Machine Rule

Civilization

Rusted company towns on dark plains, where Automatons keep the curfew, the store takes only scrip and the jail is never far.

At a glance

Kind of world	Civilization
Serum in the arrival Box	2 ampoules
Native Serum stand-in	Compliance Oil
Quests	None

Screenshot comingmachine-rule-square

The jail square at dusk: rusted iron buildings with green copper roofs, sodium street lamps, an Automaton on patrol and a searchlight tower behind

What happens when you arrive

The Box opens on a square in front of a jailhouse, in a company town of rusted plate and green copper roofs on dark rolling plains. Nothing lives here but machines. Worker Automatons stamp and sort in the factories, a Company Clerk keeps the store, and armed Automatons walk the streets. By day the town ignores you. At dusk a siren sounds, and the rules change.

The rule: keep your record clean

The town keeps a record on you. You start at 10. If it falls below 0, the Automatons come for you ("Your record is long enough now. The Automatons are coming for you."). If it falls to -10 or lower, an Automaton's blow is an arrest. The towns forgive 3 points every dawn, back up to 10.

What you do	Record
Out under the open sky during curfew	-1 every 10 seconds
...while caught in a searchlight	-3 every 10 seconds
Hit an Automaton	-5 per blow
Hit a Worker Automaton or a Company Clerk	-3 per blow
Take the cell key from the warden's hook	-4
Give an Automaton 8 Copper Ingots (right-click it with them)	+5, once per Automaton per day, never above 10

A newcomer can stand out in the curfew for under two minutes before the Automatons turn.

The curfew

From dusk until just before dawn the town is under curfew. A siren starts it ("The siren. Curfew has begun: get under a roof."), the street lamps go dark lamp by lamp, the house windows light up, and searchlights on the watchtowers sweep the streets. A bell ends it at dawn.

Shelter means a roof of iron or copper over your head. That is: iron blocks, Machine Plating, the town's own plate and roofing blocks, and any copper block (whole, cut, chiseled, grates, bulbs, cut slabs and stairs, trapdoors), at any stage of weathering, waxed or not. Wood or stone over your head does not count. Doors and bars don't count.

Screenshot comingmachine-rule-searchlight

A searchlight beam sweeping a dark street during curfew, catching the player in the open

Ways around the rules

Trick	How it works
Forged Papers	Right-click to stamp them for tonight. Until dawn the curfew costs you nothing. The searchlights still light you up, but your record stays clean.
Plated armor disguise	A full set of Plated Helm, Plated Chestplate, Plated Greaves and Plated Sabatons makes Automatons ignore you until they are within 4 blocks. One already chasing you loses you once you get that far away.
Bribes	8 copper ingots handed to an Automaton buy back 5 points (once per Automaton per day).

Arrest and the jail

If your record is at -10 or worse and an Automaton lands a blow, you're arrested: "Arrested. Your things are in the evidence cage across the corridor, and your record is clean." You wake in a one-block cell in the nearest town's jail, and everything you carried is locked in a chest in the evidence cage across the corridor. Your record is reset to 10.

You have two ways out:

• Serve your time. Stay in the cell for one minute and the cell door and the evidence cage open ("Time served."). Each arrest or escape since dawn makes the next sentence longer, up to four times as long.
• Take the vent. The back wall of the cell is a Loose Vent Cover, with another behind it leading to the back lane. Get more than 24 blocks from your cell and you've escaped, but the siren sounds, every Automaton within 32 blocks marches on you, and any that sees you within 10 blocks before dawn arrests you again.

The Cell Key on the warden's hook in the jail office opens any cell door and the evidence cage (it costs 4 points to take, and a spare is hung back after two minutes).

Screenshot comingmachine-rule-cell

Inside the jail cell: barred cell door, the loose vent cover behind, and the evidence cage across the corridor

The company store

Company Clerks pay Company Scrip for labour and sell for it. Each clerk stocks 9 offers: the always-on ones plus a selection of the rest. Some need a good record.

