A silly game

[fivemack]

Recently, thanks to mobbsy, I have been playing quite a lot of SpaceChem.

I suppose it's most like Peeko Computer on the BBC Micro, except that the machine model is multi-threaded (yay!) and lacks jump instructions (less yay); you're given a set of primitives with slightly awkward behaviour and a task to perform, and you have to write the best program to do the job. It seems that I can usually write programs that work, but they are much bigger and slower than the optimal ones whose existence is suggested at the end of the level; and the game doesn't tend to give you advice on style and efficiency.

See: large, slow acetylene and ammonia factories





I know that a lot of my friends play this; how does one build smaller, faster factories?

Comments

[zorac.livejournal.com]

It's been a while since I put in the 49 hours Steam claims I've spent playing this game, much of that ruthlessly trying to optimise my designs (towards each of the three possible targets...)

Single-reactor: Try do do things where the inputs get delivered, before you move them. Remember that the output can be anywhere in the output area (and in any orientation). Trying to add bonds to something at its maximum bond limit will fail safely. Try to find the shortest route from input to output and build your process around it. Know when to use sync, and when you don't need to. You can use a bonnd/etc instruction on one track to affect the other track if you get the timings right (even to the extent of using one track as a "controller" which never picks up an atom...)

Multi reactor: Outputs from one reactor appear at the same location/orientation in the input to the next reactor - move/rotate in whichever reactor has time to spare. Consider carefully which outputs/inputs to link up to minimise how far you need to move things within reactors (don't forget you can cross pipelines).

Acetylene (http://pics.livejournal.com/zorac/pic/0003cewc/g13) - pretty tight on both time and commands

Ammonia (http://pics.livejournal.com/zorac/pic/0003d9fk/g13) - tight on commands, not so much on time