55 39 53 21
2 37 28 26 30 31 27 38 19 58 23 32 9 18 3 36 12
24 39 51 22 13 16 40 46 47 14 49 52 6 15 7 4 54
50 11 34 1 37 25 48 53 20 12 35 41 49 51 10 2 38

Score: 26117 Ioc: 560 M: 470 C: 119 S: 56
hughesaredtownoff
oundsonedchambrit
alonglandeveriesw
ithduringthecomin
gechologinalledto
merstansandbackin
goveimmeditforsur
23 30 24 28 11 29 25 31 32 26 37 18 43 12 40 44 33
13 5 14 7 1 54 48 15 26 51 23 49 50 41 34 55 8
20 16 54 38 24 52 25 48 35 42 45 11 17 55 39 53 21
2 37 28 26 30 31 27 38 19 58 23 32 9 18 3 36 12
24 39 51 22 13 16 40 46 47 14 49 52 6 15 7 4 54
50 11 34 1 37 25 48 53 20 12 35 41 49 51 10 2 38
19 13 45 42 55 50 3 39 26 36 4 33 40 17 1 30 31

Score: 25289 Ioc: 615 M: 411 C: 136 S: 56
inagerestingameth
ewasouseitindofap
opulatesmorecarch
inginsallwithgunm
arthepermanthestu
defonescommontwil
leroadurinthecons
torathsofachingla
23 30 24 28 11 29 25 31 32 26 37 18 43 12 40 44 33
13 5 14 7 1 54 48 15 26 51 23 49 50 41 34 55 8
20 16 54 38 24 52 25 48 35 42 45 11 17 55 39 53 21
2 37 28 26 30 31 27 38 19 58 23 32 9 18 3 36 12
24 39 51 22 13 16 40 46 47 14 49 52 6 15 7 4 54
50 11 34 1 37 25 48 53 20 12 35 41 49 51 10 2 38
19 13 45 42 55 50 3 39 26 36 4 33 40 17 1 30 31
52 41 29 27 32 33 48 42 34 14 53 21 23 37 18 19 24

Score: 25820 Ioc: 629 M: 372 C: 153 S: 57
ilikewillingpeopl
ebecauseitinsomuc
hfunitiscoverunth
ankillandwillgame
intheformentbecau
semanisthecontran
devousanimalorall
towallsomethingdi
dencethemostthril
23 30 24 28 11 29 25 31 32 26 37 18 43 12 40 44 33
13 5 14 7 1 54 48 15 26 51 23 49 50 41 34 55 8
20 16 54 38 24 52 25 48 35 42 45 11 17 55 39 53 21
2 37 28 26 30 31 27 38 19 58 23 32 9 18 3 36 12
24 39 51 22 13 16 40 46 47 14 49 52 6 15 7 4 54
50 11 34 1 37 25 48 53 20 12 35 41 49 51 10 2 38
19 13 45 42 55 50 3 39 26 36 4 33 40 17 1 30 31
52 41 29 27 32 33 48 42 34 14 53 21 23 37 18 19 24
56 15 49 35 11 51 22 12 36 40 50 52 53 20 46 25 30

Score: 25541 Ioc: 651 M: 341 C: 170 S: 58
ilikewillingpeopl
ebecauseitinsomuc
hfunitiscoverunth
ankillandwillgame
intheforrenthecau
semanisthecontran
devousanimalorall
towallsomethingdi
dencethemostthril
lingexperenceatis
23 30 24 28 11 29 25 31 32 26 37 18 43 12 40 44 33
13 5 14 7 1 54 48 15 26 51 23 49 50 41 34 55 8
20 16 54 38 24 52 25 48 35 42 45 11 17 55 39 53 21
2 37 28 26 30 31 27 38 19 58 23 32 9 18 3 36 12
24 39 51 22 13 16 40 46 47 14 49 52 6 15 7 4 54
50 11 34 1 37 25 48 53 20 12 35 41 49 51 10 2 38
19 13 45 42 55 50 3 39 26 36 4 33 40 17 1 30 31
52 41 29 27 32 33 48 42 34 14 53 21 23 37 18 19 24
56 15 49 35 11 51 22 12 36 40 50 52 53 20 46 25 30
31 26 38 18 13 60 43 14 47 15 39 8 11 27 51 23 48

Score: 25392 Ioc: 670 M: 315 C: 187 S: 59

ilikewillingpeopl
ebecauseitissomuc
hfunitismorefunth
ankillandwillgame
intheforresthecau
semanisthemostsan
derousanimalofall
towallsomethingdi
vesmethemostthril
lingexperenceatis
evenbetterthandet

