You are a shark in the space between worlds.
September 12, 2015 10:27 AM Subscribe
Shark Game: Shoal Sharker is an incremental game about the mystery and majesty of sharks in a strange blue sea.
Do I ever get to chomp any human swimmers or is it just fish?
posted by poffin boffin at 10:42 AM on September 12, 2015
posted by poffin boffin at 10:42 AM on September 12, 2015
Oh goddamn you, boo.
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:45 AM on September 12, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:45 AM on September 12, 2015 [6 favorites]
i has a grotto
posted by poffin boffin at 10:51 AM on September 12, 2015
posted by poffin boffin at 10:51 AM on September 12, 2015
I got a grotto before I realized I was going to wake up in two hours with a fuckton of fish and no laundry done.
posted by Mooski at 10:53 AM on September 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Mooski at 10:53 AM on September 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
do i need all this sand or is it somehow slowing me down as i arbitrarily suspect?
posted by poffin boffin at 10:55 AM on September 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by poffin boffin at 10:55 AM on September 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
Soon your grotto will be filled with science sharking and planter crabs going about their noble work.
posted by boo_radley at 10:55 AM on September 12, 2015
posted by boo_radley at 10:55 AM on September 12, 2015
wait never mind, a thing happened.
posted by poffin boffin at 10:56 AM on September 12, 2015
posted by poffin boffin at 10:56 AM on September 12, 2015
It just keeps giving, too:
You are a shark in a dark mysterious sea.
The █████████ are ancient kin of the shark kind, reunited through wild ████████████.
What peerless wonders have they found in the dark?
posted by boo_radley at 11:00 AM on September 12, 2015
You are a shark in a dark mysterious sea.
The █████████ are ancient kin of the shark kind, reunited through wild ████████████.
What peerless wonders have they found in the dark?
posted by boo_radley at 11:00 AM on September 12, 2015
Oh, no. I still have the kittens game running in another tab. I clicked this link and looked up at my boyfriend and read, "You are a shark in a strange blue sea." He immediately said, "No, babe, don't do it! Don't give in! Don't click that button! Nooooooooo!"
posted by lilac girl at 11:04 AM on September 12, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by lilac girl at 11:04 AM on September 12, 2015 [6 favorites]
i'm doing so much science!
posted by poffin boffin at 11:05 AM on September 12, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by poffin boffin at 11:05 AM on September 12, 2015 [3 favorites]
The science sharks are great at what they do, but wait until the eels come along.
posted by boo_radley at 11:13 AM on September 12, 2015
posted by boo_radley at 11:13 AM on September 12, 2015
how do i get back through the gateway, i don't like this world
posted by poffin boffin at 11:33 AM on September 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by poffin boffin at 11:33 AM on September 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
aw come on, I still haven't gotten the last ranger for Clicker Heroes yet, why u do dis boo?
posted by numaner at 11:42 AM on September 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by numaner at 11:42 AM on September 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
Sharkonium seems to be rather obnoxious to gather. I haven't yet found a way to automatically make it, and I'm up to things costing 2K and 3K of it. If there's no way to get it other than to click a few thousand times then I'm out.
posted by JHarris at 12:25 PM on September 12, 2015
posted by JHarris at 12:25 PM on September 12, 2015
So much science, yet the poor sharks lack all culture. This needs an Arts and Humanities track. Why to STEM, sharks? Why?
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:27 PM on September 12, 2015 [8 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:27 PM on September 12, 2015 [8 favorites]
This game is odd, like Clicker Heroes (which I've only read about) in that it blends a little bit of another genre with the clicker game template. In this case its text/adventure game. I don't want to bring the MEta discussion in here but I think I like the genre precisely becuase I don't feel compelled to play. They are fun to leave open at work and check in every 15 mins or so, and I don't feel any loss closing the tab at the end of the day. It sort of replaces obsessively checking my email and reloading Facebook. But I'm not in an office, I'm working with residents, hanging out in the common area, etc, so I'm not in front of the computer the whole day. Really helps a lazy saturday speed by though.
posted by kittensofthenight at 12:32 PM on September 12, 2015
posted by kittensofthenight at 12:32 PM on September 12, 2015
Sharkonium seems to be rather obnoxious to gather. I haven't yet found a way to automatically make it, and I'm up to things costing 2K and 3K of it. If there's no way to get it other than to click a few thousand times then I'm out.
