Author: Karel Kerezman

  • Not Quite Fifty

    Another year gone by, and what a year it was, eh? Simultaneously a rapid blur and a temporal morass, the past 12 months brought a couple of big changes to my life, neither of them particularly delightful.

    I’m still alive, though, and I’m still here, being the world’s least interesting human. I have the week off from work (“unlimited” PTO, I might as well take advantage of that on occasion) and my plans mostly center on doing silly things with video games (more on that, later) and watching cartoons and listening to music.

    You know. The usual. Life, hopefully, goes on.

  • Satisfactory: Ridin’ the Rails

    Ever since a friend showed me the game, the goal I’ve worked toward this entire time in Satisfactory is unlocking the monorail. I finally got there, I have two working rail loops now, and I have some thoughts and advice for newcomers. Load up the cargo, release the parking brake, and let’s steam forward, shall we?

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  • Winter Weather and My Superpower

    In January, we had a couple hours of snowfall. Not snowstick, mind you, it just fell and melted. I went out on the balcony and took a short video with my phone, saying on the record that “this is it, this is all the winter we’re getting.”

    Content Warning: My Droning Voice

    So of course here we are a couple weeks later and the Portland Oregon metro area is blanketed in ice and snow, with more coming down this morning.

    We got a bit more snow this time around. And it definitely stuck to the ground.

    My superpower, as I may have noted before, is Being Wrong. As soon as I state something with absolute certainty, the universe will bend over backwards to prove me wrong as soon as physically possible. Usually this happens within minutes, but apparently entire weather systems take a while to move into place.

    I’m glad that we finally got some winter in our winter, but I can’t help but feel like the programmers and management of this Matrix-y simulation we inhabit are laughing at me every chance that they get, and I’m a bit tired of it.

  • Satisfactory: Oh Hey, Computer

    You thought you’d get out of January 2021 without another one of these, did you? Well, surprise!

    I’ve been in Tier 5 & 6 content in Satisfactory for a little while now, and the bulk of my time at this stage of the game so far has been spent getting to the point of making my first petroleum-based products (Plastic and Rubber) as well as generating power from Oil. Unlocking some of the really fun stuff, however, required fully (if modestly) automating production of a couple of key components: Heavy Modular Frames, and Computers.

    Here’s a bit of how I got those production lines up & running.

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  • Satisfactory: Oilpower and Multiplayer

    It’s time for another Satisfactory game update. This time, we’re talking about that guide to building an oil-based fuel power plant and how well the game’s multiplayer holds up in its current state.

    Remembering that all of this is about an “early access” game boggles the mind, sometimes. It’s a remarkably polished and playable game for something in “early access,” even moreso than Torchlight III’s “early access” was right up to its launch date.

    Anywho, let’s get down to business to defeat the puns.

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  • Satisfactory: Tips For And From The Casual Gamer

    All I’ve posted about so far this year is this one silly game, but hey, before Satisfactory came along I was lucky to manage one post per month. I’ll ride this content train as long as it lasts, absolutely.

    Rather than talking about a specific build, today I wanted to share some tips for people who might be interested in the game but feel daunted by what looks like a challenging mountain of highly technical tasks. I am, let’s be clear, an absolute “filthy casual” of a player. This description applies to nearly every game I play, because I’m really just here to relax and amuse myself. There’s nothing inherently wrong with being highly competitive or taking a game super-seriously if that’s your thing, mind you, but neither of those mindsets suit me at all.

    So, if you’re sort of like me and want to putter around in this game, I’d like to offer some modest advice that might help.

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