Factorio: Captain Planet doesn't stand a chance.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Factorio: Captain Planet doesn't stand a chance.

fezball: Nov 8, 2009

zedprime posted:

I haven't messed much with parallel power grids so this might be a stupid question. Can you not just use an accumulator as a power grid dam between your main grid and a pilot light laser, and then use the condition of that accumulators charge <100 to turn on your main laser array? Maybe with a latch depending on charging behavior in that brownout scenario with the dam and the pilot light.

I think that one of the problems with that is that there is no real way of charging that trigger accumulator back up to 100 during the night without using steam power - so if your pilot light fires early during the night the switch will stay on until morning.

# ? Jul 14, 2016 14:40

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# ? May 28, 2024 23:34

Jabor: Jul 16, 2010; #1 Loser at SpaceChem

Ooh, relying on maximum current draw to trigger the main guns is pretty nice.

My thought was to wire a rate-of-change circuit up to a big stack of accumulators - turn the guns on when you see a greater-than-idle power draw on your sense network, and back off again when it dips back down for long enough. More complex wiring, but your sense network can just be wired up to as big an accumulator bank as you need.

# ? Jul 14, 2016 14:58

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

fezball posted:

I think that one of the problems with that is that there is no real way of charging that trigger accumulator back up to 100 during the night without using steam power - so if your pilot light fires early during the night the switch will stay on until morning.

Foiled again by the power priority systems. I generally leave my steam set up in place to soak power requirements when I don't end up keeping up with solar placement, so I could just wire one engine on the end into the grid permanently to trickle charge gimmick accumulators with the rest on a smart start up circuit.

Or apparently just ignore all of that because apparently flamethrower turrets are the best now?

# ? Jul 14, 2016 18:07

Ratzap: Jun 9, 2012; Let no pie go wasted; Soiled Meat

zedprime posted:

Foiled again by the power priority systems. I generally leave my steam set up in place to soak power requirements when I don't end up keeping up with solar placement, so I could just wire one engine on the end into the grid permanently to trickle charge gimmick accumulators with the rest on a smart start up circuit.

Or apparently just ignore all of that because apparently flamethrower turrets are the best now?

I was going to say the same. It's a nice plan and all but laser turrets aren't worth the hassle of building as it stands in 0.13. Flamethrowers rule and gun turrets are better DPS - neither requires huge gobs of power.

# ? Jul 14, 2016 18:53

Nuclearmonkee: Jun 10, 2009

Ratzap posted:

I was going to say the same. It's a nice plan and all but laser turrets aren't worth the hassle of building as it stands in 0.13. Flamethrowers rule and gun turrets are better DPS - neither requires huge gobs of power.

I still do lasers at oil places since i just have a gigantic pipline + pumps and don't use rail on them so it's annoying to supply them with bullets. 1 or 2 lasers and flamers in multiple directions will protect them from anything.

Have they mentioned nerfing fire. I mean it's cool as gently caress but even at half of the effectiveness it currently has it would own.

Nuclearmonkee fucked around with this message at 21:12 on Jul 14, 2016

# ? Jul 14, 2016 21:10

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

zedprime posted:

Foiled again by the power priority systems. I generally leave my steam set up in place to soak power requirements when I don't end up keeping up with solar placement, so I could just wire one engine on the end into the grid permanently to trickle charge gimmick accumulators with the rest on a smart start up circuit.

I tried that, and it works, but there are a few catches.

You have to charge the gimmick accumulators with steam only, and you want the charging capacity to be just less than 300 kW � the number of accumulators, so something like one steam engine (510 kW) and two accumulators, or better yet, 7 steam engines and 12 accumulators (3570 kW vs. 3600 kW). A boiler‐limited ratio doesn�t work, because for short periods, steam engines can produce more than the boilers can keep up with and only drop to the boilers� limit after they run out of max‐temperature water.

If you have more charging capacity than that, the accumulators will both charge and discharge at 300 kW and never drain. If you have much less, the accumulators will quickly discharge completely and take 16.7 seconds of no enemy activity before they charge to 100% again and shut off the main line of turrets.

In no case can you have 21 or more accumulators, because that�s enough to satisfy a turret�s power draw when firing. e: Actually, I think maximum power draw increases with shooting speed research upgrades, but the point remains.

