Find production chains where a tool is needed to make the tool and nothing ever starts

In a game with workshops, a mine can need a pickaxe while the pickaxe needs the ore from the mine. On paper everything is connected, in play nothing moves and the player cannot tell why. Here is a check that shows which workshops can never run from the start.

Why this works

Whether a workshop can ever run depends on what the player owns at the start, not only on the recipes. Playing the game forward in rounds, enabling whatever has all its ingredients, shows exactly what can come into existence and which workshops stay dead.

When not to use it

It only asks whether something is there, not how much. A chain can pass and still run dry because one loop eats more than it makes, so check the amounts as well. Pointless for a game with two or three workshops you can follow by eye.

In the full entry

• What to build, step by step
• Starting values and the reason for each
• 3 common mistakes and the fix
• 27 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 "Find production chains where a tool is needed to make the tool and nothing ever starts" (read_entry production-chain-bootstrap-deadlock) 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