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Universal Paperclips

decisionproblem.com

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Re: Universal Paperclips

#61

Post by NKosmatos »

l0b0 wrote: post #31
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'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.

Oh come on now!!! Why did you have to mention Kittens Game, I've got actual work to do. Who has the time to gather catnip during their normal working hours...oh look a new kitten has joined my village :-)

Re: Universal Paperclips

#62

Post by daveslash »

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 :-)

Me: What is this... I don't get it....[clicks around]

Me 2 min later: Well, shit.... there goes my morning....

Me 20 min later: What the hell, I've already spent 20 minutes on this thing?!?

Edit: Okay, all jokes aside.... I just spent a whole hour on this. Seriously.... holy cow....

Re: Universal Paperclips

#63

Post by agentwiggles »

adhesive_wombat wrote: post #47
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 :-)

Laughs in Factorio. Honestly I think that's a game made to destroy technological economies.

Haha, what a funny thought. It's like a special productivity poison, takes some percentage of your engineers and just deactivates them. That sounds like a great premise for a sci fi short, aliens sending some nerd-snipe super stimulus to soften up Earth.

Re: Universal Paperclips

#64

Post by willis936 »

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 while but I haven't thought of a way to overcome the what I think is the main issue with the genre: waiting. Instead of running constantly a design could run instantly at the cost of some credits. The better the design the more investment credits you would get in return. Balance would have to heavily favor investment in design changes in between runs to avoid the game switching from an incremental idler to an incremental clicker. Perhaps the player would need to spend a type of credit that you only get from design modification to run a round.

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

There is also a lot of room for creativity in this space. I think the ceiling can be really raised with things like multiblocks. Imagine something like a fusion reactor where you need confinement blocks and heating blocks. There is no prescriptive layout, just some rules needed for it to work and performance would depend on the layout.

Re: Universal Paperclips

#67

Post by ncr100 »

mr_ploppy wrote: post #39

After 30 minutes I managed to close the browser. I feel like I danced with the devil, but then managed to run out and get in an Uber while they were in the bathroom.

There's an app version if that floats your boat...

Re: Universal Paperclips

#68

Post by mcrowson »

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 :-)

Found this several times over the year$. I cannot lose another day to universal paperclip domination. not today paperclips, not today....
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