23 30 24 28 11 29 25 31 32 26 37 18 43 12 40 44 33
13 5 14 7 1 54 48 15 26 51 23 49 50 41 34 55 8
20 16 54 38 24 52 25 48 35 42 45 11 17 55 39 53 21
2 37 28 26 30 31 27 38 19 58 23 32 9 18 3 36 12
24 39 51 22 13 16 40 46 47 14 49 52 6 15 7 4 54
50 11 34 1 37 25 48 53 20 12 35 41 49 51 10 2 38
19 13 45 42 55 50 3 39 26 36 4 33 40 17 1 30 31
52 41 29 27 32 33 48 42 34 14 53 21 23 37 18 19 24
56 15 49 35 11 51 22 12 36 40 50 52 53 20 46 25 30
31 26 38 18 13 60 43 14 47 15 39 8 11 27 51 23 48
12 57 13 37 5 14 52 53 15 45 51 21 2 38 19 11 52

Score: 25693 Ioc: 627 M: 299 C: 204 S: 61
ilikewillingpeopl
ebecauseitissomuc
hfunitismorefunth
ankillandwillgame
intheforresthecau
semanisthemosthan
derousanimalofall
towallsomethingdi
vesmethemostthril
lingexperenceatis
evenbetterthandet
tingyourrocksoffb
23 30 24 28 11 29 25 31 32 26 37 18 43 12 40 44 33
13 5 14 7 1 54 48 15 26 51 23 49 50 41 34 55 8
20 16 54 38 24 52 25 48 35 42 45 11 17 55 39 53 21
2 37 28 26 30 31 27 38 19 58 23 32 9 18 3 36 12
24 39 51 22 13 16 40 46 47 14 49 52 6 15 7 4 54
50 11 34 1 37 25 48 53 20 12 35 41 49 51 10 2 38
19 13 45 42 55 50 3 39 26 36 4 33 40 17 1 30 31
52 41 29 27 32 33 48 42 34 14 53 21 23 37 18 19 24
56 15 49 35 11 51 22 12 36 40 50 52 53 20 46 25 30
31 26 38 18 13 60 43 14 47 15 39 8 11 27 51 23 48
12 57 13 37 5 14 52 53 15 45 51 21 2 38 19 11 52
53 24 39 18 61 41 54 46 47 42 7 28 49 40 16 17 5

Score: 25419 Ioc: 653 M: 276 C: 221 S: 61
ilikewillingpeopl
ebecauseitissomuc
hfunitismorefunth
ankillingwillgame
intheforrestbecau
semanisthemostran
gerousanimalofall
towillsomethinggi
vesmethemostthril
lingexperenceitis
evenbetterthanget
tingyourrocksoffw
ithagirlthebestpa
23 30 24 28 11 29 25 31 32 26 37 18 43 12 40 44 33
13 5 14 7 1 54 48 15 26 51 23 49 50 41 34 55 8
20 16 54 38 24 52 25 48 35 42 45 11 17 55 39 53 21
2 37 28 26 30 31 27 38 19 58 23 32 9 18 3 36 12
24 39 51 22 13 16 40 46 47 14 49 52 6 15 7 4 54
50 11 34 1 37 25 48 53 20 12 35 41 49 51 10 2 38
19 13 45 42 55 50 3 39 26 36 4 33 40 17 1 30 31
52 41 29 27 32 33 48 42 34 14 53 21 23 37 18 19 24
56 15 49 35 11 51 22 12 36 40 50 52 53 20 46 25 30
31 26 38 18 13 60 43 14 47 15 39 8 11 27 51 23 48
12 57 13 37 5 14 52 53 15 45 51 21 2 38 19 11 52
53 24 39 18 61 41 54 46 47 42 7 28 49 40 16 17 59
25 51 22 3 19 24 45 32 52 20 12 6 13 50 53 44 4

Score: 25428 Ioc: 666 M: 256 C: 238 S: 61
ilikewillingpeopl
ebecauseitissomuc
hfunitismorefunth
ankillingwillgame
intheforrestbecau
semanisthemostran
gerousanimalofall
towillsomethinggi
vesmethemostthril
lingexperenceitis
evenbetterthanget
tingyourrocksoffw
ithagirlthebestpa
rtofitisthatwheni
23 30 24 28 11 29 25 31 32 26 37 18 43 12 40 44 33
13 5 14 7 1 54 48 15 26 51 23 49 50 41 34 55 8
20 16 54 38 24 52 25 48 35 42 45 11 17 55 39 53 21
2 37 28 26 30 31 27 38 19 58 23 32 9 18 3 36 12
24 39 51 22 13 16 40 46 47 14 49 52 6 15 7 4 54
50 11 34 1 37 25 48 53 20 12 35 41 49 51 10 2 38
19 13 45 42 55 50 3 39 26 36 4 33 40 17 1 30 31
52 41 29 27 32 33 48 42 34 14 53 21 23 37 18 19 24
56 15 49 35 11 51 22 12 36 40 50 52 53 20 46 25 30
31 26 38 18 13 60 43 14 47 15 39 8 11 27 51 23 48
12 57 13 37 5 14 52 53 15 45 51 21 2 38 19 11 52
53 24 39 18 61 41 54 46 47 42 7 28 49 40 16 17 59
25 51 22 3 19 24 45 32 52 20 12 6 13 50 53 44 4
46 51 41 16 27 52 23 48 53 21 1 51 58 22 14 37 24

