I don't think your link works, but I found it here. Very interesting. It runs much faster in Golly than Gemini.
I find it kind of hard to see the action. I tried watching a reflector at a fast enough speed to make progress (8^5), and but it's too fast to see when it's destroyed. It just disappears. One thing I like about Gemini is the deathstar-like construction of its copy. It's in no hurry. Time is on its side. But I guess in loopship, the gliders are the brain and the stationary parts can be built and erased very fast [edit: actually building takes many steps]. I need to think about that a little more. If I can figure out where it will build the next reflector, then it should be interesting to watch it happen.
And yes, I'm years behind on all this as I might have told you already. Giant constructor-based patterns never interested me much except to know they exist, since I don't have anything to contribute. Recently, though, I took another look while preparing a "show and tell" for coworkers and wanted to highlight new(ish) discoveries. Gemini is both very impressive and possible to explain without too much background. Loopship would have been tough.
Added: Now I see! Corderships. My Golly skills are fairly primitive, so to find this, i needed to watch for an elbow to appear. Zoom in. Memorize the coordinates, then restart the pattern and watch very carefully. I had assumed there was a glider collision to set up a stationary seed and wondered why LifeHistory showed no trace of a glider along an intersecting path.
Code: Select all
x = 106, y = 84, rule = B3/S23
5$bo$2bo$3o10$84b2o$84b2o7$92b2o$92b2o3$80b3o$80bobo$80bo2bo$81b3o$81b
3o$79bo2bo$82bo$79bo15b3o$94b4o$81bo12bo3bo$81bo12b2obo$79bo2bo11b2obo
$80b3o13bo$73bo6bobo$71bo2bo6b2o$71bo3bo20bobo$70bo4bo20bo2bo$70bo3b2o
20bobo$71bo2bo$72b2o$55b3o$48b2o4bo2bo$47bo2bo3bo3bo15bo$45bo4bo2bo4bo
13b2ob2o$44b6o4bobob2o14bo$43b2obo10bo$37bo2b2o2bobo15b2o$36bo8b2o15b
2o$36bo4bo$36bob2o15bobo$37b2o11b3o3bo$50bobo$50bo2bo$51b3o$51b3o$49bo
2bo$52bo$49bo15b3o$42b2o20b4o$42b2o7bo12bo3bo$51bo12b2obo$49bo2bo11b2o
bo$50b3o13bo$50bobo$51b2o$66bobo$66bo2bo$66bobo!