All parts "PART NOT RECOMMENDED"

[nFec]

After you finish the first two designs we get the "ALL THE PARTS!" mail now. In all subsequent levels I get shown all the parts but every signle one except Note, Bridge, MC4000 and MC6000 are labelled "PART NOT RECOMMENDED".
This is the same across savegames and between mac/win.
Is this normal?

I'd much rather know which parts ARE recommended to get a hint at the possible solution.
Any pointers/help?

[AlexMBrennan]

In all subsequent levels I get shown all the parts but every signle one except Note, Bridge, MC4000 and MC6000 are labelled "PART NOT RECOMMENDED".

Whilst I can't go back to verify, I am pretty sure that the parts tagged as "not recommended" did change with the level (e.g. logic gates were "not recommended" for the creepy doll, but memory units were recommended despite not being recommended for the level before that).

If you get the same for all levels then you may have hit a bug.

[nFec]

Yes its the same for all. After I have solved a level and go back then the label will disappear.

[Richard]

In an earlier version, you simply didn't get access to parts until you had progressed through the game. This lead to the problem where your scores were being compared to people who had more parts unlocked than you.

The dev changed it so that you get 'All the parts' after the first 2 levels, but so that new players arn't overwhelmed, the ones that would be locked are now just 'not reccomended' until you've progressed to the point where you'd otherwise unlock them.

So I think all levels should offer the same parts, which parts these are depending on how far you've progressed.

If you've reached a fair way through the game, but you still only have 3 parts as reccomended, this is a bug.

I wouldn't want it changed to 'reccomended' or nothing though. It's better as it is, as it reflects an open 'We feel you're clever enough to use these components'. Labelling specific parts as reccomended for a puzzle feels more like 'Here's how you do this'.

[nFec]

Hmm so do you know when more parts are available? I mean I played until WIRELESS GAME CONTROLLER and UNKNOWN OPTIMIZATION DEVICE are available as products and still only had those parts as recommended. No logic gates, nothing. That can't be right, can it? I mean its hard to do the game controller without advanced parts... right?

[AlexMBrennan]

Looking at Youtube videos (Scott Manley has videos covering puzzles up to and including sandwich assembler at the time of writing this) from before all items were unlocked it seems that you were initially supposed to solve these puzzles with just the MC4000, MC4000x, MC6000, bridge and digit expander. It is sensible that the more advanced parts are tagged as not recommended for these puzzles.

[nFec]

I dont even have those 4000x is not recommended and digit expander as well.
So it seems this is really a bug? Mailed them already. Lets see what the reply is.

[nFec]

Ahh, and thanks for the feedback.

[Tikigod]

Originally posted by nFec:

I dont even have those 4000x is not recommended and digit expander as well.
So it seems this is really a bug? Mailed them already. Lets see what the reply is.

It's not a bug.

You simply shouldn't have access to those things until sometime after the wireless controller.

I can't check my game mails to see when certain things became available as it was all removed/reworded after the "Here's everything" update rolled out, but I seem to recall I got the expander around the "cool dad" design, whilst the random number generator and RAM/ROM comes from the haunted doll.

Though a few things got shuffled around I think, haunted doll may become available sooner than it used to.

As for the wireless controller, it's actually pretty straight forward to resolve with just MC4000 and 6000... my solution is heavily inefficient but still got sorted with 2 MC6000s and could be significantly cleaner still using just the basics as at the time I just wanted to push through it to unlock RAM/ROMs for the sandbox.

[nFec]

I have the exactly same set of NOT RECOMMENDED items for cool dad as well. So thanks for your long reply but there is something fishy going on. Since I'm the only one making a thread here I wonder how many people even started playing as late as me ;) No one else seems to notice.
Its also as of now confirmed by Zach via mail. They're testing stuff out. They know of this.