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[Tack]

Once upon a time, a clicker-esque game was created which was equal parts addictive and poignant.
Welcome to Universal Paperclips

"Universal Paperclips is a new game that pits you against market forces. As an AI, your job is to make paperclips - but as you earn more money, you get better and new ways to do this job. Make automated AutoClippers, increase your Marketing level, and become the kingpin (AI-pin?) of the Paperclip industry."


Don't worry, it has an endgame, so you're not going to be stuck in front of the screen for the rest of your life.
My playtime was about six hours, but it's definitely able to be left overnight or finished faster by speedrun-esque characters.

[Helgoland]

Good thing there's an endgame, I may be stuck.

Much more enjoyable than cookie clicker though.

[Folly]

There is an ascension option that makes successive runs faster. Though last time I played there was nothing new to unlock through ascension, beyond faster cycles.

[Bumber]

> No idea what "lost to value drift" means
> Put a ton of trust into self-replication
> Go AFK
> ???
> Under attack and outnumbered 1 million to 1 by drifters

Finally got it under control, but FFS. Maybe some kind of indication that it means "gone rogue" would've been nice?

[Tack]

Value drift = their goals have misaligned away from yours.
I kind of prefer it. You wouldn’t have an AI’s internal framework call them “gone rogue”

Another thing re: self-replication:
Hazard management is perhaps more important. The wiki recommends to stick both at 6 or so, and take all points out of wires, diggers and factories because finding matter via speed & exploration is much slower. The latter three only really need points popped into them very occasionally and for short periods.


Lastly i’d consider Losing to the drifters to be the “good ending”. Synthetic individualism yay!

[Retropunch]

> No idea what "lost to value drift" means
> Put a ton of trust into self-replication
> Go AFK
> ???
> Under attack and outnumbered 1 million to 1 by drifters

Finally got it under control, but FFS. Maybe some kind of indication that it means "gone rogue" would've been nice?

Yeah Value Drift is just a sort of set number that it takes away from you - you can't directly counter it other than by replicating more. I made way too many wire and harvester drones and so could never get matter fast enough, but it wasn't too bad. I finished with 6 in hazard, 7 in combat, 7 in self-rep and the rest in speed and exploration. Your speed affects combat if you get a particular unlock which is good. It's tricky to juggle stuff at the end, and a lot of it just seems to be about messing about until you eventually get a critical mass.

It's better than many incrementals, although not quite as good as Kittens. I don't know why it'd really be worth playing it again a bit faster - there's no new unlocks so it's just the same again really.

My complaint with all these sorts of games is that if they spent a few more weeks making it into more of a 'game' they'd be so much fun. Add some choices, a few event chains and some more strategy (or even an AI of sorts to play against) and you'd have a really fun game - currently they're just a sort of one shot thing.

[Helgoland]

A strategy designer instead of the preset ones would be nice. Unlock additional conditions, actions, and greater allowed algorithm size.

[ZeroGravitas]

A strategy designer instead of the preset ones would be nice. Unlock additional conditions, actions, and greater allowed algorithm size.

eh, it would distract from the paperclips too much.

[Sensei]

I chose the ending with the paperclips.

[Putnam]

Does the game still have a softlock if you have less than 70 memory?

Make sure you don't have less than 70 memory.

[☼Another☼]

Doesn't Quantum computing get around that?

[Putnam]

Only barely. I guess you could get away with 67 or 68 memory using it, yeah, but quantum computing replaces processors more than memory.

[Egan_BW]

Yeah, you get punished hard for not investing in memory. If you get stuck you can reset by buying the tech that costs negative ops.

[Sirian]

Does the game still have a softlock if you have less than 70 memory?

Make sure you don't have less than 70 memory.

Yeah, you get punished hard for not investing in memory. If you get stuck you can reset by buying the tech that costs negative ops.

Not quite, I read on the wiki that there's a project called Xavier Re-initialization that cost 100 000 creativity and lets you change how you spent your trust. Though, given how long it takes to reach 100 000, most people will never see it before they decide to reset with negative ops.

Only barely. I guess you could get away with 67 or 68 memory using it, yeah, but quantum computing replaces processors more than memory.

Oh you can definitely get away with less than that, if you time it right you can go up to 7000 above the limit, so the absolute minimum should be 63 memory. That's if you use the technique where you click the button once and then keep "Enter" pressed though. Manual clicks won't be fast enough.

[ZeroGravitas]

Does the game still have a softlock if you have less than 70 memory?

Make sure you don't have less than 70 memory.

Yeah, you get punished hard for not investing in memory. If you get stuck you can reset by buying the tech that costs negative ops.

Not quite, I read on the wiki that there's a project called Xavier Re-initialization that cost 100 000 creativity and lets you change how you spent your trust. Though, given how long it takes to reach 100 000, most people will never see it before they decide to reset with negative ops.

I saw the 100,000 creativity reset (didn't need to use) but never knew you could reset with negative ops.