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[Toma]

The game definitely stays that way. By the latter levels you'll spend upwards of five hours on a single puzzle and be so exhausted you can only do one every day or so, but you just. can't. stop.

I just finished a SpaceChem Marathon and finished almost the complete world 5 and 6 in 2-3 days. I hoped that I'd get a new tag from finishing world 6 too, but eh. I'll still celebrate updating my now new avatar from Senior Reaction Engineer to Research Facility Manager with you:

Woo! About time it got updated again.

 

[Toma]

Ahhhh, those FlipFlops.

AAAAAAAHHHHH.

 

[The Technomancer]

Ahhhh, those FlipFlops.

AAAAAAAHHHHH.

Oh man, Flip Flops. Those are amazing. There's one convoluted layout of flipflops that I figured out that allows you to run three separate operations in sequence, 1-2-3-1-2-3...

 

[Toma]

Oh man, Flip Flops. Those are amazing. There's one convoluted layout of flipflops that I figured out that allows you to run three separate operations in sequence, 1-2-3-1-2-3...

Still trying to figure out how to properly calculate a number of runs I need in a sequence of Flip Flops. Like having

F->F->F->F->F->F->
and entering in the 4th FlipFlop instead of the first for example. Even better if I could calculate different directions like the difference between:

F->F->F->F->F->F->

and

F->F->F->F^F->F->

 

[MacGurcules]

Just cleared the last planet last night. The last two production stages stymied me months ago and I got frustrated by the fixed reactors so I put the game down. But it's been nagging at me periodically since then. A couple of days ago, I took another look at Σ-Ethylene and the solution just jumped out at me. It was all of a sudden so obvious. It's hard to imagine what stopped me up before. Even just my brute-force solution came out way below the 6000 cycles needed for the achievement.

Bolstered by that, I turned my efforts to Ω-Pseudoethyne. Now, that one is proper fiendish. I couldn't for the life of me work out a solution that incorporated the loopback in the second reactor. So I just built out a bigass sorting reactor to break down the Ω-C chains and alternated in whole H2s in parallel. The second reactor sorts the fragments and bonds the final molecules. It's not clever, but at least it's fairly tidy. The only trick is being careful with the order you output the first reactor so the inputs on the second reactor are sort of predictable.

Flip-flops are easily the most interesting control element. When going back to look at old solutions, I'll see a beautiful solution but then I'll remember that I don't have flip-flops yet and I get a little sad.

If you're just chaining flip-flops one to the next the number of cycles they'll give you before they dump out is just N^2. With just that, you're limited to powers of two (2, 4, 8, 16, etc). You can get tricky with it by running parallel chains or by priming a flip flop running a waldo past it without actually hitting its loop or running a bypass inside the first flip-flop loop so you run a dummy cycle through it first gate.

My fast-ish Σ-Ethylene solution uses a six-loop flip-flop matrix for building the C2. It looks something like (f>F)>F, if you understand the notation. The first two flip-flops grouped should give me four but the first one is pre-flipped by a dummy pass, so it drops that cycle, leaving three. Then that group dumps into another flip-flop so that doubles the three to six.

Man, SpaceChem. So good.

 

[The Technomancer]

Just cleared the last planet last night. The last two production stages stymied me months ago and I got frustrated by the fixed reactors so I put the game down. But it's been nagging at me periodically since then. A couple of days ago, I took another look at Σ-Ethylene and the solution just jumped out at me. It was all of a sudden so obvious. It's hard to imagine what stopped me up before. Even just my brute-force solution came out way below the 6000 cycles needed for the achievement.

Bolstered by that, I turned my efforts to Ω-Pseudoethyne. Now, that one is proper fiendish. I couldn't for the life of me work out a solution that incorporated the loopback in the second reactor. So I just built out a bigass sorting reactor to break down the Ω-C chains and alternated in whole H2s in parallel. The second reactor sorts the fragments and bonds the final molecules. It's not clever, but at least it's fairly tidy. The only trick is being careful with the order you output the first reactor so the inputs on the second reactor are sort of predictable.

Flip-flops are easily the most interesting control element. When going back to look at old solutions, I'll see a beautiful solution but then I'll remember that I don't have flip-flops yet and I get a little sad.

If you're just chaining flip-flops one to the next the number of cycles they'll give you before they dump out is just N^2. With just that, you're limited to powers of two (2, 4, 8, 16, etc). You can get tricky with it by running parallel chains or by priming a flip flop running a waldo past it without actually hitting its loop or running a bypass inside the first flip-flop loop so you run a dummy cycle through it first gate.

My fast-ish Σ-Ethylene solution uses a six-loop flip-flop matrix for building the C2. It looks something like (f>F)>F, if you understand the notation. The first two flip-flops grouped should give me four but the second one is pre-flipped by a dummy pass, so it drops that cycle, leaving three. Then that group dumps into another flip-flop so that doubles the three to six.

Man, SpaceChem. So good.

This is the one I'm stuck at now. I'm still trying to figure out how to build a circuit that can break down all three input types.

 

[MacGurcules]

The trick is recognizing that all the input molecules are fairly similar if you grab them in the right place. The only one that's different is the long one. So you detect for that, cut the tail off it and then dump the rest into the same sorter you use for everything else.

Your inputs look like this, I think:

  A      B     C
X=G=Y   X     G=Y
    ║   ║     ║ ║
    Y   G=Y   X Y
          ║   ║
          Y   Z
              ║
              Z

So you grab them all at G somehow. Detect if you've got a molecule C, and if so chop off Z. From there, you can use the same loop to sever the Y from each molecule. Then it's just a matter of orienting the remainders and outputting them or just dumping everything into the output and sorting them on the other side. I found it useful to do the debonding right on the edge of the output field so I didn't have to pick up the remainders before outputting. Just make sure to put in enough syncs to allow you to toss two H2s in with each Ω-C

 

[The Technomancer]

What is this strange package on my doorstep today?

