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Lottery of Babylon
Apr 25, 2012

STRAIGHT TROPIN'

LET'S MAKE NUMBERS GO UP

Idle games, or incremental games, are a loose genre of browser games in which the player is rewarded, usually with a gradual income of some resource, for leaving the game window open in the background without actually doing anything in it. Often these resources can be spent to buy items that make the resource come in faster, so you can buy more items, so you can get even more resource.

Some games, called Clickers, have a big button you can click to manually get more resources, but they are usually outpaced by your idle income very quickly. Most idle games have either no graphics, ASCII art, or at most perhaps a few still images drawn up in Flash.

Why?

Because those numbers aren't going to make themselves go up. Well, okay, yes they well. But they need your help to go up faster.

Also it feels good to wake up in the morning or come home from work with 9 hours of income to spend.


The Current Hotness: Realm Grinder



Started just over a year ago, Realm Grinder takes the classic prestige mechanic (resetting the game with a bonus to future playthroughs) to the next level. Once you've earned enough gems with normal resets, you can reincarnate -- a meta-reset that sacrifices all the gems you earned from previous resets in exchange for a new, different bonus. Reincarnations certain other features, challenges, and progression systems, and the real progression in the game is measured in how many times you've reincarnated. Combined with the variety of different races you can ally with, this leads to quite a lot of variety and complexity in what at first appears to be a straightforward clicker.


Paradigm Shift Rabbit Holes



After a while people realized that making a single number go up by buying the most expensive building over and over eventually gets old. This generation of incremental games addressed that with a wide variety of different resources and a long chain of paradigm shifts that constantly alter which resource you're interested in and how you can most easily acquire it, which keeps the game from becoming stale for months.

Despite its haphazard interface and obtuse terminology, Sandcastle Builder is an excellent slow burn with a lot of neat intricacies and subsystems, such as a disguised Towers of Hanoi minigame to unlock a series of boosts. Mine Defense takes those strengths and combines them with a more palatable presentation, though it does require an autoclicker. And if you don't mind the way it caps storage of certain resources, A Kittens Game is an accessable little Civ-builder with a wide variety of resources.


The Classics



The games that started the genre, Candy Box, its sequel, and A Dark Room have a lot of strengths that their successors never really followed up on. Though they do involve waiting for numbers to go up, this is downplayed compared to exploring the RPG system and open world map. They're quick and very good; even if you aren't really into idlers, check them out unless you hate ASCII graphics.


Goon Guilds



Most incremental games are single-player. But if you want to play with goons, you're looking for these.

Amaranthine, essentially a text-based idle MMO, is the current favorite, with its own thread dedicated to making sure goons remain dominant enough to be despised by pubbies. Before that there was Idle Online Universe, which was popular for a while but the guild halls are looking a bit empty now. And there's always Clicker Heroes, a fairly linear clicker, but bright and colorful and with a solid enough prestige mechanic that it was popular even before it became multiplayer.


Historical Relics



These are all notable for one reason or another, but I wouldn't recommend playing them.

Anti-Idle is the first example of the genre by several years, but which for one reason or another has mostly remained forgotten even as the genre's popularity boomed. Cookie Clicker popularized the genre, created the first prestige mechanic, and standardized the clicker formula of buying buildings to make income go up, but with no real paradigm shifts and no updates for years it was left behind. Adventure Capitalist is a poorly-balanced bland clicker notable only for being the first major game to allow progression even while offline, but somehow half my steam friends list is still playing it. And then there's Progress Quest, a parody of the genre before the genre even existed, in which the player has no input at all.





SHARK GAME



HELL YES IT'S THE GOON-MADE SHARK GAME THE ACTUAL BEST IDLE GAME

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Colin Mockery
Jun 24, 2007
Rawr



Shark game is the best game, but Amarthine has been fun as well (more due to trolling potential than for its own merits).

coolskull
Nov 11, 2007

I'm always looking for new tabs to leave open.

I'd recommend Critter Mound to anyone who hasn't played it. It's no longer updated as the dev passed away, but has an interest genetic system and assembly line element for resources.

http://yoyz.com/critter/

Senso
Nov 4, 2005

Always working
Allow me to also recommend Reactor Idle, it has a surprising amount of thinking requiring.

And come join us in Amaranthine, let's murder trees, cook cherry pies and wear blue skirts together! Our goon guild has 128 members so far!

The General
Mar 4, 2007


I am super sad that Android progress quest doesn't do its thing in the background. Unplayable because of it.

Dr. Arbitrary
Mar 15, 2006

Bleak Gremlin
Very good op.

