Conversion rules question

[jaketheyak]

I don't want to post a bug report until I have clarity of whether it's actually a rules issue.

In a couple of games I have built long chain reactions of converters & in both I have received an error message something like:

This is a yellow gizmo, you can't build it with 1 red energy.

This is when the energy cost has been reached, so it's not that I don't have enough yellow energy. What I think the issue might be, however, is that by increasing the amount of red energy I have I think I have ended up with a total of, say 6 yellow (the cost of the gizmo) and 1 red energy in the output of the converters.

My assumption based on the rules as written would be that this "leftover" red energy is irrelevant & I would just ignore it. But I suspect the BGA implementation is treating this as me trying to pay 6 yellow & 1 red for a card that costs 6 yellow & therefore it's throwing up this error.

My question is whether this is the correct implementation of the rules or if it is a bug. When I have completed my converter chain reaction do I have to be left with the exact cost of the gizmo? Is this what is causing the error? It's has prevented some key plays in very close matches.

Anyway, I love the game!

[fruktansvärt]

I do find the conversion UI somewhat confusing. But as I understand it, you're not allowed to convert to a color you don't need for the current build.
If all you need is 1 additional yellow (you already have 5), then you're not allowed to convert 1 red to 2 red, and then 1 red to 1 yellow (leaving 1 leftover red). You must only convert the 1 red to 1 yellow, you cannot sneak in an extra conversion so you get the leftover red.

[excalabur]

AIUI you can only generate "virtual" marbles with converters, not real ones. You can't just randomly make marbles of "off colours" as a result"; it's never required to (optimally) use up your existing energy.

[Fletcheese]

My assumption based on the rules as written would be that this "leftover" red energy is irrelevant & I would just ignore it. But I suspect the BGA implementation is treating this as me trying to pay 6 yellow & 1 red for a card that costs 6 yellow & therefore it's throwing up this error.

My question is whether this is the correct implementation of the rules or if it is a bug. When I have completed my converter chain reaction do I have to be left with the exact cost of the gizmo? Is this what is causing the error? It's has prevented some key plays in very close matches.

I can confirm that your assumption is correct. It is written into the rules of the game that you cannot overspend energy when building. That includes the "temporary" energies from converting. You should simply deactivate one of your converters or deselect an energy to avoid overspending.

That being said I could see improving the conversion UI in some way, but I'm not entirely sure what that would look like.