Rules to understand an old, square note
Hey everyone, this is my first time posting here - so I hope the title is vague enough to be of little interest to players yet to reach the later stages of the game, but clear enough that it is obvious for those that know which puzzle I am hoping to discuss.
I have seen a couple of other threads regarding the >!family core!< but unfortunately, I don't think I have found anything that answers my question beyond my understanding of what is in the game.
As the title mentions, I have already >!located the note that contains the family core!<. I have already tried solving this puzzle on my own >!using excel so that I can use formulas and display the ridiculous number of possibilities for the 25 equations in one place!<.
Based on the in-game information I have been relying on - primarily >!the sheet(s) of paper that can be found underground!<, my understanding is that >!you need to take the smallest possible answer (being an integer/whole number) as the solution when deciphering each set of four numbers!<.
When I had >!substituted the 25 numbers (which I had seen as the smallest whole numbers) with the respective letters, I was confused as there wasn't a clear message or even a clue of what to do next!<. After checking >!the one website with the helpful to-dos and clues!<, I learned that I had >!about half of the numbers/letters wrong compared to the intended answer for the puzzle!<. This was obviously a surprise as I had (as far as I know) already >!taken the smallest possible whole number from deciphering every word (e.g. there are a few words/sets of numbers that gave me a 1/A)!<.
Is there anything else in the game that I have failed to consider? I would like to know how other people avoided the issue I am having and if there is a clear mistake I have made. I will be more than happy to admit if I have missed something obvious, since I have already done that many times in my 276 (and counting) days in this beautiful game!
I know I am being intentionally vague with my post, so please feel free to ask questions if you need any more info on what I have or haven't done in trying to understand all this.
TL:DR - Is there something that I have missed regarding how I should have approached this?