Factorio AAR part 3

5th Log Entry:

The walls are made, but there's a decision to make on where to put them. More space to cover doesn't increase the amount of biters I have to deal with, but getting to and from the edges takes time, and I'm on the clock. Also, lazy. Running sucks. I could build the wall out to cover what I've already built and slowly creep outwards, but I think it best to grab the area I want now before the biters get to it first. They've been steadily encroaching, their expansion fueled by the smog I've been spewing. Because they can't swim and all the good resource patches are near the water, I elect to set the wall between the lakes to the east and west.

Iron, more precious to me than gold right now. And in biter territory. If I want it, I'll have to clear their spawners from the area and push them back. The biters aren't truly active yet so this should be straightforward. I establish a line of turrets and move forward. The turrets behind support the ones in front. The biters are fiercely protective of their bases, but aren't communal. Far away bases won't assist, and once these ones are down it'll be the same as before, except I've got more territory and a wall.

The carnage is both sweet and painful. Quite painful, really. If you ever find yourself on the planet make sure to check out the local fish. They're good pain relievers, and like all meat will heal wounds quickly by eating. Mmm, tasty.

Biters not scaring you if they're so easily killed you think? After all I'm already destroying their bases and taking territory. Can't be too dangerous? Then you've forgotten that they evolve. No sooner did I get the wall up and turreted that the biters evolved two new forms.

The new red biters are tougher, stronger, and all around meaner. Takes a lot of my current bullets to take just one down, much less a swarm. Better bullets is on my ever growing list of things I want to build. Copper jacketed steel rounds should do well against the new armored biters.

The other form is weaker and less armored, but able to spew acid from afar. Even works over my fancy new wall. How rude. Easy to kill, but hard to prevent damage from them, so they'll wear my turrets and walls down.

Frustrating. All I want to do is build and get off this planet. Not spend time killing biters and getting hurt. What a waste.

[Dan speaking: Quick belt tutorialish thing:
So, belts. You've probably seen them already, they move items on the ground forward, so I can get items from point a to point b. Simple and straightforward. But if you want to take advantage of what they can do and really get a well designed base, there's other things you want to keep in mind.

Each belt has two sides that don't mix. Inserters will only move items onto the far side of the belt, and if a belt is pointed into another belt, it will only spill items onto one side. If you keep track of which items are on which sides, you're able to do things like improve throughput by ensuring both sides are used or to have two sets of items on the same belt.

Good example of this are my furnace lines. The line on the left has ore+coal, in between is a furnace that needs ore and coal to produce plates, and outputs those plates onto a belt, with a similar setup mirrored on the other side. Beauty of the setup is that if I were to have two sides of ore and another line of coal, I'd need to change the belt setup anyway, as they only place onto one side. There are other designs for later, but this one makes for a great early game setup as it's cheap and works well with the starter buildings.

As well, there are splitters. You can see them here along with the underground belts (that do what the name implies). Splitters work both to split a belt into two belts or two merge two belts. They've got two input belts and two output belts, and take and give as equally as possible. This setup here is a balancer, and works roughly to take each input lane and output it as evenly as possible.

And here's a more zoomed in image of the belt lines in the main section of the base. Belts go horizontally, split off by splitters for factories above. Crossing is handled by having some go underground.

If anyone has questions, feel free to ask!]

Factorio AAR Part 2

3rd Log Entry:

We've got visitors! The others made fun of me not liking the dark, but then we end up with biters at night. Really glad I grabbed that survival pistol.

Biters - an ecoterrorist's crazy construction. How do you stop humans from despoiling new planets without breaking the bank? You bioengineer a species that grows with pollution and is incredibly violent towards that growth source. No pollution and they have a minimal presence. Start polluting and they grow to terrific sizes and can overwhelm an unprepared settlement. All it takes is a few spores and the planet's safe from harm. Quite genius. They're why the space-engineering course came with a mandatory military course. Combined with aim assist and I can make a shot between furnaces and drills and only hit my target.

The guys in the ship get all proud when they make a head shot in Halo 27, by comparison.

But why do all the work myself when I can automate the killing? Next on the research list: turrets. As soon as I mass produce research, at least. The clock is ticking.

Doesn't take long for the biters to wreak destruction. The next night they target my road production again, but do a much better job. Production will be stalled until I can do heavier repairs. The turrets must take priority. Then lights. This flashlight ain't cutting it.

[Dan here, here's some more base pictures:]

This is my first time putting down bricks to speed things up and I'm really liking them. Especially with that long trek down to the boilers/iron ore and back. Things are looking good though, mass production is really starting and I'm enjoying not being resource starved.

