Cycles

Work in progress, excuse mess.

Magic mods: spend power, waste excess. Idea: forced spend.

Place nodes clockwise(?) around a circle. Nodes create effects, manipulate implicit state (position xor entity), consume pips in one of five colors

IMPORTANT: pips MUST be consumed; circuit will keep them in loop otherwise. Unconditional branch mishaps, mishaps severe (permanently damaging loop?). If designed well, can cycle(or stored - if final catalyst before trigger is store) passively, await trigger (Hard to design around?)

Catalysts that get stuck get really stuck. Damaged catalyst, have to swap out the overloaded node. Overdraw? Vent excess pips— disarm minigame?

Nodes are items, crafted from valuables + assorted catalysts. Catalyst crafting - separate mod stuff

Control flow:

• break if empty; allows multiple triggers with code reuse
• Branch next node: branch nodes, biased choice; enter left if pip cost met, enter right otherwise
  • Force right to be nonempty - otherwise ‘free’ ?
  • Single “optional node” placement more expensive? Or just make xflow expensive. Diamond? Nite scrap? (lol)
• Catalyst nodes: modify pips or state if conditions met (e.g. submerged in water -> all metal pips converted to water)
• Par? Store and release, allow wider dynamic range of pip checks. How to refine? Par per? (JMSHT: least square lt, inv. ??, 3-5 exactly, sqrt?, 2/3s)

Heat mechanic? Complexity? Some way to restrict use of excessive transmutations

-> “Commit” mechanic? Allow spurious triggers to just vent power, allow early exits before any effects created

Example: lightning strike, creates a lot of fire and moderate metal,

Extreme stretch goal: bidirectionality - lightning trigger node can eat lightning or summon it, depending on ???? (Polarity?)

REMEMBER: wood is also wind. some wood may be shunted to earth to compensate

Gen node ideas: Pop effects for pips - drain

• Wood - vitals, flammables. Free pips by taking bites out of hunger bar. Bloodcasting? Veg?
• Fire - also flammables?? Charge time for pips. Incense? Dedicated burner item? (Furnace?) Meats? Who knows
• Water - water, duh. Free. Water plentiful in MC - ice? potions? Submersion? Some system with water flow solving? Potions water/fire-aspected? SPONGES
• Gold - straight up eating nuggets? Come on this is a bit contrived. Lightning? Rust? Charge by axe lol. Transmutation? Contraction? (??)
• Earth - big chunks? Cobblegen. Puzzle with constant-rate avalanche? Periodicity/erosion? Crops with wood. Dampen/stabilize.

Should nodes consume items? Should you have to preload items? Research economy of fuel

Gimmicks: fire has to be maintained, wood has to be absorbed over time, water melts, earth has momentum - constant draw, steel encumbers(??)

Fire/water react to day/night, steel/water reacts to weather?

Intermediate nodes:

• Gold - yardstick. Feed nodes, obv. CAREFUL of loop gain; may want catalysts to force the issue
• Earth: sel self, ‘below’
• Fire: raycast, ‘above’
• Water: prediction? Fluids obv., ‘across’
• Wood: entity binding, along with earth

Consume node ideas:

• Wood: overgrow (HEFTY COST), scaffold/rapid growth, strength at cost of mobility? Oak style/willow style. Long term blessings? Nurture gimmick on spends– consistency?
• Fire: Heat, other than obvious. Furnace. Spice, metaphorical heats. Has to be eaten all at once.
• Water: movement (ice motif), ice, immobility, etc. Mint. Momentum?
• Gold: Wealth, transmutation. Conj w/ fire? Collection - pull. Greed, ruthlessness. Gimmick: accelerating costs?
• Earth: Weighty spells - falling block. Conjure Dirt. Anchor? Syn. wood. Pain split? Puzzle prod. side?

Sig. spells: overgrow(wood; blaze), pain split(earth; alloy), blink(water; harvest), mine? explosion? (fire - floodfill?), hammerspace(swaps with last stored item)(metal)

Fire needs work. Uncontrolled growth, has earth-aspected interpretation - can’t stop? (RHCP reference xd)

Explosion - how to aspect? Strongly want catalysis.

ALL VERBS TWO MEANINGS. three if you can hack it. figure out contexts! costs ad-hoc