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Looking For Quacks In The Pavement

  • The Joys of Starting Kicks

    “Hey, that video channel I like is making a calendar for next year,” I thought, back in August of last year. “I should throw some money at that.” The estimated shipping date was November, that’d be plenty of time (even accounting for the holiday shipping rush) to make it here in time for 2026, right?

    Hmm. So, about that.

    November came and went, no shipping news. December came and a week or so in, backers received a “shipping soon” message. Another week or so after that we received a “shipping is happening” notification. On the 30th, the project told everyone that “shipping is complete.”

    Huh. Well, that’s funny, because a bunch of us never got our promised packages. Or even tracking info. Grumpy comments accumulated on the Kickstarter project notifications.

    Come January 2nd, they posted a “whoopsy-daisy” message: A “small percentage (between 5-7%)” of backers’ shipments just… didn’t. Communication issue of some sort, apparently. We were told we’d have tracking info by Monday the 5th. My calendar arrived, intact (thank goodness), on the 6th. Never did get a tracking number but I guess that’s irrelevant now.

    That’s the “fun” of crowdfunded goodies: You place your bets and you take your chances. It’s a great-looking calendar, at least.

    [edit, 1pm the day of posting – The ticket I opened on Dec 31 asking “where’s my tracking info” received a response… a few minutes ago, saying “looks like it was delivered.” Yes, thanks so very much, that’s great.]

  • Satisfactory: Rocket Fool

    Post tagged:

    When I left things off last week I was on the verge of actually beginning construction on a Rocket Fuel power plant, with a bonus bit of Smokeless Powder production so I can get a munitions factory going elsewhere.

    As of last night I do, indeed, have an operational Rocket Fuel power plant. Just… not the one I started out building, at the location I started building upon.

    Here you can see my experiments both with building design elements and the game’s photo mode.

    Let me try to explain.

    (more…)

  • So Long To Twenty Twenty Five

    I spent several days over the last few weeks ruminating on what to write about the year gone past. Music? Didn’t really buy much. Shows? Didn’t watch very many, and the only one of note I already wrote about. Games? Mostly the same games I’d been playing, or the return of really old games I’d given up years prior. Movies? A few, they were okay I guess.

    Life wasn’t even that bad, honestly. My health’s fine, work’s fine, home life is fine. But the oppressive pall hanging over every waking moment? That’s nowhere near fine.

    And so, I shall leave this year with the following heartfelt (yet delightful) image, courtesy of the cast (and presumably crew) of one of my all-time favorite TV shows.

    Most of the principal actors of the TV show, Babylon 5, in costume and flipping the bird directly at the camera.
    Let’s enjoy the visual and pointedly not think about exactly how many of those pictured above are still with us today.

    For the sake of us all I hope that ’26 treats us better. Maybe we could get a crab rave or two, as a treat.

  • Satisfactory: A Grounded Approach To Rail

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    “The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don’t,” reads a great line from Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I wonder what he’d have made of Satisfactory, a video game firmly in the realm of science fiction that also doesn’t mind if you pin foundation tiles, pieces of equipment, or even entire megafactories in the air with no physical tether to the world’s surface. And yet, I can’t bring myself to build factories or even run train lines high up in empty air just to avoid the frustrations that come with working on the bumpy, obstacle-strewn chunk of real estate that is our assigned patch of the planet designated MASSAGE-2(A-B)b. Something about leaving things hovering in the air bothers my brain.

    Building a Rocket Fuel plant here is going to be… “interesting.”

    Dealing with that can indeed be frustrating, though.

    (more…)

  • Satisfactory: Merry FICSMAS

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    This evening I got my 500 Wonder Stars and turned them into a big golden tree-topper for the big gaudy holiday tree, then spent a bit more time on decorating the event factory. I’ve more decorating to do yet but not until after I get the fireworks production lines going. My goal is to have everything buttoned up by some time on Christmas itself.

    Satisfactory video game screenshot: The Pioneer posing exuberantly above a sign reading "FICSMAS-LAND", with a smaller sign off to the side reading "(too)". Off to the side a bit, a very large decorative holiday tree pokes through the roof of the factory building.
    One of these days I’ll get the hang of placing my Pioneer in these photo-mode screenshots. Today is not that day.

    Keeping it short this week. I did get my aluminum production under way a couple days ago and just today unlocked Turbofuel so you can guess my next project(s): A big chunky Turbofuel (and Packaged Turbofuel) power plant followed by setting up for the impending drone fleet (hence the Packaged Turbofuel, a placeholder until I can power my drones with radioactive fuel rods of course).

    Happy holidays, everyone.

  • Satisfactory: Hoverpack Bestpack

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    Most of this week’s game time went into:

    1. FICSMASland Too, which is (as of midday today) completely operational and simply awaits decorating
    2. Building a rail line northward from the Oilands into the Rocky Desert, then east & up the long earthen ramp to the Crater Lakes area, then up a bit more elevation to get at all the lovely bauxite in the Bamboo Forest
    3. Reveling in having the Hoverpack unlocked in this save

    Let’s have a quick chat about the various methods this game gives you to prevent becoming a Pioneer-shaped smear on the planetary surface when descending from great heights (on purpose or on accident).

    The decorations are only barely started. I’m quite pleased with how this window setup turned out.

    You only get a few choices, and each an area in which it can shine.

    (more…)

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