Week 5: Tax Fraud
Tax Fraud
METRICS
Rate > Instructions > Cost
Period (No Halt Instruction) > Area > Cycles
("Rate" is like cycles, but it ignores startup time; the average number of cycles between outputs, after your machine reaches steady state, is all that matters. If your machine doesn't output forever, it doesn't have a rate.)
("Period" is how many cycles it takes your machine's instruction tape to loop. When you place a new arm, a section of the instruction tape for that arm is highlighted—you can think of the length of that highlighted section as your machine's period. The "No Halt Instruction" part of the metric means any solution that uses the new Halt instruction is disqualified for this metric.)
REAGENTS
Elemental Gold
PRODUCTS
Accounted-For Amalgam
(This puzzle works like Litharge Separation in that it requires extra outputs; you need to output 12 of each product instead of the usual 6.)
To the Spiritual Brilliance Foundation:
Thank you for the iron permissions! I promise they’re being put to good use.
I used them to make some gold on my own to see what the merchants would do with it. It was strange. Everyone loves gold, but they got so cagey and uncomfortable when it came out on the touchstone as pure. They said something about bullion currency being phased out, and I told them to not treat it as bullion, but a quicksilver storage medium.
Then I figured it out! They’re not in the business of shipping finished materials, but raw ones. Tosa–she’s the lady in the shadows that’s been helping me–found some of their old shipping paperwork, and they sell to refineries. That’s how they make their guilder. So, I’ve decided to turn the gold back into something that has a well-understood refining process that’s been studied for years, almost as good as the original, that their clients should take easily.
Thank you for giving me the chance to do good.
[click here after solving puzzle to reveal post-solve flavortext]
TOSA: I’ll deliver this to the merchants, but I don’t have high hopes.
JOCELYN: That’s okay. I do.
download: OM2026_W5_Tax_Fraud.puzzle (where do i put this?)