This document specifies individual tasks that will be done by the agents to
advance their win condition in the first map. For details on how the tasks are
distributed and interact with each other, see general_gameplay.md. An
overview of the general, abstract requirements of the task system can be found
in task_base.md.
NOTE: This list is still work in progress, more tasks will be added in the future.
Storage tasks in multiple rooms will be the main way to obtain the basic ingredients needed for all other tasks. They generally don't consist out of more than clicking on the right item to pick it up.
More items will be added in the future.
- Nitric Acid
TBD
- Mashed Potatoes
Preparation tasks are intermediate steps to prepare items obtained from storage for other experiments.
Bring two ingredients and mix them slowly by stirring until the color changes. If you mix too fast, the temperature rises too high and the liquids boil away, destroying the input items. As a warning a small amount of smoke will rise shortly before the mixture reacts, giving the player enough time to prevent failure by slowing down. Enough stirring distance must be gained for the task to complete.
2 specific chemicals are needed. They can be placed in any order and can be taken out again as long as they didn't get started being mixed. The player can only start mixing if the input combination is valid as shown by the table below.
A new mixture in a test tube, dependent on the input items is given after the mixing succeeds. The following table contains all recipes that can be mixed together here (will change):
| Item A | Item B | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Mashed Potatoes | Nitric Acid | Potato essence |
The reaction mixture in an Erlenmeyer flask (conical flask) is on top of an iron tripod, with the Bunsen burner below. There is a thermometer inside the flask to measure the solution temperature. The range of acceptable temperature is listed in a note next to the experiment.
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2+ specific chemicals (based the current experiment description).
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An Erlenmeyer (conical) flask
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Thermometer
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There is a gas control knob and an igniter button which must be pressed after the knob is is set above 0 to light the flame, showing a spark and a sound effect. If the igniter button is pushed while the gas knob is set to 0, the spark effect is played. While the flame is lit, setting the knob to 0 immediately extinguishes the flame. Any other setting controls the size and heat of the flame without delay.
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When the solution reaches a certain temperature, the chemical reaction starts, the progress of the reaction can be seen by the subtle change in the solution color. When the reaction is finished, a sudden, clearly visible color change occurs. After switching off the burner, the flask containing the required chemical mixture can be accessed as an object.
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When the solution reaches a certain, higher temperature, the solution suddenly starts to boil and if the temperature is too high for too long, it turns to black, and the experiment fails.
This mechanism is somewhat realistic, and the introduction of heat transfer and heat loss introduces a delay in the heating process and forces the player to be careful (or, gives some excuse to the infiltrator why the task failed).
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The flame has an output heat that depends on the size (linear, equal steps)
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The flask has a constant heat capacity, which relates its energy to its temperature. The flame output directly increases the energy of the flask (continuously in time).
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The solution has a constant heat capacity, which relates its energy to its temperature.
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The temperature of the solution is directly displayed by the thermometer.
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Heat loss of the solution: the solution loses its energy to the environment based on how much its temperature is over the room temperature (25 °C).
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Heat loss of the flask: the flask loses its energy to the environment based on how much its temperature is over the room temperature (25 °C).
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Heat transfer between the flask and the solution: depending on the temperature difference between the two, some amount of energy is transferred to the solution.
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Reaction: over the threshold temperature, the reaction starts, and can be tracked as a percentage process. The speed of the reaction might be temperature dependent, i.e., higher temperature faster process, but higher risk of failure.
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Boiling: over a higher threshold temperature, a second reaction starts which can be tracked as a percentage and might be temperature dependent, i.e., the higher one shoots over the threshold, the quicker the experiment fails, and when this percentage reaches a threshold, the experiment fails.
- One Erlenmeyer flask with the required chemical mixture in it.
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The gas pressure maintenance task must be turned on and within the accepted range for the entire time between starting the heat-up and the experiment finishing.
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One compatible item must be inserted. If an item is not allowed for this machine, it cannot be inserted. The item can be taken out again unless the experiment has already been started.
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The machine must be started as detailed below.
The following three actions are required to start the machine. They can be performed in any order.
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Turn on gas flow by rotating the gas valve. The gas pressure set by the maintenance task is displayed directly here in a gauge with the acceptable ranges overlapped
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The GC-capillary is located in a chamber with electric heating elements. A knob directly adjusts the heat transferred to the chamber, and the chamber loses some of its heat to the environment (see the Reaction over a Bunsen burner task for details). The temperature is displayed by a Nixie-tube display. The temperature has to be within a predefined range.
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Set the detector voltage properly. Voltage control knob controls the detector voltage between 0V and 20V relatively smoothly (0.2 V steps), but there are no direct markings related to voltage at the knob. The currently set voltage is displayed in a 3-digit Nixie-tube display. The voltage knob is set to 0 at the start of the game. The needed value must be set exactly and can be read from a table accessible in the machine GUI that lists all possible ingredient mixtures and their needed voltages. This table contains the following values (will change):
| Mixture | Voltage |
|---|---|
| Potato essence | 6.0V |
If all requirements are completed, a green light lights up, if any requirement is missing an appropriate visual clue is given to the player, as one of the four red lights lights up: Temperature error, pressure error, voltage error or missing sample error.
If the green light is on, the player can start the experiment by pulling down a lever that lowers a syringe, and when pulling up the lever, the syringe sucks in the solution, then rotates and injects the solution into the capillary chamber.
The process needs to run for 60 seconds during which all settings must remain in an acceptable state, including the gas pressure maintenance task. If one of them moves out of range, the machine immediately stops the process but its progress is saved and upon reconfiguring and restarting the machine picks up from where it stopped (i.e. the chromatogram is already partly printed). All players can always interact with the controls of the machine. The machine keeps running if the player leaves it and the settings are also kept until someone else changes them.
Once the process successfully finishes, the input item is consumed and a chromatogram printed on paper (a long graph with peaks on it) is returned in the output slot. This item is unique for every different input item.
- One chromatogram displaying the composition of the input mixture.
Maintenance tasks differ from regular tasks in that they are always running and only act as prerequisites for other tasks. They constantly emit a value that can change over time or upon manual interaction. That value must lie within an acceptable range for tasks that are dependent on it to work.
Controls the gas pressure.
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There is a main valve that completely cuts the gas pressure in the off position. It is set to "off" at the start of the game.
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There is a regulator valve that can be turned from low to high pressure state. It is at the lowest pressure setting at the start of the game.
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Output pressure: numerically, the input pressure is a number, and the setting of the regulator valve is also a number. The output pressure is the sum of the two numbers, however, when displaying it to the player, both input and output pressures should be displayed in a logarithmic scale.
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Input pressure: the fluctuation in the input pressure is implemented using a target input pressure value. Every time the output pressure moves towards the target value, preferably first stars moving slowly, then the speed increases, and as it gets closer to the target value, it slows down again. Whenever the input pressure gets close enough to the target pressure, a new, random target pressure is selected, and the input pressure starts to slowly move in that direction.
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Input pressure possible range: the input pressure fluctuations should be wide enough that no one regulator setting should make the output pressure in the acceptable range for all possible input pressures.
TBD