First things first, look up above your list of buyable things- there's buy multiple options up there.
Also there's an auto transmuter that you'll unlock later.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:33 PM on September 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
First things first, look up above your list of buyable things- there's buy multiple options up there.
Also there's an auto transmuter that you'll unlock later.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:33 PM on September 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
I started a game of this, then went off to shower. And in the shower I thought abut this, and Cookie Clicker, and Kittens game, and Swarm Simulator, and Candy Box and all the other incremental games I've played. And the MeTa plea to stop posting these things that Leo Trotsky linked to.
First there's just you, working to survive, all alone in a world. Then you can hire some other people/kittens/sharks/insects to do the basics of survival. And then you can start advancing to rudimentary agriculture and animal husbandry. And then the tech tree opens up, and you begin finding ways to make the lives of your sharks/people/kittens/insects easier, at the price of consuming ever more resources. Eventually you're harvesting more food/catnip/fish than there are atoms in the universe. And the question becomes: what now? Start from scratch on another world? Or... something else? But there's no something else. It's just back to the beginning. Except with something to speed it up again.
There's a question lurking in the center of all of these games. Maybe that's why I keep playing them. Hoping that one of them will have a new answer to "what next". So far nobody does.
I dunno. It just feels like an important question for humanity to be asking itself through these silly little time-consumers.
(I don't have a reason for why I keep coming back to Clicker Heros, though. They just leave death in their wake and hire stronger mercenaries.)
posted by egypturnash at 12:38 PM on September 12, 2015 [6 favorites]
First there's just you, working to survive, all alone in a world. Then you can hire some other people/kittens/sharks/insects to do the basics of survival. And then you can start advancing to rudimentary agriculture and animal husbandry. And then the tech tree opens up, and you begin finding ways to make the lives of your sharks/people/kittens/insects easier, at the price of consuming ever more resources. Eventually you're harvesting more food/catnip/fish than there are atoms in the universe. And the question becomes: what now? Start from scratch on another world? Or... something else? But there's no something else. It's just back to the beginning. Except with something to speed it up again.
There's a question lurking in the center of all of these games. Maybe that's why I keep playing them. Hoping that one of them will have a new answer to "what next". So far nobody does.
I dunno. It just feels like an important question for humanity to be asking itself through these silly little time-consumers.
(I don't have a reason for why I keep coming back to Clicker Heros, though. They just leave death in their wake and hire stronger mercenaries.)
posted by egypturnash at 12:38 PM on September 12, 2015 [6 favorites]
When you restart, all sorts of different fish and options are available. I think it randomizes the available resources each run-through. It makes each game a completely different sort of optimization puzzle, which is unique and really neat.
Sharkonium seems to be rather obnoxious to gather. I haven't yet found a way to automatically make it, and I'm up to things costing 2K and 3K of it.
You can automate making it, but it's not always easy to ramp up to the stage where automation is possible. I was in a similar situation with clams for a little while... I thought I'd have to do a lot of individual clicks to scoop up clams... but the Recycler, which is always available pretty early on, is useful in helping out with this initial hurdle.
posted by painquale at 12:40 PM on September 12, 2015
Sharkonium seems to be rather obnoxious to gather. I haven't yet found a way to automatically make it, and I'm up to things costing 2K and 3K of it.
You can automate making it, but it's not always easy to ramp up to the stage where automation is possible. I was in a similar situation with clams for a little while... I thought I'd have to do a lot of individual clicks to scoop up clams... but the Recycler, which is always available pretty early on, is useful in helping out with this initial hurdle.
posted by painquale at 12:40 PM on September 12, 2015
1000K Science is steep! More science sharks!
posted by numaner at 1:19 PM on September 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by numaner at 1:19 PM on September 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
Sea apples can be converted into science.
posted by matthewr at 1:52 PM on September 12, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by matthewr at 1:52 PM on September 12, 2015 [3 favorites]
numaner: "you also need to insert them into the gate"
Sometimes you do. Each gate leads to different places and needs different things.
posted by boo_radley at 1:57 PM on September 12, 2015
Sometimes you do. Each gate leads to different places and needs different things.
posted by boo_radley at 1:57 PM on September 12, 2015
i have 300 billion science but i want more
i want more science
posted by poffin boffin at 2:05 PM on September 12, 2015 [8 favorites]
i want more science
posted by poffin boffin at 2:05 PM on September 12, 2015 [8 favorites]
GIVE ME THE SCIENCE
posted by poffin boffin at 2:06 PM on September 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by poffin boffin at 2:06 PM on September 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
So much science, yet the poor sharks lack all culture. This needs an Arts and Humanities track. Why to STEM, sharks? Why?
