Author: Karel Kerezman

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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31 January, 2024
Another Moving Adventure Begins

I didn’t want to say anything here when we put in the application, because we might have been passed over. I didn’t want to say anything until the lease was signed because something could still have gone wrong. Now that the property management company has a bucketload of my money, however, and I’ve started arranging utilities and whatnot, I guess I can say:

We’re moving into a house some time in the next month or so!
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27 January, 2024
What Percent Complete?

I cannot believe, some days, that we as a society have allowed Microsoft to get away with this for years upon years without rising up, grabbing torches & pitchforks, and marching upon Redmond Washington in pure rage.

“This”? This:

This image courtesy of the [cuss]ing piece of [cuss] server that we’ve spent the last few working days trying to get to perform reasonably again after it went haywire starting last month.

One hundred percent complete means it’s done. It most assuredly does not mean “now wait for another two, ten, or up to thirty more minutes.” Except to Microsoft, obviously.

23 January, 2024
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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22 January, 2024
Hello From Below Freezing

Lovely weather we’re having lately, isn’t it? #pdxtst

By Friday night we dipped below freezing. By Saturday morning it was 20F, by Saturday night we were parked at 16F and the ground was covered in a mix of wind-blown snow and sleet. And that wind was gusting!

As of this writing (noon on Tuesday the 16th of January 2024) we’re right at 30F outside (thank you, Newentor Q7 weather station) with freezing rain expected to kick in over the next few hours. Presumably some time tomorrow we’ll get back above freezing again… for the first time in most of an entire week.

This isn’t the kind of winter we’re used to around here. Gee, thanks, global warming for screwing up the jet stream and enabling “polar vortex” events to become an annual feature of wintertime rather than a weird, rare weather event.

I just want to make it to the grocery store before the weekend, at this point. My needs are modest, but needs they still are.

16 January, 2024
Satisfactory: Clearing That First Hurdle

Someone on Discord gave me a great piece of advice for starting a new Satisfactory save. After I mentioned wanting to wait until after the FICSMAS event ended to kick off my new session, they said: Start now in order to grab the “advent calendar” goodies from the Hub, because some of those are required to open a few of the crashed drop pods strewn around the map.

And so, last Sunday, I did.

Nice pristine planet you’ve got here. Be a shame if a whole bunch of industrial development happened to it.

I’m a week into my new save (titled “New Clear Plan”) with fewer than 9 hours of in-game time so far. To show for it I have sent up the Phase 1 space elevator shipment, transitioned from biofuel to coal power, and unlocked steel production. I can attribute part of this (relatively) speedy progress to having three previous solo and several co-op games’ worth of practice time under my belt. Also, I credit some decisions and techniques specifically chosen in order to streamline parts of the process. Please allow me to elucidate.
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13 January, 2024