Category: Games

Satisfactory: The Flowchart

I’ve reached endgame for my “ChooChooingScenery” game of Satisfactory, the point where I gear up to send off the final Space Elevator shipment consisting of four products: Assembly Director Systems, Magnetic Field Generators, Nuclear Pasta (which, despite its name, contains zero radioactive source material), and Thermal Propulsion Rockets.

The math is all sorted out, source materials (almost) entirely in production, and I have a vague notion that I’m going to build a gigantic factory in the “dune desert” to house this last great project. But I want to make it nice and neat for a change. I want to build a set of machines that not only fit together well but looks good doing it.

And I can’t do that if I’m not absolutely clear on the exact order of what things I need to go into which other things to make the next things.
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30 July, 2023
Satisfactory: A Tale Of Two Factories

It was the jankiest of builds, it was the jankiest of builds.

Sorry, Charles Dickens, but in this case repeating myself is the most accurate way to start.

This past Tuesday evening, the kids and I finished up the “Tier 8 Products” factory build. Which is to say, we’ve now automated the final three requirements for the final milestone unlock: Turbomotors, Fused Modular Frames, and Cooling Systems. (Electromagnetic Control Rods are built elsewhere for various reasons.) I noted in voice chat at the end of the session that our co-op build was vastly more efficient and elegant than my personal version of this same (basic) factory had turned out. Spud found this amusing, as he sees our version as being quite “full of the jank.” Which isn’t wrong, but there’s janky and there’s janky.

Please allow me to illustrate.

Yes, it “needs” supports underneath. We’ll get there some day. There’s beautification to be done all over this co-op map.
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23 July, 2023
Satisfactory – Harnessing The Atom

If you’re going to play around with nuclear fission, it’s probably best to do so on a distant planet where (almost) zero humans are endangered by your efforts.

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25 June, 2023
Satisfactory – Rail Tour Video

I put this together last weekend and eventually remembered that I should post it here:

Please enjoy 18 minutes of a train moving along train tracks through video game scenery.

Note that the rail network shown in this video is far from complete. There’s the planned nuclear power site along the north coast of the Rocky Desert region yet to build, never mind the expansion into the Dune Desert and south from the Oilands. But if I waited until I was “done” building new rail segments in this game, I’d never get a video made at all. So, here we are.

As a learning experience, making this video also taught me a simpler way to “slide” text on the screen in Davinci Resolve than I’d used previously, cutting the production time on this one down considerably from what I originally expected. I’m not 100% happy with the look of the text itself, however. I think it needed more contrast on the edges to avoid readability issues on complex backgrounds.

Anyway! Until next time!

10 June, 2023
The State of the Gamer in Mid 2023

I’ve had zero creative energy this year so most of my spare time is spent watching documentaries (CuriosityStream and Nebula and PBS for the win), listening to music, and playing games. Quite a bit of playing games.

But not a whole lot of games. Just a few.
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30 May, 2023
Satisfactory – Right Turn, Clyde

I wonder if anyone is going to clock that reference. Hmm.

At any rate, I said a few days ago that I intended to come back once I had the process worked out for right-turn bypasses at railway roundabouts in Satisfactory. The idea being that there’s no point in sending the train through 270 degrees of cornering and eating up all pathway vectors if all it needs to do is “hang a right at the junction.” Minimizing the time spent in the roundabout block is good for any train which needs to utilize it.

Let’s show off the finished product right at the start. Including the slightly janky bit just back from the center caused by (once again) siting the roundabout too close to my paired support pillars.

So here’s how I make that happen, more or less. (Circumstances sometimes require some creative fudging. That’s the game in a nutshell though, isn’t it?)
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25 May, 2023