This is what dolphins are for.
posted by shakespeherian at 2:09 PM on September 12, 2015 [5 favorites]
This is what dolphins are for.
posted by shakespeherian at 2:09 PM on September 12, 2015 [5 favorites]
shakespeherian: " This is what dolphins are for."
The elves of the sea.
posted by boo_radley at 2:11 PM on September 12, 2015 [7 favorites]
The elves of the sea.
posted by boo_radley at 2:11 PM on September 12, 2015 [7 favorites]
Maybe after you explore all the worlds you meet dolphins and get some culture?
posted by numaner at 2:11 PM on September 12, 2015
posted by numaner at 2:11 PM on September 12, 2015
"Instruct an eel in the fine art of shark science."
YESSSSSSSS
posted by numaner at 2:19 PM on September 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
YESSSSSSSS
posted by numaner at 2:19 PM on September 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
Can you earn more than 1 essence when going through the gate? Are there "grades", essentially, or is it just a "1 essence per trip" kind of thing?
posted by radiosilents at 2:39 PM on September 12, 2015
posted by radiosilents at 2:39 PM on September 12, 2015
MetaFilter: GIVE ME THE SCIENCE
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:55 PM on September 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:55 PM on September 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
Also:
MetaFilter: This is what dolphins are for.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:19 PM on September 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
MetaFilter: This is what dolphins are for.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:19 PM on September 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
Gah! 10B science!? How do I even get 1B science? Or 1M science? Oh, OK, I've got 1M science now. But it took hours!
posted by wilberforce at 3:29 PM on September 12, 2015
posted by wilberforce at 3:29 PM on September 12, 2015
I know wilberforce. I was excited after the relatively quick progress of the first world, and now on the second I just don't care enough to actively optimize by eel pits and dolphin archivists. I really only want to take a look at the different worlds and tech trees and this damn resource accumulation is getting in the way.
It feels tedious the same way that combat and conflict feel tedious to me in 4x games- I really just want to build a Shark Empire and explore the universe, not wait through all this bullshit. I guess thats why these games lose me so fast. You can't turn the difficulty down because the only real conflict is with wasting your own time.
posted by kittensofthenight at 3:34 PM on September 12, 2015 [4 favorites]
It feels tedious the same way that combat and conflict feel tedious to me in 4x games- I really just want to build a Shark Empire and explore the universe, not wait through all this bullshit. I guess thats why these games lose me so fast. You can't turn the difficulty down because the only real conflict is with wasting your own time.
posted by kittensofthenight at 3:34 PM on September 12, 2015 [4 favorites]
I'll quit after I reach 1k whales and can assemble the whale chorus. Thats it!
posted by kittensofthenight at 3:35 PM on September 12, 2015
posted by kittensofthenight at 3:35 PM on September 12, 2015
You can really see the David Brini influence in this and its pretty great. I wish he was more influential on games and tv/movie SF.
posted by kittensofthenight at 3:36 PM on September 12, 2015
posted by kittensofthenight at 3:36 PM on September 12, 2015
I think the 1B (and 10B (!!!!) science) gets more attainable once you start using artifacts and go through several loops of worlds.
posted by shakespeherian at 4:05 PM on September 12, 2015
posted by shakespeherian at 4:05 PM on September 12, 2015
If Cirrial hasn't updated this game to fix the e: recycler, high levels of anything become trivial on any world, once you work out the clam strategy.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 4:26 PM on September 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 4:26 PM on September 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
once you get up to like 10M fish/crystals/sand per second you can recycle it all into jellyfish and then smash the jellyfish for science
also i had 10k science sharks and 10k eel researchers or whatever they're called
posted by poffin boffin at 4:45 PM on September 12, 2015
also i had 10k science sharks and 10k eel researchers or whatever they're called
posted by poffin boffin at 4:45 PM on September 12, 2015
the uncomplicated soups of my childhood: " once you work out the clam strategy."