Also, there's a new game in beta suckers! made by the Reactor Idle guy called Factory Idle.
It's pretty fun!


Shark game really is the best though.

totalnewbie
Nov 13, 2005

I was born and raised in China, lived in Japan, and now hold a US passport.

I am wrong in every way, all the damn time.

Ask me about my tattoos.
Thanks for the new thread and the acknowledgement that this thread is basically nothing but RG :v:

LOVE LOVE SKELETON posted:

I'm always looking for new tabs to leave open.

I'd recommend Critter Mound to anyone who hasn't played it. It's no longer updated as the dev passed away, but has an interest genetic system and assembly line element for resources.

http://yoyz.com/critter/

Oh man, what a bummer :(

Dr. Arbitrary posted:

Very good op.

Also, there's a new game in beta suckers! made by the Reactor Idle guy called Factory Idle.
It's pretty fun!


Seems to be "inspired by" (to be generous) or "totally ripping off" (to be harsh?) Factorio.

totalnewbie fucked around with this message at 02:52 on May 13, 2016

Chakan
Mar 30, 2011
It took me years to get to the end of the last thread, and with this bonus, I'm already past the real early game and discovered a bunch of idle games. Everything accumulates so quick now.

Xelkelvos
Dec 19, 2012

LOVE LOVE SKELETON posted:

I'm always looking for new tabs to leave open.

I'd recommend Critter Mound to anyone who hasn't played it. It's no longer updated as the dev passed away, but has an interest genetic system and assembly line element for resources.

http://yoyz.com/critter/

The second worst part is that there's a new game that also uses the mechanics, but makes it worse in practically every way.

ComradePyro
Oct 6, 2009

totalnewbie posted:



Seems to be "inspired by" (to be generous) or "totally ripping off" (to be harsh?) Factorio.

Oh you mean that game that ripped off minecraft technology mods? Minecraft totally ripped off Infiniminer btw.

pwnyXpress
Mar 28, 2007

Lottery of Babylon posted:



Goon Guilds



Most incremental games are single-player. But if you want to play with goons, you're looking for these.

Amaranthine, essentially a text-based idle MMO, is the current favorite, with its own thread dedicated to making sure goons remain dominant enough to be despised by pubbies. Before that there was Idle Online Universe, which was popular for a while but the guild halls are looking a bit empty now. And there's always Clicker Heroes, a fairly linear clicker, but bright and colorful and with a solid enough prestige mechanic that it was popular even before it became multiplayer.


Historical Relics



These are all notable for one reason or another, but I wouldn't recommend playing them.

Anti-Idle is the first example of the genre by several years, but which for one reason or another has mostly remained forgotten even as the genre's popularity boomed. Cookie Clicker popularized the genre, created the first prestige mechanic, and standardized the clicker formula of buying buildings to make income go up, but with no real paradigm shifts and no updates for years it was left behind. Adventure Capitalist is a poorly-balanced bland clicker notable only for being the first major game to allow progression even while offline, but somehow half my steam friends list is still playing it. And then there's Progress Quest, a parody of the genre before the genre even existed, in which the player has no input at all.



Your pic for AdVenture Capitalist is old, its a lot shinier than that now. The reason people keep playing it, though, is the events they have monthly that give lots of free premium cash that you'd otherwise get microtransactioned over.

Also, what's the goon guild in Clicker Heroes? I need to join that I think.

pixaal
Jan 8, 2004

All ice cream is now for all beings, no matter how many legs.


Progress Quest is from the 56k days, it was a parody of RPGs. I feel it saw where RPGs were going and was ahead of it's time.

Also swarm sim should be in the OP, while no longer updated it's a really good game with an actual end. It feels complete overall. Last achievement is kind of a grind and feels left to give people something to grind while new content was coming that never came.

CubicalSucrose
Jan 1, 2013

Phantom my Opera and call me South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut
Derivative Clicker is another that has an end, but I really enjoyed the journey. Plus it's maths themed. Make things that make things that make resources here - https://gzgreg.github.io/DerivativeClicker/

edgeman83
Jul 13, 2003
Megami Quest 2 is an idle RPG that falls more on the RPG end than the idle side but is really fun and also has an ending. It is fairly quick to beat(though not as quick as the awesome Shark Game) so it is a fun little diversion that I come back to every few months.

Meskhenet
Apr 26, 2010

In Realm Grinder. Im still in R0.

I have druids unlocked and have 24T gems. So im still far far away from a reincarnation. Should abdicate and play titans for more gems? Then once they slow down, just keep abdicating and playing them until i get more and more gems?

