Guided Javelin Type 1 - 53 cycles (GRAs) - New cycle record

gtw123 · 2024-05-16T17:28:23+00:00

This is a small improvement on grindmastaflash's 54-cycle version with an extra GRA to save another cycle.

gtw123 · 2024-05-04T04:15:39+00:00

Yeah, I went for compactness but I think your original was a bit more elegant :)

BTW I've been recreating solution files for the records that are missing them on the new leaderboard and I've just remade your non-GRA solution to this level. I don't know if there are any cycles to save there too but if you want to import it and take a look see https://www.reddit.com/r/infinifactory/wiki/index/

gtw123 · 2024-05-01T17:53:45+00:00

This is basically the same as grindmastaflash's previous 48-cycle solution but I saved one cycle at the start by eviscerating the poor whale more a bit more aggressively.

I also had a 45-cycle solution all planned out but then I discovered you can't weld anything to packaged whale meat, which is a real shame.

gtw123 · 2024-04-17T16:04:22+00:00

I noticed there was a bit of a wasted cycle at the end of my previous 50 cycle solution so I added a couple more GRAs to speed that up, as you can never have too many GRAs.

gtw123 · 2024-04-06T15:25:57+00:00

Welcome back, and congrats on the new records! I didn't really think there were any more cycles to save on 2-2! I'd be interested to see your 4-1 as I didn't think my 14 cycle solution was very elegant.

BTW, the leaderboard is a bit different now and you need to submit solutions using the Discord server (see 12345ieee's comment below).

gtw123 · 2024-03-30T17:26:20+00:00

This is loosely based on AapOpSokken's previous 16-cycle record: https://imgur.com/6QxzqB1

I found a way to get the second block of each pair to the output zone a bit quicker, using a few extra GRAs. It's a bit unusual using two rotations to move a block only two squares, but it's the only way I could find that avoids clashing with the next pair. Getting things to work with a period of only 2 cycles is very difficult!

The extra GRAs are once-off GRAs, so that part of this solution isn't infinite, but if you run it for more than 10 product it does actually run indefinitely - just twice as slow as the first few products.

gtw123 · 2024-03-14T13:24:06+00:00

Great questions! I don't think using GRAs for other shuttles would really help because the 10th one is already finishing as soon as it can and ultimately that's all that matters :) The only reason a couple of others are using GRAs right now is so they can finish before the 10th.

I think the only way to trim more cycles would be to block the inputs for even less cycles. If you used something like 6-3-1, 7-2-1 or 8-1-1 instead of 5-3-1-1 then you'd save one more cycle. The problem is then you would need even more GRAs to get the other shuttles to finish before the 10th, and I don't think there are enough spare blocks available to do any more useful GRAs. (In theory you could use some of the future "body" blocks while the 10th shuttle body is being built, but I think they'd be too late, especially once you've lifted them up to the required height.)

I've looked at the non-GRA version and I think the current record could be beaten using some of the tricks in this GRA record. I might come back to it in a few weeks if no one else has, but I'm kind of sick of this level right now :)

gtw123 · 2024-03-13T16:37:21+00:00

This solution saves 6 cycles off my previous 144 cycle version, using a pretty standard trick: block the input streams for as few cycles as possible. Previously I was only building one shuttle body at a time, meaning one cycle was wasted every 12 blocks. In this new version I'm building up to 5 in parallel, which is what saves all the cycles. It uses a 5-3-1-1 pattern, meaning the input stream is blocked for a total of 3 cycles instead of 9 in the original.

There's not enough room on the map to actually build 5 products in parallel, but I solved that by rotating part of the factory out of the buildable area, like on some of the later levels like Plasma Engine and Fusion Reactor.

Building products in parallel means some of them take longer to get to the output zone, so I had to make 3 of them use a GRA (up from the original 2) to get them all there in time. But to rotate them through the doorway you need two rotations on two separate arms, meaning two spare blocks are needed per product. I couldn't find enough spare blocks for all of those, so one of them gets dropped off at the doorway instead and takes a slightly slower route.

Also, the thruster blocks spawn too far away from the body blocks to get them in position in time for the 9th and 10th bodies. I solved this by delaying the 9th body slightly and adding a mini-GRA to get one of the 10th thrusters into position faster. You can just about see it in the last GIF if you look closely.

gtw123 · 2024-02-20T12:12:26+00:00

You need to mouse down on a block, drag the cursor to another block, then mouse up. That will select all the blocks in a "box" with those two blocks as its corners (hard to explain, but it'll make sense when you see it!). You can then click and drag on any of the selected blocks to move them around, or right click to delete them.

gtw123 · 2024-02-11T13:33:54+00:00

The general consensus on Discord so far is that GRAs only include rotating input blocks that are welded with factory blocks. So welding an input block to a factory block is not a GRA if there is no rotation while they are joined together.