So it works, but I discarded it because I don�t think it�s simpler than the sequential accumulator set‐up, especially considering you have to duplicate the whole thing for each group of turrets you want to be switched independently, so enemies attacking one area don�t power up turrets everywhere.

Nuclearmonkee posted:

Have they mentioned nerfing fire. I mean it's cool as gently caress but even at half of the effectiveness it currently has it would own.

The handheld flamethrower owns. It�s better than an AP combat shotgun at killing late‐evolution biters. But I�m not impressed with the performance of flame turrets on moving enemies. They work okay along walls, where the enemies are stopped by the wall and the stream of flame can catch up, but LASER turrets are much better for pillboxes.

Platystemon fucked around with this message at 00:15 on Jul 15, 2016

# ? Jul 14, 2016 23:55

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

Jabor posted:

My thought was to wire a rate-of-change circuit up to a big stack of accumulators - turn the guns on when you see a greater-than-idle power draw on your sense network, and back off again when it dips back down for long enough. More complex wiring, but your sense network can just be wired up to as big an accumulator bank as you need.

If you could make one rate‐of‐change circuit, and have it operate independently on multiple signal channels, one from each independently‐switched group of turrets, that would be neat.

The bank of accumulators really does have to be quite large, though.

The nice thing about the sequential arrangement is that a small number of accumulators (I used five per group, but fewer works, it just delays disconnect after enemy death) can keep a large number of turrets (at least twelve) detecting for 16.7 seconds. Each accumulator stores 5 MJ and discharges at a max rate of 300 kW, so they cannot go from 100% charge to zero is less time than that, no matter how hard the turrets trie to discharge them.

With one big bank of accumulators, the worst‐case scenario is that 21 accumulators power a single turret for 16.7 seconds. It think it�s actually even worse with shooting speed upgrades, but you get the picture

# ? Jul 15, 2016 00:40

Zetsubou-san: Jan 28, 2015; Cruel Bifaunidas demanded that you [stand]🧍 I require only that you [kneel]🧎

Royal W posted:

Is there a way, using the new switches, to make a threshold switch for, say, keeping flamer fuel tanks between a certain level. For example, a command to debarrel crude if the tanks reads <700, continue until the tank is >=2000, and then stop until it hits 700 again? I haven't been able to play, but my napkin engineering tells me that the default behavior for a series of switches would just keep it topped off without a rest period.

decider D1 sends a 1 on signal A if tank < 700
decider D2 sends a 1 on signal B if tank > 2000
artifact gets put in chest Ch1 on A=1
artifact gets taken out of Ch1 on B=1
fill tank when Ch1 has something in it.

# ? Jul 15, 2016 01:14

carticket: Jun 28, 2005; white and gold.

Zetsubou-san posted:

decider D1 sends a 1 on signal A if tank < 700
decider D2 sends a 1 on signal B if tank > 2000
artifact gets put in chest Ch1 on A=1
artifact gets taken out of Ch1 on B=1
fill tank when Ch1 has something in it.

I can't remember if I read it here or on the Factorio forum, but you can implement a latch with just four belts now. One belt gets your set signal, one belt gets your reset signal, and then you just use the belt contents on the reset side as your Q. With blue belts the latency should be pretty low.

Apparently when an item is pushed against a stopped belt, the stopped belt will report that item on its circuit network connections.

# ? Jul 15, 2016 01:55

Solumin: Jan 11, 2013

Platystemon posted:

If you could make one rate‐of‐change circuit, and have it operate independently on multiple signal channels, one from each independently‐switched group of turrets, that would be neat.

The bank of accumulators really does have to be quite large, though.

The nice thing about the sequential arrangement is that a small number of accumulators (I used five per group, but fewer works, it just delays disconnect after enemy death) can keep a large number of turrets (at least twelve) detecting for 16.7 seconds. Each accumulator stores 5 MJ and discharges at a max rate of 300 kW, so they cannot go from 100% charge to zero is less time than that, no matter how hard the turrets trie to discharge them.

