Useless Distractions

[K9]

This game is fiendish

[lamaros]

Argh.  Manufactoria's inability to have paths cross over each other is driving me nuts.  

Try holding Shift.

 

Argh.

[lamaros]

Did this one myself before you posted, but your solution looks better than mine, I think.

So much more elegant than mine.

[lamaros]

Ah, you don't have to return faulty robots to the start.. that will help alot..

Was going to post robomecha, but mine looks like greebo's.

[Samwise]

Androids was a lot easier than I expected.  The solution ended up being pretty simple... I want to poke at it some more and shrink it down to run faster, this was just a rough first attempt.


(edit) My robo-children solution works, but the malevolence engine lost patience with how long it takes to run.  I'm not sure if I'm satisfied with that or if I'm going to need to optimize it to feel better about myself.


(edit) The "multiply by 8" one made me LOL.  I imagine that one might stump you for a little while if you never learned cheesy binary math shortcuts in school.

[ezrast]

My RoboMecha is way less elegant than any of yours:

Fake edit: Hoho, I JUST realized that you can flip the branch mechanisms with spacebar. Maybe I can actually fit my solution into the space available on Android now.
Real edit: Also, when the Malevolence Engine runs out of patience that means there's an infinite loop in your machine somewhere. It lets you go to the next level, but you didn't really solve it.

And one more: This thing is smart. I put in this "solution" for Robo-children and it called me a cheater and told me it was disappointed. I like it anyway, though:

[Ironwood]

Also, when the Malevolence Engine runs out of patience that means there's an infinite loop in your machine somewhere

Not really.  It will do this, of course, but it also does it if your machine is just more shite than it needs to be.

Trust me, your Robomecha is a DaVinci compared to mine.

Also, Sam, you KNOW you're going to go back and tinker with it until you're happy.  You're fooling no-one.

[lamaros]

My saved levels are gone because I had to reinstall everything... again.

What does it mean when "fewest pieces" is in green?

Had to redo the mecha, so made it a small as I could think. Can probably be done better though.

[Ironwood]

I think I've reached the limit of my competence.

Soldiers -> Rocket Planes are difficult and fiendish wee buggers for me and I can't get my head around the lessons I've learned up till now to make any headway.  Which I know isn't right.

[grebo]

Sam, did that Androids solution pass?  Because I don't think it works for BBRR, could be wrong tho.

Edit:  Oh, nm.  I see it now.  Nice.

Here's my Androids.


E2:  Also, on soldiers, I tried the easy way and it worked.... but my solution doesn't work for null tape.  I don't think there is a way to make it work either, without green/yellow writers...  annoying.

[lamaros]

Is the game poorly written or is it just me? I have no idea what I'm meant to be doing sometimes, thinking the instructions are different to what they actually want me to do.

I don't really know what Androids is asking me to do. Is it asking me to make sure the numbers of red and blue are equal? In any order? Or to check that the numbers of blue at the start are followed by an equal number of reds, and no more?

[MahrinSkel]

Symmetric blocks of red and blue.  bbbrrr, br, bbbbbrrrrr, and so on.  There's two basic methods to the solutions, one involves painting the tape with yellow or green while you count blues, then counting them down as you count reds.  The other is just a big symmetrical sort that brute forces it and takes advantage that the tape can't be more than 50 steps.

--Dave

[Ironwood]

But you're not wrong :  It's actually an awesome and addictive game that does itself no favours in the instructions or presentation department.

[KallDrexx]

This is one for my fellow programmers.  I've been distracting myself with http://pexforfun.com/ lately.  Pretty much it gives you failing test cases, and you have to code up a solution that will pass all testing conditions.

Yes I am proud to be a complete programmer nerd.

[Ironwood]

 

[Samwise]

I am pretty sure Manufactoria is a better programming game than anything that has you actually type code out.

I'm also on Soldiers and I'm trying to figure out what the "easy way" might be.     I've had a few ideas but none of them resemble "easy".

[grebo]

I'm also on Soldiers and I'm trying to figure out what the "easy way" might be.     I've had a few ideas but none of them resemble "easy".

Dude, here is "the easy way".  If you look at it I think you're going to be disappointed.

[Samwise]

Oh, my bad, that was the multiply-by-8 one.  Yeah, I got that one.    What's the one where you have to put a yellow dot in the center of the tape?  That's the one I can't figure out.

(edit) Police.  That's the bastard.

[lamaros]

Symmetric blocks of red and blue.  bbbrrr, br, bbbbbrrrrr, and so on.

