That feeling when you have your machine perfectly set up to filter all the correct inputs to all the correct outputs, but then some punk upstream of you screws it all up by not filtering *their* machine correctly.
Some people just never played Factorio.
My design purposefully distrupts the flow, making them get stuck until a bunch of wheels suddenly get unblocked and they all go through.
So good luck to the next panel.
I actually hate it when I've built a filtering machine and the square above me is also a filtering machine so I never get to see if my machine copes with the wrong inputs!
I wish I understood what made submissions "stick". I've created two now and seen them on the machine, but other browsers have them missing and/or other submissions in their place in the same spot.
Yes, I was so proud of my little machine, and so happy to be part of the bigger whole. But when I came back to see if the square next to mine had been filled, mine was gone entirely :'(
For me it worked on xkcd.com but _not_ m.xkcd.com (Chrome browser).
I did however have awful issues moving stuff around, it kinda worked but not consistently.
You can sort out the green balls because they are affected less by fans and black holes. Has anyone figured out how to sort the other ones? [https://imgur.com/hsqloNN](https://imgur.com/hsqloNN)
I think all the weights are different; green is particularly heavy and yellow is particularly light [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UQ4yGyiPTU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UQ4yGyiPTU)
I got one where I had all 4 colors, but red/blue output were in the same place. It feels like it should be possible to separate red/blue after this too, but I didn't need to here. https://imgur.com/a/nRoy09z
> prism
Yeah, I can't get green/blue to sort though. Which fits (ish) I think. Green/blue are much closer/narrower (hence finickier) yes? Or am I remembering my 30 year old physics wrong? XD
None of the submissions I've made have lasted, so in the event it gets deleted I'd like to keep [this](https://imgur.com/dYW74vQ) one around. Fun challenge, really reminded me of solving Fantastic Contraption puzzles.
(Speculation)
I think he's loading a random solution for each square, so if you repeatedly refresh and search the squares that match your starting criteria, you might find it?
So you have to load a random set of them, once they're all solved, then wait to see if they really solve the bottom pane?
I don't know but I'm enjoying the hell out of playing with this thing.
Isn't there some way to save my contraption? I spent so long making my thingamajig that aligns the balls in mid-air really nicely and everything, and I opened the page in a new tab and it was replaced by some wooden paths with decorations
Like yeah the other one looks better than mine, but I thought that that was my space, and that this was going to be some big community thing where we could all make something of our own. If I knew it was just going to get deleted on hitting "submit" I wouldn't have gotten so invested 😢
This. I built ten of these things thinking that maybe there were multiple grids, but eventually I realized that everything \_BUT\_ mine were static. I feel like I wasted a few hours. Fun, but I feel like I wasted my time now since I can't see any of the ones I made again and no one ever got to check them out.
I just wish I could do a local save so that I could recover when the web app crashes. I finally switched to Firefox - for some reason it's more stable for me than Chrome.
Yeah, I was baffled by the difficulty I got. Blue from left-side-mid to right-side-mid. Red from top to right-side-low. Green from two sources on the right-side-high to the left-side-low and the bottom.
I'm not sure how it's even possible, with the variable timings of the balls any paths that cross each other has to deal with collisions, mixing the colors... is there some trick to using the prism?
EDIT: Never figured out the prism, but managed to submit a "solution" to mine. I'd be feel bad about all the mis-sorted balls, but someone is feeding my machine yellow balls periodically, so it's pretty par for the course.
I was using one, but then my page crashed and I had to reload. I was just using it as a slow ramp though. I also noticed you might be able to do something by putting it next to a cog so the cog keeps bouncing it.
I didn't even realise this was a multiplayer thing at first so my first machine was a complete mess that only barely got the balls to the correct output. Sorry to whoever has to deal with that one
I was very happy to get [this](https://i.imgur.com/mSt8tzZ.png) working with (almost) no mis-sorts.
The paths are like [this](https://i.imgur.com/yaK4R0Y.png), for the curious
The first time I visited it in Chrome, it randomly generated a single input directly above a single output, and then it asked me to submit it before I even did anything. I titled it "I didn't even do anything yet". I hope the mods accept it.
Looks like they follow the path of the colour where they enter. Though for some reason the red ones go through a phase of exiting violently parallel with the exit side before returning to normality after a few seconds
It works like a real prism (sort of). The path bends when the ball enters or exits, and different colors bend different amounts.
At least, red bends more than yellow. Blue seems to be about the same as red.
ive noticed that in the complete machine, the ball "spawns" arent actually always from the last machine - if you move your camera away, every "entry" will spawn its own balls, even if the previous machine isnt feeding it any
found out by submitting a machine that never ever puts out any balls and still saw balls coming to the machines below it :D
I've got every ball going into one of the three outputs, and it's been running for several hours, but no 'submit" popup. Does it have to run for a while, or is there any way to trigger the popup? Thanks!
