User:Melwin22/Castles/random patterns

Diehards, methuselahs and other stuff.

Diehards

Not counting fuses, the longest-lasting object I found that leaves nothing behind is the pumpkin. It reaches a maximum population of 110 and dies after 596 generations. Almost any solid object with population above 100 turns into a proper castle, and exceptions like the pumpkin are very rare.

x = 6, y = 6, rule = B3678/S135678 3b2o$2b2o$6o$2o2b2o$6o$6o! #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]]

(click above to open LifeViewer)

L	Name	BB	MCPS	I	F	L/I	F/I	F/L	L/MCPS
596	Pumpkin	6 × 6	26	26	0	22.9	0	0	22.9

Pentaselah

Five cells are enough to make something interesting happen. This tiny pattern becomes a large, symmetrical castle with no chambers. In generation 1 it has six live cells, but a smaller bounding box, only 3x3.

x = 4, y = 4, rule = B3678/S135678 bo$2obo2$bo! #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]]

(click above to open LifeViewer)

L	Name	BB	MCPS	I	F	L/I	F/I	F/L	L/MCPS
6221	Pentaselah	4 × 4	6	5	48753	1244.2	9750.6	7.837	1036.8

F refers here to the population in generation 6221, when everything settles down into periodic oscillations. The largest population ever reached is 48779, and in its final form, pentaselah is technically an oscillator with period 7392, although this number is simply a multiple of periods of all wall defenders (32 for flag bearer, 11 for rubble, 7 for half-ballista, 3 for bird's nest).

Pentaselah + other objects

Combined with other patterns, pentaselah can react in various ways, which can be used to synthesize more complex objects. For example, a reaction with a single duoplet can create a p24 pulsating eye or a p42 butterfly.

x = 44, y = 60, rule = B3678/S135678 30b2o$12bo17b2o$13bo19bo$15bo16b2obo$14b2obo$33bo$15bo5$bo$2obo$39bo$b o21b2o13b2obo$21bo$20b2obo15bo$7bo$6bo14bo2bo14b2o$23bo6$bo36bo$2obo 16bo3bo12b2obo$6bo12b2obo2bo$bo4bo31bo$5bo14bo2$19bo$20bo17b2o$38b2o4$ 7bo$6b2obo11bo13b2o$20b2obo$7bo30bo3bo$21bo15b2obobo2$20b2o16bo$5bo$4b o5$2bo32bo$b2obo29b2obo$19bo$2bo15b2obo13bo$9bo13bo$8bo10bo2bo2$6bo$5b o36bo$43bo! #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]]

(click above to open LifeViewer)

More of such reactions are shown here.

Monstrosity

Castles are not an explosive rule, although sometimes it really looks like the chaotic growth doesn't end. The best example of such growth is what I call the "monstrosity". Perturbing evolution of a pentaselah in just the right way results in a greatly extended lifespan and greatly embiggened final pattern.

x = 11, y = 14, rule = B3678/S135678 10bo$10bo9$2bo$ob2o2$2bo! #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]]

(click above to open LifeViewer)

L	Name	BB	MCPS	I	F	L/I	F/I	F/L	L/MCPS
84981	Monstrosity	11 × 14	16	7	2578423	12140.1	368346.1	30.341	5311.3

Again, F refers to the population in generation 84981, when everything settles down into periodic oscillations. The largest population ever reached is 2578474.

Monstrosity has a total of 927 wall defenders (see the census) and 59 chambers, ranging from anti-blocks (14 instances) and anti-ponds (7 instances) to the enormous central chamber, which has an area of over 107k cells. This chamber is over twice as big as the original pentuselah, but unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a way to fit it inside.

Evolution of the monstrosity takes so long that it's useful to write out some interesting phases.

Generation	Description
0	Smallest population of 7, and smallest MCPS of 16 (equaled in gen 3).
1	Smallest bounding box of 10 × 13 (equaled in gen 5, 6 and 7).
25	Population is equal to the generation number (happens again in gen 31, 33 and 174).
121	Population reaches 100.
125	Last generation when population is smaller than generation number.
366	Pentaselah sequence hits the domino and stops being symmetrical.
702	Population reaches 1k.
723	Last generation in which there is an empty cell inside the original 11 × 14 bounding box.
2238	Population reaches 10k.
2894	First chamber forms.
5047	Final population of the unaltered pentaselah is reached, 1174 generations earlier than normal.
7362	Population reaches 100k. At this point the pattern grows in almost all directions and looks very similar to a typical blob in explosive rules.
12473	Third chamber forms, much bigger than previous two.
28738	Southern side of the pattern stabilizes.
30932	A giant chamber, ultimately second in terms of area, is formed.
31839	Population reaches 1M.
32971	A diagonal wickstretcher appears.
34360	Wickstretcher is destroyed.
≈37420	A different kind of a diagonal wickstretcher appears.
≈39230	Second wickstretcher is destroyed.
49541	Main chamber is closed off.
53304	Main chamber stabilizes. Growth now happens only on the northern side of the pattern.
60187	Population reaches 2M.
82190	North-east corner stabilizes.
84981	North-west corner stabilizes.