I sent the Phase 3 materials shipment up the Space Elevator a few play sessions ago. So, how has my overall approach to this new save (the “New Clear Plan”) gone so far?
In short: A qualified success.
In long: Well, let’s dig into that…
(more…)Category: Media
This is a container category for media reviews and related drivel.
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Satisfactory – Phactory Phase 3
There’s a neat light show when you send the Space Elevator up, but capturing the best single instant in a screenshot is too tricky for my skills. -
The Power of Organization
Some people use letters or numbers, others use colored stickers (we in fact did that for the boxes), but for keeping track of which shelves and which sets of shelving pegs belong with what bookshelf, Vyx broke out the washi tape. During the preparation for moving day, she used one roll of washi tape for each individual bookshelf, then stuck a strip of tape from that specific roll onto:
- The bookshelf unit
- Each shelf from that unit
- The bag containing the shelving pegs taken from that unit
You might wonder why she went to all that trouble, but not all of our shelves were purchased from the same store or during the same timeframe. Even from year to year, Ikea’s bookshelf line can change somewhat. (Sometimes.) And not all of our shelves came from Ikea. (Most, yes, but not all.) All of this means that “just grab a couple of the black shelves” won’t guarantee that they’re the right fit for a given unit. Best to keep ’em organized.
Which wouldn’t be a problem but we have a lot of dingdanged bookshelves (and bookshelf-adjacent units, like my CD/DVD shelves). There are eight in the office alone, plus several more in Vyx’s bedroom, plus at least four in the living room. I might even be forgetting one or two somewhere.
During my lunch break I wanted to get one more of the office bookshelves squared away, so I looked at the washi tape stuck under the top of the shelf unit so I’d know what to go grab from the supplies stacked downstairs… then realized I probably wouldn’t remember by the time I got down to those stacked supplies from the office upstairs. So I did the purely logical thing:
No, I will never have a career as a hand model. I peeled the tape off of the shelf unit itself and stuck it to the back of my hand as a… well, handy reference while I looked for the correct shelves and pegs. Simple, practical, and since washi tape comes off very easily it wasn’t even painful.
And now, yet another shelf awaits its allotment of reading material.
This will probably be filled with manga… eventually. Not right now. I’m too tired. We have so much yet to do, but progress is progress nonetheless.
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Satisfactory: Roundabout Mk2
So there I was, building a rail line through the jungle, when I reached a point on the map at which it made sense to place a roundabout. As I started in on the build process I’ve used a couple dozen times now (type ’roundabout’ into the search field to see other posts about the development of this process) I realized that the requirements of the approach and exit placement weren’t going to fit the location. I needed an alternative.
At middle right you can see the connected approach line from the north, but getting that to bear right into the westbound exit was going to be a nightmare. Never mind joining up the northbound exit, the stub for which is shown at lower right. At first I thought of doing a criss-cross interchange but I prefer having the option of letting a train loop back around if necessary at every one of these intersections. Still, I figured that an interchange would probably fit this particular location better than a roundabout so I went looking for information on how best to build one.
I didn’t find that. Instead, I found guidance on how to build a different style of roundabout, approaching it as more of a modified diamond than a rounded square. The difference is largely academic in the long run, but the practice of building it is definitely trickier.
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Satisfactory: Progress Without Progress
Here’s a summary of how today’s hours upon hours of Satisfactory went for me, in order to illustrate how sometimes you move forward by moving sideways… a lot.
Please enjoy this view from hundreds of meters above sea level as I descend from a very, very high drop pod crash site. My hands were sweaty the entire time, yes, thankyouverymuch. I can’t progress further in the game without clearing Phase 3, which means I need to make Modular Engines and Automated Wiring to feed to the Space Elevator.
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Satisfactory: Oilands Ho!
As previously noted, this new save sees me starting out where most brand new players start (yet I never have): The southwestern grassy starting field. It has upsides and drawbacks, all of which I took into account before making my fateful, game-changing decision.
(Okay, there’s one upside I didn’t think entirely through beforehand. I’ll get to that.)
Along the west coast of the game map (Satisfactory uses a fixed game map, it’s the same for everyone for every play through) one finds the second best concentration of crude oil in the game. I know there’s an official, agreed-upon term for the site but I’ve always called it The Oilands.
I have built a plastic-and-rubber factory on that particular crude oil node at least three times before. I think I have the hang of it by this point. Islands, with oil, get it? Of course you do, and you wish you’d thought of it first.
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Satisfactory: Early Permanence
The primary guiding principle of the “New Clear Plan” save is of building production for the Phase X space elevator shipments on a much more permanent basis than I’ve done in previous saves, solo and co-op alike.
Phase 1, the very first shipment, requires 50 Smart Plates. There’s no point building a special facility just to make those. That’s more work than one lonely Assembler deserves and at that early stage you lack nearly all of the tools required to make a good-sized structure workable. So, that one got a pass.
Please enjoy this glaring (ahem) example of how pretentious I can be about screenshots in this game. I offer it in lieu of any shots of the factory I’m actually writing about, which looks like a complete mess right now. Thank you for your patience. I’m at Phase 2 right now.
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