SpaceChem

... Anyone?

Because, I mean, the history of humanity has not yet seen, and quite possibly will never see, a better indie videogame soundtrack.

it's basically a "design contraption and see if it works" puzzle, but all puzzles are chemistry based.

insanely nerdy.

discuss.

oh shit.

So I got to the third world now.

I actually expected a quite, peaceful puzzle game that would help my brain relax.

I was wrong. Oh boy was I wrong. Seriously

To put things into perspective: less than 3% of people even managed to get to the world 8, much less even completing any puzzles there.

you must be this autistic to pass

edited 4th Jul '11 6:31:15 AM by Aminatep

Apparently, I'm not the only one who picked this up on a Steam sale. It's certainly an interesting game, but I'm not sure how long I'll stick with it. I'm towards the end of the fourth planet. The core concept is great, but some of the later levels are just getting monotonous. They keep piling more and more stuff on, instead of creating legitimate difficulty.

And then there's the fact that rebuilding parts of the pipeline isn't exactly easy. Sometimes, later decisions will force you to go back and rebuild a whole reactor, which isn't a particularly fun thing.

The thing that annoys me the most are just little interface issues. Like if you place the wrong command, you have to right-click on it, select "delete", and then enter the correct command. You can't just overwrite it. Also, you should be able to double-click on a command to switch it to one of its alternate forms. Basically, the right-click menu should be an option of last resort, not something that you do just to get the command you want.

> some of the later levels are just getting monotonous

Well there are quantum teleporters and fusion and defense missions and whatnot.

Most difficult to get into puzzle game ever. Not good for a genre that has a wide portion of its audience in casuals. Not a problem for me because I'm willing to learn, but I still found I have more fun doing actual physics homework than playing the game.

The soundtrack is really excellent though.

edited 6th Jul '11 5:39:36 PM by Mammalsauce

I got this in the lastest Humble Indie Bundle and have been having fun with it but I'm stuck in the aptly named Nothing Works level. I manage to get everything to work except for the reactor to fuse the two hidrogens, I seached online for the solution and the ones I found do not works in the newest version

edited 16th Aug '12 8:38:26 PM by Joaqs

Got it from Humble Frozen Synapse bundle, right now is stuck on Hephaestus VI...man I really want Flop Flop to be in the campaign worlds earlier on...if it's in that is...

You get the flip-flop command at World 7, Atropos Station. And yes, it is a godsend (especially with the user-made levels, which you also gain access to at World 7).

Yeah I've been doing the user levels for quite a while already, which is why I really want Flip Flop for earlier campaign levels...gotten too used to it...

I think I'm going on three different copies of it from various Humble Bundles... I haven't played past the first few levels. :) With the difficulty spike, this is reminding me of Robot Odyssey where the first two levels were pretty much a cakewalk, the third one required you to be clever, and the fourth requires a degree in discrete logic (that's not even getting into the fifth level puzzles in the Java clone, Droid Quest...)

Also, quantum reactors are hell!

I'm still stuck in "No ordinary Headache"

^ What problem do you have with it?

This game looks interesting. Except I have no formal training in physics or chemistry. Wonder how far I can get using just self-taught phsyics and cooking-class chemistry.

As an aside: Hybrid, a successful new Arcade game from 5th Cell (the scribblenauts guys), doesnt warrent either a page on this wiki or a forum thread (i tried to start one but no one cared) but Indie games do get threads. This saddens me.

Unlike the first impression, this game has NOTHING to do with physics, and its chemistry is only a game trapping...it's more of logic puzzles...much more like programming...but don't let that fact dissuade you! It is fun!

Yeah, physics or chemistry doesn't really factor into it all that much. What you do need to know, is programming.

Got back into this game again, solved a lot of custom stuff, and... (sigh) Three more puzzles, and I'll have beaten the entire Journal of Reaction Engineering. All I have left is "Squaric Acid", "Vitamin B3" [production], and... (shudder) "Getting Pumped".

Any non-Journal usermade levels you'd recommend? Bashy McFetus's "Breeder Reactor" is a fun one, and I've made a few myself if anyone wants to try them.

Also, this guy has been running a SpaceChem tournament (in the form of a Let's Play) over on the SA forums. It's down to the final round, and over the course of the tournament there's been some really interesting/crazy/how-the-hell-did-you-ever-conceive-that solutions submitted.

^ Shame Pseudodude lose the 2nd last round by 2 cycles...that guy always make interestingly crazy solution!

Anyone have tips for Sigma-Ethylene and Omega-Pseudoethyne? Stuck with that 2 stages...I never got used to loopback reactor...