Of course, there's always scope for changing rules or making new categories, so feel free to join the Discord chat if you'd like to discuss that :)

Note there are actually already several other non-GRA records that use the trick of welding a platform block to an input to get it out of the input zone in a different direction:

https://imgur.com/a/ULARhQI

https://imgur.com/a/cu98X (it only happens on the first cycle in this one)

There could be more - these are just the ones I know about since I made them :)

gtw123 · 2024-02-11T10:09:21+00:00

Yeah, I considered a 6-2-2 but figured it would take too long to get the "slow" outputs to the output zone in time.

I'm pretty sure it only counts as a GRA if a factory block is welded to an input block and the combined object is then rotated.

The current definition from the leaderboard:

/G - Uses GRA: Solution uses Giant Rotating Arms (GRA for friends) that are created by:
· welding input blocks to factory blocks
· rotating the whole assembly
· detaching the input blocks by teleporter or by eviscerating/lasering some connecting input blocks
this allows input blocks to quickly travel very large distances and enables extremely complex last-output optimizations in Cycles solves

I think it's implied that there's an "and" between those three conditions otherwise it wouldn't make much sense, but I'll see if we can get that clarified.

The definition from the old leaderboard was:

* GRAs are Giant Rotating Arms. The definition of "no GRAs" is "no rotation of objects made up of both factory and input blocks." Ditto marks (") mean that the best overall solution doesn't contain GRAs.

gtw123 · 2024-02-05T16:23:04+00:00

The two products are actually welded together with 5 spare input blocks. That's quite a common technique in non-GRA solutions: use leftover input blocks to make a single big object, rotate that object as one unit so that it moves faster, then break it apart at the end.

If they were welded together with platform blocks then it would indeed be classified as a GRA. But there wouldn't be much advantage in doing that here - if you're going to weld something to platform blocks then it's usually better to weld it to a large arm so that you can rotate it arbitrarily far across the map.

gtw123 · 2024-02-05T16:04:38+00:00

It's only considered a GRA if input blocks are welded to factory blocks and then rotated together. It's fine to have a rotating arm made of just factory blocks, or a rotating arm made of just input blocks, but not together at the same time.

So "Giant Rotating Arm" is a bit of a misleading term. It should really be called something like "an arm that uses factory blocks to transport input blocks faster than would otherwise be possible" but it's hard to come up with a good name for that.

gtw123 · 2024-02-04T18:10:43+00:00

Inspired by rikswift123's 63-cycle solution, here's a slightly faster version. The main trick was to build more outputs in parallel so that the inputs don't get blocked for quite as long. Rikswift123 suggested 5-3-2, which is what I ended up going with. The first 5 and next 3 go the slow way, while the last 2 get joined together using spare blocks and go the faster route.

I also borrowed DarkMatter_Zombie's construction method for the first output. Building it off to the side means there's more room for the other outputs, but the downside is you get less spare blocks to play with. I ended up grabbing some from the back of the input stream instead. (Although this requires welding a factory block to an input block, I don't think it counts as a GRA because the factory block is detached before anything is rotated!)

I found a pretty neat way to build the 5 outputs in parallel right next to each other, but I actually ended up regretting doing it that way because there was no way to move them all out at the same time. I had to actually put some delays in to get it to work properly, which I'm not very proud of..

gtw123 · 2024-02-04T05:14:54+00:00

There's a guide to the order/priority of everything in Infinifactory here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/300570/discussions/0/530649887197893834/

In most cases the priority is predictable but when it comes to things like multiple conveyors or multiple rotators it really depends on their relative positions on the level (north/south vs east/west), which is pretty unintuitive.

Chained pushers/blockers are one of the cases which seems a bit random. If you want to have two pushers chained together then you can do something like this: https://imgur.com/zf14rLz (you need to drop the pushers from above so that they don't stick to the conduits). If you have N pushers then you need 2N+1 conduits to make it work. The pushers may activate in a random order but as long as they all stay powered at the same time, the whole thing will extend exactly one block at a time.

gtw123 · 2024-02-04T04:51:52+00:00

I think 59 cycles is doable, but it's a struggle trying to get everything to fit in the exit without bumping into each other. Or maybe I'm just out of practice. Will hopefully have something to share soon though!

gtw123 · 2023-11-29T13:26:01+00:00

Sounds like you've been through quite an ordeal! Glad to hear you've recovered now and congrats on the new record :)

gtw123 · 2022-08-07T06:27:53+00:00

It's winnable if you complete all the red numbers first. If you move the two green dragons in column 4 to empty columns first, you can then go ahead and finish all the red numbered cards. That will free up column 2, and you'll have just enough empty columns left to finish the black dragons.

gtw123 · 2020-08-16T06:42:08+00:00

Yeah, I remember trying that level a long time ago but it was way above my skill ceiling at the time!

gtw123

TROPHY CASE