The Official Off-Topic Unofficial SpaceChem Thread

[Starshifterxen]

Love this game too!

Although it gets brain meltingly hard on the later levels...

Gotta love those secretly educational games too ;)

[FlowerChild]

Love this game too!

Although it gets brain meltingly hard on the later levels...

Gotta love those secretly educational games too ;)

I've been spending a fair amount of time optimizing some of my earlier contraptions for efficiency (as a game programmer, that's naturally the direction I lean towards, with optimizing for number of parts having less appeal for me), and I'm finding that's really helping with my later designs as it forces me into thinking about how to use the parts in non-standard ways.

Like, using my second processing unit as a ticker-tape instruction set for the first has started to become second nature for me.

[BinoAl]

Like, using my second processing unit as a ticker-tape instruction set for the first has started to become second nature for me.

I'm obviously not NEAR as far as you, because I have no idea wtf you're talking about. xD
I'm on the 2nd to last level in the 3rd planet

[FlowerChild]

Like, using my second processing unit as a ticker-tape instruction set for the first has started to become second nature for me.

I'm obviously not NEAR as far as you, because I have no idea wtf you're talking about. xD
I'm on the 2nd to last level in the 3rd planet

Hehe...actually, its' not using any advanced mechanisms. All refineries have the second processing unit right (red & blue)?

There's just certain instances where you can get a lot more speed out of a system by having it be dedicated to effectively sending instructions (like spawn molecule, bond molecule, fuse, etc.) to the first. That way you can focus the first on speedily transporting and such, or with really complex systems, having both units effectively sending tightly packed instructions to a single process.

In some cases, this actually makes thing a lot easier to do with less refineries too, as you can get some pretty complex operations going on that are difficult to pull off otherwise.

Here's the first system where I experimented with this idea which comes from a research level on the 5th planet:

Spoiler

Show

In this case, these two units are kinda sending interlaced instructions to each other for improved speed.

I think there were a few things that I could have done to optimize it further, but this was still enough to put me towards the top few percent of solutions in terms of speed.

[Slev]

I'm on to the 4th planet, and I kind of used a similar approach. Though, I find when I finish a level, it's always slower and with more pieces than everyone else.

[BinoAl]

-snip-

Ahh, that makes sense. After the 5th or 6th level, I realized I could use blue to activate red's output without having dropped it off, and vice versa. Saved me a lot of time in a few levels. I haven't gone back over any levels to optimize yet, but I tend to always use less pieces than other people, and use about the average amount of time. ^.^

[kaspermwh]

This game is awesome. Never played anything like it :O

[Gilberreke]

Ouch! Haha. It was definitely dumbed down far too much, but I wouldn't go THAT far... :p I've still managed to put excessive amounts of time into it :D

No, the gameplay is fine. I don't think they dumbed it down, it's actually tons better than Morrowind in that regard and slightly better than Oblivion.

It's just that:
- The graphics and designs look horrendously bad, this is the big game stopper for me
- The skills UI is incredibly badly designed, as are most menus. I suspect it'll be even worse if you play this on console without a mouse
- The quests are bland at best and I haven't come across a radiant quest that doesn't want me to gauge my eyes out

I'll be buying SpaceChem soon :). There's a few problems with my credit card I need to solve first. I turned 25 last year, which changes how my banking works and I still haven't managed to get everything together again, since I'm suddenly not eligible for a card anymore, etc. I'm tired of having to ask my father to do it

[Mac]

Got myself the full game today.
Best game I have played so far, with minecraft being the exception.
Kinda stuck at the moment at last production assignment,
before the split on the third planet. But I'm kinda close
to the solution I think.

[BinoAl]

Got myself the full game today.
Best game I have played so far, with minecraft being the exception.
Kinda stuck at the moment at last production assignment,
before the split on the third planet. But I'm kinda close
to the solution I think.

Hah. There's a "defense" mission after that. I'm sorta stuck there. You have to fill tanks at the right speeds to blow up and damage the wheels on a loose mining machine, and I am pretty clueless. xD

[Slev]

Bino, you have to focus on using the control structures introduced in the level. Other than that, just focus on optimizing your waldo pathing.

[BinoAl]

Bino, you have to focus on using the control structures introduced in the level. Other than that, just focus on optimizing your waldo pathing.