With one big bank of accumulators, the worst‐case scenario is that 21 accumulators power a single turret for 16.7 seconds. It think it�s actually even worse with shooting speed upgrades, but you get the picture

You might be able to do that, using the "Each" special signal. You'd have to make sure each group of turrets had a unique input signal, which is trivial using another Arithmetic Combinator. (Input: Signal + 0, Output: New Signal)

# ? Jul 15, 2016 02:21

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

Mr. Powers posted:

I can't remember if I read it here or on the Factorio forum, but you can implement a latch with just four belts now. One belt gets your set signal, one belt gets your reset signal, and then you just use the belt contents on the reset side as your Q. With blue belts the latency should be pretty low.

Apparently when an item is pushed against a stopped belt, the stopped belt will report that item on its circuit network connections.

Must have been the Factorio forums, I think we've only talked about the chest version and the combinator only version.

Which by the way I figured out I had completely flubbed up since relearning everything about circuits in prep for 0.13. Combinator only latches are only 3 combinators, which make them competitive again since the chest/belt versions are 2 combinators and the physical hardware.

e.

Solumin posted:

You might be able to do that, using the "Each" special signal. You'd have to make sure each group of turrets had a unique input signal, which is trivial using another Arithmetic Combinator. (Input: Signal + 0, Output: New Signal)

Meditating on this, I'm not sure its possible to make a universal wide area circuit with the signal manipulation you're allowed in an each scenario. You need to compare the new value with the old value, which on a strictly each set up is going to cross talk. That is using each, for a given signal A, there isn't a way to turn it into A` so you can compare A>A`

zedprime fucked around with this message at 03:44 on Jul 15, 2016

# ? Jul 15, 2016 03:36

carticket: Jun 28, 2005; white and gold.

zedprime posted:

Must have been the Factorio forums, I think we've only talked about the chest version and the combinator only version.

Which by the way I figured out I had completely flubbed up since relearning everything about circuits in prep for 0.13. Combinator only latches are only 3 combinators, which make them competitive again since the chest/belt versions are 2 combinators and the physical hardware.

What's the magic for a combinator only latch in three?

# ? Jul 15, 2016 03:42

Nuclearmonkee: Jun 10, 2009

Platystemon posted:

I tried that, and it works, but there are a few catches.

You have to charge the gimmick accumulators with steam only, and you want the charging capacity to be just less than 300 kW � the number of accumulators, so something like one steam engine (510 kW) and two accumulators, or better yet, 7 steam engines and 12 accumulators (3570 kW vs. 3600 kW). A boiler‐limited ratio doesn�t work, because for short periods, steam engines can produce more than the boilers can keep up with and only drop to the boilers� limit after they run out of max‐temperature water.

If you have more charging capacity than that, the accumulators will both charge and discharge at 300 kW and never drain. If you have much less, the accumulators will quickly discharge completely and take 16.7 seconds of no enemy activity before they charge to 100% again and shut off the main line of turrets.

In no case can you have 21 or more accumulators, because that�s enough to satisfy a turret�s power draw when firing. e: Actually, I think maximum power draw increases with shooting speed research upgrades, but the point remains.

So it works, but I discarded it because I don�t think it�s simpler than the sequential accumulator set‐up, especially considering you have to duplicate the whole thing for each group of turrets you want to be switched independently, so enemies attacking one area don�t power up turrets everywhere.

The handheld flamethrower owns. It�s better than an AP combat shotgun at killing late‐evolution biters. But I�m not impressed with the performance of flame turrets on moving enemies. They work okay along walls, where the enemies are stopped by the wall and the stream of flame can catch up, but LASER turrets are much better for pillboxes.

It doesn't catch the first couple but every biter beyond the first few are probably going to be burned to death before they do anything.

# ? Jul 15, 2016 03:49

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

Mr. Powers posted:

What's the magic for a combinator only latch in three?

It surprises me every time I see it in some example, its just stupidly simple in a way I'd never figure out on my own.

# ? Jul 15, 2016 03:49

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

zedprime posted:

Meditating on this, I'm not sure its possible to make a universal wide area circuit with the signal manipulation you're allowed in an each scenario. You need to compare the new value with the old value, which on a strictly each set up is going to cross talk. That is using each, for a given signal A, there isn't a way to turn it into A` so you can compare A>A`

Negate the signal, operating on �each�. Delay the negated version by the period you want to measure the change over. Connected the original signal to a combinator/inserter/power switch/&c. with a green wire and the negated, delayed one with a red wire.

