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There's a speed slider at the bottom left corner, it goes to x50. Also, it's nice to see someone struggle with this game, yet still appreciate it. :) PS: I finally made a machine for Robochildren! That works for any length string, yet won't upset the malevolance's AI with being too long.
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Great game, even though i am quite bad in thinking like this only did like 8 lvls r so, could have completed more but didn't bother. and there should be a skip button when it's testing the objects (and if there is, i didnt see it ) but ye great game, 4/5 stars
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A similar process is used alot in the later levels: you end a string with a yellow or green symbol, and then put the robot through a R/B branch with writers on their respective colors pointing back into the branch. You can modify this "rewriter" to sample the last symbol on a string, but I won't ruin that "Eurika" moment for you...
(PleasingFungus did a really nice job in making the first level where you need that the level with the first "AI", it does alot to add to the air of discovery!)
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As for level 3, you have to think in terms of what you don't care about. Start with a branch right below where the bots come in. You don't care whether there's no reds or a million of them, so how can we get the machine to ignore reds? Loop them. Cycle any reds back into the branch using a conveyor. Now that red is being ignored, you have but two outputs left: there is a blue, or there isn't. Link up 3 loops like that (I'll let you figure out how) and then you got a machine that ignores reds and looks only for blues!
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There are two key componants to being able to play this game. First one must be able to think in terms of strings, mapping out in their head what will happen to the tape as it goes through the machine. This is something you have to enjoy thinking about (even if it's hard) in order to have fun playing this game.
The other thing you should know is that while each part has a specific out side, it doesn't matter where it comes *IN* from. It is perfectly acceptable to go out one side of a B/R branch only to be pushed back in; in fact, this is the basic operating mechanism of almost all the later levels! That discovery was, for me at least, not surpassed in terms of being obvious only in retrospect until I figured out how to sample the *end* of a string.
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This game is too hard. The machine's tape changes to find a way around the machine you made to test it. On level 3 is when that starts. Make it easier to get 4/5 it gets 2/5.
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kilreff45, you're supposed to make a machine that will work for any possible code the game can possibly give you, the game tests hundreds of possible codes but it doesn't show all of them to you because that would take forever. If you get one wrong, it will show you one that fails, if you make a machine that works for every code, it will just show you one or two of the successes.
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Having just unlocked Engineers! I have no choice but to laugh at what you have to do - build a testing machine to test robots that build testing machines that test robots. Also, I doubt they're quite as harmless as the company states.
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If you go into the level editor and manually edit the string so that there's at least one test with an accept/reject output and at least one test with a specific string output, it will darken the screen and superimpose over it in the upper-left-hand corner "flixel v2.23 (release)" and below that a few messages about invalid tests. In the upper-right, it will show the current fps value. There isn't any apparent way to return the screen to normal short of refreshing the page, but all the buttons still work. However, it does prevent you from typing in the level text; apparently it learns.
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I tried to play the user-created level "Robot Piano", but one of the solutions it expects is wrong. You'd think Dr_Donut would check.
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I wonder how the malevolence engine works? I mean, I can see how one could parse a solution into code, but then how do you check if an algorithm works properly? I can't think of how to even start analyzing an algorithm, even using a language like Lisp where functions are themselves data.
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The "dot with all 4 colors" or "simon says symbol" is a writer head - in later levels, you will also have to write dots, not just read them. It is NOT a dot, and does nothing on that levels (consider it as a decoration).
If you see only that 4-colored thingy in the input, then you got the empty string.
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In the robobugs and remote control car levels I get a robot with a simon says symbol instead of the expected red/blue dots, what does this mean?
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Whats up with the level "Robobugs!", I built a machine perfectly capable of doing what it asks, but it sends in a robot with a dot with all four colors, two of which I cant even test for yet???
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I just want you to know that I love you for making FSMs into a flash game. It's right up there with krispykrem's games. <3
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This game is great
I reset all my levels because I found that I mmaaaaay have been cheating too much.
Cheating is like weed, you say "oh just this one time" and suddenly you're doing it every chance you get
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Ok, i've found a bug. I recently solved the robochildren level, but when i load somebody else's solution, the malevolence engine claims it "saw what i did there" and says i cheated. I'm not complaining, as it doesn't matter anyway, but I just thought I'd point it out.
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Nevermind my previous comment, I now know that left and right means A and D, respectively. You should probably put that instead so other people don't get confused like I did. Anyway, I think this game is really hard. You'd have to be a computer scientist to be able to get further than seven levels or so, in my opinion.
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On the instruction screens it says to right click to advance and left click to go back; however, it should say left click to advance. Clicking the right button only brings up the right-click menu.
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Awesome job with the Malevolence Engine... But could you re-add the overlapping belts? They were very usefull, and makes a lot of sense in-context.
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Wow, I love this game. In fifteen minutes of playing, you still don't understand what to do, then realize that the expected output of each level is written in the lower-left area, below the buttons. You have to pass only the machines that meet the requirement.
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oh my god, I completed every level including the extra ones, THEN I read the comments and found out I could bridge conveyor belts, that would have made everything so much easier. Oh well, I guess now I have extra bragging rights for doing everything the hard way.
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hey where would be a good place to learn about algorithms? i played through most of it before and only could get so far before i didn't understand and "cheated" i restarted and am at the same delima.. i just dont wanna "cheat" any more. any ideas?
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@gottlieb76: the only flaw I can see with your Politician solution is that it has limited memory; it'll fail if you give it a tape with, say, 6 reds in a row (depending on where the blues are), but otherwise, it's good.
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After many hours, i finally did the officers level XD! My brain actually hurts!! To add 1 to a binary string I had to resort to a reverse the whole input, add 1 and reverse again the whole thing to do it =_=" (Not-so-fun-fact: I'm a programmer). Awesome game btw 5/5
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gets hard way too fast, you complete the pre-set tutorials and then the first one is immediately hard, first one should help you get a feel, 2 blue at most, and 3 later
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Ok, i found what Malevolence does.. it can detect if a solution is faulty, and it will tell you in the most sadistic way, by presenting you a tape with a combination that WILL fail.
Smart AND evil :(
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Thank you VenoM 31 ;-)
I knew that my solution was limited, i thougth it would suffice.
I still don't get how exactly it can tell when a solution is not ok... pretty smart thing.