Now that I'm done laughing at the phrase "clam strategy", tell me what it is.
posted by boo_radley at 5:15 PM on September 12, 2015 [11 favorites]
Now that I'm done laughing at the phrase "clam strategy", tell me what it is.
posted by boo_radley at 5:15 PM on September 12, 2015 [11 favorites]
Even after playing the game for a while and realizing how much of what has been said is real, I'm finding it a lot easier (and more enjoyable) to imagine that everything I didn't personally experience is just being made up by the people commenting in this thread.
Good improv, everyone!
posted by cardioid at 5:31 PM on September 12, 2015 [5 favorites]
Good improv, everyone!
posted by cardioid at 5:31 PM on September 12, 2015 [5 favorites]
Now that I'm done laughing at the phrase "clam strategy", tell me what it is.
Once you're able to build berry sprayers and lobster berriers, you can abuse the recycler to produce many, many clams, which you can then recycle into whatever.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 6:31 PM on September 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
Once you're able to build berry sprayers and lobster berriers, you can abuse the recycler to produce many, many clams, which you can then recycle into whatever.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 6:31 PM on September 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
Also FYI the game ends there. You can keep playing, but Cirrial went on to other things and while you can continue to amass various sea life there are no plannedupdates I'm aware of, and worlds end up taking about a minute.
The whale chorus also doesn't do anything.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 6:57 PM on September 12, 2015
The whale chorus also doesn't do anything.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 6:57 PM on September 12, 2015
So there's no endgame? I've beaten like three worlds this evening and am getting bored.
posted by griphus at 8:57 PM on September 12, 2015
posted by griphus at 8:57 PM on September 12, 2015
Good improv, everyone!
Wait, there's a clam strategy? Because the octopuses (octopi? octopusies?) don't seem to add anything in the Frozen Water world. Seems like you can get them to make more clams, which gets you... more octopuses, and you can use them to make more sand (which is great, but the Sand Scooper vastly outpace them). And the sponges they can make can be imbued with residue to make spronges, but then those don't do anything (I've just been recycling them for more sharkonium).
posted by numaner at 9:31 PM on September 12, 2015
Wait, there's a clam strategy? Because the octopuses (octopi? octopusies?) don't seem to add anything in the Frozen Water world. Seems like you can get them to make more clams, which gets you... more octopuses, and you can use them to make more sand (which is great, but the Sand Scooper vastly outpace them). And the sponges they can make can be imbued with residue to make spronges, but then those don't do anything (I've just been recycling them for more sharkonium).
posted by numaner at 9:31 PM on September 12, 2015
I've found the shrimp strategy quicker and easier than the clam strategy. Shrimp pump out billions of algae which can be recycled into whatever.
But the clam strategy has the benefit of giving you a ton of lobsters which can be converted into harvester lobsters for kelp. A ton of kelp generates a ton of sea apples which can then be converted into science. You can't get science from the recycler and I haven't found a better way of getting billions of science.
posted by painquale at 12:56 AM on September 13, 2015
But the clam strategy has the benefit of giving you a ton of lobsters which can be converted into harvester lobsters for kelp. A ton of kelp generates a ton of sea apples which can then be converted into science. You can't get science from the recycler and I haven't found a better way of getting billions of science.
posted by painquale at 12:56 AM on September 13, 2015
I've said it once before--when they invent a silent mouse, I will play these types of games.
posted by zardoz at 4:16 AM on September 13, 2015
posted by zardoz at 4:16 AM on September 13, 2015
I have several upgrades that improve dolphin production, but I have no actual dolphins and no option to recruit. Have I missed them somewhere?
posted by solarion at 6:09 AM on September 13, 2015
posted by solarion at 6:09 AM on September 13, 2015
I think buying Cetacean Awareness lets you Fetch Dolphins. But maybe it's a different upgrade.
posted by painquale at 8:31 AM on September 13, 2015
posted by painquale at 8:31 AM on September 13, 2015
This game would be much improved by being able to scroll the left and right divs independently.