The value of each signal at the input of that device is the change over the period of the delay.

Platystemon fucked around with this message at 06:44 on Jul 15, 2016

# ? Jul 15, 2016 04:33

buglord: Jul 31, 2010; Cheating at a raffle? I sentence you to 1 year in jail! No! Two years! Three! Four! Five years! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!; Buglord

This game was kinda dumb and boring until I set up my first steam engine powered grid and I no longer have to slave over coal.

Something felt really good about that. This going to eat a whole bunch of my hours this week.

# ? Jul 15, 2016 06:30

carticket: Jun 28, 2005; white and gold.

zedprime posted:

It surprises me every time I see it in some example, its just stupidly simple in a way I'd never figure out on my own.

That is incredibly simple. I think what I got stuck on was self-summing, but I forgot that you can output 1 on a decider rather than just input count. I like that.

# ? Jul 15, 2016 06:42

Ratzap: Jun 9, 2012; Let no pie go wasted; Soiled Meat

Avocados posted:

This game was kinda dumb and boring until I set up my first steam engine powered grid and I no longer have to slave over coal.

Something felt really good about that. This going to eat a whole bunch of my hours this week.

Hey, if you like the early coal phase that much, there's a mod that moves electricity to the late game. Burner everything for days...

# ? Jul 15, 2016 12:07

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

Ratzap posted:

Hey, if you like the early coal phase that much, there's a mod that moves electricity to the late game. Burner everything for days...

I think the point was that Avocados didn�t like the coal phase.

# ? Jul 15, 2016 12:55

Chakan: Mar 30, 2011

Avocados posted:

This game was kinda dumb and boring until I set up my first steam engine powered grid and I no longer have to slave over coal.

Something felt really good about that. This going to eat a whole bunch of my hours this week.

Someone posted about it before but far and away the best feeling in the game is getting something that was a PITA sorted out and automated so you don't have to worry about it anymore.

I'm a hair under 3 hours into my "win under 8 hours" run and I've set up blue science. I was wondering if people thought robots were really worth it? The last real hurdles are setting up enough copper for chips and getting alien artifacts for the research, neither really benefits from robots that much so I don't know it's all that important.

# ? Jul 15, 2016 16:02

Ratzap: Jun 9, 2012; Let no pie go wasted; Soiled Meat

Platystemon posted:

I think the point was that Avocados didn�t like the coal phase.

Humour, you have one?

# ? Jul 15, 2016 16:05

Dirk the Average: Feb 7, 2012; "This may have been a mistake."

Chakan posted:

Someone posted about it before but far and away the best feeling in the game is getting something that was a PITA sorted out and automated so you don't have to worry about it anymore.

I'm a hair under 3 hours into my "win under 8 hours" run and I've set up blue science. I was wondering if people thought robots were really worth it? The last real hurdles are setting up enough copper for chips and getting alien artifacts for the research, neither really benefits from robots that much so I don't know it's all that important.

Robots are really nice to have. They're not necessary, but walking into your base and having a swarm of robot butlers remove excess junk and restock the important stuff is great quality of life. Blueprints make mass construction/teardown trivial, and let you replicate production lines with ease. You don't need to go crazy with them, but having a few hundred robots on hand is nice. They're also useful for unloading stations for trains, since they'll automatically sort out ores from active provider chests to exactly where they need to go.

If you're going fast, you can safely cut them out - it takes quite a lot of materials to get them up and running and to build all of the roboports you need. Better to spend that on more rocket components faster.

# ? Jul 15, 2016 16:19

DelphiAegis: Jun 21, 2010

I'm just about to set up Oil in my Lazy Bastard save. Since I've had to automate everything, I've learned some valuable lessons with regards to initial production.

Setting up belts initially takes priority, since so much of the automation takes eight metric fucktons of them. Having the undergrounds and splitters pre-made as well has made me realize their uses far and above what I normally would have been using them for. Like the fact that you can have a set of assemblers 3 spaces apart and have enough room to run underground belts through all of it, with inserters to pull off the underground belt entrance. This means things with 3 ingredients (namely, the SAME three ingredients) are easy to line up in fashion. So I took a page from the .12 goon server when it wasn't unstable ground and lined up (in order) Assembler 2, assembler 1, long inserter, regular inserter, fast inserter, slow belts and electric miners.

