Week 3: Touchstone
TOUCHSTONE
METRICS
Cycles > Product (Cost×Area)
Sum > Looping > Instructions
REAGENTS
Face Powder
Icelandic Lava Salt
PRODUCTS
Touchstone
NOTES
The looping secondary is a simple check for whether your solve loops or not. A score of 0 means it loops, a score of 1 means it doesn't. This check is made before instructions are measured, so it'll always be better to make your sum solve loop.
Sum is defined as cost + cycles + area
LORE
Victus: Trouble again, Maximos?
Maximos: ...yeah.
Victus: Just tell me you didn't blow up one of my tables.
Maximos: No, my lecturer just got all irritated by these eyedrops of irritation, apparently.
Victus: Gee, who would've guessed that would happen? If it's the recipe I'm thinking of, then it should wear off soon. Look, I know you're bored. Are my alchemy courses not stimulating enough for you? Perhaps too much theory?
Maximos: Well kind of, I don't really get to push myself. We never synthesize anything difficult or interesting. It's all basic stuff. How else am I supposed to learn true alchemy? I could stabilize water in my sleep at this point.
Victus: Alchemy is really just built on a series of rules, techniques and fundamentals. You need to learn those rules.
Maximos: Oh come on, that's a load of mors. The price of progress is the broken rules we leave in our wake on the path to radiance.
Victus: Radiance? Where did that come from? Sounds like something Flamel would say.
Maximos: Flamel? Who cares about Flamel? He's dead.
Victus: Well. Flamel did also say: "The joy of alchemy is not found in what you make, but in how you make it". Could be worth thinking about. Check out the recipe, it's fun. Should be a breeze for someone of your radiance.
Changelog: 09/02/2024: Sum metric secondary changed from instructions to looping, instructions now tertiary
10/02/2024: Changed one of the inputs from Stabilized Fire to Icelandic Lava Salt
10/02/2024: Changed one of the inputs from Stabilized Earth to Face Powder.
15/02/2024: Rewrote the lore to not suck
download: OM2024_W3_Touchstone.puzzle (where do i put this?)