Score: 24989 Ioc: 669 M: 239 C: 255 S: 61
ilikewillingpeopl
ebecauseitissomuc
hfunitismorefunth
ankillingwildgame
intheforrestbecau
semanisthemostran
gerousanimalofall
towillsomethinggi
vesmethemostthril
lingexperenceitis
evenbetterthanget
tingyourrocksoffw
ithagirlthebestpa
rtofitisthatwheni
dieiwillbereborni
23 30 24 28 11 29 25 31 32 26 37 18 43 12 40 44 33
13 5 14 7 1 54 48 15 26 51 23 49 50 41 34 55 8
20 16 54 38 24 52 25 48 35 42 45 11 17 55 39 53 21
2 37 28 26 30 31 27 38 19 58 23 32 9 18 3 36 12
24 39 51 22 13 16 40 46 47 14 49 52 6 15 7 4 54
50 11 34 1 37 25 48 53 20 12 35 41 49 51 10 2 38
19 13 45 42 55 50 3 39 26 36 4 33 40 17 1 30 31
52 41 29 27 32 33 48 42 34 14 53 21 23 37 18 19 24
56 15 49 35 11 51 22 12 36 40 50 52 53 20 46 25 30
31 26 38 18 13 60 43 14 47 15 39 8 11 27 51 23 48
12 57 13 37 5 14 52 53 15 45 51 21 2 38 19 11 52
53 24 39 18 61 41 54 46 47 42 7 28 49 40 16 17 59
25 51 22 3 19 24 45 32 52 20 12 6 13 50 53 44 4
46 51 41 16 27 52 23 48 53 21 1 51 58 22 14 37 24
9 25 15 26 59 27 33 30 5 11 47 12 6 42 45 38 23

Score: 25120 Ioc: 655 M: 224 C: 272 S: 61
ilikewillingpeopl
ebecauseitissomuc
hfunitismorefunth
ankillingwildgame
intheforrestbecau
semanisthemostdan
gerousanimalofall
towillsomethinggi
vesmethemostthril
lingexperenceitis
evenbetterthanget
tingyourrocksoffw
ithagirlthebestpa
rtofitisthatwheni
dieiwillbereborni
nparadiceandallth
23 30 24 28 11 29 25 31 32 26 37 18 43 12 40 44 33
13 5 14 7 1 54 48 15 26 51 23 49 50 41 34 55 8
20 16 54 38 24 52 25 48 35 42 45 11 17 55 39 53 21
2 37 28 26 30 31 27 38 19 58 23 32 9 18 3 36 12
24 39 51 22 13 16 40 46 47 14 49 52 6 15 7 4 54
50 11 34 1 37 25 48 53 20 12 35 41 49 51 10 2 38
19 13 45 42 55 50 3 39 26 36 4 33 40 17 1 30 31
52 41 29 27 32 33 48 42 34 14 53 21 23 37 18 19 24
56 15 49 35 11 51 22 12 36 40 50 52 53 20 46 25 30
31 26 38 18 13 60 43 14 47 15 39 8 11 27 51 23 48
12 57 13 37 5 14 52 53 15 45 51 21 2 38 19 11 52
53 24 39 18 61 41 54 46 47 42 7 28 49 40 16 17 59
25 51 22 3 19 24 45 32 52 20 12 6 13 50 53 44 4
46 51 41 16 27 52 23 48 53 21 1 51 58 22 14 37 24
9 25 15 26 59 27 33 30 5 11 47 12 6 42 45 38 23
39 43 2 46 3 10 24 8 13 4 37 9 1 31 32 52 20

