Materials type game with an expandable magic backpack.
Resource acquisition involves "sifting" (hence the name), which is pulling random resources out of a pool of weighted possibilities -- sort of like containers in Shatterloop except you're getting one item at a time.
The world is an infinite 2d plane with different weights at every tile.
Materials processing happens inside the magic backpack and expands on systems that have been developed elsewhere (particularly the trades engine).
An alchemist-like elements system goes into a PGCS while alchemy of material types dictates other things (like shop nodes or sifting upgrades).
The world is simple enough -- it's a 2D plane with a table that lists out the weights of what you're sifting, as well as a variable sifting speed. Tiles are probably named something more imaginative and have links between them so it's easier to track down a useful file.
Crates will rarely be part of a sifting table -- these contain multiple items from their own set of weights, seeded by the name. They do require a special fixture to open (which itself goes into the elemental PGCS). Definitely more profitable though if the crare weight is high, either naturally or artificially.
It's a drifter style layout because your magic backpack isn't fixed to any particular tile -- you set it down wherever you want.
The actual products you get in an item type are always the same, though there's generally some variety at least.
The materials system draws upon Trades and maybe even expands it. Resources can be extracted, refined, or crafted from other ones in logical ways. Not all extracts will be available, and some require a chance (very similar to Shatterloop).
Outside of extraction (which just requires an extractor which you start with and can't be moved), all recipes here require an appropriate fixture. There are also ones for extraction targets, on the off chance that a product won't go that way naturally.
Fixtures require some PGCS of material types, and then also use alchemy to influence input(s):output ratios and fuel cost.
Fixture extraction costs Fuel, and Fuel is refined both in ways that make sense and PGCS ways that don't. More on this in the fuel refinery section.
All of this stuff happens in your magic backpack, which has its own rules (more on that in that section)
The elements system is more complex than the one in Alchemist, though heavily based on it.
In-game it uses Greek symbols and colors, but for the purposes of outlining, I'll use regular letters.
Each element has a Letter (A,B,C,D,E) and a color (r,g,b). There's also a larger exotic set (F,G,H,I,J,K)(y,c,l,d) that I'll get to later.
Varied color of all the same letter can be fused into a "prime", ex Ar+Ag+Ab= AA. Same deal the other way, forming a "myriad", ex: Ar+Br+Cr+Dr+Er= rr. Varied myriads or varied primes turn into a triad, which means rr+gg+bb= ##, or AA+BB+CC+DD+EE= ##. These processes are reversible.
Elements can also reduce into simplified forms, known as "hues" or "classes". Ar--> *r for example, which is a hue, while Ar--> A*, which is a class. This is irreversible.
Hues and classes can combine together into "synthetics". This isn't actually the element in question, but resembles it in some ways. A*+*g= A.g.
It's also possible to make synthetic triads, also known as "synthiads"
*r+*g+*b = #.#
A*+B*+C*+D*+E* = #.#
Elements of any kind (except exotics) can turn into "aether", marked as **. Obviously irreversible. Very general purpose though, and useful early on.
Compounds
Compounds form from various elements of the above types (except exotics), which are wrapped in parentheses in various ways. Amounts are also indicated where necessary.
(Ab+3Ar)+BB
Ab+3Ar+BB
(Ar+BB)+3Ar
These are all different compounds despite having the same components.
Compounds can have between 2-5 components.
Note that the above are "theoretical" compounds. Actual compounds use - rather than +.
For each parentheses group, there's only one stable configuration, and each attempt at formation costs 2 aether. Obviously the more that's inside a parentheses the harder this is to find.
3Ar+Ab+BB for example might be 3Ar-Ab-BB but it might also be BB-3Ar-Ab, Ab-Bb-3Ar, etc. The parentheses help here -- once you figure out one compound part it narrows down the possibilities moving forwards: (Cg+Cr)+*r only has two configurations once you figure out Cg+Cr. These are also always true, so if you know that it's Cr-Cg, that'll also be true in the compound (Cr-Cg)+DD.
Compounds are reversible, but they don't give back the aether you spent either successfully or not.
Exotics
(F,G,H,I,J,K)(y,c,l,d)
Each compound has an exotic attached to it. There's a LOT of compounds, so everything should be covered multiple times over. Compounds can turn irreversibly into their exotic.
Exotics work very similar to the normal element set -- there are myriads, primes, hues and classes. There are however two differences: the aether here is instead known as "strange" (@@) while the triad is known as "eldritch" ($$).
Strange can convert to aether at a 1:5 rate. Can be a more lucrative means of making aether if you find some simple 2-ary compounds.
