SpaceChem, and the difficulty thereof

[FadedOasis]

SpaceChem was $5, so I picked it up. I'd been interested in it for a while. Seems great. Difficulty starts off slow, seems to increase at a constant rate...

...and that rate doesn't stop for nothin'. I've been chugging along, spending more and more time on each puzzle. I just got to this one (Alkonost 5), and I can plan out what the five buildings need to do, it just... Well... Uhh... Hmm.

I have a hard time starting these large puzzles. Too much planning.

Anyone else having these problems?

[pneuma08]

Yeah, that one was where I stopped too. I know I can do it but so much work... I vastly prefer the single-reactor puzzles to the pipeline puzzles.

Great game though.

[FadedOasis]

An hour after I posted this, the puzzle was solved. It's not really that hard, it just required a level of planning and realization beforehand. About a third of the time was spent just staring at that screenshot, planning things in my head.

In the end, I solved it with one reactor to spare.

[FadedOasis]

Hmmm...

I'm such a good chemist, I can turn pure water into phosphoric acid.

15138 cycles. I suck at efficiency.

[FadedOasis]

Yeah, it's pure puzzle. But I get SO much satisfaction from turning eight molecules of water into one atom of plutonium.

I TURNED WATER INTO PLUTONIUM. FUCK YEAH.