...which means that we have finally found a website that would be improved by the use of frames!
posted by Pope Guilty at 11:02 AM on September 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
...which means that we have finally found a website that would be improved by the use of frames!
posted by Pope Guilty at 11:02 AM on September 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
Yes, this game needs frames. Frames are needlessly maligned. They're put to great use in a bunch of web games. Kingdom of Loathing, for instance!
posted by painquale at 1:09 PM on September 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by painquale at 1:09 PM on September 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
I don't think abusing sprayers is something that should be fixed. The whole point of these games as I see is to try to find something to exploit to get to the next level.
posted by Joe Chip at 2:17 PM on September 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Joe Chip at 2:17 PM on September 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
I keep buying crabs but my crystal production rate never gets past 1/s. What am I missing?
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 7:08 PM on September 13, 2015
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 7:08 PM on September 13, 2015
Joe Chip: "Hmmm what to do with 51 trillion clams..."
There's always soup once you find the potato ocean
posted by boo_radley at 7:17 PM on September 13, 2015 [4 favorites]
There's always soup once you find the potato ocean
posted by boo_radley at 7:17 PM on September 13, 2015 [4 favorites]
I went through the gateway and now I don't know how to get back. I lost all my stuff!
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:12 PM on September 13, 2015
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:12 PM on September 13, 2015
Me too! I don't have enough essence to go anywhere, and I'm just stuck.
posted by gladly at 8:14 PM on September 13, 2015
posted by gladly at 8:14 PM on September 13, 2015
You have to pick a new world to travel to and start over. As you leave various worlds you will accumulate essence and be able to buy artifacts that help you progress faster.
posted by isthmus at 8:19 PM on September 13, 2015
posted by isthmus at 8:19 PM on September 13, 2015
Does how much I built up before I leave that world help me at all?
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:26 PM on September 13, 2015
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:26 PM on September 13, 2015
I really want these things that cost 100B or 80b science, but by my calculations, at 8.75 science per second, it will take 3000 hours. Who has that kind of patience. And I can only train shark nurses and dolphin producers so fast and then their babies have to be trained as scientists and philosophers. I feel like I'm running some sort of factory here!
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 9:42 PM on September 13, 2015
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 9:42 PM on September 13, 2015
To get science, mass convert everything into jellyfish then smash the jellyfish. OR kelp -> sea apples -> science.
posted by scalefree at 9:56 PM on September 13, 2015
posted by scalefree at 9:56 PM on September 13, 2015
Kelp makes sea apples very slowly. Luckily, there are ways to grow ridiculous amounts of kelp very quickly, and since you don't use sea apples for anything but science, they accumulate easily.
That said, you might be better off using the recycler to crush your stuff into sponges and smushing the sponges into science, assuming jellyfish aren't available in your world.
posted by chrominance at 10:10 PM on September 13, 2015
That said, you might be better off using the recycler to crush your stuff into sponges and smushing the sponges into science, assuming jellyfish aren't available in your world.
posted by chrominance at 10:10 PM on September 13, 2015
Is there any good whale strategy? I'm at 102 & 1000 looks a long way off. I'm generating sharkonium & using that to make fish machines but it's still an uphill battle. I guess I could divert my jellyfish stream to fish but I'd like to keep both going at once.
posted by scalefree at 10:16 PM on September 13, 2015
posted by scalefree at 10:16 PM on September 13, 2015
I lost at least 5 hours to the damn sharks today and my husband put me on shark probation after he had to untangle my miserable neck muscles. He said "this is why we don't have Xbox" which I think is code for "it's a good thing we don't have human children because social services would take them away."
posted by bitter-girl.com at 10:18 PM on September 13, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by bitter-girl.com at 10:18 PM on September 13, 2015 [6 favorites]
I'm able to pretty steadily churn through worlds now. My strategy changes depending on the world type, but it always depends on abusing the recycler to get enormous early boosts to science.
On worlds with shrimp available, the first goal is to make as many shrimp queens as possible and convert all the algae the shrimp produce into kelp at the recycler. Kelp produces sea apples to harvest science from. This method produces so much science I that can pretty quickly buy everything from the scientist sharks. Then I focus on converting the algae into other goods.