 

[divisionbyzorro]

That is pretty sweet.

 

[lazorexplosion]

This might be the best puzzle game I've ever played, absolutely ingenious.

 

[The Technomancer]

This might be the best puzzle game I've ever played, absolutely ingenious.

Its easily the best puzzle game I've ever played. Over the past year or so I've had time to mull on this game and its very close to being my favorite game of all time. I can't think of another game that's made me feel like this except for possibly Myst and Riven.

 

[chubigans]

SpaceChem is now pay-what-you-want for 96 hours at IndieGameStand-

https://indiegamestand.com/

 

[Visualante2]

So stuck on No thanks necessary. Juggling the oxygens just seems impossible. Nothing in the game so far has taught me how to deal with excess supply in this way. Any tips?

 

[The Technomancer]

So stuck on No thanks necessary. Juggling the oxygens just seems impossible. Nothing in the game so far has taught me how to deal with excess supply in this way. Any tips?

Really long tubes. No seriously. That's the easy way out, which I usually take on my first pass at a puzzle

 

[Visualante2]

Really long tubes. No seriously. That's the easy way out, which I usually take on my first pass at a puzzle

I've been discovering that going back to world two levels. It's an interesting balance, I've just discovered that where you output a molecule determines the input to the next reactor too which can be really helpful getting my cycles down.

The leaderboards in this game are quite addictive, as mentioned it's easier going back to earlier levels than pushing forward. I guess I'm kind of revising knowledge from my first play through. Thanks for the tip. I'll try and add some of you, currenly I only have Xia' on my list.

Here's my NO3 workshop. Supply isn't so much an issue yet.

I don't think my design is going to work though 'cause I need to export this molecule from A and B

 

[The Technomancer]

Ahh, NO3, I remember when I made molecules like that.

 

[Crispy]

Holy shit! I just managed to make an H-C-H molecule after a day thinking about it (last level of world 2)!!! I feel so smart now! Now to get the O on there....

This game is incredible by the way!

 

[Shaffield]

bump here, but there hasn't been any recent threads about the game or anything

I got this a while ago when it had that pay-what-you-want sale, but only recently got into it.
my biggest struggle so far is trying to remember all the tools I have - I felt fairly comfortable with everything all the way through World 3, beat the Challenge level and stuff, but this Defense level is going over my head a little.

could someone help me understand what exactly these Ctrl-A/B/etc tools do?

I really am enjoying the game, but a lot of the explanations tend to be a little too vague

 

[Vlad]

bump here, but there hasn't been any recent threads about the game or anything

I got this a while ago when it had that pay-what-you-want sale, but only recently got into it.
my biggest struggle so far is trying to remember all the tools I have - I felt fairly comfortable with everything all the way through World 3, beat the Challenge level and stuff, but this Defense level is going over my head a little.

could someone help me understand what exactly these Ctrl-A/B/etc tools do?

I really am enjoying the game, but a lot of the explanations tend to be a little too vague

Yeah, I remember having to do a little extra research to figure out what those did as well.

You can use those to change the direction of the waldos while the reactors are running by pressing the corresponding buttons.

 

[Shaffield]

Yeah, I remember having to do a little extra research to figure out what those did as well.

You can use those to change the direction of the waldos while the reactors are running by pressing the corresponding buttons.

ah, so its like railroad switches? got it.

edit: just finished, that was so simple! i feel foolish

 

[Graize]

Already 2 years and I just found this game! Looking forward to trying it out when I get home.

 

[Toma]

Already 2 years and I just found this game! Looking forward to trying it out when I get home.

Best puzzle game in existence.

 

[Toma]

Already 2 years and I just found this game! Looking forward to trying it out when I get home.

Sooo, how did you like it?

On another note, I am now planning to open up the last SpaceChem level I tried to finish and expect to be hopelessly clueless after tinkering around with it, only to give up a few minutes later.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

That feeling where you come back to SpaceChem after months and realize that you've forgotten how to use flip flops correctly...

Also, that feeling where you proudly finish getting the first reactor in your chain correctly doing its job, then realize that your high-level plant design doesn't work...

I swear though - I am finally going to finish this game if it kills me.

 

[Toma]

That feeling where you come back to SpaceChem after months and realize that you've forgotten how to use flip flops correctly...

Also, that feeling where you proudly finish getting the first reactor in your chain correctly doing its job, then realize that your high-level plant design doesn't work...

I swear though - I am finally going to finish this game if it kills me.

I know that feeling. I dont even know whether there is a job above the one I have in my avatar, but I want an upgrade.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

So I did just finally manage to beat the boss battle that had kept me stumped for months. It was the World 7 boss "Don't Fear the Reaper." After taking a hiatus from the game, I spent about three hours today figuring out the right way to program and configure the reactors, and then it took about 45 minutes of rehearsal, trial, and error to properly time the rotation and firing of the laser.

Now to do something that doesn't involve my brain for the rest of the night before tackling World 8 tomorrow!

 

[Toma]

Another game SpaceChem afficionados should take a look at - Factorio:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=527028

 

[Otakumegane]

I just bought this off Steam and am at 3rd planet.

I spent all day optimizing it takes 3 and I never even got close to ideal. It makes me want to learn more code. Would help my EE classes a lot. Kudos to those who make this.