All of the above things take just plate/gears/circuits, so you can have three belts feeding them via the underground method, and it all comes into a line and outputs nicely. Sure you have to do some fuckery with the assembler1 being output to the ground, passed along with a long inserter, then placed back in to be made to assembler 2s.. And same with the fast and long inserters, but it works and outputs items for green science in a compact and effective way.

If this wasn't a peaceful mode to set down some of the real building, I'd go for the no solar achievement and block out the sun with clouds of smog. :black101:

# ? Jul 15, 2016 16:23

Ratzap: Jun 9, 2012; Let no pie go wasted; Soiled Meat

A new FFF is up: https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-147

TL;DR - Multiplayer is hard, they are going to rewrite it.

# ? Jul 15, 2016 16:49

carticket: Jun 28, 2005; white and gold.

Do you think there's a way to switch to peaceful mode without killing achievements on a map you started in non-peaceful? I'm like 3 hours into Lazy Bastard and going to start having biter problems soon.

# ? Jul 15, 2016 16:50

GotLag: Jul 17, 2005; 食べちゃダメだよ

I finally stopped being a lazy bastard long enough to make a demo of all the features of Side Inserters, including the new fine adjustment key:

https://zippy.gfycat.com/EquatorialReflectingAntlion.webm

# ? Jul 15, 2016 17:04

LonsomeSon: Nov 22, 2009; A fishperson in an intimidating hat!

Avocados posted:

This game was kinda dumb and boring until I set up my first steam engine powered grid and I no longer have to slave over coal.

Something felt really good about that. This going to eat a whole bunch of my hours this week.

Yeah, electricity turns out to be equally important for industrial-scale production in Factorio as it was in the real world; you can scale to a pretty loving impressive size without it, but as soon as you get it set up your options and capacities just loving explode.

Probably my favorite thing about Factorio is how there are 'breakthrough' moments like getting your first steam arrays set up that send your understanding of how to organize poo poo miles ahead, and that they just keep coming until...well, I'm not quite to the point where I've started to automate rockets in solo games (though now I've seen it done on the goon multi server) so I'm not sure how many more there are.

GotLag posted:

I finally stopped being a lazy bastard long enough to make a demo of all the features of Side Inserters, including the new fine adjustment key:

https://zippy.gfycat.com/EquatorialReflectingAntlion.webm

How do you manage to keep adding features to this amazing mod which I never would have thought of but which are blindingly obvious in retrospect?

# ? Jul 15, 2016 17:15

NatasDog: Feb 9, 2009

GotLag posted:

I finally stopped being a lazy bastard long enough to make a demo of all the features of Side Inserters, including the new fine adjustment key:

https://zippy.gfycat.com/EquatorialReflectingAntlion.webm

About the only thing missing now is an option to alternate outputting to both sides of a belt, if that's even possible.

# ? Jul 15, 2016 18:39

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

NatasDog posted:

About the only thing missing now is an option to alternate outputting to both sides of a belt, if that's even possible.

I never know to what extent the side inserter mod is trying to replace belt tricks, but just checking that you know that a splitter already does that without a huge footprint.

# ? Jul 15, 2016 18:44

NatasDog: Feb 9, 2009

zedprime posted:

I never know to what extent the side inserter mod is trying to replace belt tricks, but just checking that you know that a splitter already does that without a huge footprint.

I do, but the splitter approach just looks so... wrong. I do this now on mines or anyplace I might see one lane or the other back up and I want both sides filled, but it just looks kind of goofy with two inserters looping back into the same belt all over the place.

# ? Jul 15, 2016 19:11

Ratzap: Jun 9, 2012; Let no pie go wasted; Soiled Meat

And new patch, Hello 0.13.9

code:

    Changes
        Updated demo campaign tips images.
        Updated/Fixed locale entries.
        Removed --mp-load-game
        Default value for "Lights render quality" graphics options was changed to 1.0. If config.ini contains value lower than new minimum (0.25) it will be reset to the default value.
        Lights are rendered with linear filtering to improve quality for lower "Lights render quality" settings. (28892)
        Added tips and tricks for pasting wagon slots and cycling in blueprint book.
        Mods are now sorted alphabetically in the mods list.

