Work out offline progress when one machine feeds the next and the shelf fills up

A player comes back after the night and expects the chain to have run. Multiplying each machine's speed by the hours away gives far too much: the second machine had to wait for the first, and the last shelf was full long before morning. This entry replays the time in honest slices.

Why this works

Goods move through a chain one stage at a time, and every stage waits for its neighbours. Replaying the time away in small steps, from the end backwards, lets delays and full shelves show up naturally, where a single multiplication would promise far too much.

When not to use it

Do not replay in steps for a single machine with no shelf limit, or when the player expects only a rough estimate. A simple rate times time is enough there, and the replay costs speed on every launch.

In the full entry

• What to build, step by step
• Starting values and the reason for each
• 2 common mistakes and the fix
• 26 lines of example code with 4 checks that pass
• How your AI shows you that it works

Say this to your AI

Use the Spielerando entry "Work out offline progress when one machine feeds the next and the shelf fills up" (read_entry idle-offline-chain-with-full-shelf) in my game. Build it step by step, and show me how you checked that it works.

Or skip this and connect the MCP: your AI then finds all of this by itself.Connect the MCP