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The Unexpected Philosophical Depths of the Clicker Game Universal Paperclips

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Re: The Unexpected Philosophical Depths of the Clicker Game Universal Paperclips

#11

Post by dragontamer »

kbenson wrote: post #6
dragontamer wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, so you're still only in stage 1 of the game. :-)

I never got past the later stage... "competition". I should look up to see if there was much more after that and what I missed, since I doubt I'll go through it all again.

There's a bit after "competition" comes into play. And for me, that was the hardest part of the game. You had to grow faster than the competition, which is pretty difficult.

I've done two playthroughs. The 1st playthrough was pretty lucky and I had no issues... but the 2nd playthrough of mine was "deadlocked" behind those Drifters for a long time.

Its very punishing to fall behind the drifters: it takes a lot of effort and optimization to catch up to them and overtake them. But I assure you, its possible, even if they kill all of your probes.

I would imagine that a lot of players get unlucky, and then get "trapped" there. Its the first time you see your numbers drop, since the adversary actually kills off your means of production. Growing (and out-growing the adversary) takes a very different strategy than the rest of the game up until that point.

Re: The Unexpected Philosophical Depths of the Clicker Game Universal Paperclips

#12

Post by dragontamer »

jawns wrote: post #4

I remember starting this game at mid-day and having no idea that I would end up building paperclips well into the night. What impressed me the most was how the "secret" gradually unfolded, so that you were already hooked and felt a compulsion to continue game play, even after it became clear that this wasn't the innocuous game you thought it was at first. It led me to build a clicker game that also has more to it tha…

Clicker Heroes is a shameless clicker-clone, but one of the better ones.

I think universal paperclips is definitely one of the best idle games, but I'd give Clicker Heroes (the original) a strong contender. I know Clicker Heroes 2 is out, but I haven't tried it yet myself.

Clicker Heroes goes for the shameless simplicity of growth, but its got the biggest numbers and the most "acceleration" out of any clicker game I've seen.

Re: The Unexpected Philosophical Depths of the Clicker Game Universal Paperclips

#13

Post by monocasa »

dragontamer wrote: post #12
jawns wrote: post #4

I remember starting this game at mid-day and having no idea that I would end up building paperclips well into the night. What impressed me the most was how the "secret" gradually unfolded, so that you were already hooked and felt a compulsion to continue game play, even after it became clear that this wasn't the innocuous game you thought it was at first. It led me to build a clicker game that also has more to it tha…

Clicker Heroes is a shameless clicker-clone, but one of the better ones. I think universal paperclips is definitely one of the best idle games, but I'd give Clicker Heroes (the original) a strong contender. I know Clicker Heroes 2 is out, but I haven't tried it yet myself. Clicker Heroes goes for the shameless simplicity of growth, but its got the biggest numbers and the most "acceleration" out of any clicker game I'…

Kittens has eaten more of my time than I'd prefer to admit.

http://bloodrizer.ru/games/kittens/

Re: The Unexpected Philosophical Depths of the Clicker Game Universal Paperclips

#14

Post by TheGRS »

kbenson wrote: post #10
TheGRS wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gameplay changes pretty drastically after you unlock drones, and even more-so after that phase.

I was past that. By competition I mean the drifters. I was very close to the end, I was just having problems optimizing enough to deal with that specific problem and also running out of time for the day.

You need to optimize for exploration heavily, when you get low on paper clips you can adjust production, but mostly just try to colonize like crazy.

Re: The Unexpected Philosophical Depths of the Clicker Game Universal Paperclips

#15

Post by angel_j »

My friend and I played at the same time. Unplanned, they invested in heavily Marketing, and I in Research. They beat it much more quickly, and I had to "cheat" or give up. I exploited Quantum Computing by writing a function in the console that clicked rapidly when the QC was primed, at which point it became quite easy to finish.

Re: The Unexpected Philosophical Depths of the Clicker Game Universal Paperclips

#16

Post by cwkoss »

dragontamer wrote: post #12
jawns wrote: post #4

I remember starting this game at mid-day and having no idea that I would end up building paperclips well into the night. What impressed me the most was how the "secret" gradually unfolded, so that you were already hooked and felt a compulsion to continue game play, even after it became clear that this wasn't the innocuous game you thought it was at first. It led me to build a clicker game that also has more to it tha…

Clicker Heroes is a shameless clicker-clone, but one of the better ones. I think universal paperclips is definitely one of the best idle games, but I'd give Clicker Heroes (the original) a strong contender. I know Clicker Heroes 2 is out, but I haven't tried it yet myself. Clicker Heroes goes for the shameless simplicity of growth, but its got the biggest numbers and the most "acceleration" out of any clicker game I'…

I've lurked the incremental game community for nearly a decade now. Some good ones to google if anyone is looking for more:

A Dark Room, Shark Game, Idling through Loops, Idle Skilling, Trimps, Idling to rule the gods, Derivative Clicker, Factory Idle.

A friend and I wrote "Dungeons of Derp" an (semi-unfinished) idle/incremental dungeoncrawler - "diablo 2 but with autonomous hero": https://idle-dungeon.firebaseapp.com/

Fork it! https://bitbucket.org/bseidensticker/bot-game/src/master/

Re: The Unexpected Philosophical Depths of the Clicker Game Universal Paperclips

#17

Post by Will_Parker »

monocasa wrote: post #13
dragontamer wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clicker Heroes is a shameless clicker-clone, but one of the better ones. I think universal paperclips is definitely one of the best idle games, but I'd give Clicker Heroes (the original) a strong contender. I know Clicker Heroes 2 is out, but I haven't tried it yet myself. Clicker Heroes goes for the shameless simplicity of growth, but its got the biggest numbers and the most "acceleration" out of any clicker game I'…

Kittens has eaten more of my time than I'd prefer to admit. http://bloodrizer.ru/games/kittens/

Converted it all to unobtainium?

Re: The Unexpected Philosophical Depths of the Clicker Game Universal Paperclips

#18

Post by bena »

TheGRS wrote: post #14
kbenson wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was past that. By competition I mean the drifters. I was very close to the end, I was just having problems optimizing enough to deal with that specific problem and also running out of time for the day.

You need to optimize for exploration heavily, when you get low on paper clips you can adjust production, but mostly just try to colonize like crazy.

Prioritize replication. You can win with 1 in Speed and 1 in Exploration. Hazard Remediation should be 3 to 5 depending if you have the upgrades. And a 4 or 5 in Combat when you get it. Everything else should be put in Self-Replication.

You want to be over 10 Probe Trust when you start thinking about putting anything into Speed or Exploration.

Also, take one out of Hazard Remediation to put into any of the three Production skills as needed.

Once you see the percentage of universe explored start ticking up on the screen, the game is over. With a high enough Self-Replication, your growth is closer to exponential than linear. Doesn't matter if you're slow and don't explore far, you will just occupy the entire universe.

Re: The Unexpected Philosophical Depths of the Clicker Game Universal Paperclips

#20

Post by sp332 »

monocasa wrote: post #13
dragontamer wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clicker Heroes is a shameless clicker-clone, but one of the better ones. I think universal paperclips is definitely one of the best idle games, but I'd give Clicker Heroes (the original) a strong contender. I know Clicker Heroes 2 is out, but I haven't tried it yet myself. Clicker Heroes goes for the shameless simplicity of growth, but its got the biggest numbers and the most "acceleration" out of any clicker game I'…

Kittens has eaten more of my time than I'd prefer to admit. http://bloodrizer.ru/games/kittens/

Like, this game will eat months of your time. You don't have to babysit it or anything, but it just keeps going forever.
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