There are also additional combinations of exotics and non-exotics:
You can also make synthetics that would never appear in nature, ex:
A*+*y= A.y
Extended Compounds
Exotic compounds have the same form as regular ones (2-5 combinations, parentheses wherever). Exotic compounds require 2 strange per attempt.
There's also something known as a Mixed Compound, which uses elements of both. These require 1 strange per attempt.
Fixtures
All of the functions described here belong to various fixtures which are obtainable via the Chemistry Lab. They're tiered in a way that makes sense where you need components of previous tiers to make the new fixture.
The actual Chemistry Lab is free, and within it, you can make an Aetherizer also for free.
Elemizer (aether) -- make basic elements
Reducer (basic) -- make hues and classes.
Synthesizer (hues, classes) -- make synthetics
Harmonizer (synthetics) -- make primes, myriads and triads
Fusion Station (primes, myriads) -- make compounds
Weirdizer (compounds) -- make basic exotics
Exotic Reducer (exotics) -- make weirdhues and weirdclasses. Also make strange.
Exotic Synthesizer (weirdhues, weirdclasses) -- make weird synthetics and mixed synthetics
Exotic Harmonizer (weird synthetics, mixed synthetics) -- make weird primes, weird myriads and eldritch).
Exotic Fusion Station (weird primes, weird myriads) -- make weird compounds and mixed compounds
Superarray (weird compounds, mixed compounds) -- make superprimes, supermyriads and supersynthiads.
Labs are research stations that unlock fixtures or allow you to obtain fixtures. Research costs elements, while fixtures cost materials, both on a logical pgcs.
Labs are recursive -- your starting Lab will give you additional Labs that have to be placed somewhere to be interacted with. This impacts base building limits.
Your base is a magic backpack thing on another infinite (but undeveloped) 2D plane. It starts out with a few rooms with fixtures in them that are necessary for beginning the game / preventing softlocks, and thus can't be changed.
New rooms can be expanded outwards from there with an increasing complexity of elements required (starting with aether and moving up through the hierarchy -- classes and hues come first since they're easier to source). At the top level it just requires an increasing amount of eldritch.
Rooms have a fixture limit, which applies to anything whatsoever placed inside them -- fixtures, labs, modules, etc. You need kind of a lot of fixtures in this game so you'll be expanding a lot.
Rooms automatically connect together spatially on the 2D plane. You can create outwards from any established tile.
Navigation and fixture UI is on separate lines for UX purposes.
The storage solution here has an organized universal base storage that you can expand with module fixtures rather than divvying your items up across multiple containers. Given the fixture limit and complexity of the game, this makes more sense.
Modules universally increase base storage (based on the total number of items) by some fixed amount, and cost elements. More efficient modules cost more complicated element combinations. All of these are purchasable from the Storage Lab.
Fixtures are items until placed and can similarly be picked up and stored, and are using your personal inventory herein.
Your personal inventory also has limits, but can be upgraded at the Siftorium. There's a fixed maximum here, and each new upgrade costs a more complex PGCS.
A Transceiver fixture allows you to add or remove items from base storage -- the first one is in the initial base but you can create new ones for maybe 10 aether.
Elements are unlimited stats rather than items, but compounds are items, named probably in the English way I've described (which just gets parsed into the colors/symbols)
Obviously, if your personal inventory is full you can't pull out additional items. For the sake of sanity, making an item will just stick it on the fixure in question and lock it down until you do something with it.
The Aetherizer is an initial fixture so you can't softlock yourself by running out of inventory space.
Shop Nodes allow you to buy and sell items. This can be quite lucrative, especially if you get Crates or Fixtures (the latter is expensive obviously, but gives a secondary approach to unlocking/building them).
The Shops Lab allows you to make Shop Nodes via a PGCS that dictates the shop type (or aggregate) and the selection of items it offers. The same recipe will create the same shop, though obviously there's a *bunch* of possibilities here. The Shop Lab will also allow you to upgrade the amount of items that spawn in each type, which is universal to all nodes of that type and runs on the positional seeding algorithm. This process requires increasingly complex elements and caps somewhere since there's no sense in making it infinite.
All crafting/refining recipes run on Fuel. Extraction is at least free, though not specialized extractors that cover gaps.
The Boiler will consume plant products as fuel and will also consume better fuel sources that have been made at a Fuel Refinery. More complex machinery costs orders of magnitudes more fuel, so finding good sources is essential.
The Fuel Refinery works much the same way as it does in Shatterloop -- it costs fuel to make better fuels out of items, and individual items in a type can make this either a net positive or negative (or just neutral), so you have to source types better.
