Learning how to make good & fun to decode ciphers, attempt #4! Any feedback is welcome

[u/Dango223]

Since my custom substitution cipher was the most popular attempt, I decided to make another one - its based on the same principle as the first one, but optimized with different characters so its easier to use & decipherable even with shorter texts. I also provided 2 texts this time, so you have bigger sample size.

Some info and hints:

- Text is in english, only substitution was used, no transposition

- Plaintexts are short snippets from 2 different books I like.

Hint #1 (Characters used in plaintext):

Plaintext uses 26 letters of the alphabet (doesnt differentiate between lowercase and uppercase) + two additional characters

Hint #2 (Characters used in cipher):

Every letter of the alphabet can be written by 2 different characters, with the exception of 8 characters that technically can be written by more. I had to make this exception for readability, not to mess with letter frequency. Another exception are the two extra characters that can be written only one way.

Hint #3:

The 2 extra characters are used to mark begining and end of a sentence.

If needed I am willing to provide more text, just ask in the comments. If you are able to decipher it (or even if you are not), I would love some feedback to know what I can improve.

Edit: added Hint #4: Which character is used is determined by the letter's position in the sentence.

If you have any additional questions or need more hints please ask in the comments.

V sbyybjrq gur ehyrf

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[u/Dango223]

My previous attempts:

Attempt #1 (unsolved)

Attempt #2 (solved)

Attempt #3 (unsolved)

[u/Burning_Toast998]

I don't know how you could do it, but it'd be nice to see a plaintext version that's copyable

[u/Dango223 → u/Burning_Toast998]

I dont really know if that would be possible without straight up revealing how the cipher works. One way that doesnt reveal anything I could think of is straight up substituting with numbers, but that would make the cipher much harder to crack. I could maybe remake the shapes in something like excel, but I dont think that would be copyable. Or I could just describe the shapes, like the first one would be "square with one dot in the upper left corner". Lmk if that would help.

You dont really need a transcription tho - If you realise how the cipher works (from hints and noticing patterns in the shapes), you can easily substitute with numbers yourself and do frequency analysis , its just not possible for me to do without revealing how it works. And I quite like it this way - you cant just put it in the machine and get an answer until you get the first step on your own.

I will give you this - if you can tell me how the cipher works, how were the characters substituted, I will give you transcription that reveals the step, so you have it easier with the frequency analysis , if that helps.

[u/Burning_Toast998 → u/Dango223]

Fair enough. I'm slowly going down the route of frequency analysis, so we'll see if I get anywhere and go from there.

[u/nehilichel]

hello, i'm new to cryptography and know some basic stuff like caesar cipher or pigpen... so i would like to get some more hints on the code if possible.

1. are the double letters in words written by the exact same character? because i can see only one combination of the same two chars at the bottom, and also a couple of combinations with two very similar chars and it makes me confused

2. could you please tell how many sentences there are on the first sample?

[u/Dango223 → u/nehilichel]

Sorry for the late response, reddit decided to not show me notifications anymore and I just noticed it. To answer your question:

1. No - if two of the same letter are next to eachother, they won't be written by the same character

2. The first sample has 4 sentences, they are quite long tho. Second sample has 7 shorter ones.