Took advantage of new screenshot ability in the production release to capture Master Level on all challenges, including the 2 new lines.
download/file.php?mode=view&id=2839
And, yes, I cheated, but probably not in the way you may think. Can I still claim “first” ? 
Do you ever sleep??
see:
"id":"insomnia",
"family":"relaxants",
and
“id”:“research_syringe_maker”,
“upgrades”:[
[{“floatValue”:{“id”:“syringeStrengthIncrease”,“change”:10}},{“floatValue”:{“id”:“syringeBonus”,“change”:4}}],
answer … “no”
Hey SCHMID6SIG, how do you feel about the sentiment presented in this post?
It’s also been posted on the Steam page’s review page and is currently at 127 of 178 (71%) as a negative review.
“the products your competitors will make are random” - I’m not sure that part is quite correct. AI’s chosen are random, but their approach is pre-determined (AFAIK). The rest on randomness is probably true.
Anyway, I cheated to get master level on all scenarios. so … “pffft”??? to SardaHD is more apropos in this thread?
Tim did have something in this production release about tweaking side effect and cure ranges… not sure if that was in SardaHD’s review.
Decided to post longer, less snarky, response to that post, not so much to dispute that opinion,
but to highlight/discuss how I think the game actually works.
For clarification, a “scenario” (other than Tutorials) has 5 “challenges”, i.e. scenario:“beginner” has challenges:
“bottomLine”,“lostMyAppetite”, “gameOfMargins”,“kingOfTheNonPrescriptions” ,“threeMagicNumber”
Most things discussed in the post are set by scenario (in the, yep, “scenarios.data” file) and are true for all 5 challenges in a scenario.
IDK that this is particularly true. The LAYOUT is random (set by selecting from building types I believe),
but the # of ports is fairly regular and the total space is pretty consitent, in my experince.
Does layout affect play? - sure, but with creativity I'm not sure this is a HUGE factor.
Sort of. The scenario sets how many drugs you start with, as well as the # of effects (broken into 'tiers') and the level of
catalyst possible. It also sets how far the starting concentration can be from the "active range".
In general the scenarios are set so that the later drugs have more effects (and will have all 3 at the end) and have the higher
level catalysts.
So, its sort of randomized, but within a pre-determined range of # effects and level of catalyst.
For the data-driven people, here is an exampe of ingredients set in scenarios.data which I don't understand completely,
but I think it is something like:
1st 4 are forest ingredients w/ no catalyst and 1 side effect.
next 3 are also forest, i think w/ up to 2 effects and maybe cat2, cat3, cat4 possible
next 4 are desert, i think w/ up to 4 effects and maybe cat2, cat3, cat4, cat5 possible
next 3 are arctic, i think w/ up to 2 effects and maybe cat4, cat5 , cat 6 will be included
{"type":"forest","n":4,"catalysts":[],"minSideEffects":1,"extraSideEffects":0,"maxConcAway":2,"noCatalystReq":2,"projectSizes":[1,1,1,1]},
{"type":"forest","n":3,"catalysts":[2,1],"minSideEffects":1,"extraSideEffects":1,"maxConcAway":2,"projectSizes":[2,2,3]},
{"type":"desert","n":4,"catalysts":[1,1,1],"minSideEffects":1,"extraSideEffects":3,"maxConcAway":3,"projectSizes":[2,2,3,4]},
{"type":"arctic","n":3,"catalysts":[1,1,1,1],"minSideEffects":1,"extraSideEffects":1,"maxConcAway":4,"projectSizes":[3,4,5]}
I think this might be true. If it is set somewhere, I couldn't find it.
For some ingredient-specific challenges (lostMyAppetite, kingOfTheNonPrescriptions, calmingDown, etc. )
it might be problematic,
but I guess I just soldier on, trying to make $ and keep ahead of AI until I find what's needed.
Think there are only 5 (non-tutorial) scenarios that depend on "cure suplied". Could argue that some higher $ margin
scenarios are made easier by certain ingredients.
I'm not very clear on this TBH. The AI files appear to show each researching items in different order
(though most will go for agglomerator and ionizer 1st, the later machines differ) - which could
affect higher level cures an AI makes. They explore ingredients in a different order as well.
In a vlog a month or so ago, Tim talked about re-doing AI so that I think they sort of follow what the
player COULD have gotten - meaning maybe the same ingredients POSSIBLE is used. In my play they usually
discover/produce drugs in more or less the same order as me, but not exactly.
NOTE: I should play w/ "industrial espionage" more to verify this.
Not true. The research items unlocked (or even available to be discoverd, i.e. not disabled) are pre-determined.
The building plot size and # AI's are also set (as well as AI "agressiveness").
Somewhat similar for drug ingredients - some areas are disabeld at time (like deep ocean)
The shortest time for Master I can find are a few at 4 years, still pretty long (IMO) and most are longer.
I wish a particular challenge had been listed. I haven’t really run into this yet, but admit I’ve only re-played some challenges since the production release.
Again - saraHD can have his/her own opinion. I’m just not as frustrated by what randomness I’ve seen, and I don’t think it is as random as that post indicated.