From Single Machine to Superintelligence

• February 15, 2025
• 735 words
• 4 min

Progression in Botnet of Ares is defined by increasing Ares' computational power, unlocking different types of machines to exploit & gaining the ability to exploit more machines simultaneously.

The core of all incremental games is the progression system. Players experience a sense of accomplishment as they see numbers increase, unlock upgrades, or achieve milestones. In Botnet of Ares, the player starts with one single Machine with a very measly output.

The Research Tree

Ares itself can be upgraded in several ways through the Research Tree. The Serial line of upgrades doubles the speed of each Ares thread, while the Parallel line of upgrades doubles the number of Threads available to Ares. The Research Tree also lets the player unlock additional Exploit Slots, which allows different types of devices to be exploited at the same time.

The cost of these upgrades grows exponentially as you progress through the game - at a higher rate than Ares itself is growing. Additionally, the Parallel & Exploits upgrades massively increase in parallelism, making it impractical for Ares alone to unlock these upgrades.

Exploits

Exploits are how Ares grows their botnet over time. These are special Tasks that grant various temporary Machines upon completion. The cost of these Tasks grows with the number of exploited Machines, and after a certain point diminishing returns kick in, reducing the marginal value of each exploited machine as you get more and more of them.

This means that all Exploits have a certain point where they are at peak effectiveness, and a point later on where they are not particularly worth using due to the diminishing returns. However, Exploits can still be useful past the point of diminishing returns due to the ratio of input to output threads - Exploits with many weak threads can massively amplify throughput, while powerful low Thr exploits are able to concentrate the output of many otherwise weak Threads.

Exploits are generally balanced to amplify the Throughput that is assigned to exploiting them. This makes unlocking new exploits & exploit slots quite powerful - especially if the exploit can concentrate or amplify compute throughout your botnet in order to unlock new upgrades.

At the moment, Exploits are unlocked through the research tree as well. However, recently I've been experimenting with a drafting mechanic for unlocking new Exploits, which grants them to you as you progress through the game. While it slows down the progression a little bit, I think it makes the game much more fun as the player needs to adapt on the fly, and do the best they can with the exploits they have available.

Note that the GUI for drafting Exploits is still very much work in progress - the final GUI will show much more detail about the exploit you are unlocking before you pick it.

Conclusion

By combining upgrades to Ares, exploits slots & by exploiting the correct machines, the player is able to create incredible botnets, featuring both incredibly powerful threads & massive throughput amplification.