Also have you tried the PAX challenges and such?

edited 3rd Nov '12 8:05:06 PM by onyhow

Hmm... here are some ideas:

- Σ-Ethylene: Try to assemble the ethylene groups in the top reactor. Alternate between normal ethylene (fuse together a bunch of hydrogen into a C2 sent to the ω output and Σ-ethylene (Σ2 from the β input) sent to the ψ output. Bottom reactor should be simple enough; Σ2 from β to ψ, ethylene from α to ω, bond as necessary.
- Ω-Pseudoethyne: Hoo boy. I think I broke the carbomegas into groups of two (always a C=Ω or Ω=C), then sent two H2 through the same output (so some pattern of CΩ, H2, H2). A CΩ goes past the sensor, is flipped around if it's facing the wrong way, then gets sent to ψ (and loops around to α). After that, just attach some hydrogens and send it out.

Also, "Squaric Acid" and "Vitamin B3" are done. Not sure why I put off the latter for so long. All that remains...

edited 4th Nov '12 8:25:50 AM by Blueeyedrat

Can we please spoiler-tag puzzle hints? I'm trying to avoid all outside help.

Picked it back up again. Came up with a "brilliant" solution for the NH 3 level while at a meeting. It worked, but I was way on the high side of cycles used. Stuck on the H 2 O 2 level. I'm just not very good at this kind of game.

Don't give up! Even though the game is really hard (and will only get harder) - Danopth and the world right after it are introductions to the kind of common tactics and overall strategies necessary to beat all Space Chem puzzles. If you can make it into the mid-game, you stand a good chance of beating the entire game.

I'm working on Atropos Station, the seventh world, and am really enjoying the game so far. As I expected, the user-made levels are both devious and absolutely horrifying, and I respect them on that basis. I may even make one of my own someday, and if so I'll run it past you guys in this thread.

If you ever do make a good custom level to share, then perhaps post it on this SPUF thread I've been trying to resurrect. You can also find "Breeder Reactor" there, and some that I've made. Of mine, I recommend "Rare Earth Alloy" (relatively easy) and "Water into Wine" (harder). Avoid "Tyrosine+" (as convoluted as a cake>pie level) like the plague.

edited 8th Nov '12 10:41:14 PM by Blueeyedrat

So I just beat the game, including all the optional assignments and efficiency challenges, and with no outside help to boot. (Fortunately, I managed to avert my eyes from the above spoilers when I viewed the thread before they were spoiler-tagged.) Boy, those last four levels were something else.

On the last level, I actually ended up facing the problem of an inter-reactor circular deadlock for the first time ever. More specifically, I had the following setup:

• Reactor A took ethylene and disassembled it into a hydrogen molecule sent to the missile launcher and C-C sent into a storage tank then into the laser reactor.
• Reactor B took the Ω-pseudoethyne and split it into two hydrogen molecules and an Ω=C. The hydrogen went into a storage tank and then to Reactor D, while the Ω=C went to Reactor C.
• Reactor C took the Ω=C from Reactor B and split it apart, then fused the carbon atoms into xenon. The Ω went through TWO storage tanks to the missile launcher, and the xenon went to the laser.
• Reactor D took hydrogen molecules from Reactor B and fed it to the thrusters as necessary.
• Finally, the laser reactor took the carbon pairs from Reactor A and the Σ-ethylene and assembled it into the requisite molecule.

The problem: The carbon output pipe on Reactor A filled up despite the storage tank, so Reactor A was stalled waiting for the laser to consume some of the carbon. Meanwhile, the laser reactor was waiting on xenon to trigger before it could take more carbon input. But Reactor C, which supplied the xenon, was waiting on a full Ω pipe + 2 storage tanks. And the missile launcher was waiting for more hydrogen from Reactor A before it could consume more Ω.

The solution: Add a second storage tank to Reactor A's carbon output pipe, which turned out to postpone the problem for just barely long enough to take down the enemy before the pipe clogged up. Except my grid was nearly full to begin with, so this in turn required I completely rearrange most of my reactors and storage tanks. You know those "pack all these oddly-shaped pieces into the given area" puzzles from Professor Layton? It was like a deranged, evil version of those, except with pipes to connect, and I wasn't even sure it was possible until I finally came across the solution.

In retrospect, I probably should've used the carbon from the ethylene to fuse into xenon and the carbon from the Ω-pseudoethyne to send to the laser reactor instead of the other way around, but my kludge was far easier than completely reprogramming most of my reactors.

edited 11th Nov '12 2:50:22 AM by PoochyEXE

Well. I did it. I beat "Getting Pumped". I, like so few before me, have cleared the entire Journal of Reaction Engineering.

...So naturally, the day afterwards we get an entire new volume (33 levels from one particularly prolific level-maker), and another 12 that were featured in GuavaMoment's (now-concluded, congratulations to serbaldrig) SA tournament— "Breeder Reactor", "Nightmare Factory", "Catalyst" I and II, and so on.

edited 14th Nov '12 6:35:51 AM by Blueeyedrat