The storage tanks? I can get the first one to blow at the right time, bu the rest can't seem to get the timing right on the other 2

[Slev]

So you're exploding the furthest tank first right?

[CrimsonStorm]

I picked this up with the Humble Frozen Synapse Bundle a while ago, but never got around to playing it. That's the problem with these bundles - too many great games at once! I'll definitely check it out now, as it sounds exactly like my type of game.

[BinoAl]

So you're exploding the furthest tank first right?

Yup. I'm splitting my methane half and half first. One half goes to the first tank. The second half is split between the 2nd and 3rd, with a tank holding some for the 3rd to delay it a bit

[Slev]

I used two factories and no extra tanks, just to give you some ideas.

[FlowerChild]

So you're exploding the furthest tank first right?

Yup. I'm splitting my methane half and half first. One half goes to the first tank. The second half is split between the 2nd and 3rd, with a tank holding some for the 3rd to delay it a bit

I think you're missing what the previous poster said here. You should be focusing on the controls that allow you to press a function-key while your factory is running to determine which tanks the methane goes to at any given moment. If you route *ALL* your methane at any time to one tank, the timing is pretty much bang on to what you need.

They're introduced in that level and make it trivially easy. Back out of the level and check the tutorial tab as it explains the new control elements as they are introduced to the game.

[BinoAl]

So you're exploding the furthest tank first right?

Yup. I'm splitting my methane half and half first. One half goes to the first tank. The second half is split between the 2nd and 3rd, with a tank holding some for the 3rd to delay it a bit

I think you're missing what the previous poster said here. You should be focusing on the controls that allow you to press a key while your factory is running to determine which tanks the methane goes to at any given moment.

They're introduced in that level and make it trivially easy.

Woah, woah, what? I guess I missed those. xD Don't mind me. Just failing.

[Slev]

I was the previous =P Yes, those control structures are the most important part of the level.

[Dirdle]

Haha, this is like a game'd up labView. Brilliance :D

Edit: Wait, no. This is like Rubicon.

[Folrig]

I just played the demo.

It's like an industrial engineering course and a chemistry course rolled together.

Why did I go to college?

The real question has become: do I purchase SpaceChem or Xcom? I can really only justify buying one or the other. I've played SpaceChem, and I've only watched videos of Xcom.

I...I don't know what to do....

[FlowerChild]

I just played the demo.

It's like an industrial engineering course and a chemistry course rolled together.

Why did I go to college?

The real question has become: do I purchase SpaceChem or Xcom? I can really only justify buying one or the other. I've played SpaceChem, and I've only watched videos of Xcom.

I...I don't know what to do....

I'd say SpaceChem. XCom, as brilliant as it was, is an aged design that has had many of its concepts rolled into others.

SpaceChem, IMO, is a brilliant new design with aspects of gameplay that have not been seen elsewhere. To me, it basically comes down to the history of gaming, or its future.

[MoRmEnGiL]

There is no dilemma for me there, I'd pick xcom over pretty much 99% of the games ever made. :P

Even to this day, I like it more than all of it's successors, spiritual or official. It is amazing how good this game has aged for me. And it does have that something that other games don't, I can't quite put my finger on it. I've never stopped playing it since the 90ties, I even did a playthrough this year. :]

I'd rather not pick xcom up from steam though, GOG.com is my choice for old games.

Also xcom and spacechem are very different games, so you shouldn't really have trouble picking one.

[Folrig]

I'd say SpaceChem. XCom, as brilliant as it was, is an aged design that has had many of its concepts rolled into others.

SpaceChem, IMO, is a brilliant new design with aspects of gameplay that have not been seen elsewhere. To me, it basically comes down to the history of gaming, or its future.

Well, that is one heck of a juxtaposition! Sounds a little like I'm deciding the fate of mankind.

That is a good point, and something I was concerned about. Xcom might be something better left until I have some money to burn. Otherwise I'm afraid that I would be dissapointed.

[Gilberreke]

Ok. I'm hooked.



I feel like I'm just not that good at it yet. I never rank below average on any graph :/

Edit: Oh herp derp. Of course. I didn't know the output can be put anywhere. Now I'm finally starting to consistently score at the lowest possible cycles, which I think is what I will focus on.