Impulse

© Tim Slippy, voxelv - All rights reserved.

Premise:

An impulse will be generated every hour, on the hour, UTC. This impulse can be used to create more impulse.

Goal: Amass Impulse.

Mechanics

Impulse is received from the input buffer. The input buffer can only contain one impulse at a time.

Scoring

Scoring shall count only the integer impulse (Ξ) that is contained in the score buffer. Φ or Ξ elsewhere shall not be counted.
Player score is based on an integer impulse count in the score buffer.
Only integer amounts of impulse may be input/output to/from the score buffer.

Factory:

• A factory is where the player will construct processes that deal with impulse.
• Every factory has one input buffer and a score buffer.
• A factory starts out with a certain number of slots available for modules

Factory Management:

• The player may have multiple factories.

Impulse

An impulse occurs every hour (as mentioned in the premise). Each time this happens is called a cycle.
Impulse is the only resource in the game.

Two types of impulse exist:

Integer Impulse (XI, where X is an integer): Ξ

• Integer impulse is what is what gets populated in the input buffer when an impulse is sent to a factory .
• Integer impulse is also the type of impulse that is scored in the impulse score buffer.

Fractional Impulse (FI or PHI): Φ

• Fractional Impulse is what most modules deal with.
• Φ may only stack with Φ of the same value. Eg. you have 0.5Φ and 0.5Φ. This does not result in 1Ξ, it is 2x of 0.5Φ, i.e. [0.5Φ, 0.5Φ].
• Look into "fixnums", or possibly represented by a pair of integers (numerator/denominator).

Impulse Transportation:

Connections may only be point-to-point. Modules may have as many connections as needed (or as limited, if limited).

• Two possible implementations:
  1. Conduits:
     • Ξ and Φ shall be moved around by conduits that can be placed.
     • Perhaps "click-and-drag" creation, where conduits are created as the cursor moves into each grid space, or deleted if on the same click if the cursor moves out of a grid space.
     • The cost would only be one "Conduit" per connection line.
  2. Meta-Linking:
     • Modules are simply 'linked', but not visually or with a conduit.
     • The conduits would be in "the space between the grid".
     • This would require a way to "print out" or "visualize" the factory layout.
     • This would make complex factories not only possible, but easy to make (perhaps too easy).

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Modules:

Modules shall be available to the player to construct their factory.

Module Creation:

Modules are created using recipes of Φ.

e.g. [0.00625Φ, 0.000125Φ, 0.000125Φ, 0.000125Φ, 0.000000011Φ] -> Impulse Miner 1

Notice the three instances of 0.000125Φ.

Module List:

Impulse Miner:

• Takes in 1Ξ and outputs 1Ξ and some very small amount of Φ.
• Takes multiple cycles to complete this process.

Impulse Splitter:

• Splits Ξ into equal amounts of Φ.

• Balancing shall be done to determine splitting values:

  e.g. 1Ξ -> [0.5Φ, 0.5Φ] vs. 1Ξ -> [0.34Φ, 0.66Φ].

Impulse Recombinator:

Combines Φ into Ξ which can then be stored in the score buffer.

• Two possible implementations:
  • Store Φ until a total of 1.0Φ (or slightly more) is contained then convert it into 1Ξ.
    • Perhaps this process costs an extra amount of Φ.
  • Exact input to output conversion (The opposite of the Impulse Splitter)
    • Each module would have different input Φ values, assignable by connection.

Impulse Buffer:

• Stores 1Ξ.

Impulse Stacker:

• Stores an infinite number of a particular Φ. e.g. 17x 0.0125Φ.
• Will attempt to supply all connected module inputs with the stacked Φ.
• Accepts all incoming Φ as long as it is the correct value.
• If empty, will accept the first Φ value that is offered to it as the new Φ value to accept and provide.

Impulse Dredge:

• Used to delve out factory walls to create space for more modules.

Impulse Builder:

• Builds specific low Φ values into equivalent higher Φ values

e.g. [0.00125Φ, 0.00875Φ] -> 0.01Φ

Impulse Deconstructor:

• Deconstructs Φ into lower Φ values (basically the reverse of the Impulse Builder).

Impulse Drain:

• Drains impulse to oblivion (game keeps track of drained impulse for statistical purposes)

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© Tim Slippy, voxelv - All rights reserved.