Posting about the game Satisfactory by Coffee Stain Studios.
What do we, as a family, get up to when we’re technically “done” with the game but want to wait out the production of Phase 4 products into the Space Elevator to fully round out the game save?
Well… this:
If you want to skip ahead to the really silly parts, go to ~2:15 (h:mm) to see Spud build The Ladder of Babel, and about ten minutes later he discovered the fun to be had with driving vehicles over jump pads and at that point pandemonium ensued… featuring airborne factory carts.
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 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.
(more…)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.
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.
(more…)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.
Islands, with oil, get it? Of course you do, and you wish you’d thought of it first.
(more…)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.
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.
(more…)The second-best time, I’ve learned, to plan your Phase 4 shipment production for the Space Elevator in Satisfactory is about 250 hours into your session. The best time to plan your Phase 4 yadda yadda is before you start the game.
(more…)