Score: 25052 Ioc: 662 M: 211 C: 289 S: 61
ilikewillingpeopl
ebecauseitissomuc
hfunitismorefunth
ankillingwildgame
intheforrestbecau
semanisthemostdan
gerousanimalofall
towillsomethinggi
vesmethemostthril
lingexperenceitis
evenbetterthanget
tingyourrocksoffw
ithagirlthebestpa
rtofitisthatwheni
dieiwillbereborni
nparadiceandallth
eihavewilledwillb
23 30 24 28 11 29 25 31 32 26 37 18 43 12 40 44 33
13 5 14 7 1 54 48 15 26 51 23 49 50 41 34 55 8
20 16 54 38 24 52 25 48 35 42 45 11 17 55 39 53 21
2 37 28 26 30 31 27 38 19 58 23 32 9 18 3 36 12
24 39 51 22 13 16 40 46 47 14 49 52 6 15 7 4 54
50 11 34 1 37 25 48 53 20 12 35 41 49 51 10 2 38
19 13 45 42 55 50 3 39 26 36 4 33 40 17 1 30 31
52 41 29 27 32 33 48 42 34 14 53 21 23 37 18 19 24
56 15 49 35 11 51 22 12 36 40 50 52 53 20 46 25 30
31 26 38 18 13 60 43 14 47 15 39 8 11 27 51 23 48
12 57 13 37 5 14 52 53 15 45 51 21 2 38 19 11 52
53 24 39 18 61 41 54 46 47 42 7 28 49 40 16 17 59
25 51 22 3 19 24 45 32 52 20 12 6 13 50 53 44 4
46 51 41 16 27 52 23 48 53 21 1 51 58 22 14 37 24
9 25 15 26 59 27 33 30 5 11 47 12 6 42 45 38 23
39 43 2 46 3 10 24 8 13 4 37 9 1 31 32 52 20
14 25 21 2 56 15 29 26 33 30 11 10 58 27 31 32 5

Score: 24881 Ioc: 664 M: 202 C: 306 S: 62
ilikewillingpeopl
ebecauseitissomuc
hfunitismorefunth
ankillingwildgame
intheforrestbecau
semanisthemostdan
gerousanimalofall
towillsomethinggi
vesmethemostthril
lingexperenceitis
evenbetterthanget
tingyourrocksoffw
ithagirlthebestpa
rtofitisthatwheni
dieiwillbereborni
nparadiceandallth
eihavewilledwillb
ecomemoslavesiwil
23 30 24 28 11 29 25 31 32 26 37 18 43 12 40 44 33
13 5 14 7 1 54 48 15 26 51 23 49 50 41 34 55 8
20 16 54 38 24 52 25 48 35 42 45 11 17 55 39 53 21
2 37 28 26 30 31 27 38 19 58 23 32 9 18 3 36 12
24 39 51 22 13 16 40 46 47 14 49 52 6 15 7 4 54
50 11 34 1 37 25 48 53 20 12 35 41 49 51 10 2 38
19 13 45 42 55 50 3 39 26 36 4 33 40 17 1 30 31
52 41 29 27 32 33 48 42 34 14 53 21 23 37 18 19 24
56 15 49 35 11 51 22 12 36 40 50 52 53 20 46 25 30
31 26 38 18 13 60 43 14 47 15 39 8 11 27 51 23 48
12 57 13 37 5 14 52 53 15 45 51 21 2 38 19 11 52
53 24 39 18 61 41 54 46 47 42 7 28 49 40 16 17 59
25 51 22 3 19 24 45 32 52 20 12 6 13 50 53 44 4
46 51 41 16 27 52 23 48 53 21 1 51 58 22 14 37 24
9 25 15 26 59 27 33 30 5 11 47 12 6 42 45 38 23
39 43 2 46 3 10 24 8 13 4 37 9 1 31 32 52 20
14 25 21 2 56 15 29 26 33 30 11 10 58 27 31 32 5
12 7 40 34 13 35 62 49 33 3 57 14 50 23 59 24 33

Score: 24882 Ioc: 659 M: 191 C: 323 S: 62
ilikewillingpeopl
ebecauseitissomuc
hfunitismorefunth
ankillingwildgame
intheforrestbecau
semanisthemostdan
gerousanimalofall
towillsomethinggi
vesmethemostthril
lingexperenceitis
evenbetterthanget
tingyourrocksoffw
ithagirlthebestpa
rtofitisthatwheni
dieiwillbereborni
nparadiceandallth
eihavewilledwillb
ecomemaslavesiwil
lnotgiveyoumaname
23 30 24 28 11 29 25 31 32 26 37 18 43 12 40 44 33
13 5 14 7 1 54 48 15 26 51 23 49 50 41 34 55 8
20 16 54 38 24 52 25 48 35 42 45 11 17 55 39 53 21
2 37 28 26 30 31 27 38 19 58 23 32 9 18 3 36 12
24 39 51 22 13 16 40 46 47 14 49 52 6 15 7 4 54
50 11 34 1 37 25 48 53 20 12 35 41 49 51 10 2 38
19 13 45 42 55 50 3 39 26 36 4 33 40 17 1 30 31
52 41 29 27 32 33 48 42 34 14 53 21 23 37 18 19 24
56 15 49 35 11 51 22 12 36 40 50 52 53 20 46 25 30
31 26 38 18 13 60 43 14 47 15 39 8 11 27 51 23 48
12 57 13 37 5 14 52 53 15 45 51 21 2 38 19 11 52
53 24 39 18 61 41 54 46 47 42 7 28 49 40 16 17 59
25 51 22 3 19 24 45 32 52 20 12 6 13 50 53 44 4
46 51 41 16 27 52 23 48 53 21 1 51 58 22 14 37 24
9 25 15 26 59 27 33 30 5 11 47 12 6 42 45 38 23
39 43 2 46 3 10 24 8 13 4 37 9 1 31 32 52 20
14 25 21 2 56 15 29 26 33 30 11 10 58 27 31 32 5
12 7 40 34 13 35 62 49 33 3 57 14 50 23 59 24 33
31 38 41 53 18 25 56 15 61 42 55 36 62 39 4 34 11

