I’m pretty sure you’re right, but it just doesn’t feel intuitive. Sometimes the coding stays nice and simple with how the lines repeat and sometimes it is just a mess.
No point in posting the animation, it’s a very similar layout (just pushing rather than rotating some with some of the arms). But this is what I had for the program:
Sure enough, two repeats for the 10-instruction cycles, and 5 repeats for the 4-instruction cycles.
Sure, let’s focus on that one ;-) 50.
The moment you posted that, I thought, “careful what you wish for”
I’m still iterating over Stabilized Water! At this rate, it’s going to take me forever to finish the game.
Can some of you Opus Magnum wizards fire me a friend request on Steam? I’m “Periastron” there, same as here. I like having competitive leaderboard targets to shoot for. :)
Done.
My approach to this game was to blast through and put in solutions for every puzzle. Then go back later and beat other people’s more optimised solutions. It’s probably not the most efficient way to play the game, but it’s almost like having two different games to play.
Okay, first, please do not provide any hint: I just want to share a lesson in humility.
I got into Surrender Flare and got a pretty nice solution up. Proud of myself, I optimized 5 or 6 cycles and I was even prouder.
Then the scoring board game up.
Dang, gif is one MB too large for Discourse, so here is a dirty external link to my horror.
Ugh, know that feeling. I’m having the same problem on the mini-campaign of production puzzles. Turns out the counter for cycles tops out at 999…
Thanks, everyone, who sent friend requests. Just knowing that improvement is possible pushes me harder to find better solutions. I’ve been the same way with the other Zachtronics games. :)
Got my Stabilized Water down from 20… to 19… to 17… to 16. But I still can’t figure out how to get 15!
Also, I finished Life-Sensing Potion (chapter 3). It is a Rube Goldberg machine gone mad. But somehow still scored pretty well! (Except on price. Money is no object!)
I’m sending out some friend invites as SaberSnail…
I added people I could find steam IDs for. I’m sure I’m missing some of you. Please send friend invites my way: http://steamcommunity.com/id/SaberSnail
Surrender Flare is kicking my arse. I totally know the principle of a sub 30 cycles solution. But actually laying out the damn thing is a pain.
The 28 on Surrender Flare is the only working solution I ever made for it. It was in the phase of the game where I’d decided that there was no point in making a suboptimal initial solution, and then working on it. I know the solution to every puzzle is going to be the same kind of perfectly pipelined 4-cycle period machine, so might as well just start with it. Getting that thing working was so traumatic that I couldn’t bring myself to touch it again, even though the 1st percentile score is 26.
Purified Gold in Chapter 4 is a fun one. My initial score was 209 cycles, but improved it to 162. Of course, nowhere near jsnell’s 112, but still. It’s the first time I found a use for “ctrl-drag to copy-and-paste parts on the board”
The Glyph of Purification is a weird one. It seems to take a cycle to operate. You can’t grab the output until the cycle after the one where you release the inputs.
Edit: 113! Only one worse than jsnell, which is both frustrating and satisfying.
Another edit: 112!
What the hell is wrong with GOG?