On worlds with lobsters, I focus on growing lobsters by recycling goods into berry sprayers, then recycling the clams and sand they produce into kelp (and then other goods once I've made all the scientific purchases). This is the clam strategy mentioned above. It eventually outstrips the shrimp strategy, but the shrimp strategy is quicker. The two methods don't conflict, so you can do both at once.
The world without sea apples (the ice world, I think?) is the most disruptive. Accumulating science is really slow when you can't abuse kelp.
posted by painquale at 12:34 AM on September 14, 2015 [4 favorites]
On worlds with shrimp available, the first goal is to make as many shrimp queens as possible and convert all the algae the shrimp produce into kelp at the recycler. Kelp produces sea apples to harvest science from. This method produces so much science I that can pretty quickly buy everything from the scientist sharks. Then I focus on converting the algae into other goods.
On worlds with lobsters, I focus on growing lobsters by recycling goods into berry sprayers, then recycling the clams and sand they produce into kelp (and then other goods once I've made all the scientific purchases). This is the clam strategy mentioned above. It eventually outstrips the shrimp strategy, but the shrimp strategy is quicker. The two methods don't conflict, so you can do both at once.
The world without sea apples (the ice world, I think?) is the most disruptive. Accumulating science is really slow when you can't abuse kelp.
posted by painquale at 12:34 AM on September 14, 2015 [4 favorites]
This game is a great side activity to take up downtime in the other clicker game I'm invested in
posted by yoHighness at 2:54 AM on September 14, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by yoHighness at 2:54 AM on September 14, 2015 [5 favorites]
Joking; the other game is a MMO not a clicker game.
posted by yoHighness at 2:55 AM on September 14, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by yoHighness at 2:55 AM on September 14, 2015 [1 favorite]
You can get science from recyclers. Convert the algae to jellyfish
posted by jcruelty at 4:38 PM on September 14, 2015
posted by jcruelty at 4:38 PM on September 14, 2015
I meant that you can't get science directly. But anyway, smashing jellyfish for science is a last resort. It's exponentially slower than making kelp... when you smash sea apples for science, you don't also consume the kelp that makes them.
posted by painquale at 5:25 PM on September 14, 2015
posted by painquale at 5:25 PM on September 14, 2015
Thanks to the tip on the apples, I now have 5.01 Qa science, and I've bought everything you can buy and now just making more and more reproduction happen and more and more assigning crabs to farm kelp and make more apples because I'm curious to see what comes after Qa.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 5:35 PM on September 14, 2015
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 5:35 PM on September 14, 2015
zardoz, you really should invest in an auto-clicker. Prolong the life of your mouse, and also click a bunch with one silent key stroke!
posted by numaner at 5:52 PM on September 14, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by numaner at 5:52 PM on September 14, 2015 [1 favorite]
huh, good point painquale i didn't realize the kelp trick. then again, it also took me a minute to realize what the "1 10 100 1/3 max 1/2 max max" buttons up top meant. at first i thought "1" was the only option and i would have to click a million times to buy a million of something. unfortunately now i know about "max" and here i am playing some more....
posted by jcruelty at 6:28 PM on September 14, 2015
posted by jcruelty at 6:28 PM on September 14, 2015
Well that took forever, but after Qa comes Qi.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:22 PM on September 14, 2015
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:22 PM on September 14, 2015
I just clicked on my favourites intending to convert recycle them to kelp and find out what comes after Qi.
This might be getting out of hand.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 10:06 PM on September 14, 2015 [1 favorite]
This might be getting out of hand.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 10:06 PM on September 14, 2015 [1 favorite]
After Qi comes Sx. At this point I'm just obsessed with learning what the units are. I had a serious slowdown earlier when I sold machines to buy kelp. Do not sell your machines!
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 5:54 AM on September 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 5:54 AM on September 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
wait, so... is the whale song the final step, I've also gotten all the 10 B science upgrades, all of which helped me greatly increase fish productions to get the 1000 whales.
now.. what?
help
I feel empty
:(
posted by numaner at 3:58 PM on September 16, 2015
now.. what?
help
I feel empty
:(
posted by numaner at 3:58 PM on September 16, 2015
Yeah, the whale chorus was a big disappointment. It does nothing. Supposedly the whale chorus builds essence at a ridiculously slow rate, but people report waiting days and not getting a single essence point, so I wouldn't wait for that.
