SpaceChem

[leonid]

I decided to finish this from where I left off 4 years ago and here it is

[j-rodd123]

what's the game like?

[YoshL]

imagine graphical programming

you have chemical processors, and you basically create physical flowcharts, where you have a machine node moving along a grid path that you define. each spot on the grid can also have a command, in which the machine node will execute that command (grab/drop chemical, rotate, fuse, etc. etc.) and you program the machine to produce/move/whatever

gets pretty complicated in the end

[Soundwave-]

"complicated" is an understatement.

I prefer "impossible"

[axith]

Complicated is how i see it. The more efficient solutions I have looked up have been pretty easy to follow. I haven't completed it, but i enjoy the challenge of the game.

[AutotelicBrown]

Hard part is going for optimized solutions even for simpler problems; it took me forever to go through the game because I went for those.

Originally Posted by YoshL

imagine graphical programming

Yeah, that's pretty much what the game is.

[YoshL]

the thing is you can do efficiency through least cycles, or you can go for efficiency through least command nodes, which is an interesting tradeoff

[AutotelicBrown]

For the sake of leaderboard thing I went for each one separately so, two optimal solutions for two different problems in the same level. Mixing both would require some arbitrary metric.

[YoshL]

well yeah, but it was still interesting to have to think in both ways during the game

i still haven't finished it i should keep going now that i've kinda sparked the drive through factorio (check it out it's realyl cool)

[AutotelicBrown]

I see what you mean, balancing trade-offs like that is indeed cool and more akin to real world problems; I just don't like operating under vaguely defined goals. You do end up grasping that trade-off when going through both ends of the spectrum though.

Didn't know about factorio, looks pretty interesting (and a potential time sink zzz). Thanks for the recommendation.

[YoshL]

sank like 8 ish hours in the first couple days, it's a little bit frustrating because the systems you design are massive, and complex as hell and can very easily spiral into disaray and disorganization

[Soundwave-]

That and the solution to your disarray is to remove the entire complexity of the game through robots that do stuff for you, which kinda ruins the fun in some ways.

It's a great game and it's got some good mods too.