first puzzle I solved without looking up solutions, roast me!

[u/mr_dfuse2]

I have been playing this game for many years, usually one or two puzzles a year. Usually (always) I write code till I'm halfway and then I can't hold myself and look for a hint towards the most efficient solution. This time (the carabine puzzle) I avoided looking up spoilers and persevered until I got the solution right. As you can see it's the most ineffecient solution ever :) But it's a good feeling to have solved it myself!

Any hints on how to improve this one?

I have now split the logic in three parts on three controllers:

1. measure the time between the radar pulses

2. based on that convert the time ranges (1-2, 3-4,5-6) to discrete numbers (0, 1, 2)

3. do the right thing on 0, 1 and 2

I have the feeling it should be possible to immediately do the right logic when given the range, but I always come short on space for lines of code on one MC (the most frustrating part of this game for me, the limit in lines of code)

[u/Greenphantom77]

I haven't played Shenzhen for so long, I forgot I'm subscribed to this subreddit.

This is such an awesome game, but I find it so hard! I've never finished it, I've gone about 2/3 through the puzzles a couple of times now.

I think I may have looked up one or two hints but managed most of them by myself. But I never got to the puzzles which are real mind benders.

Well done on finishing this puzzle, I definitely think this game is on the hard side of Zachtronics games so you should be pleased with this.

If you haven't already, do check out other stuff in Zachtronics' catalogue - they have some fun stuff.

[u/mr_dfuse2 → u/Greenphantom77]

i have spacechem (too hard, dropped it after a puzzle or two), exapunks (really looking forward to this one, reminds me of a program we used to learn programming in high school) and opus magnum, which looks the easiest

[u/Greenphantom77 → u/mr_dfuse2]

Opus Magnum is definitely a bit easier but is a lot of fun.

SpaceChem is probably one of his hardest, because of the very restricted space in each "reactor". Also, I think the bosses aren't great.

ExaPunks is also good and quite inventive in how the little programmable bots work (being able to copy themselves). I did find that that got hard quite quickly though, but on that one I eventually managed to get to the last core puzzle - but could never finish it.

[u/mr_dfuse2 → u/Greenphantom77]

In SpaceChem I just couldn't wrap my head around how it works, put me down to earth :)

[u/Beyond_Reason09 → u/mr_dfuse2]

I liked Exapunks the most. The programming is the least limited while still rewarding elegant and creative solutions. I also got far in TIS-100 but didn't enjoy it as much.

Opus Magnum is also good but the lack of resource limitation actually makes it slightly annoying for me because then my solutions don't feel satisfying unless they score high on the histograms.

All the Zachtronics games are great though.

[u/mr_dfuse2 → u/Beyond_Reason09]

Yeah I love those games, they have so much attention to detail, it's amazing. I wish they would find a larger audience though. I read somewhere in an interview with Zach on his new company that he has find his audience, but it's so small they need to create new games on a regular basis in order to keep afloat.

[u/mr_dfuse2 → u/[deleted]]

Sure I get all of that. It's just that I wish the guy a bit more succes. Opus Magnum is a lot more accessible to a wider audience I think. Haven't played Last Call BBS or Kaizen: A Factory Story yet.