Score: 25006 Ioc: 653 M: 182 C: 340 S: 62
ilikewillingpeopl
ebecauseitissomuc
hfunitismorefunth
ankillingwildgame
intheforrestbecau
semanisthemostdan
gerousanimalofall
towillsomethinggi
vesmethemostthril
lingexperenceitis
evenbetterthanget
tingyourrocksoffw
ithagirlthebestpa
rtofitisthatwheni
dieiwillbereborni
nparadiceandallth
eihavewilledwillb
ecomemaslavesiwil
lnotgiveyoumaname
becauseyouwilltra
23 30 24 28 11 29 25 31 32 26 37 18 43 12 40 44 33
13 5 14 7 1 54 48 15 26 51 23 49 50 41 34 55 8
20 16 54 38 24 52 25 48 35 42 45 11 17 55 39 53 21
2 37 28 26 30 31 27 38 19 58 23 32 9 18 3 36 12
24 39 51 22 13 16 40 46 47 14 49 52 6 15 7 4 54
50 11 34 1 37 25 48 53 20 12 35 41 49 51 10 2 38
19 13 45 42 55 50 3 39 26 36 4 33 40 17 1 30 31
52 41 29 27 32 33 48 42 34 14 53 21 23 37 18 19 24
56 15 49 35 11 51 22 12 36 40 50 52 53 20 46 25 30
31 26 38 18 13 60 43 14 47 15 39 8 11 27 51 23 48
12 57 13 37 5 14 52 53 15 45 51 21 2 38 19 11 52
53 24 39 18 61 41 54 46 47 42 7 28 49 40 16 17 59
25 51 22 3 19 24 45 32 52 20 12 6 13 50 53 44 4
46 51 41 16 27 52 23 48 53 21 1 51 58 22 14 37 24
9 25 15 26 59 27 33 30 5 11 47 12 6 42 45 38 23
39 43 2 46 3 10 24 8 13 4 37 9 1 31 32 52 20
14 25 21 2 56 15 29 26 33 30 11 10 58 27 31 32 5
12 7 40 34 13 35 62 49 33 3 57 14 50 23 59 24 33
31 38 41 53 18 25 56 15 61 42 55 36 62 39 4 34 11
6 12 8 1 54 48 13 61 40 55 58 26 32 33 51 47 62

So that gives us a rough idea, about 9 rows, or 153 ciphertext and 62 symbols are enough for AZD to work with. That is multiplicity of 0.41. Note that the 8 row score is 25289 (red), and the 9 row score is 25820 (green), which is pretty close score wise. But if you look at the difference between the solutions, the 8 row solution is gibberish and you can clearly see a message in the 9 row solution.

Nice experiment, smokie. Azdecrypt does a pretty good job!

I think the main reason short messages score higher is because they have so few repeated symbols. That means Azdecrypt is free to insert a lot of very common ngrams, which inflates the score. But since the scoring is limited to 5- or 6-grams, the result mimics English at a small level (smaller ngrams) but not at a high level (larger ngrams). I believe Jarlve was right when he concluded that higher quality solutions will come out of solvers that can score against higher-level ngrams. He had been pushing his solver in that direction.

Thanks for your recent help Doranchak, not sure what direction to take from here. I think i will review what I have done on scytale and check out some directional findings that smokie noticed. Two things I will test will be overhand scytale and compare it to underhand when making a physical scytale.. Also 17 or 20 individual lines of scytale "theory being" he may have written out each line around a pencil which would be easier to make rather than one continuous huge 340 scy. I will continue on this for a little while as I hope I have not missed anything or performed the mechanics of It wrong.

I like your work smokie.. I’m a bit short on time and will try to understand it better when I get a moment.

I felt a little inspiration this weekend and decided to update my spreadsheet tools, including my encoder and two new spreadsheets.

One transposes message positions according to input message length and count of columns into a user defined transcription rectangle. The reason is because I have been thinking about the mirrored period 29 repeats a lot lately, and also the high count of period 5 ( non mirrored ) repeats. I want to figure out a way to duplicate the high count of mirrored period 29 repeats, but also have period 19 repeats and a propensity to create the pivots.

I have been messing around with smaller inscription and transcription shapes and will continue work on that idea.

