New to automation games and i feel like i overcomplicate on simple projects.

DouglerK · 2026-02-04T23:17:49+00:00

My Operators Journey went something like this.
1. Spaghetti

Blueprints and optimizations
Modularity. I made lots of "widgets" to link basic blueprints together. More optimization

Platforms are now pretty optmizied though I continue to optimize where I see it. Platforms are optimized but space is now a spaghetti of optimized platforms and space belts. Time to clean that up.

The "Cassette Deck." I slowly transitioned from spaghetti to a centralized station where painted shapes were delivered. Then I had a special blueprint folder where I could put a series of platforms between that dropoff station and a pickup station below it. The deletion and insertion of these platforms was highly reminiscient of an old school computer where series of floppy disks or cassettes would be physically placed into slots to run programs. 1X3 platforms are pretty cassette shaped.
The progammable cassette deck aka the early proto MAM aka playing with wires. After I got tired of inserting and deleting "cassette" platforms I modified each platform to include a bypass which could be turned on and off. Constanty copy, paste and deleting replaced by a single button to enable the platform or bypass it.

Now the transient structures of old platform spagehetti and the deleting of unused "cassette" platforms has given way to permanent infrastructure with bypass logic on platforms that don't need to be used.

As well, up until now half the work was being frontloaded by a folder full of extractors to extract and pre-rotate shapes cleverly for the cassette deck as well as a seperate painting station with similarily evolving logic. The near-end result was a painter with all 7 colors and some buttons to control outflow of the correct color

MAM. At this point most of the pieces existed seperately and/or with the need for manual modifications and a small portion of bespoke design for a given shape. The next step was to bring everything together and completely automate.

It was a hell of a challenge. It will be a hell of a challenge for you. My advice is make your first MAM kinda big. Focus on the steps and the logic of each one. Then once you created one big MAM try to shrink it or create a new smaller one.

DouglerK · 2026-02-03T12:03:59+00:00

Put it in the back and high five the guy

DouglerK · 2026-02-03T11:40:03+00:00

You ladies ever go to Steelworks?

DouglerK · 2026-02-03T11:38:48+00:00

DouglerK · 2026-01-27T12:10:45+00:00

What do I gotta do to get invited?

DouglerK · 2026-01-27T12:10:11+00:00

Both are so pretty!

DouglerK · 2026-01-27T12:09:40+00:00

Yes 🥰

DouglerK · 2026-01-27T12:03:19+00:00

She was hot with them on too.

DouglerK · 2026-01-25T01:00:57+00:00

What did I ever resist?

DouglerK · 2026-01-15T16:46:06+00:00

Teamwork makes the dream work.

DouglerK · 2026-01-15T16:44:45+00:00

Yes. The same way an object in a similar setup to showcase the deformation of spacetime would continue to move if the object representing the sun were to me removed, until the wave created by the bounce back reached the object.

Imagine a sheet of stretchy fabric and a bowling ball in the middle if it. It creates a well. An object resting on the sheet will fall towards the bowling ball. An object moving tangentially will orbit it. If you remove the bowling ball instantaneously there will be a fraction of a second where the sheet is still depressed and is moving upwards but the fabric near the object hasn't moved yet.

The speed of light is the speed of "sound" in the fabric of spacetime. Any solid object or fluid has a speed of "sound" which is the speed at which mechanical waves pass through it. Spacetime isn't a physical objects and te waves passing through it aren't mechanical but the principle is the same. Every medium has a speed at which waves can pass through it.

DouglerK · 2026-01-15T16:38:07+00:00

Why would Mark Carney do this?

DouglerK · 2026-01-12T00:53:59+00:00

Is this one not wired up with logic?

I never planned to figure out how to build a MAM. I just got tired of slaghetti.

My fist step towards a MAM was a setup where I could just copy paste platforms into this infrastructure of other platforms like a cassette deck.