Garfu
Mar 6, 2008

Much like buttholes, families are meant to be tight.
Take it to the RG thread

Leonyth
Mar 17, 2009

Meskhenet posted:

In Realm Grinder. Im still in R0.

I have druids unlocked and have 24T gems. So im still far far away from a reincarnation. Should abdicate and play titans for more gems? Then once they slow down, just keep abdicating and playing them until i get more and more gems?

That's the long and short of Realm Grinder, keep going for as long as possible until you feel like you're not gaining any more gems at a good pace, or until you've got that trophy/other goal unlocked. Titans probably are your best bet at this stage, make sure you're getting the heritages and trophies as you can.

Feline Mind Meld
Jun 14, 2007

I'm pretty creeped out

Garfu posted:

Take it to the RG thread

There isn't one you CLOWN.

I dunno if it's op worthy but wall destroyer which was made with cookie clicker's mod tools was better than cc. It has an end and was reasonably fun since trophies conferred bonuses that followed resets

Garfu
Mar 6, 2008

Much like buttholes, families are meant to be tight.
That was the joke

Cinara
Jul 15, 2007
Thread has a distinct lack of mentioning Trimps. It's not to the level of Realm Grinder, but it is one of the best incremental games that gets regular updates.

bollig
Apr 7, 2006

Never Forget.
Hi, I'm going to use an incremental clicker to determine my Fantasy Football draft order. And I was looking for suggestions. We have a wide variety of both 'gamers' and laymen, so it would have to be something that's both accessible but deep, if that makes sense. On top of that, it would have to be exportable, for the sake of me checking on them.

I played cookie clicker back in the day and I think this would be fun. Also, a recommended time range would be pretty good. I think it would be good to have one with the reset, because that's pretty much the only decision I never 'figured out'.

Thanks

pixaal
Jan 8, 2004

All ice cream is now for all beings, no matter how many legs.


Cinara posted:

Thread has a distinct lack of mentioning Trimps. It's not to the level of Realm Grinder, but it is one of the best incremental games that gets regular updates.

This game is great, much quicker to get into now too with heirlooms and achievements. Used to take months to get to the real meat of the game breaking planets.

Pope Guilty
Nov 6, 2006

The human animal is a beautiful and terrible creature, capable of limitless compassion and unfathomable cruelty.
Hey, the thread prestiged!

Is there anything worth playing for Android aside from Adventure Capitalist and Idle Oil Tycoon?

CodfishCartographer
Feb 23, 2010

Gadus Maprocephalus

Pillbug
Wow Shark Game is great.

I also started up Sandcastle Builder about two weeks ago, and holy poo poo that game. I'd say link to its (now dead) thread in the OP, cus wow that guide is mandatory. Anyone still play it at all or am I basically the only one?

DACK FAYDEN
Feb 25, 2013

Bear Witness
I still hold out hope for Shark Game 2. Where is that poster?

Len
Jan 21, 2008

Pouches, bandages, shoulderpad, cyber-eye...

Bitchin'!


CodfishCartographer posted:

Wow Shark Game is great.

I also started up Sandcastle Builder about two weeks ago, and holy poo poo that game. I'd say link to its (now dead) thread in the OP, cus wow that guide is mandatory. Anyone still play it at all or am I basically the only one?

I've tried but it has a hostile interface that I've never been able to get past.

Virigoth
Apr 28, 2009

Corona rules everything around me
C.R.E.A.M. get the virus
In the ICU y'all......



Amaranthine request: If you joined us to play Amaranthine and aren't going to play / haven't been around in awhile / said gently caress these guys can you login real fast and dump your stuff into guild storage so new people can use it? We've just about dried up the holiday gear market from what the pubs were selling.

CodfishCartographer
Feb 23, 2010

Gadus Maprocephalus

Pillbug

Len posted:

I've tried but it has a hostile interface that I've never been able to get past.

http://castle.chirpingmustard.com/classic.html is a slightly better interface, but yeah it’s pretty ugly and not very user-friendly. If you can devote some time to messing around with it it actually gets a little more playable and eventually you get used to it. Not a glowing endorsement, I know.

Feline Mind Meld
Jun 14, 2007

I'm pretty creeped out

bollig posted:

Hi, I'm going to use an incremental clicker to determine my Fantasy Football draft order. And I was looking for suggestions. We have a wide variety of both 'gamers' and laymen, so it would have to be something that's both accessible but deep, if that makes sense. On top of that, it would have to be exportable, for the sake of me checking on them.

I played cookie clicker back in the day and I think this would be fun. Also, a recommended time range would be pretty good. I think it would be good to have one with the reset, because that's pretty much the only decision I never 'figured out'.

