>>>>I already told and everyone already guessed, that 99 have 100% to survive and the last one has 50% probability.
>>>
>>>I *THINK* I have it. You have no idea how many different groups of binary numbers I put together trying to see a pattern that can be discernible by a single bit answer.
>>>
>>>The last sage says White if there is an even number of white hats ahead of him or black if there is an even number of black hats.
>>>
>>>Sage 99 counts the number of black or white hats ahead of him and he can tell immediately if he's black or white.
>>>
>>>The rest keep track of the previous answers and so on.
>>>
>>>This better be it!
>>>
>>>alex
>>
>>Congrats!!!!!!! :)
>>
>>Yes, this is my solution.
>
>AHHHHHH!H!!!!!! I can go now...
>
>Your 2x2=4 hint threw me off. I was on the right track with my first solution (groups of 3) where the first sage's answer plus the view tells the second sage, and the previous 2 answers combined tell the third one what he's wearing.
>
>But then I went on a roll trying to find out how to further encode the information, which is how I managed to probably kill only 6 of the guys vs. one of every three.
>
>I'm exhausted.
>
>Bye!
>
>Alex

Well, now you know, how to tease your friends and children :)

BTW, I asked this puzzle to my manager and he's still thinking...