Category: Games

  • Satisfactory: Design Iteration

    A few posts back I wrote about my adaptation of TotalXclipse’s diluted packaged fuel power plant, including the blueprinted apparatus I came up with based (somewhat) on his design. In the co-op game with my coworkers I built another version of the blueprint with only slight variation. In anticipation of the next diluted packaged fuel power build (in the weekly co-op game with the kids) I figured I’d give it one more try.

    Satisfactory video game screenshot: The "hologram" of a blueprinted factory segment in the process of being placed into the game world.

    I won’t know until after our next session but I think I may have just nailed it.

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  • Satisfactory: Faze Three (Again)

    There’s a specific cadence to playing through a new Satisfactory save. You build some power infrastructure to meet the current shipment phase’s needs, you unlock milestones to allow you to build the factories to make the materials to meet the current shipment phase’s needs, and eventually you run out of anything else to do but… get the phase shipment sent up to the orbital platform. I’ve arrived at that third step in the waltz once again: It’s time to send up the third space elevator shipment.

    Of course, having done this a few times now, I couldn’t let myself just piecemeal the process as I’ve done in (most) previous saves. (“New Clear Plan” is an outlier adn should not be counted.) Not this time around. Go big or go home, right? And FICSIT Inc. isn’t sending a shuttle to let me go back home any time soon, which narrows my options somewhat.

    Screenshot of a very complex flowchart depicting various source materials being turned into various things to produce three particular end products. It's a barely-comprehensible mess unless you're a dozen hundred hours into Satisfactory like I am.
    And this is AFTER I added the copper products as “inputs” to Tools’ production plotter.

    This may be a while.

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  • Satisfactory: Fully Walkable

    It’s only taken me a few years of playing this game but I finally accomplished one of my goals: Making a big factory that’s fully walkable. No jumping or crouch-sliding is required to navigate my new Heavy Modular Frame production site.

    Satisfactory video game screenshot: An aerial view of a large, bulky factory structure consisting of two factory machine floors each with a logistics floor beneath. At the nearest corner is a personnel elevator for ease of access to the various workspaces. Some design elements are in place but the building remains visually unfinished for the time being (awaiting later design pieces).
    It’s operational but not actually finished, as there’s a LOT more decorative work pending the availability of the Hoverpack.

    To aid navigation, this factory even includes an elevator. Ooooh, neat!

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  • Satisfactory: Train In Vain

    One of my favorite milestones in any new Satisfactory save is the one which unlocks trains. I’ve quipped before that this game is a fun train simulator with a factory management system attached. This time, given certain of my goals for the save, I decided to really hunker down and use blueprints not only for the single flat and various flat and angled dual-carriageway pieces but also for the roundabouts. So far everything looks great!

    Satisfactory video game screenshot: The Pioneer looks down at a single engine, two freight car train that is folded back upon itself in a way that traditional physics suggests shouldn't be possible.
    Well that just ain’t right.

    Too bad about the junction bug, though.

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  • Satisfactory: Diluted About It

    The Youtuber who goes by “TotalXclipse” posted a useful video recently about how to get 4x the generators out of a given amount of Crude Oil compared to using default recipes. Which is to say, normally your 300m3/min extracted oil ends up powering 10 Fuel-powered Generators. By adding a fair chunk of additional hardware (and unlocking two key alternate recipes) you can get that headcount up to 40 instead.

    Satisfactory video game screenshot: Aerial view of the Diluted Packaged Fuel power facility, from the Heavy Oil Residue refinery section to the Packaged Diluted Fuel creation/extraction section full of refineries and packagers, on to the water extractors providing the H2O to make the magic happen. Not shown: 40 generators being fed by all of this.
    This in-progress view shows the nearly-complete facility, it’s just missing the other fluid buffer and 20 more fuel generators. (The first 20 are mostly out of frame below the camera’s viewpoint.)

    So after years of playing this game and knowing that “everyone says” the Diluted Packaged Fuel alternate recipe is the key to great power (great responsibility is optional) and armed with a fresh how-to, I decided to give it a try.

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  • Satisfactory: The Long Recon

    In the span of a week I went from “just barely making steel beams and pipes” to “just barely making plastic and rubber.” Which doesn’t sound particularly impressive, I admit. Let me put it another way: I went from building my first coal-power generator facility to being on the verge of building my first fuel-powered generator facility… in one week.

    Satisfactory video game screenshot: The player stands next to the Hub (home base) structure, which now sits atop a simple storage building with walkways, a door, and some basic signs to serve as reminders of the next required task.
    In all the solo saves I’ve played so far, this is only the second time I’ve ever moved the Hub after initial placement at the very start of the game. Currently the MAM, a storage container, and the Equipment Workshop are tucked away inside the little building. I think I’ll expand this further once I have all the architecture bits unlocked.

    Among other things. Let’s get this progress post under way!

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