Please Never Use Repeaters (and a guide on looping)

This is really important. I see so many people using repeaters, but they are literally THE MOST USELESS DEVICE IN THE GAME.

Everything about a repeater is inefficient.
Let’s start with their most basic functionality. Repeating a signal. Let’s say it sends out on channel X every second.
WOAH! We can do that with triggers too!
If it has a delay of one, sends on channel X, and receives on channel X, WOW! It’s literally the same exact thing but with TEN TIMES THE MEMORY EFFICIENCY.

Let me tell you about looping.

The most simple one is a trigger. It sends and receives on the same channel, and has a customizable delay. We can count the number of times it sends out on with a counter that increments on the channel. If we want to cap it at a certain amount, that’s easy to do. If we want to stop it after a certain amount of time, we can just use a trigger that counts in seconds and once it hits x time, it disables the other system.

Basically, you can do pretty much everything with the delay ability/activation states of triggers + the counting ability of counters.

Wow!

Ok, so now lets look at the abilities of repeaters.


After period of time? Can be done with a timer hooked up to a different system.

After number of repetitions? Easily done with a counter that tracks channel broadcasts.

After receiving on a channel? Magic, we just… turn off the trigger. Bonus points – we just turn it back on again right afterwards! :exploding_head:


Max concurrent tasks?!!?!?!? Well, a trigger already has 300. (well, the wire/channel caps dictate that the limit is 300, at least)
Lets say the trigger has a delay of X seconds, and we want Y concurrent tasks for the trigger.
We simulate this by having a counter counting output broadcasts. It gets incremented every time the loop runs, and decremented every X/Y seconds. Then, if it ever goes over the limit of #Y per X seconds, it can just… turn off the trigger. If you want to store this stuff somehow, you’d need to use a property and then keep going back and forth and starting up new loops.

For those of below average literacy

Repeater no good. Too much memory. Trigger can do same thing. Trigger start on X, trigger broadcast on X. Wow! Much good. If you want do more, you use counter to track things.

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Have you even read the guide?

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Deactivating the Trigger…

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Yeah, sorry I missed that, I skimmed before replying, I should stop doing that

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So we aren’t supposed guide people on the right path because it “hurts” the devs?

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what about WIRE repeaters?

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Triggers are also better because they have blocks, so they can broadcast on multiple channels at once.

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Those can’t broadcast on a channel and can’t be deactivated. So it isn’t the full use of the repeater.

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Wire repeaters are ok, because they can be used to sort signals by teams

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the below average literacy section tho

also why is psa in the tags?

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This is honestly just a quick post to help prevent this disease that we call repeaters spreading.

@Blizzy, the whole point is that repeaters are completely redundant and can be simulated in EVERY SINGLE RESPECT by something cheaper. I understand why they were implemented, but I absolutely disagree with the finer points. 500 memory is unreasonable. 50 or 40 would be much more reasonable.

This isn’t intended to be disrespectful to the developers, as they did a great thing making Gimkit. It’s pointing out a large flaw in a game, while helping people learn and do better in said game. It’s helping everyone learn.

Also, given how long it took you to respond, I’m guessing you didn’t actually read the post in the first place (which seems to be a common occurence on this website), so please reserve your judgement until you actually know what you’re talking about.

Any good game developer should be able to take feedback. If I delivered this poorly and the team lets me know, I will apologize profusely, but until then, I’m going to keep this guide here because it’s helping people.

eiqcrmeliutgwhc, wire repeaters are cool :+1:
and psa is in the title because everyone should know lol

rithek, please do let us know, I’m excited to hear it!

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Lol…this is good!

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I have a better way for the max conc tasks. I’ll post about it later since I’m mobile.

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Ima make a venn diagram

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same here

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Never mind, triggers can also sort by team

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Finished, HOLY SMOKES DUDE, I never realized how much of a gigachad the trigger was until now.

Screenshot 2023-12-18 2.07.39 PM

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Fine, @Shdwy, you’re right, the repeater is basically pointless :yawning_face:

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Counter-productive, even – it takes up like 92% more space

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now THAT was painful to make.


IT TOOK ME 40 MINUTES TO MAKE THIS AHAHAHAHA

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