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[JoshuaFH]

I've spontaneously fallen in love with this little game, and so I think it's only right that I dismantle it the very best I can.

From the happy thread:

After being introduced to it by One F Jef, I finally caved and bought the game "Bridge-it+". I did this for one express purpose: to make the dumbest, stupidest, most retarded, and yet still functioning bridges. I'm off to a great start already.

The first tutorial level, building a bridge:



That picture doesn't do it justice, I've already outdone myself. The hinges between each of the road segments causes all the motion from one side to transfer to the other, and then back again. It's magnificent to watch, as the bridge wildly slinks back and forth like it's doing the worm, the little cars still manage to navigate across it and I score a pass on the first tutorial level.

The second tutorial level, using cables and suspension wires:



I honestly didn't even want to put the two cables on top to suspend the middle section, but the fatass train necessitated as it would otherwise crush the precariously placed house of cards that I've built this bridge in the likeness of. The train makes two passes, going east and then back west, and I score a pass as it lurches and groans painfully over my suspended pyramid.

There's still one more tutorial mission, where it explains how to operate hydraulics in order to create a drawbridge. This is gonna be fun, I'll report back once I figure out how to break it over my knee.

A continuation:

Tutorial 3: On using hydraulics and the practical applications of drawbridges:

I actually did this in two different methods. The first time I did it, I simply built a raised up bridge that didn't use the hydraulics or the provided land anchors. It was low enough that cars could pass, but high enough that the boat could pass underneath. It was awful boring though, so I thought "How to make it dumber?"



This is actually something of a conventional drawbridge, but with a twist. Instead of using the hydraulics to pull the middle up, I use them to cause the sides to 'Bow down' and the resulting strain forces the middle section to part just enough to allow the boat to pass.

Now we're done with the tutorial, and we're into the game proper. Very similar to Rollercoaster tycoon, every level places arbitrary restrictions on you coupled with a goal to complete. Whereas punking Rollercoaster Tycoon is merely a matter of abusing the game's AI, ride scaling system, and elevation mechanics, this will all by physics baby yeahhhh.

All the levels are divided into 5 categories: Easy, Medium, Hard, Complex, and Extra. We'll be starting on the easy levels and working our way up.

Easy 1, starting out:



This is going into my Minimalism modern art portfolio. You don't need any supports for this bridge! Just place them against eachother crooked and they support eachother indefinitely.

Easy 2, again but now with gusto:

The description of this level is simple enough: "Use iron and steel girders to make a car bridge"

But of course with my natural borne engineering prowess, I don't need no damn steel! I'll use the perfectly fine paper-mache-esque iron beams thank you very much. The downside of this self-imposed limitation though is that it really only has one correct configuration that'll actually support itself, and it's the most boring, mundane, yet functioning bridge you'd ever see. As always though, I'm asking myself "How do I make it dumber?"

And I found a way:



I had at this point just noticed that the crossbeams toggle has been enabled. Meaning I can make both regular supports with crossbeams, or go without them, which makes them cheaper + lighter + weaker, but additionally not providing any lateral support. The picture above is the resulting consequence when when you have no crossbeams on your vertical supports: The entire thing topples over on it's side the instant a gentle breeze hits it!

The upshot to this though, is that it's a slow death. The cars that need to go across it can JUST BARELY make it before the entire bridge demolishes itself, cause that's the thing, as long as the cars make it across the game DOESN'T CARE what the final condition of your bridge is.



And when I say the cars make it just barely, I mean just that, they make it by the skin of their teeth. The upending concrete of the bridge collapsing hurtles the back end of the red sports car up into the air, but it makes it to its finish line, and I score a pass on Easy #2.

To be continued.

[Sheb]

Joshua Engineering Corp: Because there is always a worse way to do thing.

[Baneling]

You. I like you. I will be keeping an eye on this. This is a good thing.

[Twi]

You. I like you. I will be keeping an eye on this. This is a good thing.

[LordSlowpoke]

peter dubya

[flabort]

Pumping Triple Worcestershire.

[Cheeetar]

These are fantastic.

[JoshuaFH]

Alright, let's all take a big, long, hard, stern look at Easy #3:

The description is simple enough: Build a train bridge over an 80 meter river, using iron, steel, and two land anchors.

Of course the steel is out of the question, but fortunately this being an easy level mission, it's not hard. Just to give you a taste of what boring vanilla gameplay looks like, it's something like this:



And really, that's like the essence of engineering: Simple, efficient, effective. Doesn't even need anything more or less, cause that does the job. But we both know that's not what I'm here for, making a good bridge is easy, making a bad bridge is much harder.

I had a couple ideas, so I just went with them all:



First I have it do a dip. I want you to take a moment to compare this image with the previous one and consider how much extra detail and material is necessary just to make that little dip possible. I had to make an additional ancillary support to the middle section, I had to swap out the simple I-beam support in the middle with this complex diamond that distributes the weight more evenly, and if you'll notice, only two supports in the first picture have crossbeams, but nearly every single support in the second has them. When that train starts bouncing up and down, it just starts wrecking shit.

But let's go one further:



trains just hate climbing slopes, that was the very steepest one I could make without it 1) wrecking the whole bridge 2) stalling out mid-way. 3) Making it over, but then accelerating into the ground hard enough that it does this:



Physics on the bridge is spot on... physics on vehicles however, they'll do whatever the hell they want, up-to-and-including sinking into and phasing through the ground, so even if it TECHNICALLY made it over, it doesn't count and you gotta take that shit back to the drawing board.

It's actually pretty frustrating, because this happens the very most when you make the vehicles bounce up and down with weird slopes or wobbly/bouncy bridges, which are the most fun but it causes them to just flip out.

But moving on:

I decide that I don't need no damn land anchors, I can do fine without'em:



This is a very mundane looking bridge, but it was very exciting for me. To explain, the supports turn red and blue to indicate HOW MUCH and WHAT TYPE of force is acting on them. Turning red means that they're being crunched/compressed, turning blue means they're being pulled apart. This was exciting for me just because look how RED those top supports are! That's literally right next to breaking, I was holding my breath as the trains passed by.

But of course, I think I can do one better still:



THAT'S BETTER. Now, if you ever need to convince somebody of the ovewhelming power of triangles, feel free to show them that picture. The pushing and pulling forces being acted on each level of that pyramid are being mitigated by the layer above it, resulting in a super massive, but structurally sound modern world wonder to make the Colossus of Rhodes jealous. The only reason I didn't top it off was because that was where the skybox started.

And with that I'll say I'm done with Easy #3.

Spoiler: Next Time on Bridge-It+ (click to show/hide)

[Noel.se]

PTW

[Gentlefish]

Yep watching.

[scrdest]

This is great.

[Fniff]

Yeeeees.

[flabort]

I hearby dub Easy#3 "Triforce Bridge". 

[GentlemanRaptor]

You're like Bloody Stupid Johnson, except with bridges. Eventually one of these is going to turn into a superweapon or something, just you watch.

[flabort]

Compress the trucks into ultrasmall mass, then release them to fire at twice the speed of light.