    Bugfixes
        Fixed transport belt madness map showing an empty message dialog out of nowhere.
        Fixed transport belt madness being impossible. (28703)
        Fixed crash on Linux when stdout was closed after starting Factorio. (28590)
        Fixed trains of other forces could be seen in the Trains GUI. (28799)
        Fixed inserters not saving custom pickup/dropoff when exported through the Lua blueprint interface.
        Fixed robots delivering modules into the recipe input slots instead of the module inventory. (28722)
        Fixed performance issue caused by alt mode when some mods are installed and linear filtering is enabled. (28789)
        Items stop correctly before a belt deactivated using the circuit network. (28766)
        Fixed another case where a biter could get stuck. (28893)
        Fixed crash when using --mp-connect to join a game that requires user verification. (28500)
        Fixed train GUI would be too big to fit on screen with a large amount of character inventory slots. (28855)
        Buildings with backer names containing non-ASCII charecters are generated properly.
        Fixed logistic counts when changing stack sizes of items the player was holding.
        Fixed crash when right-clicking electric pole in Map Editor. (28983)
        Fixed crash when building tiles would result in you dying. (28948)
        Fixed disabled belts would still move the player. (28947)
        Fixed crashes related to changing train conditions in the latency state.
        Fixed line breaking in description titles. (27128)
        Fixed typo in description of flooring items. (28704)
        Fixed blueprint icons not working as desired when paths where part of the selected area. (28884)
        Fixed that a username change wouldn't save if the game crashed. (17837)
        Fixed that clicking an alert button could show the wrong alert. (28913)
        Fixed flooring placement preview rendered on top of turret base. (28894)
        Fixed numpad home/end/other keys not working when numlock was off. (28934)
        Fixed that the game password dialog showed the password. (29002)
        Fixed that inserters at the very front of trains would sometimes not get enabled when a train would stop. (28964)
        Fixed the difficutly settings for scenarios not working. (27976)
        Fixed alignment of some pipe covers. (28785)
        Fixed the watch-your-step achievement not working. (27710)
        Rocket parts from building rockets in the rocket silo now show in production stats. (29001)
        Fixed tracked achievements scrolling off screen when un-tracking them. (27922)
        Fixed inserter sometimes only dropping one item on the ground before going back. (28046#p183886)
        Fixed LuaGameScript::active_mods not showing the correct list of mods. (29088)
        Fixed signals letting trains pass when the circuit network changes. (28923)

    Scripting
        Fixed SpritePath to recipe that inherits icon from its result would not be considered valid. (28867)
        Fixed crash when setting new research in the on_research_completed event. (28968)
        Fixed error during the research completed event being un-clickable. (27803)
        Added LuaTile::position read.

# ? Jul 15, 2016 19:20

Anony Mouse: Jan 30, 2005; A name means nothing on the battlefield. After a week, no one has a name.; Lipstick Apathy

Picked up this game about a week ago and have been playing it way too much since then. My main nitpick is the fact that in-game help and explanations are woefully inadequate. I had to look up what the gently caress "effect transmission" and "basic beacon" were, and it took me hours to, completely by accident, realize that you can link multiple logistics drone towers together to create one giant network. Also late-game electricity generation is a hideous chore and the fact that I can build a man-portable fusion reactor but still rely on coal-firing steam engines to power my laser turrets is ridiculous. Solar panels would be more tolerable if there were at least a more advanced accumulator structure so that my electrical grid didn't take up acres and acres of land.

Anyway now that the main hump of the learning curve is out of the way and I've almost build the rocket in my first solo freeplay I look forward to tinkering with mods.

# ? Jul 15, 2016 22:39

NatasDog: Feb 9, 2009

Anony Mouse posted:

Picked up this game about a week ago and have been playing it way too much since then. My main nitpick is the fact that in-game help and explanations are woefully inadequate. I had to look up what the gently caress "effect transmission" and "basic beacon" were, and it took me hours to, completely by accident, realize that you can link multiple logistics drone towers together to create one giant network. Also late-game electricity generation is a hideous chore and the fact that I can build a man-portable fusion reactor but still rely on coal-firing steam engines to power my laser turrets is ridiculous. Solar panels would be more tolerable if there were at least a more advanced accumulator structure so that my electrical grid didn't take up acres and acres of land.