The difference here is that *any* item class can turn into fuel once researched -- to research a fuel type you need 5 items of the same type which are used irreversibly. Research also costs fuel, a varied amount depending on the type that's being researched. No time though, thankfully. And you see the range of fuel values on the other Fuel Refinery screen automatically. You also know what each item will do before refining it -- exactly like Shatterloop's system.
Higher magnitude fuel sources are rarer -- it's a distribution thing though, not random. Or there's at least a couple promises there.
Names are handcrafted and charcoal (made from plants) is weak.
Fuel is a stat used universally. The game is complicated enough as is.
Dupers are basically the game's farming system. Items go in and over real time they duplicate.
Dupers are separated by item type and are obtained at a Duper Lab. There's an alchemy system here with the PGCS item type recipes that dictates a few variables:
How long the item takes to duplicate.
The rate that the Catalyst goes down.
The Catalyst capacity of the Duper.
The storage capacity of the Duper.
Each type has a procedural Catalyst that it requires -- basically a secondary item that gets consumed. The rate here is always less than the duplication rate so you don't end up in situations where you can't keep up with your farm, though it can still be complex without Automation.
Any item of that type can be duplicated over time. Very useful if you're trying to source elements or sellable products.
Duplication just generates a new item from whatever is set per cycle, it doesn't literally duplicate whatever amount is in there.
You can also only Duplicate raw items -- extraction and refinement has to happen elsewhere.
The Duper Lab has an upgradeable Scale for each Duper type. This basically just adds a multiplier to the amount of held items you need, the catalyst capacity, product capacity and generation rare -- so with 2 you can scale up the same fixture to act as two fixtures in one, saving base space. This is optional -- you can set it lower if you want. The Scale upgrades here use increasingly complex elements.
Factories give you some form of Automation, by pairing inputs and outputs of various fixtures together into a single unit. Very useful obviously, particularly for base space, though the downside is that you can't use the fixtures within in any other capacity.
This is all achievable at the Factory Lab.
Factories can also be linked up to the base storage or base element storage, either on an input or output basis, and with custom limits as well. They can also use base money, and shop nodes can exist within a factory as well.
Factories can also be deconstructed into their base components. Or factories can bundle other factories recursively since they basically just turn into automation nodes with some fixed input and output.
Creating factories doesn't cost anything -- the gameplay here is in the complexity of getting them to actually work. Parameters can be adjusted on existing factories that have been placed and are running for better UX.
The biggest downside with them is that they cost a hell of a lot to unlock, and component capacity is a capped stat that requires increasingly complex elements to fulfill. They start at a capacity of 2, allowing you to have exactly two fixtures, which is *terrible*. This eventually caps at "infinite", but you're paying eldritch to get there.
Components don't need to follow a single pipeline -- if you're trying to make exotic elements for example you need multiple separate pipelines that combine together later. This will however require more components, which are difficult to upgrade.
The Blender allows you to blast furnace fixtures together to get a mix of their properties. By default it just averages properties together (or procedurally chooses one if it's a binary), but you can catalyze specific properties by paying procedural elements (seeded by the two specific fixtures in question) -- this allows you to pick one or the other.
The Blender also works with Scriptorium equipment. Or there's a separate fixure that does the same exact thing, just on that target instead.
Sifting nodes can be sifted remotely for a cheaper lab/item unlock than Dupers. I'm not sure what the item is called, but it's a placeable item on the tile in question that has a second part that can be placed as a fixture.
The Lab here also allows you to aggregate sifting nodes together for base efficiency, though like everything else the amount needs to be upgraded with increasingly complex elements. You pick which node to use -- it doesn't just stick them all together into the same pool.
Remote Sifting can't be automated -- way too complicated I think. Use Dupers instead.
The Siftorium is a loadout of equipment that changes the weights of various item types. Each piece of equipment targets a couple things which adds to the complexity, and they're formed via alchemy but they do at least stack.
You do however have a limited but upgradeable (via elements of increasing complexity) but capped number of slots you can have. Sifting equipment can also be Blended.
Sifting equipment is crafted via alchemy with some handcrafted recipe of items. It's an item type and goes into storage when not explicitly equipped.
It affects both natural sifting nodes as well as base ones.
For UX, you can store loadouts on a specialized fixture and upgrade the amount of loadouts available here via the elements system of increasing complexity. There shouldn't be a hard cap -- you just need increasingly more eldritch.
This fixure is behind a Siftorium Lab, which also allows you to upgrade your sifting speed and personal inventory size via the elements system.
The game goal is some feed the beast thing where you need to give it various things -- an item of each type among crafted, raw and refined, a good bit of money, each type of element, etc. Anything fed is lost forever.
