I love this Youtube feature. It really does more to show the wild array of solutions available than any screenshots or description ever could.
I must inflict my latest solution now!
(EDIT: Awesome solution, cut for brevity)
That took no time at all compared to the hell that ammonia (It Takes Three) was for me. That one is definitely getting a do-over soon.
Ah! We had very similar solutions, but yours looks like it was made significantly more efficient in the # of symbols used because you changed the shape of the resultant molecule... I've got to remember that that's an option! I've realized that you can drop it in any alignment you want, but I keep forgetting that you can also bend it differently as long as the right bonds are there.
I think this game is going to ruin my life. I was struggling with a level last night, so decided to stop for now and go to bed. Then as I was lying there a gloriously simple solution came to me, and I desperately wanted to see if it would work. I resisted the urge to get out of bed and test it, but not sure I'll be so strong next time.
I know I'm not even in the Deep Shit yet, but I already feel like when you beat this game it should say "Congratulations! If you are reading this, check your email for a job offer."
Wow, I had to look at that for a couple of minutes before I realised what that diagram was doing. I assume it operates by having the blue sequence land on the Bond+ instruction and halt, running it constantly? If so, that is indeed glorious.
Wow, I had to look at that for a couple of minutes before I realised what that diagram was doing. I assume it operates by having the blue sequence land on the Bond+ instruction and halt, running it constantly? If so, that is indeed glorious.
Wow I didn't know a waldo stuck on an instruction would run it continuously. That's some outside the box fuckin thinking.
Speaking of out of the box... figuring out the right outputs for the first disassembly for Settling into the Routine took me an hour and a half. It then dawned on me that A) you don't have to use ALL of the bonders, and you don't HAVE to use all the inputs to your reactors either:
^^(edit) welp i now feel wholly inadequate and unmanly, brb killing self
Now that I'd think about it, one thing I'd wish for in the uploaded youtubes for Production levels is for the video to zoom in to the reactors for a couple goes.
I feel like I should get some kind of score bonus for designing neat little compact reactors that don't even use whole rows/columns of squares. Like saving Spacechem money by allowing them to use smaller reactors, or something.
Are you allowed to discard elements you don't want by ejecting them into an empty output, or will that stop the system?
No, I'm pretty sure this will get you in trouble. Some of the levels provide what are essentially garbage dumps which you can send unwanted elements to, but otherwise you just need to find some other way to handle them.
I feel like I should get some kind of score bonus for designing neat little compact reactors that don't even use whole rows/columns of squares. Like saving Spacechem money by allowing them to use smaller reactors, or something.
Isn't it the case that the simplier your designs are, the greater the output x at time t? Haven't played it myself yet, but the talk of optimising production streams in order to improve your output suggests this.
I feel like I should get some kind of score bonus for designing neat little compact reactors that don't even use whole rows/columns of squares. Like saving Spacechem money by allowing them to use smaller reactors, or something.
Isn't it the case that the simplier your designs are, the greater the output x at time t? Haven't played it myself yet, but the talk of optimising production streams in order to improve your output suggests this.
Yeah, I guess you're right, I didn't think of it that way...
Are you allowed to discard elements you don't want by ejecting them into an empty output, or will that stop the system?
No, I'm pretty sure this will get you in trouble. Some of the levels provide what are essentially garbage dumps which you can send unwanted elements to, but otherwise you just need to find some other way to handle them.
EDIT: Wow, I just saw Zedar's quote above... it's remarkably relevant.
You guys are going to get a kick out of this.
Okay, so in "Nothing Works" I was ready to go, all my reactors made sense...
I ran it, and it turns out the Nitrogen was being produced too rapidly, and the pipe was clogging up before I produced much of anything. I was outputting both nitrogens from the triple bond Nitrogen input.
My solution?
Take one of them and instead throw it into a giant pipe that goes nowhere, and hope it doesn't fill up before I hit the quota. It worked.
Take one of them and instead throw it into a giant pipe that goes nowhere, and hope it doesn't fill up before I hit the quota. It worked.
Yeah, I've read about people doing this but it feels like a cheap way out to me. I'd rather find a proper disposal method, even it it makes my layouts hideously complicated.
Are you allowed to discard elements you don't want by ejecting them into an empty output, or will that stop the system?
No, I'm pretty sure this will get you in trouble. Some of the levels provide what are essentially garbage dumps which you can send unwanted elements to, but otherwise you just need to find some other way to handle them.
EDIT: Wow, I just saw Zedar's quote above... it's remarkably relevant.
You guys are going to get a kick out of this.
Okay, so in "Nothing Works" I was ready to go, all my reactors made sense...