Ah!

There's two basic methods to the solutions, one involves painting the tape with yellow or green while you count blues, then counting them down as you count reds.  The other is just a big symmetrical sort that brute forces it and takes advantage that the tape can't be more than 50 steps.

And not entirely true. Misread you after looking at the other answers here. What you say is correct! Mine:

I don't like it's uglyness, I guess someone else can make it smaller? I like Samwise's version.

Police looks like a bastard. The others look like what was done earlier, just combined. But Police? Ugh.

[grebo]

Figured out Rocket Planes.  I swear the hardest part of that one was just getting it all to fit!  I had to redo it 3 times and reuse as much of the machine as possible before it all fit in.

Yes, Police looks like a horrible thing.  No idea yet how the heck to find the middle of the string.  Also Officers looks pretty heinous.  Add 1 to the binary string eh?  Easy if it ends in red, but if it ends in blue?  Not so much.

[Samwise]

My thinking on Police is that you go something like:


but I don't think a machine that goes through all those phases is going to fit on the board.

[lamaros]

Which one was rocket planes again? I don't remember struggling with that one too much. But then, once you 'get it' that first time you always wonder why it took you so long.

[grebo]

Rocket Planes:  Output=the input but with all blues at the front.

Got Police!  Sam, I didn't use your idea really, but you did get me thinking on a tangent that eventually led me to the solution.  It's a PITA to implement.  The board is barely big enough.  I'll spoiler it and post it up if anyone asks.

Ed:  And what does Police open up?  [Accept:  (Even length) Strings that repeat halfway through]    !

[lamaros]

Rocket Planes:  Output=the input but with all blues at the front.

Got Police!  Sam, I didn't use your idea really, but you did get me thinking on a tangent that eventually led me to the solution.  It's a PITA to implement.  The board is barely big enough.  I'll spoiler it and post it up if anyone asks.

Ed:  And what does Police open up?  [Accept:  (Even length) Strings that repeat halfway through]    !

Kudos on police.

[Ironwood]

Since I've got stuck, I've taken to redefining my existing things.  The parts go green when you're doing 'better'.

I won't put this in spoilers, but you can paste it over your own robocats to see if it's better.  Don't forget to toggle the 'don't wipe mine with Ironwoods you bastard' button.

?lvl=6&code=c12:4f3;p12:7f7;p12:6f2;p12:5f2;c12:8f3;c12:9f3;c12:10f3;c11:7f1;c11:6f1;c11:5f2;c13:7f0;

Compact and Bijou.

[grebo]

Ironwood, I stole yours.

Teachers was fairly easy, but it opens up two more miserably hard ones.

[Engels]

Gah, took me 3 years to figure the first one (lavalamp) out, until I discovered that you can have a 'check loop' on a particular color ON THE SAME SWITCH by an immediate loop back to it! I was thinking too 'physically', if that makes sense.

[Chimpy]

Gah, took me 3 years to figure the first one (lavalamp) out, until I discovered that you can have a 'check loop' on a particular color ON THE SAME SWITCH by an immediate loop back to it! I was thinking too 'physically', if that makes sense.

Same.

I gave up on the one that makes you do binary math. My brain can't handle that right now.

[Ghambit]

If you like Manufactoria, you should really try SpaceChem.

[Samwise]

Rocket Planes didn't give me much trouble and didn't even take up much space, but then I opted for the most sluggish solution possible (each trip through the machine shifts one blue dot one position).   

[grebo]

I way overbuilt mine.  After looking at yours I was able to change 2 things and take out 16 pieces.  Now space isn't a problem.

[grebo]

Officers!

Took me at least 3 straight hours to puzzle out this one.

[Samwise]

After spending about half an hour on Officers last night and getting nowhere, I started over from scratch this morning, determined to get it working before I left for work, and knocked it out in about fifteen minutes.  Sleeping on it always helps.  

[grebo]

Yours are always prettier than mine.  I build urban sprawl.

Thank god Generals is fairly easy.  Have you done Judiciary, Politicians or Academics yet?

[Samwise]

I don't think so.  I was tempted to tackle Generals this morning because my instinct tells me I can just take the Officers solution and flip all the colors and it'll work.

Besides that, the two I haven't done yet are the "put a yellow mark in the middle" one and the "reverse the input" one.  And each of those has something locked behind it.  Now that Officers has gotten me used to the technique of using a mark as a "cursor" I think those two won't be too difficult.