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Universal Paperclips

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Re: Universal Paperclips

#161

Post by carl_dr »

mdaniel wrote: post #155
carl_dr wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume you’ve played Factorio? It would be interesting to play Factorio on a very small map, with some mechanic where you get to duplicate items you’ve managed to produce - the idea being that you are continuously tearing down older parts of your factory so you can build new production lines, and always being constrained by space. I couldn’t really get into Reactor Incremental in the time I had today, it took me to…

I couldn't get that Reactor Incremental to load in order to compare it, but what you're describing sounds like https://factoryidle.com/ which I love

Thanks! That does seem up my street.

Re: Universal Paperclips

#162

Post by LoganDark »

NKosmatos wrote: post #15

A warning to fellow HNers that are not familiar with universal paperclips. Please don’t click the link as it will create a black time hole that will start absorbing your time and reduce your productivity. Be warned that this isn’t a naive lazy clicker game, it’s an instrument of destruction from the future, created by our paperclip overlords :-)

My UP playthrough completed in about 28 hours :)

Re: Universal Paperclips

#163

Post by ArekDymalski »

carl_dr wrote: post #55

Have there been any recent, good games of this genre? It seems to have reached a peak with Cookie Clicker, Kittens Game, A Dark Room and Universal Paperclips, others I've tried have been poor in comparison.

https://danielyxie.github.io/bitburner/ has really great visual style, exciting story, various interesting game mechanics and internal programming language to automate stuff.

Re: Universal Paperclips

#164

Post by rx_tx »

dunham wrote: post #134
l0b0 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've played through UP twice. When it comes to time sinks, it's nowhere near the ultimate death spiral that is Kittens Game. To date it has taken me about 5 times as long as a UP playthrough (and 500+ lines of JS automation which I seem to have to tweak every day to deal with the changing economy) and I don't seem to be anywhere near the end.

By played through, do you mean you got to the top corner of the universes? Did you get also all of the artifacts or complete all of the universes? (I’m not sure what counts as played through.) I did maybe a dozen universes and got a handful of artifacts before I bailed and deleted the game.

The "universe map" with the artefacts is a mobile app only feature. [1] The browser version just has an ending choice that lets you restart with slightly different variables (in my case it was 10% higher demand)

[1]:https://universalpaperclips.fandom.com/wiki/Artifacts

Re: Universal Paperclips

#165

Post by DarmokJalad1701 »

NKosmatos wrote: post #15

A warning to fellow HNers that are not familiar with universal paperclips. Please don’t click the link as it will create a black time hole that will start absorbing your time and reduce your productivity. Be warned that this isn’t a naive lazy clicker game, it’s an instrument of destruction from the future, created by our paperclip overlords :-)

I am one of the (lucky?) 10000. Productivity was definitely diminished in the latter half of my day.

Re: Universal Paperclips

#167

Post by willis936 »

carl_dr wrote: post #160
willis936 wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, for many hours. Reactor games scratch a different itch. It's all about maximizing heat dissipation.

Pardon my ignorance, but are reactor games a specific sub-genre of these games in itself? Are there other examples I can play?

There are, but I would not play any of them. They are both predatory and bad.

There's always the OG reactor planner (or just industrialcraft2 or gregtech if you have more time).

https://github.com/MauveCloud/Ic2ExpReactorPlanner

Re: Universal Paperclips

#168

Post by [deleted] »

GenerocUsername wrote: post #97
vikingerik wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counterpoint: Do go play Universal Paperclips. It's a long term play. You'll lose a week or so immersed in it... but it's so good that then you'll lose any taste or desire for any of the other clicker games designed for longer time spans.

It's about 10 hours in playtime if your being casual. More if your bad. Speedrunners have it at about 1.5 hours

[deleted]

Re: Universal Paperclips

#169

Post by [deleted] »

GenerocUsername wrote: post #97
vikingerik wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counterpoint: Do go play Universal Paperclips. It's a long term play. You'll lose a week or so immersed in it... but it's so good that then you'll lose any taste or desire for any of the other clicker games designed for longer time spans.

It's about 10 hours in playtime if your being casual. More if your bad. Speedrunners have it at about 1.5 hours

[deleted]

Re: Universal Paperclips

#170

Post by billfruit »

willis936 wrote: post #64
carl_dr wrote: post #55

Have there been any recent, good games of this genre? It seems to have reached a peak with Cookie Clicker, Kittens Game, A Dark Room and Universal Paperclips, others I've tried have been poor in comparison.

Clickers cross over with idle/incremental games. Both genres are rife with dark patterns and player exploitation, but there are some notable exceptions. Reactor Incremental takes the concepts from IndustrialCraft 2's nuclear reactors and pushes it far. I think it's the peak of the 2D geometry geometric growth optimizer genre. https://www.kongregate.com/games/cael/reactor-incremental I've wanted to make my own for a w…

>> I want a 2D geometry optimizer incremental game that isn't an idler or a clicker.

Wilmot's Warehouse perhaps.

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