I ran it, and it turns out the Nitrogen was being produced too rapidly, and the pipe was clogging up before I produced much of anything. I was outputting both nitrogens from the triple bond Nitrogen input.
My solution?
Take one of them and instead throw it into a giant pipe that goes nowhere, and hope it doesn't fill up before I hit the quota. It worked.
Once the concept entered my mind, I realized that I absolutely had to do it for the humor of the situation. I guess the less hilarious solution would've probably been to throttle the Nitrogen output, or find a way to build that top molecule faster so it would keep up with Nitrogen output... but this way of resolving the problem was decisively the funniest.
Heh, strangely I'm kind of saddened that the strategy already existed, Zedar. I thought it was a creative solution at least.
IRL I'm a Software Engineer. I guess the analogy to the "long pipe" solution in my realm would be if someone decided a memory leak isn't a problem because the program they're executing is short lived enough that it won't run out of memory before it finishes executing.
Are you allowed to discard elements you don't want by ejecting them into an empty output, or will that stop the system?
No, I'm pretty sure this will get you in trouble. Some of the levels provide what are essentially garbage dumps which you can send unwanted elements to, but otherwise you just need to find some other way to handle them.
EDIT: Wow, I just saw Zedar's quote above... it's remarkably relevant.
You guys are going to get a kick out of this.
Okay, so in "Nothing Works" I was ready to go, all my reactors made sense...
I ran it, and it turns out the Nitrogen was being produced too rapidly, and the pipe was clogging up before I produced much of anything. I was outputting both nitrogens from the triple bond Nitrogen input.
My solution?
Take one of them and instead throw it into a giant pipe that goes nowhere, and hope it doesn't fill up before I hit the quota. It worked.
Damnit some strange bug has bitten me and now I'm trying to find a way to use all that nitrogen efficiently, i.e. not plugging up the pipes or forcing a reactor to idle, or doing something that would give a SpaceEPA inspector a fit
IRL I'm a Software Engineer. I guess the analogy to the "long pipe" solution in my realm would be if someone decided a memory leak isn't a problem because the program they're executing is short lived enough that it won't run out of memory before it finishes executing.
Ah! Real Life Engineering!
Behold! As my contraption rotates the molecules time and time again just to avoid the edges!
Introducing ResearchNet, the official intergalactic-intranet used by SpaceChem for sharing reaction engineering research!
Arriving in the form of a free, not-yet-dated update for SpaceChem, ResearchNet will allow you to create your own research assignments, share them with friends, and submit them to the Journal of Reaction Engineering, an in-game “publication” featuring the best assignments made by both SpaceChem engineers (you guys) and Zachtronics Industries designers (me).
I feel sooo good about dropping some bucks on this game. Sooo goooooood.
God this game rules. So addictive. Just made "Nothing Works" my bitch though. Got the challenge for finishing it in under 1000 cycles, and well under the average on symbols. Too bad Production level videos aren't the best quality.
God this game rules. So addictive. Just made "Nothing Works" my bitch though. Got the challenge for finishing it in under 1000 cycles, and well under the average on symbols. Too bad Production level videos aren't the best quality.
The frustrating part is that somebody has a score of 418 cycles, and I have no idea how to manage that. I MAYBE could shave off like four cycles with some redesign, but not eight.
Coupled with your avatar, I'm inclined to believe you
TeeMan on
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DrakeEdgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered Userregular
edited March 2011
Since none of you guys are saying anything and this is awesome news, I'll just assume you missed the edit to my last post. So I'm just gonna leave this here.
Introducing ResearchNet, the official intergalactic-intranet used by SpaceChem for sharing reaction engineering research!
Arriving in the form of a free, not-yet-dated update for SpaceChem, ResearchNet will allow you to create your own research assignments, share them with friends, and submit them to the Journal of Reaction Engineering, an in-game “publication” featuring the best assignments made by both SpaceChem engineers (you guys) and Zachtronics Industries designers (me).
I feel sooo good about dropping some bucks on this game. Sooo goooooood.
edit: Actually, looking back on my solution, it seems like it SHOULDN'T work. Why doesn't the bind-command that attaches the first Hydrogen recreate the doublebond between the oxygens?
Posts
I love this Youtube feature. It really does more to show the wild array of solutions available than any screenshots or description ever could.
I must inflict my latest solution now!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rgvn54BVhT0
That took no time at all compared to the hell that ammonia (It Takes Three) was for me. That one is definitely getting a do-over soon.
Ah! We had very similar solutions, but yours looks like it was made significantly more efficient in the # of symbols used because you changed the shape of the resultant molecule... I've got to remember that that's an option! I've realized that you can drop it in any alignment you want, but I keep forgetting that you can also bend it differently as long as the right bonds are there.