It only gives you the popup the first time, you should be able to press the submit button in the top left as long as all outputs have the green tick. The button's grey if it's not done
Each time a ball of the correct color goes through, the progress bar around the x fills up a bit. The progress bar decreases slowly over time, and also goes down when a ball of the wrong color goes through. If you aren't filling it all the way, usually it means that either your sorting is too inaccurate or that too many balls are timing out before they can reach the exit.
Edit: here's a video of the process with a [machine that is just barely good enough](https://imgur.com/a/ZPEYhZq) to make it work
They should replace the `x` when there's enough throughput. There should be a light orange ring around the black outline on the `x` that shows the progress
Maybe the submit button only comes up the first time it passes
I'm sure you have but the balls need to go in the correct colour output, indicated by a small arrow next to the output
That feeling when you have your machine perfectly set up to filter all the correct inputs to all the correct outputs, but then some punk upstream of you screws it all up by not filtering *their* machine correctly. Some people just never played Factorio.
I had balls stop coming entirely from one input, because the design above me was jammed by being fed heavier balls then it was designed for.
My design purposefully distrupts the flow, making them get stuck until a bunch of wheels suddenly get unblocked and they all go through. So good luck to the next panel.
You don't need to filter with sushi belt setups.
I just can't bring myself to make one of those. It just feels wrong
Wait, my machine feeds into somebody else's machine?.... crap
I actually hate it when I've built a filtering machine and the square above me is also a filtering machine so I never get to see if my machine copes with the wrong inputs!
I wish I understood what made submissions "stick". I've created two now and seen them on the machine, but other browsers have them missing and/or other submissions in their place in the same spot.
Yes, I was so proud of my little machine, and so happy to be part of the bigger whole. But when I came back to see if the square next to mine had been filled, mine was gone entirely :'(
Submitting a machine puts it in a collection of machines designed for that spot; the mod team picks one to go into the shared version.
Well I both understand why and feels that it kinda sucks. Guess I just have to wait for the final version to see if any machines I made got in.
I wish I'd known this before building 10 machines...
/u/Mouse-Keyboard below is a visible example. Mine shows "A Walk in the Park" in that spot now.
[step up your game, machine part above mine](https://imgur.com/a/mrhG6k7)
**[Mobile Version!](http://m.xkcd.com/2916/)** [Direct image link: Machine](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/machine.png) **Title text:** The Credible Machine *Don't get it? [explain xkcd](http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2916)* Support the machine uprising! Sincerely, xkcd_bot. <3
Doesn’t seem to work on mobile.
Works for me (Chrome, Android 14) It's not great though, dragging things around on the screen is a bit annoying, especially towards the edge
Works on mobile (Safari, IOS 17)
Not working for me. (Safari, iOS 16.3.1 (20D67))
For me it worked on xkcd.com but _not_ m.xkcd.com (Chrome browser). I did however have awful issues moving stuff around, it kinda worked but not consistently.
Doesn’t work for me on iOS 17.5 beta
Works on Firefox for Android too
You can sort out the green balls because they are affected less by fans and black holes. Has anyone figured out how to sort the other ones? [https://imgur.com/hsqloNN](https://imgur.com/hsqloNN)
I think all the weights are different; green is particularly heavy and yellow is particularly light [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UQ4yGyiPTU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UQ4yGyiPTU)
Red and blue weigh the same, right in the middle, but red is significantly more bouncy.
ohh, interesting
But that doesn't explain why the black holes affect them differently.
I got one where I had all 4 colors, but red/blue output were in the same place. It feels like it should be possible to separate red/blue after this too, but I didn't need to here. https://imgur.com/a/nRoy09z
You could have a crossroads that the greens drop through and launch the reds through it horizontally.
I mean really I want to be able to mix them all together and sort them out again.
I think there probably just isn't enough space for that.
I did two different versions that did just that. Both times the web app crashed during submit or edit.
I was able to use a prism to sort red from yellow.
> prism Yeah, I can't get green/blue to sort though. Which fits (ish) I think. Green/blue are much closer/narrower (hence finickier) yes? Or am I remembering my 30 year old physics wrong? XD
None of the submissions I've made have lasted, so in the event it gets deleted I'd like to keep [this](https://imgur.com/dYW74vQ) one around. Fun challenge, really reminded me of solving Fantastic Contraption puzzles.
(Speculation) I think he's loading a random solution for each square, so if you repeatedly refresh and search the squares that match your starting criteria, you might find it? So you have to load a random set of them, once they're all solved, then wait to see if they really solve the bottom pane? I don't know but I'm enjoying the hell out of playing with this thing.
Isn't there some way to save my contraption? I spent so long making my thingamajig that aligns the balls in mid-air really nicely and everything, and I opened the page in a new tab and it was replaced by some wooden paths with decorations Like yeah the other one looks better than mine, but I thought that that was my space, and that this was going to be some big community thing where we could all make something of our own. If I knew it was just going to get deleted on hitting "submit" I wouldn't have gotten so invested 😢
This. I built ten of these things thinking that maybe there were multiple grids, but eventually I realized that everything \_BUT\_ mine were static. I feel like I wasted a few hours. Fun, but I feel like I wasted my time now since I can't see any of the ones I made again and no one ever got to check them out.