You give	You get	Record needed
8 Copper Ingots	2 Company Scrip	any
16 Wheat	1 Company Scrip	any
2 Scrip	6 Bread	any
3 Scrip	1 Forge Ticket	any
4 Scrip	1 Compliance Oil	5
4 Iron Ingots	2 Scrip (some clerks)	any
12 Coal	1 Scrip (some)	any
10 Raw Copper	2 Scrip (some)	any
3 Scrip	4 Cooked Mutton (some)	any
3 Scrip	1 Lead Ingot (some)	any
5 Scrip	Plated Helm (some)	4
8 Scrip	Plated Chestplate (some)	4
7 Scrip	Plated Greaves (some)	4
4 Scrip	Plated Sabatons (some)	4
12 Scrip	Forged Papers (some)	6
10 Scrip	1 Tesseract Ingot (some)	10 (a spotless record)

The forge

Hand a Worker Automaton a piece of unenchanted armor while you carry 3 Forge Tickets. It plants its feet, hammers at the piece for five seconds with sparks flying, quenches it, and throws it back enchanted as at a full enchanting table. It won't work for troublemakers or escapees.

The Central Office and the Overseer

Every few towns, the jail square has the Central Office behind it. At the desk in front of the vault sits The Overseer: a gunmetal Automaton half again as tall as the others, with red eyes.

• It attacks anyone who walks into its office, whatever their record, and no disguise fools it.
• Its blows throw you into the air.
• At half health it calls in 2 Automatons, once.
• It drops the Cell Key, 24 Company Scrip and its papers.

The vault holds 12 to 32 scrip, plus Tesseract and Lead Ingots, Quantum Shards, Compliance Oil, Forged Papers, the odd diamond, and half the time a Serum Ampoule.

Screenshot comingmachine-rule-overseer

The Overseer rising from its desk in the Central Office, red eyes glowing, the vault door behind

Loot and what to bring home

Store chests in every workshop and depot hold copper, iron, redstone and iron nuggets, often a few scrip, sometimes Lead Ingots and now and then a Tesseract Ingot. They're under the town's roofs, so you can loot them during curfew without breaking it.

The town is built from a whole set of blocks you can mine and take home: Riveted Plate, Rust-Streaked Plate, Hazard Plate, Tread Plate, Corrugated Roofing, Iron Girder, Sodium Lamps, Searchlights and more. Make your own floor plating:

IIIICIIIII

➜4

Machine Plating (Crafting Table)

Serum and getting home

• The arrival Box's cache holds 2 Serum Ampoules.
• Native stand-in: Compliance Oil, what the Automatons drink. It goes into the Synthesizer in place of Somnium Powder. Buy it at the store for 4 scrip (record 5 or better), or find it in the Central Office vault.
• The vault may also hold a Serum Ampoule outright.

Tips

• Be under a metal roof before dusk. Wood and stone don't count. Carry a few copper blocks to roof any hole you're in.
• Buy a set of Forged Papers early; one stamp covers a whole night.
• If you are arrested, serve the minute. Escaping makes every Automaton hunt you until dawn and lengthens your next sentence.
• Bring copper ingots from home: they're scrip at the store and bribes on the street.
• Don't go into the Central Office unless you're ready for a boss fight.

Birds

Birds you can photograph for your bird log here. Open one to turn it round, watch it move and hear its call.

• Smokestack Swift: common
• Surveyor Raven: rare, dangerous

Everything this world adds

1 blocks and items (click to open)

Machine Plating

The traveler's tape

Every arrival Box has a chest by its door holding a cassette: the last traveler reading their journal of this world aloud. This is what they say. It gives a lot away.

Read the journal (spoilers)

The weathered Box opened on a square in front of a jailhouse, in a company town of rusted plate and green copper roofs where nothing lives but the Automatons. By day the workers stamp and sort in the factories and the clerk at the company store pays scrip for copper and wheat, and sells bread, oil, papers and plate for it. At dusk a siren sounds, the street lamps go out, the windows light up and the searchlights start to sweep, and every ten seconds out under the open sky counts against you, three times over in the beam. Strike an Automaton, or stay out too long, and they come for you; once your record is bad enough a blow from one of them is an arrest. I woke in a cell behind a barred door with my pockets empty and my things in a locked cage across the corridor. The guards let you out if you sit quietly long enough. The vent cover at the back of the cell was loose, but anyone who runs sets off the siren and is hunted until dawn, and every arrest since dawn makes the next sentence longer. The workers in the smithies will hammer an enchantment into a piece of armour for three forge tickets from the store. Things I learned: papers stamped for the night keep the record clean, a full suit of their plate fools them until they are close, they take eight copper ingots as a gift, and the Overseer in the Central Office takes nothing at all.