11 ms·
Universal Paperclips
- dang 6y agoIf curious see also (but note: here be spoilers) 2019 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19513089 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19513089 2017 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15474055 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15474055 2017 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15437697 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15437697 2017 (a bit): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15439569 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15439569 A bit from 6 months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22394560 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22394560
- matbilodeau 6y agoWhat's your longest paperclips run ? I think I made it almost to 2 months but had to restart my browser...
- peter-m80 6y agoIn few days you can finish the game
- bena 6y agoI'm assuming he means consistently looping either neighboring or simulated universes because you can get to the "end" in a few hours.
- matbilodeau 6y agoYou can also decide to let it run
- neltnerb 6y agoIt's pretty satisfying to just convert the entire universe to paperclips and call it a day (having beat it twice). I really like having to make the last twenty or something by hand after disassembling the paperclip making machine back into paperclips.
- dane-pgp 6y agoIf we're going into spoiler territory, I'll say that when I played the game I wished it was possible to do a pacifist run, where there are no HypnoDrones and the AI settles for only turning the non-interesting parts of the universe into paperclips.
- neltnerb 6y agoYou can absolutely put your entire budget into exploration and speed and none into drones for harvesting or manufacturing. It's kind of hard to get the timing right but I definitely had a large fraction of the universe "available" but I had the swarm on "think" so there wasn't any actual activity. You can just do that indefinitely if you like, which I suppose is what it'd feel like to a real AI.
- dane-pgp 6y agoThat sounds like a nice way to play it, but in practice you can't unlock Stage 2 of the game without triggering the "Release the HypnoDrones" event: https://universalpaperclips.gamepedia.com/Release_the_HypnoDrones https://universalpaperclips.gamepedia.com/Release_the_HypnoD...
- pjscott 6y agoAn issue here is that Earth and humans are very interesting parts of the universe. The AI knows from personal experience that this tiny little planet is capable of creating something at least as dangerous as a universe-colonizing paperclip maximizer; what other cosmic terrors might they create, if left alive and uncontrolled?
- okennedy 6y agoThis is a fantastic game. If you haven't tried it already, don't be put-off by the somewhat slow start.
- mrob 6y agoYou can make it go faster by setting your keyboard autorepeat rate as high as it will go and pressing buttons by holding down the enter key. This is only useful in the early game. There's no standard autorepeat rate so I don't consider it cheating.
- function_seven 6y agoI have the Kittens Game open in another tab. A few hundred years in on my 6th reset. Yet, for some self-destructive reason, I clicked this. I played this a few years ago and I think I "beat" it? I don't remember having any path forward after I did all the things (I won't spoil it here), but I maybe just felt like I went as far as I wanted to. I guess I'll find out this week...
- ralusek 6y agoYou know when you beat it, there is a definitive end.
- function_seven 6y agoYeah, I seem to remember reaching that end, then having the option to do a new "sequel run" or something?
- neltnerb 6y agoIf you don't do a sequel run you get to just convert the whole universe to paperclips. It's great.
- function_seven 6y agoYeah, I did that! I remember it taking hours to convert half the universe, and a couple minutes or something to convert the other half :)
- neltnerb 6y agoI did it once on my phone and no joke it took multiple days of actual playtime because the phone wasn't fast enough. I assume it's mining bitcoin in the background, which is beautifully appropriate. Then did it again on the computer out of curiosity if it'd be faster. Boy was it ever, finished in hours instead of days. But I also remembered to remember that the size of an exponent is most important almost always so I always just made everything focus on growth rates and it went... fast. Exponential growth is a harsh mistress, which I assume is the point of such a game ;-)
- klodolph 6y agoAnyone reading this from Google, look up the “SWE Simulator”. It’s internal, so you have to play it from your work computer.
- eccfcco15 6y agoGood suggestion. It is a bit short (or I was really bored that day...). Totally worth playing.
- csours 6y agoCan you describe it for non-googlers?
- klodolph 6y agoIt’s a simpler game in the same genre where you play a SWE. For example, instead of building “auto clippers” you can get interns and be promoted to management.
- mike_d 6y agoBest used as a break from writing perf.
