52 posts
Posted 03 August 2015 - 12:05 AM
Desert Logistics is a simple game based on a mathematical problem I solved at school once. The story goes like this:
There is a car and an infinite desert before it. You want to go as far into the desert as you can. The car can only carry a limited amount of fuel, though. While in the desert, you can leave canisters of fuel on the ground along your path. You can go back at any time, and refuel at your starting point.
The math problem was to prove (by the method of induction) that, with infinite amount of fuel, you can go as far as you want. But I want to know, what is actually the most efficient way to do it.
In this game you have a finite amount of money, which you can use to buy the fuel. You also collect rewards for going farther into the desert (the unclaimed rewards are marked with $$ sign). That way you can see the efficiency of your strategy. Also, just to make things more interesting, you can place a limited amount of fuel at any point of your path. So, if you make a large stockpile of fuel, you will need more space.
The amounts of money in rewards are arbitrary, so please inform me if you find an overpowered strategy. Or if you can conclusively prove that it is impossible to go beyond a certain point with the current setup.
Also, you can configure the game by editing the variables at the beginning of the file (including rewards, which are stored as a function of distance).
Download: http://pastebin.com/irNyE5i6
Controls:
A, D - move
W - load/buy fuel
S - unload/sell fuel
There is a car and an infinite desert before it. You want to go as far into the desert as you can. The car can only carry a limited amount of fuel, though. While in the desert, you can leave canisters of fuel on the ground along your path. You can go back at any time, and refuel at your starting point.
The math problem was to prove (by the method of induction) that, with infinite amount of fuel, you can go as far as you want. But I want to know, what is actually the most efficient way to do it.
In this game you have a finite amount of money, which you can use to buy the fuel. You also collect rewards for going farther into the desert (the unclaimed rewards are marked with $$ sign). That way you can see the efficiency of your strategy. Also, just to make things more interesting, you can place a limited amount of fuel at any point of your path. So, if you make a large stockpile of fuel, you will need more space.
The amounts of money in rewards are arbitrary, so please inform me if you find an overpowered strategy. Or if you can conclusively prove that it is impossible to go beyond a certain point with the current setup.
Also, you can configure the game by editing the variables at the beginning of the file (including rewards, which are stored as a function of distance).
Download: http://pastebin.com/irNyE5i6
Controls:
A, D - move
W - load/buy fuel
S - unload/sell fuel