The other spreadsheet transposes and untransposes with use of the transposition position tracing map. Before I had to drag around a lot of absolute reference cells to do that, and it was a major pain. Now I don’t have to do that anymore.

Smokie38 is one model that has a lot of period 19 repeats, has a propensity to create pivots, and when flipped, creates more period 29 repeats. I have put some considerable effort into it, but have not quite reached 340 stats.

Here is the plaintext:

W E H A V E C O M P L E T E D O U
R A S S I G N M E N T T O T H E B
E S T O F O U R A B I L I T Y S U
B J E C T T O T H E L I M I T A T
I O N S O F T I M E A N D R E S O
U R C E S A V A I L A B L E T O U
S O U R C O N C L U S I O N S O F
F A C T A N D O U R R E C O M M E
N D A T I O N S A R E U N A N I M
O U S T H O S E O F U S W H O D I
F F E R I N C E R T A I N S E C O
N D A R Y R E S P E C T S F R O M
T H E F I N D I N G S S E T F O R
T H H E R E I N D O N O T C O N S
I D E R T H E S E D I F F E R E N
C E S S U F F I C I E N T T O W A
R R A N T T H E F I L I N G O F A
M I N O R I T Y R E P O R T I T I
S O U R E A R N E S T H O P E T H
A T T H E F R U I T S O F O U R D

And here is the transposition tracing map. I used an 18 x 18 inscription rectangle, and a 16 x 20 transcription rectangle with vertical transposition. The 340 pivots avoid the center column, column 9. So I figured, the period 18 repeats would look just exactly like the 340 period 19 repeats if the transcription rectangle had only 16 columns, and I could split the tracing map in two and add the remaining plaintext vertically untransposed into column 9. This would cause the transposition scheme to have a propensity to create pivots, given that the untransposed period 2 plaintext repeats occur in certain locations:

The thing about this scheme is that the pivots could occur anywhere up and down the same columns. Smokie38 doesn’t have pivots, but if you were to slide a large plaintext corpus through the transposition scheme, pivots should appear occasionally because of the high count of period 2 plaintext repeats. And when mirrored, the pivot symbols become period 29 repeats. As well, column 9 should increase the count of period 29 repeats where two repeats are split across column 9, Here are the same tracing map positions pasted:

252 234 216 198 180 162 144 126 270 108 90 72 54 36 18 323 305
287 269 251 233 215 197 179 161 288 143 125 107 89 71 53 35 17
322 304 286 268 250 232 214 196 306 178 160 142 124 106 88 70 52
34 16 321 303 285 267 249 231 324 213 195 177 159 141 123 105 87
69 51 33 15 320 302 284 266 325 248 230 212 194 176 158 140 122
104 86 68 50 32 14 319 301 326 283 265 247 229 211 193 175 157
139 121 103 85 67 49 31 13 327 318 300 282 264 246 228 210 192
174 156 138 120 102 84 66 48 328 30 12 317 299 281 263 245 227
209 191 173 155 137 119 101 83 329 65 47 29 11 316 298 280 262
244 226 208 190 172 154 136 118 330 100 82 64 46 28 10 315 297
279 261 243 225 207 189 171 153 331 135 117 99 81 63 45 27 9
314 296 278 260 242 224 206 188 332 170 152 134 116 98 80 62 44
26 8 313 295 277 259 241 223 333 205 187 169 151 133 115 97 79
61 43 25 7 312 294 276 258 334 240 222 204 186 168 150 132 114
96 78 60 42 24 6 311 293 335 275 257 239 221 203 185 167 149
131 113 95 77 59 41 23 5 336 310 292 274 256 238 220 202 184
166 148 130 112 94 76 58 40 337 22 4 309 291 273 255 237 219
201 183 165 147 129 111 93 75 338 57 39 21 3 308 290 272 254
236 218 200 182 164 146 128 110 339 92 74 56 38 20 2 307 289
271 253 235 217 199 181 163 145 340 127 109 91 73 55 37 19 1

More coming soon.

I made maybe a hundred messages with Jarlve’s 100 plaintext library, inefficient symbol diffusion and two polyphones to maximize the period 19 repeats, but I had a difficult time re-creating the mirrored period 29 stats. So I made a transposition of every plaintext in the library, not encoded, to see what the stats are for mirrored period 29. I chose message # 34 to work with, which has a difference of 30 period 39 repeats and period 29 mirrored repeats. That is more than two standard deviations from the mean.