But if you want to move forward, go to the gateway and feed it the required resources and you go to another world where you get to start all over again.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 4:43 PM on September 16, 2015
But if you want to move forward, go to the gateway and feed it the required resources and you go to another world where you get to start all over again.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 4:43 PM on September 16, 2015
I've already tried all the different worlds... but not at the hardest climate levels. not sure if I wanna be that sadistic.
Back to Clicker Heroes I suppose!
posted by numaner at 4:47 PM on September 16, 2015
Back to Clicker Heroes I suppose!
posted by numaner at 4:47 PM on September 16, 2015
How do you adjust the climate levels? I 'm going to stay where I am until I find all the units. As a side project I'm trying to figure out how to calculate how long it's going to take me to get to the next unit. How do I calculate time to distance with accelerating at an accelerating rate?
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 5:14 PM on September 16, 2015
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 5:14 PM on September 16, 2015
The whale chorus earns about 1 essence a week. I think it's for people in my position. I kinda burned out and stopped playing, but I left a whale chorus around so that if I ever return after an update, there will have been a bit of progress made in the meantime.
posted by painquale at 6:23 PM on September 16, 2015
posted by painquale at 6:23 PM on September 16, 2015
So when I leave it running over night, I don't have huge numbers in the morning. I mean they're high, but not 8 hours worth of high. Also, the numbers aren't moving (i.e. I don't see the number of fish or anything else going up). I think it runs for an hour or two and then decides I'm not there and stops. The log just says "auto-saved over and over again."
I do have offline mode turned on. How do I make it run all day and night?
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 5:19 AM on September 17, 2015
I do have offline mode turned on. How do I make it run all day and night?
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 5:19 AM on September 17, 2015
numaner: "now.. what?
help
I feel empty"
You are a shark, alone, in a deep blue sea.
posted by boo_radley at 8:40 AM on September 17, 2015 [3 favorites]
help
I feel empty"
You are a shark, alone, in a deep blue sea.
posted by boo_radley at 8:40 AM on September 17, 2015 [3 favorites]
How do you adjust the climate levels?
I should've been clearer: you can't. But I've traveled to enough worlds to see the same ones but at different climate levels, which I imagine will make things like tar and ice much harder to counter, although that probably just means you need more of the things you need to reduce them, like purifiers.
posted by numaner at 9:31 AM on September 17, 2015
I should've been clearer: you can't. But I've traveled to enough worlds to see the same ones but at different climate levels, which I imagine will make things like tar and ice much harder to counter, although that probably just means you need more of the things you need to reduce them, like purifiers.
posted by numaner at 9:31 AM on September 17, 2015
I dunno, I've been doing 7's & 8's, haven't really seen them as too much tougher than 1's. One thing that puzzles me, I've never found a real use for the Grotto. What's it good for?
posted by scalefree at 8:09 PM on September 19, 2015
posted by scalefree at 8:09 PM on September 19, 2015
I use the grotto to try to figure out where to invest. For example, I figured out that it takes about 4 hours for a nurse shark to increase the fish production rate as much as the fish machine does (i.e. About four hours after you buy one nurse shark, the fish rate per second will increase to the amount you get from a fish machine). Now of course the nurse shark and fish machine have different costs, and they're bought in different currencies, so it's difficult to compare how much you have to invest in each. Also, you have to consider the opportunity cost for the four hours you spend waiting for your shark babies to be born when your fish machines could have been at full production rate the whole time.
It's very complicated. So, the main purpose of the grotto is to give me a reason to use Wolfram Alpha.
If anyone is a math teacher, this would also be great for getting kids to care about figuring this stuff out. Besides the complicated exchange rates on resources (and the multiple methods of exchanging them), there's also a tonne of accelerating at accelerating rates that I can't figure out.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:38 PM on September 19, 2015
It's very complicated. So, the main purpose of the grotto is to give me a reason to use Wolfram Alpha.
If anyone is a math teacher, this would also be great for getting kids to care about figuring this stuff out. Besides the complicated exchange rates on resources (and the multiple methods of exchanging them), there's also a tonne of accelerating at accelerating rates that I can't figure out.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:38 PM on September 19, 2015
I just leave the game running overnight or when I go out. When I get back to it I usually have more than enough resources to finish the world in about 10 minutes. Sounds like I was right & the Grotto's not useful to me after all.
posted by scalefree at 8:52 PM on September 19, 2015
posted by scalefree at 8:52 PM on September 19, 2015
I guess....I mean if you don't want to see all the units...
