Some Feedback

[Elyandarin]

Good game, so far!
I'm currently in the middle of CPU Architecture, and having a good time.
Some feedback:

*Deselecting multiple components is a bit annoying. Just have the selection deactivate if you right-click outside a component.

*I'd like some Zach up in there: tell me the number of components people used for a level and the rough distribution, so I know if I did well. The only one I'm pretty sure I did well on is the Counting Signals one where I used 10 components (+input/output)

*IMO, it's currently too difficult to find a finished level again. The big green button with a checkmark is friendly, but not informative. Maybe if you put a picture of the schematic you constructed next to it?

*I'd like be able to access the Component Factory from the 'level map' mode.

*I would like the Component Factory to have a test mode, where you can designate the correct output for an input, check that you did it right.

I would like more control over the shape of the component I'm making. To be able to make it a triangle or circle or just paint in whatever shape I like. It's slightly annoying when connections take shortcuts through my custom components.

[Stuffe]

I am going to fix the selections thing. scoring is unlocked later in the game. I am also going to add some kind of level search or list. That will let you get to the component factory from the level map too. As for shapes, that might come, but is low priority right now

[Elyandarin]

The "Bigger AND" component is too similar to the regular AND - I keep selecting it by mistake. How about changing the color of the "bigger" components a bit, so they're easily distinguishable?

[pickupsticks]

Agree on the "Bigger AND" thing, I've lost count of the number of times I've done that :)
Colour change in the component picker only? So as not to spoil the look of it once it's on the board?

[Elyandarin]

Just finished the "Turing Complete" level.

Good so far. I slightly regret that I didn't also get to construct the "Program" object, but I guess it's just a matter of organizing 4 x ( 4 x (4 x (4-RAM objects ))), with different bits of the byte.

It would still be cool to get to see it, though. You could even paste in the player's RAM structure.

[Elyandarin]

On Masking Time now.
This is actually a step up in difficulty, IMO; AND gates are pretty self-explanatory, but modulo will probably be a challenge for kids. Well, they can google it, I suppose.

I suppose I should do this with a program?
It would be helpful to know the maximum input number ahead of time.
If the alien year is 20 days or so, I might be able to do this via subtraction, but otherwise I probably ought to make a DIV function in the logic engine.

It would help if the byte I focus on in the program gets put into the instruction window right away, and the sequence gets saved when I'm done. Maybe a 'next' button, too?

[Elyandarin]

I would like either a thing where when I hover over a circuit, the whole thing becomes highlighted, or a paint bucket tool so I can recolour an existing circuit.

It's 'crap, which registers are the logic engine inputs again?' time.

[pickupsticks]

Paint bucket tool unlocks pretty early, you should have it already - icon is a wheel split between the default orange and blue, then choose the colour you want. Check manual for keybinds for how to apply - ctrl+D+click for all connected circuits, if I am remembering correctly, and can also pick colours from circuits too.


For modulo, the level title is probably a clue for a simple way to do this without building anything new.

[Vlad the Impala]

Originally posted by pickupsticks:

For modulo, the level title is probably a clue for a simple way to do this without building anything new.

For sure! Anyone who has done a lot of low level programming, especially on older or smaller machines knows exactly why buffers should be sized on power of 2 boundaries.

The level would be a lot more difficult with earth weeks of 7 days. That would not be a lot of fun.

[uNiels 💗]

Originally posted by adderd:

The level would be a lot more difficult with earth weeks of 7 days. That would not be a lot of fun.

FWIW, for numbers one less than a power of 2, a reasonably simple solution is still possible (though more complex than the trivial solution the level Masking Time calls for).

However, it would be tremendously harder to come up with if you haven't seen anything like that before.

[Elyandarin]

OK, once I stopped trying to make a quick modulo algorithm and started making a quick modulo-4 algorithm, "Masking Time" was relatively easy.

I did the extra work of adding a loop for handling multiple inputs, but I guess they reset the program for you?

Still, this step had a steep learning curve.
There should be one or two intermediary steps before this level, to make sure you have this binary-programming thing down before they hit you with modulo.

I'd like a page in the manual to summarize the "Immediate", "Copy", "Condition" and "Compute" modes and tell you which registers they use.

Also, if the devs want to hint with the level name, there should probably be an entry for "Masking" in the manual as well.

[Elyandarin]

Currently on "Calibrate Laser Cannons", and I'm very split between:
*my desire to make a new register specifically to handle loop iterators, and
*my suspicion that doing so will conflict with later modifications.

[Elyandarin]

Vaguely annoyed that "i--" and "i++" don't seem to be valid command names.

[uNiels 💗]

Originally posted by Elyandarin:

Vaguely annoyed that "i--" and "i++" don't seem to be valid command names.

inc

(for increment) and

dec

(for decrement) are mnemonics in 6502 assembly, if you'd like to use those.

[Elyandarin]

Dang, seems you can't put custom components inside custom components...

Anyone else having problems with the game suddenly quitting?
I tried to set the values of an input byte in the component factory just now, and the game just went poof.

[Elyandarin]

Crap, I got my loop counter working, but looking more closely at the task, I need to output circumference, not area.
Looping is going to be basically useless here, addition will be roughly as fast if not faster :/