Here is the smokie38 plaintext, transposed:

E T S C T O S D O O S S E S R H T
O T F O S E R E F N N C E N J E U
T I G T F N G P I E S O A R C O B
B O E T N N I O A N S C O I T U R
I U E D P R I E T D D I E N H T C
O U T S H E O O T L I E N D R I T
A A S O A Y T T H H P I C S I N Y
R S D F U S T T E O E T E F I E E
I R E U N F O E F I I T L S R E F
H R F A F O E O R T R M L T P E Y
H F T E E D F M U M S E D I I N M
N T T U R H H N I I I M N L N L B
E O R I T S E H T T O D N O O B A
E A M C A R N S S D T M C O A C I
A E H R N E E O O A E I R O E H N
E S L M T U G V F R N R C S O R S
W U R U I I O O O I A U I R N N F
F N S E R L A T U T F S H O M A E
O T S I U R U C R V F T O S E S A
W R C E T A F A D O N A O C T A W

The key:

A 1 2 3 4
B 5 6 7
C 8 9 10
D 11 12 13
E 14 15 16 17
F 18 19 20 21
G 22
H 23 24 25
I 26 27 28 29
J 30
K
L 31 32 33
M 34 35 36
N 37 38 39 40
O 41 42 43 44 14
P 45 46 47
Q
R 48 49 50 51 26
S 52 53 54 55
T 56 57 58 59 14
U 60 61 62
V 63
W 64
X
Y 65
Z

And the final message:

14 56 52 8 58 41 55 11 42 14 54 55 15 52 48 25 58
44 59 18 14 53 16 49 17 19 37 38 9 14 37 30 15 60
14 26 22 56 20 40 22 45 27 16 54 41 3 50 10 42 7
7 43 17 57 37 38 28 44 2 39 54 8 14 29 58 61 51
26 62 14 12 46 26 27 15 59 13 11 28 16 40 24 14 9
41 60 56 52 25 17 42 43 57 31 29 14 37 12 48 26 58
3 2 53 44 1 65 59 14 23 24 47 27 10 54 28 38 65
49 55 13 21 61 52 57 57 15 14 16 58 17 18 29 14 15
26 50 16 62 39 19 41 17 18 27 28 59 32 53 51 14 21
25 26 18 2 21 42 15 43 48 14 50 34 33 56 45 16 65
23 20 57 17 16 11 21 36 60 34 54 17 12 29 26 40 34
37 58 14 61 50 24 25 38 27 28 26 35 39 31 40 32 6
14 44 51 26 56 55 17 23 58 58 14 13 37 41 42 5 4
14 4 36 8 1 26 38 52 53 11 58 34 9 41 2 10 26
3 15 23 50 39 15 17 41 14 4 17 28 49 41 15 25 40
16 54 33 35 14 62 22 63 18 49 37 51 8 55 42 51 54
64 62 48 61 26 26 44 44 14 29 1 62 26 48 40 39 19
20 40 52 17 26 31 2 57 60 57 18 54 23 41 36 3 14
42 59 55 29 61 49 60 8 50 63 18 58 43 52 15 53 4
64 48 10 17 59 1 20 2 13 44 37 3 14 9 14 4 64

I used 10% random symbol selection from within cycle symbol groups for the first five rows, 20% for rows 6-10, 30% for rows 11-15, and 40% for rows 16-20, to try to match 340 cycle stats. I haven’t checked that yet, but it is not part of the issue right now. I had to make a lot of messages before I could get these stats, which do not reach 340 stats:

smokie38

period 19: 55
period 39: 22
mirrored period 15: 51
mirrored 29: 43

I was able to get a big increase from period 39 to period 29 my mirroring, but these numbers still aren’t even close to the 340. Column 9 probably destroyed a lot of period 19 repeats.

340

period 19: 69
period 39: 49
mirrored period 15: 71
mirrored 29: 64

So, although this transposition could create pivots in the same columns where the 340 pivots appear, the other stats do not match. And that is after intentionally using a plaintext that could create as many mirrored period 29 repeats as possible.

I got to try my multiple regional shuffle spreadsheet on smokie38. It shuffles any designated region 100 times, in this case columns 1 – 17, and if the region is part of a transposition structure, then the count of period x repeats will generally be lower, because the shuffle destroys the period x repeats. If the region is not part of the transposition structure, the the count of period x repeats can increase.

Below is 100 shuffles of each of columns 1 – 17. On the x axis is the count of bigram repeats, and on the x axis is the count, of the 100 shuffles, that occur for that x value. I marked the count of period 19 repeats, 55 for smokie38, with a red line. There are two columns that are candidates for not being part of the transposition structure, columns 7 and column 9. Column 9 is not part of the structure; scroll down to see:

EDIT: Here is a column shuffle test for the 340. Shuffles of column 6 sometimes created more period 19 repeats, and shuffles of column 17 sometimes created more period 19 repeats. Still the majority of shuffles destroyed repeats rather than creating them.

EDIT 2: Check out the interesting odd even spikes for shuffles of columns 1, 3, 5, 9 and 10. Marked with green ovals.

I can’t sleep tonight. I checked the 340 reverse cross period and found something that may be interesting.