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:57 PM on September 19, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:57 PM on September 19, 2015 [2 favorites]
OK, so it's been a while since I actually looked at the Grotto. Somehow I forgot it shows the rates for each item & what they turn out. That's very useful & I'll be using it a lot. But why would I ever want to get rid of anything? Some things are more efficient for my needs than others but nothing ever hinders my progress (except for tar, special case & I don't think you can just get rid of it like that). Unless the clutter of too many things to keep track of bothers me, why get rid of anything ever?
posted by scalefree at 10:25 AM on September 20, 2015
posted by scalefree at 10:25 AM on September 20, 2015
I've been wondering that too...why would you give something up, especially instead of recycling it. The only thing I can think of (and I'm afraid to test it) is that maybe if you give up a machine or whatever, instead of recycling it, it brings the price of that machine down to what it was before you purchased those, so that if you decide to buy one again, then you won't have to pay as much? Or maybe it refunds you for what you paid for the machine?
I have 1.29 "SP" science now, and I'm working on getting my fish production up to 1 Qi per second via endless nurse shark buying, before I put all my energy back into finding the next unit. I'm pretty sure I figured this out and the next unit will be Oc. But I still want to know when the numbers will run out.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 11:04 AM on September 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
I have 1.29 "SP" science now, and I'm working on getting my fish production up to 1 Qi per second via endless nurse shark buying, before I put all my energy back into finding the next unit. I'm pretty sure I figured this out and the next unit will be Oc. But I still want to know when the numbers will run out.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 11:04 AM on September 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
I sometimes use the Grotto to re-assign roles to my various marine denizens - like maybe I really don't need any more coral, ever, but the gate is demanding ridiculous amounts of sand. I can dispose of the octopus collectors and train them to be scavengers, instead. I'm not sure how much difference this actually makes, but it makes me feel like I'm being more efficient.
posted by invokeuse at 12:23 PM on September 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by invokeuse at 12:23 PM on September 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
If you dispose of the collectors do they just become regular octopuses again or do you lose them completely? Cause I can see the value in being able to reassign duties but the other thing just seems pointless & counterproductive.
posted by scalefree at 2:57 PM on September 20, 2015
posted by scalefree at 2:57 PM on September 20, 2015
I can't figure out if there's entropy when you move stuff around. One of the side comments referred to the recycler output as "overpriced" so I think there might be.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 3:18 PM on September 20, 2015
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 3:18 PM on September 20, 2015
From the grotto text: "Disposing specialists returns them to their normal, previous lives." I read this as meaning they de-specialize, and it holds after a quick test of promoting, and then de-promoting, dolphin treasurers.
I agree that there's not much point in disposing of stuff that can just go in the recycler.
posted by invokeuse at 7:23 PM on September 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
I agree that there's not much point in disposing of stuff that can just go in the recycler.
posted by invokeuse at 7:23 PM on September 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
If anyone is still wondering when the numbers run out, I have now "lots" of science. The numbers run out after "Oc".
posted by baueri at 3:54 AM on October 12, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by baueri at 3:54 AM on October 12, 2015 [5 favorites]
WHAT??? Are you kidding me? I was into 3 digit OC but my production was slowing down and none of my reinvesting could get it up to a reasonable speed. I made the supreme sacrifice and moved to another world. I figured after collecting essense and artifacts would make it easier and I could start again. I've been collecting artifacts. I was going to go back and go past OC to the very end. But that's all there is? Just OC?
Seriously, I was just this minute feeding crystals to the gate to move to another world and buy more artifacts.
Also, there seems to be no relation between climate level of a world and anything, is there? I was hoping higher climate meant more essence, but it doesn't seem to.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 7:55 AM on October 12, 2015
Seriously, I was just this minute feeding crystals to the gate to move to another world and buy more artifacts.
Also, there seems to be no relation between climate level of a world and anything, is there? I was hoping higher climate meant more essence, but it doesn't seem to.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 7:55 AM on October 12, 2015
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posted by Wordshore at 10:36 AM on September 12, 2015 [2 favorites]