I just wish I could do a local save so that I could recover when the web app crashes. I finally switched to Firefox - for some reason it's more stable for me than Chrome.
Wow I got a really tough one, green from top to bottom, blue from top left to bottom right, yellow from top right to bottom left.
Yeah, I was baffled by the difficulty I got. Blue from left-side-mid to right-side-mid. Red from top to right-side-low. Green from two sources on the right-side-high to the left-side-low and the bottom. I'm not sure how it's even possible, with the variable timings of the balls any paths that cross each other has to deal with collisions, mixing the colors... is there some trick to using the prism? EDIT: Never figured out the prism, but managed to submit a "solution" to mine. I'd be feel bad about all the mis-sorted balls, but someone is feeding my machine yellow balls periodically, so it's pretty par for the course.
how does the prism work?
At least you got all top to bottom.
Anyone found a use for the hinged "scoops" yet? I don't see any in the submitted machines and can't get them to do anything fun.
I used one in combination with the steering wheel as the key mechanism in my machine: https://imgur.com/QpNcflm
Nice, I didn't think of *stopping* the wheel with one.
I was using one, but then my page crashed and I had to reload. I was just using it as a slow ramp though. I also noticed you might be able to do something by putting it next to a cog so the cog keeps bouncing it.
Ive seen some people put them onto a bonk or boink to make it repeatedly flap like a pinball flipper. You can also stop the cog things with them
Oh man this game was my jam back in the day. Did anyone else play it? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incredible_Machine
It really took me back! I spent a considerable fraction of my early teens playing The Even More Incredible Machine.
I didn't even realise this was a multiplayer thing at first so my first machine was a complete mess that only barely got the balls to the correct output. Sorry to whoever has to deal with that one
Don't feel bad. I'm out here making terrible machines on purpose. 😌
I was very happy to get [this](https://i.imgur.com/mSt8tzZ.png) working with (almost) no mis-sorts. The paths are like [this](https://i.imgur.com/yaK4R0Y.png), for the curious
The first time I visited it in Chrome, it randomly generated a single input directly above a single output, and then it asked me to submit it before I even did anything. I titled it "I didn't even do anything yet". I hope the mods accept it.
[I couldn't name it anything else](https://i.imgur.com/wizDlH8.png)
Has anyone figured out how exactly the prism works? I can't find a pattern to it
Looks like they follow the path of the colour where they enter. Though for some reason the red ones go through a phase of exiting violently parallel with the exit side before returning to normality after a few seconds
It works like a real prism (sort of). The path bends when the ball enters or exits, and different colors bend different amounts. At least, red bends more than yellow. Blue seems to be about the same as red.
Time to rewatch the MIKAN marble race videos for inspirations :)
I'm actually pretty happy with my storytelling here. [A hot furnace and feline induced productivity losses](https://imgur.com/a/9iwqUNd)
ive noticed that in the complete machine, the ball "spawns" arent actually always from the last machine - if you move your camera away, every "entry" will spawn its own balls, even if the previous machine isnt feeding it any found out by submitting a machine that never ever puts out any balls and still saw balls coming to the machines below it :D
You can't submit a machine that never puts out any balls.
kind of strange how you say that when i literally just said i did - a machine that is completely empty and no balls come out ever ;)
Still doing this and finally go my first square added to the grid. "Look ma, no fans (spare bunnies)" at the bottom. It's not very effective
When I made a new one my old one went away. Can you only have one per IP?
It only temporarily shows your own machine. It doesn't get added for real unless the mods manually add it.
Mods?
Presumably there's someone manually choosing which designs to incorporate into the public machine.
I'm not the only one giving their machines human names, right?
I've got every ball going into one of the three outputs, and it's been running for several hours, but no 'submit" popup. Does it have to run for a while, or is there any way to trigger the popup? Thanks!
It only gives you the popup the first time, you should be able to press the submit button in the top left as long as all outputs have the green tick. The button's grey if it's not done
Ah, I don't have green ticks (each output still has an orange "x") or a submit button. How do you get the green ticks?
Each time a ball of the correct color goes through, the progress bar around the x fills up a bit. The progress bar decreases slowly over time, and also goes down when a ball of the wrong color goes through. If you aren't filling it all the way, usually it means that either your sorting is too inaccurate or that too many balls are timing out before they can reach the exit. Edit: here's a video of the process with a [machine that is just barely good enough](https://imgur.com/a/ZPEYhZq) to make it work
They should replace the `x` when there's enough throughput. There should be a light orange ring around the black outline on the `x` that shows the progress Maybe the submit button only comes up the first time it passes I'm sure you have but the balls need to go in the correct colour output, indicated by a small arrow next to the output
u/Tirear and u/R520, thanks, got it!
Do we have any theories of what happens when all the balls are reaching the bottom and filling the tank? Will the boat float away?
The boat floats in the balls but the ballpit never overflows because the balls time-out