1. Let X be from 1 to 85, the forward period.

2. Let Y be from X to 85, the reverse period.

3. Let P be from 1 to 340, the position.

4. AXB is the period x bigram. If there is a bigram somewhere in the message that is BYA, then count all of the AXB and BYA bigrams in the message.

5. When P is close to the end of the message, don’t loop to the front of the message when finding AXB or BYA.

That gives me 3,655 possible combinations of X and Y to check.

Out of all of those combinations, guess what values for X and Y show the highest total count? It is where X = 39 and Y = 39. I got a total count of 187. In other words, there are more situations where there is a period 39 bigram AB and a period 39 bigram BA than with any other combination of periods up to period 85.

Guess what values for X and Y have the second highest total count? It is where X = 26 and Y = 52 with count of 181. In other words, there are situations where there is a period 26 bigram AB and a period 52 bigram BA, and that is the second highest count out of all 3,655 combinations for X and Y.

There is also a tie for second highest count, where X is 16 and Y is 19. But I figure that is because of the period 19 repeats. They would increase the count.

So that is something that is very interesting, especially since the pivots are period 39, and the coincidence count spike is 39 * 2 = 78. And 26 is also a divisor of 78. And 26 + 52 = 78. And we had the period 26 bigram repeats that were spaced at a period of 78. And we also had the period 39 repeats that were spaced at a period of 78.

It seems like the period 78 coincidence count symbols must be increasing the count for my reverse cross period examination, but wouldn’t they also increase the scores for other periods? Below is a screenshot of part of the spreadsheet, cell shading conditioned upon value. I marked the high counts in red, and also the diagonal rows which seem to be a detection of the coincidence count spikes at periods 35 and 78.

Let’s say you have A at position 1, B at position 40, and A at position 79. That gives you a period 39 bigram AB and also a period 39 bigram BA. Right? But if you move B to position 41, then you would have a period 40 bigram AB and a period 38 bigram BA. And those scores would also be included in the comparisons. The coincidence count symbols are adding to the totals, and you can see that, but it is still very weird that the highest scores out of all combinations are also divisors of 78, and even 26 * 2 = 52.

Smokie, I’m trying to understand your approach and I’m getting stuck here:

4. AXB is the period x bigram. If there is a bigram somewhere in the message that is BYA, then count all of the AXB and BYA bigrams in the message.

Can you give an example of what you mean by that?
Thanks.

I don’t have my laptop with me right now, but this is where you have AB period 26 and BA period 52. The total count would be two here.

I am still messing around with transposition, trying to re-create some of the phenomenon such as the period 29 repeats, etc. There are some interesting patterns with the direction of the symbols when you use multiple inscription / transcription shapes. The positions can get wrapped around back and forth. Still working on it.

OK, that is very interesting. One other "linking element" you left out is that 39 and 26 have a common factor of 13. As usual, this is all very compelling but also very puzzling! It would be nice to see how the peaks compare to test ciphers and randomized ciphers.

The period 13, 26, 39, 52 stuff reminds me of the four-part nature of the By Fire, By Gun, By Knife, By Rope + Paradice Slaves crossword on the Halloween card. Of course, I barely understand any of the code discussion, so I’m sure this observation means nothing.

I wonder if the message is encoded in four parts taking every 13th, 26th, 39th and 52nd symbol? It’s also interesting (to me, anyway) that 13*26 = 338 which is close to 340, so maybe there’s a pad of 2 characters?

EDIT: And isn’t it strange that the periods are based on 13 or 26. The most obvious set of 26 characters is the alphabet.

The period 13, 26, 39, 52 stuff reminds me of the four-part nature of the By Fire, By Gun, By Knife, By Rope + Paradice Slaves crossword on the Halloween card. Of course, I barely understand any of the code discussion, so I’m sure this observation means nothing.

I wonder if the message is encoded in four parts taking every 13th, 26th, 39th and 52nd symbol? It’s also interesting (to me, anyway) that 13*26 = 338 which is close to 340, so maybe there’s a pad of 2 characters?

EDIT: And isn’t it strange that the periods are based on 13 or 26. The most obvious set of 26 characters is the alphabet.

I don’t know, but I plan to keep working on it a little bit at a time. I will look at 13 * 26, that is a good idea for a transposition. I am wondering if multiple transpositions could create this and the period 19 repeats. And, like doranchak said, I need to compare with test messages. Thanks.

hi guys.. ive been busy visually scanning and testing key words into the 20000 scytale (solutions) that doranchak posted up a month ago.. I have been looking for a sentence or structure. nothing really jumps out.. I will keep going at it for another month or two.keep plugging away.
Cheers

I am glad everyone is still trying out new ideas. Keep it up!

I am glad everyone is still trying out new ideas. Keep it up!

Any break-throughs, or progress Guys?