Anyway now that the main hump of the learning curve is out of the way and I've almost build the rocket in my first solo freeplay I look forward to tinkering with mods.

Solar isn't too bad once you make a blueprint with a drone tower in the middle. I usually make a ring of 8 tower size solar farms with a block of accumulator in the middle. I call it a power flower. Takes up a lot of space, but space is one thing that you have in abundance.

# ? Jul 15, 2016 23:31

Evilreaver: Feb 26, 2007; GEORGE IS GETTIN' AUGMENTED!; Dinosaur Gum

Someone posted this bad boy, and it's been my go-to power blueprint. It's hecka dense, the ratio accum/solar is just about right, and you just place them 1 space apart (or two! So many options!!) and tile them forever.

# ? Jul 16, 2016 00:09

Tenebrais: Sep 2, 2011

While I can get the objection to unlocking fusion reactors not actually helping your power generation, at the same time having a simple "free unlimited power" building wouldn't be very much fun. Maybe the technology just doesn't scale up.

I'd like to see more power options, but I'm not sure what more you can do to have actual new mechanics without also being a huge hassle. And if it's not new mechanics there's not a lot of point, you just get to have a building that takes up less space, and space should never be a problem.

# ? Jul 16, 2016 00:15

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

I use this for power:

56 solar panels and 60 accumulators. No roboports because I don�t like them sitting around and tying up resources that will only be used for about five seconds. Instead I either use personal roboports, or tile two rows and two columns of this design, add a string of temporary roboports on top, and tile that. Then I deconstruct the poles/roboports when it�s time to tile the next section.

A line of power poles is necessary on the end of the whole farm because the substations are too widely spaced to connect in the vertical dimension.

Platystemon fucked around with this message at 00:56 on Jul 16, 2016

# ? Jul 16, 2016 00:29

Mr. Bill: Jan 18, 2007; Bourgeoisie Pig

Fusion power plant structures, but they use alien orbs for fuel. Ship it.

# ? Jul 16, 2016 00:39

Ratzap: Jun 9, 2012; Let no pie go wasted; Soiled Meat

Tenebrais posted:

While I can get the objection to unlocking fusion reactors not actually helping your power generation, at the same time having a simple "free unlimited power" building wouldn't be very much fun. Maybe the technology just doesn't scale up.

I'd like to see more power options, but I'm not sure what more you can do to have actual new mechanics without also being a huge hassle. And if it's not new mechanics there's not a lot of point, you just get to have a building that takes up less space, and space should never be a problem.

I like KS power. You get the option to burn oil to make steam or in diesel generators (which you can make diesel for or just feed one of the 4 oil types). I often skip solar entirely just because clearing the ground needed and laying it all out is a drag - I prefer keeping my robots busy laying concrete.

I have a solar blueprint with 64 panels, 48 accumulators that I tile out but I can't find a picture and CBA going to make one. No roboport in it though, unused roboports eating power piss me off.

# ? Jul 16, 2016 00:43

Zetsubou-san: Jan 28, 2015; Cruel Bifaunidas demanded that you [stand]🧍 I require only that you [kneel]🧎

Mr. Bill posted:

Fusion power plant structures, but they use alien orbs for fuel. Ship it.

someone with more modding know-how to answer this:

I'm pretty sure you can mod the artifacts to have a fuel value - but can you lock fuel items into being used in only certain objects?

# ? Jul 16, 2016 03:07

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# ? May 28, 2024 23:34

GotLag: Jul 17, 2005; 食べちゃダメだよ

NatasDog posted:

About the only thing missing now is an option to alternate outputting to both sides of a belt, if that's even possible.

In the video, replace the left chest with a splitter and the left inserter with a belt corner. Bingo, iron plates on both lanes.

zedprime posted:

I never know to what extent the side inserter mod is trying to replace belt tricks, but just checking that you know that a splitter already does that without a huge footprint.

I just want the inserters to put poo poo where I want it. I feel like I shouldn't have to play conveyor spaghetti just to have items input on a particular side of a belt.

GotLag fucked around with this message at 03:17 on Jul 16, 2016

# ? Jul 16, 2016 03:14

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Factorio: Captain Planet doesn't stand a chance.

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