Week 10 Recipe for Disaster
RECIPE FOR DISASTER
by gooey
METRICS
LexC > Cost > Area
Area > Instructions > Cost
REAGENTS
Distilled Water
PRODUCT
Laxative
NOTES
The LexC (lexicographic cycles) metric first compares solutions by how long they take to output their first product—if two solutions output their first product on the same cycle, ties are broken by how long they take to output their second product, and so on. If a solution stops outputting altogether, it loses to a solution which ties it up to that point but then produces further outputs.
A LexC score is given as a list of numbers, where the Nth number indicates the interval (in cycles) between the (N-1)th and Nth outputs. A sequence of numbers in [square brackets] signifies that the solution enters a looping steady-state, with the bracketed numbers giving the output intervals in the loop. For example, a LexC of
10 5 [4 2]
means that the solution drops its first output on cycle 10, with the second product coming 5 cycles after that; it then enters a steady-state in which the gaps between outputs are 4, 2, 4, 2, etc.
Two solutions are tied in LexC if and only if their LexC scores agree everywhere. A finite (i.e, non-looping) LexC should be interpreted as having entries of infinite size after the last listed number.
It’s a curious thing, the death of a House. Much as the carcass of a great whale can sustain countless sea creatures, the wreck of a once proud lineage offers much to those who do not scruple to pick the bones clean. How many generations’ lifesblood did it take, to kindle the hearth fire of House Van Tassen? All that, and it was forever extinguished with no more effort than a candle flame.
After the remaining Houses and other corpse feeders had eaten their fill, there was one relic of old Armand’s legacy which remained: a dusty crate containing five hundred unopened bottles of “Tassentonik”. This curious drink had been a vain attempt to develop a fashionable new beverage; the idea was that, in becoming a household name among City gentry, the Van Tassens might thereby increase their power, influence... and wealth.
It is not clear what flaw in the alchemical process led to the Tassentonik’s unique properties, nor is it apparent how they remained undiscovered until after the first batches were sold. But what was immediately obvious were the side-effects themselves: needless to say that it was a busy week for the plumbers and doctors of the City.
The Tassentonik was a disaster, and for some time afterwards the name Van Tassen was little more than a joke—and a crude one, at that. Perhaps it was this event which first heralded the House’s inevitable decline: a slow downward spiral which ended, decades later, in green flame and bloodshed...
download: Weeklies2025_RecipeForDisaster.puzzle (where do i put this?)