Thanks

Voting shark game if you want a shorter time period and more emphasis on activity/who can waste the most time.

If you want to take a week or so of idling maybe realm grinder would be best? Idk a lot of the truly idlable games are pretty obtuse.

Alternatively just have everyone play through a dark room which is a fabulous game and can be finished in a couple days?

Just spitballin here

Kyrosiris
May 24, 2006

You try to be happy when everyone is summoning you everywhere to "be their friend".



Yeah, I would probably also suggest sharkgame.

Krynn
Dec 12, 2005
Professional Lurker
Is there a point in RG where you can avoid Lightning Forge altogether? Was hoping after doing all the research in R16 I'd be able to go from Diamond Forge around 1Dvg to something that wasn't Lightning Forge.

Xelkelvos
Dec 19, 2012

Krynn posted:

Is there a point in RG where you can avoid Lightning Forge altogether? Was hoping after doing all the research in R16 I'd be able to go from Diamond Forge around 1Dvg to something that wasn't Lightning Forge.

At R18, you can get a Challenge that allows for a variant build called Moonshine which uses the Tier 3 Elf Challenge. With Dwarf/Drow Prestige, I think it's viable around the 30s to skip Mercss entirely. It's technically doable beforehand, but it's still faster to go Mercs at the gem range up to Dvg

Gumbel2Gumbel
Apr 28, 2010

I don't know what happened, I just beat the first level of shark game and I only got 1 essence? Bullshit. What's the difference between worlds, anyway?

Feline Mind Meld
Jun 14, 2007

I'm pretty creeped out

Gumbel2Gumbel posted:

I don't know what happened, I just beat the first level of shark game and I only got 1 essence? Bullshit. What's the difference between worlds, anyway?

Higher level worlds have stronger climate modifiers and I think give more essence. The world types all have specific growth rate buffs and debuffs. You should try them early as later on some of the negative ones are pretty crushing

Microcline
Jul 27, 2012

totalnewbie posted:

Seems to be "inspired by" (to be generous) or "totally ripping off" (to be harsh?) Factorio.

There's a lot that idle games can learn from Factorio. Like Shark Game, Factorio emphases the paradigm shift aspect while most of the current browser games emphasize waiting for weeks with little new content. You can wait for things, but your time is generally better spent improving production.

Although it may just be that I'm not into idle games and I just like the ones that overlap with simulators and engineering games.

DACK FAYDEN
Feb 25, 2013

Bear Witness

Eldercain posted:

Higher level worlds have stronger climate modifiers and I think give more essence. The world types all have specific growth rate buffs and debuffs. You should try them early as later on some of the negative ones are pretty crushing
Essence is ceil(level/5) or something like that. It's discontinuous and the creator posted the formula in the last thread but I believe that's it.

Meskhenet
Apr 26, 2010

Microcline posted:

There's a lot that idle games can learn from Factorio. Like Shark Game, Factorio emphases the paradigm shift aspect while most of the current browser games emphasize waiting for weeks with little new content. You can wait for things, but your time is generally better spent improving production.

Although it may just be that I'm not into idle games and I just like the ones that overlap with simulators and engineering games.

Im running shark game. My current gate is asking for 100m science....... its probably going to take me as long as ive been playing (about 4 worlds) to get that ><

Benly
Aug 2, 2011

20% of the time, it works every time.

Meskhenet posted:

Im running shark game. My current gate is asking for 100m science....... its probably going to take me as long as ive been playing (about 4 worlds) to get that ><

When you need massive science, bear in mind that kelp generates sea apples and sea apples can be dissected for science. Once you have your recycler running you can produce a few billion kelp and dissect the resulting apples until you have however much science you need.

Meskhenet
Apr 26, 2010

Benly posted:

When you need massive science, bear in mind that kelp generates sea apples and sea apples can be dissected for science. Once you have your recycler running you can produce a few billion kelp and dissect the resulting apples until you have however much science you need.

Sounds like a good plan. Ive got more crabs than i know what to do with, ill turn them into kelp farmers now.

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Microcline
Jul 27, 2012

Meskhenet posted:

Sounds like a good plan. Ive got more crabs than i know what to do with, ill turn them into kelp farmers now.

Once you get it the recycler is generally the fastest way of getting large amounts of a given resource. You just need to find one resource that you can produce in massive quantities. The loops I remember are Fish Machine -> Fish -> Sharkonium (recycler) -> Fish Machine and Octopus Machine -> Octopus -> Clams -> Octopus resource (recycler) -> Octopus Machine. Once you set something like this up you can produce enough kelp in one go to fuel your science for the rest of the game.

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