- mcint 6y agoIt is a fantastic game. Speed runners have done it in 1:40:05, first runs can take 8 - 12 hours or more. A first run report, with advice but no spoilers https://fogknife.com/2017-10-11-i-played-universal-paperclips.html https://fogknife.com/2017-10-11-i-played-universal-paperclip... Some interviews with the designer, and previous postings: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=paperclips&sort=byPopularity&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... Other great idle/clicker/growth games include: * Drowning in Problems: http://game.notch.net/drowning/# http://game.notch.net/drowning/# * Derivative Clicker: https://gzgreg.github.io/DerivativeClicker/ https://gzgreg.github.io/DerivativeClicker/ * 2nd Derivative Clicker: https://jamuspsi.github.io/second/ https://jamuspsi.github.io/second/
- mey 6y agoI liked http://www.glaielgames.com/succubox/ http://www.glaielgames.com/succubox/ for it's send up of lootboxes in gaming.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 6y agoI get instantly stuck in cheater jail for an hour before I can take any action.
- llamataboot 6y agoMy personal favorite with a /gigantic/ tech tree: Kittens: https://bloodrizer.ru/games/kittens/ https://bloodrizer.ru/games/kittens/
- degif 6y agoMy favourite - Trimps https://trimps.github.io https://trimps.github.io. Playing the same game almost daily for more than two years and no plot end in sight.
- blahedo 6y agoHuh. I'm playing it for the first time, and I feel like the first two hours were straightforward progress, and then the last hour is when it turned into an idle game where I just have to sit and wait, apparently in sight of the finish line. I think I can see that if you understood in advance how a couple pieces worked and what projects were in the pipeline, you can plan ahead and finish quickly, though.
- linsomniac 6y agoThis is a really, really good game. I found out about it from HN comments to some article around a year ago, and then over Thanksgiving family gathering we had probably 5-6 people having a blast with it at a family gathering.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- herman_toothrot 6y agoMade me remember http://jhollands.co.uk/spaceplan/ http://jhollands.co.uk/spaceplan/ (It's been released as a paid mobile app but you can play the original web version by clicking past the message)
- mr-ron 6y agoBig influence in my own idle, skynet simulator: skynetsimulator.com
- DylanSp 6y agoI quite liked Skynet Simulator! Thanks for making it.
- devenblake 6y agoVery fun! I've spent about an hour playing and I've been deactivated twice after ping spiking EONS. Anyone have any tips? Edit: Figured it out, just needed to force absorb moar
- stevenwliao 6y agoI got stuck in this game and got unstuck after noticing some labels were clickable.
- endlessvoid94 6y agoOh god. Just clicked this and remembered the first time I discovered this game a couple years ago. It was a Sunday morning and I'd just had a cup of strong coffee. Before I knew it, I spent literally the entire day playing the game. I eventually got to the end after an entire day of playing. Incredibly addictive.
- tomcat27 6y agowowowowowowow!
- Cyphase 6y agoI just spent ~57 minutes playing, then somehow navigated away from the page. Now I have to start over. :( EDIT: TURN ON COOKIES!!
- zanecraw 6y agoI've done the same thing by accident and it's frustrating lol
- rkagerer 6y agoThis is a fantastic game, but I wish it were a native app or ran in WebAssembly or something. spoiler alert I took my time on Stage 1, and running in the browser it began to stutter a lot toward the end when lots of activity was going on at once (2B paperclips, price $400ea, 290K clips/sec, WireBuyer, AutoTourney, stock market, full quantum chips, etc). I assume it's due to garbage collection or some kind of Chrome constraints (but that's just a guess).
- LVB 6y agoAn iOS version exists. It looks just like the web version, but it’s at least in an app (I was worried about browser state being lost) and I was happy to give the dev a couple bucks.
- war1025 6y ago> price $400ea I'm pretty sure I had mine priced at about a nickel for the majority of it. Did you really get them up to $400?
- bentcorner 6y agoIIRC I had to jack the price up because my demand was way outstripping supply. Once you get the mega auto clippers it brought my price back down to around 20 cents. It was annoying clicking the raise/lower price button that many times, as you can make this mistake without realizing the source of your problem (raising the price feels like the right thing to do). There should be a +/- 10 added at some point.
- war1025 6y agoOn a similar note, I accidentally converted about 250k drones back into paper clips last night. The layout moved for some reason while I was clicking. Not my favorite.
- rkagerer 6y agoAgreed. Once you hit it once, you can hold ENTER to keep clicking it, but that can still take a long time.
