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Consider a pattern that has some complicated mechanism X in the SE and a single block in the NW. X shoots a salvo A that interacts with the block and produces a SE-heading glider C. This salvo may optionally move the block along the \ diagonal.
Then X immediately starts to shoot salvos B that push the block NW. These salvos should not interact with glider C.
When glider C reaches X, X stops producing salvos B, produces one salvo A or a slight variation of it, and goes quiescent. Some time later, the glider created by this salvo A reaches X, and everything starts all over again.
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Big questions:
- Does the expansion factor really come arbitrarily close to 1 as the distance between salvos B is increased? I am quite sure this is the case, but please confirm this by doing your own calculations.
- Activation and deactivation of X are very different tasks. How can a glider do one or the other depending on which one is needed at the moment?
- Should we opt for single-lane salvos?