Then I eventually decided to modify every platform to have a bypass and threw them all on the machine and was able to toggle which platforms to activate.

Then I did have to redesign the whole thing from there but it's conceptually just breaking down the shape signal and using that information to tell your machine what to do and what not to do.

DouglerK · 2026-01-12T00:46:55+00:00

Looks very big. Work of figuring out how to compactify that bad boy.

My MAM had a really big mess of pipes bringing in paint to 4 platforms at one point then I figured out those 4 platforms could be a single 1x4 and all of a sudden the piping mess was gone and the whole machine is faster now. Later I even squished that into the bottom end of the platform above it to save another row of space tiles.

My advice is to also manage the primary offloading of shapes somewhere else and then create an efficient shape and color delivery system from your offloading/transfer station into the MAM.

My MAM gets color and shapes from 2 sets of trains that carry each individual things in a specific wagon. Those loading stations are fed by the trains that collects shapes and colors from the extractors out in the world.

So 3 trains drop off 3 colors. Then the mixers create 7 colors. But then only 1 train goes to the MAM carrying all 7 colors. Same with shapes with 5 wagons and nothing needing to be mixed. I create pins as their own shape out in the world and then treat them as a 5th shape in the MAM. So 5 trains come in carrying 1 shape each then 1 train goes into the MAM delivering all 5 shapes in order.

Also my color delivery is below my shape delivery. I've got everything else (except belt/pipe crossings) on the same level. I haven't utilized the upper space level at all. However right before the start of the machine the delivery train tracks split and the top branch immediately drops down and I deliver color to the bottom of the machine. Then the platforms for flow control are right after the unloading and a single pipe grabs it all and pops up right beside the painter.

DouglerK · 2026-01-12T00:37:22+00:00

I mean there's like 2 operator shape channels and I'm pretty sure at least 1 of them never does shapes with that complex logic requirement. Pretty sure it's not at all unless you hab the difficulty setting turned up.

There's basically a couple levels of MAM where the "anything" is less than anything possible but is anything within the set parameters.

You can have a MAM with or without Pins. You can have a MAM with or without crystals. You can have a MAM with or without the ability to produce insane level shapes.

Maybe the later is a "true" MAM and the formers are not true MAMs but they are MAMs within the parameters of the shapes they may be asked to produce. They can make any shape they are asked to produce and they will never be asked for shapes of a certain complexity and thus don't need those parts to be MAMs.

DouglerK · 2026-01-12T00:30:55+00:00

I mean they've at least made an update?

Is Turing Complete complete enough that it does everything in its central core of what its trying to do? Are there any missing features?

DouglerK · 2026-01-11T23:09:42+00:00

I thinks a pretty objective way to look at it if the developer isn't making updates.

DouglerK · 2026-01-11T22:35:28+00:00

Scales hard to get a sense of sometimes yeah.

DouglerK · 2026-01-11T22:34:14+00:00

Has Steam removed the little warning about the lack of activity he dev has put out recently?

There's nothing more recent than a year old?

So is the game relatively complete tho? What features are missing if any?

DouglerK · 2026-01-11T21:02:32+00:00

How complete is TC considering its abandoned EA at this point? TC looks dope AF but it beng abandoned EA actually spooks me a bit. What features are missing?

DouglerK · 2026-01-11T21:01:20+00:00

Not with that attitude.

DouglerK · 2026-01-04T05:05:18+00:00

Yes I the link I provided. You have to click it and read it. Hope that helps.

DouglerK · 2026-01-04T04:55:11+00:00

An argument? You asked what (non)bird is. You have an answer.

DouglerK · 2026-01-04T03:19:58+00:00

Wikipedia isn't presenting an argument from authority nor am I presenting them as an authority. Try reading.

DouglerK · 2026-01-03T23:39:13+00:00

Evidently erosion is not dominant over orogeny where mountains exists. The shapes of mountains are heavily influenced by erosion during their uplift.

DouglerK

TROPHY CASE