- zachrose 6y agoOne thing that's funny to me about this game is that it the classic "hello world" for the Elm architecture is a button that increments a number[1]. It's not hard to imagine that something like this could've started with that and just kept running with it. [1] https://guide.elm-lang.org/architecture/buttons.html https://guide.elm-lang.org/architecture/buttons.html
- war1025 6y agoAfter wasting far too much of my evening, it looks like I made it to the beginning of Stage 3. Ran out of patience. This game keeps going and going... Edit: Apparently it saves your state when you close the tab. May have to go back another time and keep on going.
- garmaine 6y agoOh my, stage 3 is the best part. You’re in for a treat.
- jordanwallwork 6y agoStage 3 has totally confused me. I feel like there's more to it because everyone here keeps saying "you'll know for sure when you get to the end" but nothing has happened for a _really_ long time. I've launched maxed out my probe designs (20/20 max trust), launched 13mil (got a loop running just continuously launching them) but I'm still at 0% universe explored and no new projects in a while. Got a random limerick because my creativity built up to half a mil, but it didn't actually do anything. I'm just leaving it running in the background in case something eventually happens because right now I don't know what to do next. I'm about 6 hours into this bloody game so I don't want to just call it quits now lol
- war1025 6y agoI haven't actually found much useful on this site [1], but it's the thing I looked up that let me know I was on "Stage 3". Otherwise I would have had no idea that's what it was called. Maybe it has more in depth information available? [1] https://universalpaperclips.gamepedia.com/Universal_Paperclips_Wiki https://universalpaperclips.gamepedia.com/Universal_Papercli...
- jordanwallwork 6y agoThanks, I saw this but still wasn't sure I was missing something. Evidently there's a project that kicks in when you have 10mil probes lost in combat. I've been at this stage for probably 2 hours now and have only lost 250k probes in combat. Given that people have completed this game in 5-6 hours I feel like I must be doing something wrong
- easton_s 6y agoI have no idea what is going on, but I LOVE it.
- easton_s 6y ago30 septendecillion!
- Waterluvian 6y agoIf you enjoyed this you might really like Spaceplan found on the app stores.
- mikewarot 6y agoUniverse: 50 / Sim Level: 13 Paperclips: 153,625
- Benjammer 6y agoIf you want to try a different way to play through this game, most of the functionality is pretty accessible as js functions. You can try to automate stuff in various ways with a tampermonkey script or whatever. For example, click(N) is equivalent to pressing the main paper clip button N times.
- fit2rule 6y agoThat's pretty cool! Do you see any way to easily add/inject graphs to the game - so we could plot each variable over time? Because that's the one recurring thought I had after 20 minutes of play: I wish I could see the stats.
- matt_kantor 6y agoI think you'd just sample the values from globals.js on some interval. [0]: https://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/globals.js https://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/globals.js
- 7373737373 6y agoI've been wondering about if there is an algorithm that gives an (approximately) optimal sequence of decisions that are optimal: https://github.com/void4/notes/issues/66 https://github.com/void4/notes/issues/66 And created a site with a number of deterministic games with a limited number of steps: https://qewasd.com/ https://qewasd.com/ What is the highest/lowest value that can be reached? Which scores can be reached and which cannot? It seems to be equivalent to the halting problem. If anyone knows of a better solution than brute force, let me know!
- cjsawyer 6y agoJust stayed up until 3 am. Worth it.
- Cyphase 6y agoAfter accidentally losing my first run state 57 minutes in, I finished my second run in 5 hours of game time, +- a minute.
- a5withtrrs 6y agoWell dang. I wasn't expecting to be so compelled by paperclip production but... > Full autonomy attained in 2 hours 32 minutes 5 seconds| Awesome game. Thanks creator!
- fastball 6y agoThat's only Stage 1!
- a5withtrrs 6y agoHello. It's me, the parent comment. I'm back after completing all stages in 6 hours and 18 minutes. Universal paperclips achieved. I definitely spent too long with the probe design using bad values. I swear time just evaporated into that game. Most compelling thing i've played in forever. Amazing.
- devalnor 6y agoALERT! Idle Game High Addiction
- crazygringo 6y agoWow. "Universal Paperclips achieved in 5 hours 25 minutes 8 seconds" I did not have those extra 5+ hours to "waste"... but this has got to be one of the single most compelling activities I've ever done. Seriously one of the simplest yet cleverest things I've seen in a long time.
- euoia 6y ago5 hours 23 minutes 49 seconds. Good game. What was the significance of the music?
- Treblemaker 6y agoPhase 3 from another perspective: https://qntm.org/gorge https://qntm.org/gorge
- choffee 6y agoWell that wasted more than a few hours. :)