Here was mine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=247E3PS0IJ8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol_hp5nHnhA
And Ammonia:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM-JPtP5J-M&feature=channel_video_title
God this game kicks ass.
Played for 10 minutes.
Immediately closed the demo and bought the full game.
See you guys in 6 months.
... that is easy to forget! And so useful! Adding it to the OP.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDoP50zvoZo
I know I'm not even in the Deep Shit yet, but I already feel like when you beat this game it should say "Congratulations! If you are reading this, check your email for a job offer."
this changes everything. What is being done there, I never would have even considered.
Exactly. Fucking genius.
Speaking of out of the box... figuring out the right outputs for the first disassembly for Settling into the Routine took me an hour and a half. It then dawned on me that A) you don't have to use ALL of the bonders, and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn6elvpPKCc
Also, uh (not my doing):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niz3faOxnqA
Now that I'd think about it, one thing I'd wish for in the uploaded youtubes for Production levels is for the video to zoom in to the reactors for a couple goes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My5KV9dm1qE
No, I'm pretty sure this will get you in trouble. Some of the levels provide what are essentially garbage dumps which you can send unwanted elements to, but otherwise you just need to find some other way to handle them.
Isn't it the case that the simplier your designs are, the greater the output x at time t? Haven't played it myself yet, but the talk of optimising production streams in order to improve your output suggests this.
Yeah, I guess you're right, I didn't think of it that way...
EDIT: Wow, I just saw Zedar's quote above... it's remarkably relevant.
You guys are going to get a kick out of this.
Okay, so in "Nothing Works" I was ready to go, all my reactors made sense...
I ran it, and it turns out the Nitrogen was being produced too rapidly, and the pipe was clogging up before I produced much of anything. I was outputting both nitrogens from the triple bond Nitrogen input.
My solution?
Take one of them and instead throw it into a giant pipe that goes nowhere, and hope it doesn't fill up before I hit the quota. It worked.
'Well, gotta put it somewhere'
lol
My latest solution:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_MyhqiKj1M
A little convoluted, but I consider this to be the first real level, so I'm cutting myself some slack on it.
god I love this game.
Yeah, I've read about people doing this but it feels like a cheap way out to me. I'd rather find a proper disposal method, even it it makes my layouts hideously complicated.
On one hand, it plays unlike any other puzzle game I've tried before. And I love it for it.
On the other, $15 for a puzzle game is a bit against my usual self.
Ugh.
I really, really hope you're not an engineer in real life
Once the concept entered my mind, I realized that I absolutely had to do it for the humor of the situation. I guess the less hilarious solution would've probably been to throttle the Nitrogen output, or find a way to build that top molecule faster so it would keep up with Nitrogen output... but this way of resolving the problem was decisively the funniest.
Heh, strangely I'm kind of saddened that the strategy already existed, Zedar. I thought it was a creative solution at least.
IRL I'm a Software Engineer. I guess the analogy to the "long pipe" solution in my realm would be if someone decided a memory leak isn't a problem because the program they're executing is short lived enough that it won't run out of memory before it finishes executing.
Gonna see if I can download the demo of this tonight, I'm finding this thread far too fascinating to wait a few days
edit: Any game that comes with it's own periodic table and paper-craft ranks highly in my books!
this isn't even a tracked metric
HELP ME
Ah! Real Life Engineering!
Behold! As my contraption rotates the molecules time and time again just to avoid the edges!
Every Day...
I enjoy the big crazy, inefficient ones as much as the elegant and clean ones.
edit: Holy Shit! Stop the Reactors!
I feel sooo good about dropping some bucks on this game. Sooo goooooood.
Fucking chemicals. Fuck yeah.
Thanks for sharing this with me eelektrik.
Well, just judging from the graphs each level it seems I tend to over-engineer.
A lot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2bti9q-k6A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2kP-1BTvl0
The frustrating part is that somebody has a score of 418 cycles, and I have no idea how to manage that. I MAYBE could shave off like four cycles with some redesign, but not eight.
But I did it 8-)
edit: I totally didn't know pipes can cross over each other
Holy Shit! Stop the Reactors!
I feel sooo good about dropping some bucks on this game. Sooo goooooood.
Fucking chemicals. Fuck yeah.
Thanks for sharing this with me eelektrik.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyPiTdgqjUc
First time I seriously had to use rotators.
edit: Actually, looking back on my solution, it seems like it SHOULDN'T work. Why doesn't the bind-command that attaches the first Hydrogen recreate the doublebond between the oxygens?
And this is what makes your solution ingenious!.
Even if it was an accident. :P