Factorio AAR Part 1

Hello! I started this Factorio (steam link) AAR a few weeks ago and posted it on a gaming forum that I frequent. Given that the forum itself is behind a registration block, I'm reposting the content here. The nature of the reposting and this site's somewhat lackluster formatting options means that some of it may feel a little out of whack. Still, shouldn't need more than a little leeway for the read to still be enjoyable.

To explain the format a little, an AAR (stands for After Action Report) where the writer plays the game and effectively narrates what happens from the perspective of the ingame persona. The narration uses both pictures and the written word to tell what is hopefully a good story.

If anyone is interested too, feel free to message me if you want to hop in and play with me. The multiplayer experience with this game is quite good, and I heartedly recommend people give it a go. There's plenty to do, even if you're completely new to the game, and I can give a decent tutorial if you're interested. It even has a demo version if you're on the fence about buying!

I've got two mods for this run. Resource Spawner Overhaul (RSO) to spread out resources and make for a better looking map, and Space Extension (SpaceX) that extends the end game a bit so I have time to play with all the fancy end stuff while still having a meaningful goal.

As well, I'm playing on the "deathworld" setting. Enemies are more plentiful, power up quicker, and are more of a pain. In addition, everything is more expensive, and research takes 4 times as much time and resources. Essentially though, it's the same game as normal, but a little stretched out.

I hope anyone that reads this enjoys! It's been fun to make so far, and I'd love to know that others enjoyed reading too.

1st Log Entry:

That lake wasn't quite so big before we got here​

Well, that was unexpected. I take a quick nap and find that we've crashed down on a planet the ship's log has named "Nauvis". Everyone else was content to sit back and play video games while we waited for rescue, but not me. "It's crazy for one person to build an FTL ship" they said. I'll show them! How hard can it be? I've got my trusty engineering suit, some scrap metal from the ship, and a condensed copy of space-wikipedia. I've got this nooooo problem.
First step is to get production started and the electricity running. I'd prefer not to be alone out here in the dark and I'll need the soothing glow of molten metal to get a good night's sleep.

Factoring for the future in Factorio

We have factories and I've set up a little bit of a factory to produce the items I think I'll need for the near future. I'm going to want a small bit of science, but I also really want all those belts for what I'm going to do next. It's time to setup for mass-production.

Radar for the ground

One of the survival recipes you start with is for radar installations. Each consumes a large chunk of electricity, and will provide continuous vision for a decent chunk around it, similar to what your suit does normally. In addition, it will slowly scan chunks at long distance that are revealed for a short period of time. I'll use this for an easy way to explore the surrounding area. Even seeing things is automated!

The red tint implies pollution. The more the better

Here's a closeup view of the map. We crash-landed in what is best described as a swamp, with a good amount of resources nearby. To the left of that lank is where I'll begin placing down the foundations for mass-production, as I want a large area devoid of other features that might get in the way of my grand plan. For now, raw resources from the east will go through the small opening between the water, where it'll be refined, before being further moved to become finished goods.

Easiest way to measure size is to place things down

Bare bones infrastructure of the furnace area. Two lines of 15 furnaces, on the outside ore will come up, while in the direct middle lies a belt for the finished plates. Another line on the inside will bring up coal to power them. Simple yet effective, once I get it running. Alas, I require more technology to really get it working. That'll wait until I have turrets finished.

See? Told you they were ugly

The biter problem is getting worse. Now they come two at a time, eager for blood or smashed metal. Sadly for me, the super-suit comes with a distant lack of protection. Nanites? Check. Water and nutrient creation? Check. Power generation? Check. Superstrength? Check. Armor? Too expensive. Luckily for me, I have some beginning plans for suitable protection. It's this amazing thing that involves draping myself in iron. New invention, only had it for some thousands of years. Go to space and use nanites to boil water and make iron armor.

Thinking back, I should have had some connection between the turret and the chest

I build my first automatic turret along with a single factory to produce ammunition, as my survival supplies weren't intended for automatic weaponry. As long as I make sure to remember that I have only near-infinite ammo, I should be fine in the future. No one around, infinite ammo, fully automatic weaponry, and live targets? I'm really starting to like this place.

Annoyingly, circuit and wire factories come in a 3:2 ratio, so I can't keep everything in line

Let me explain what I'm setting up here. Each line in the middle between the furnaces and the factories will carry some good that is produced elsewhere. One line will be copper plates, another iron, etc. On the left side will be assembly plants, that will produce finished goods that are either left in a chest, or transported along. Wherever possible intermediate goods are made along the same line, like with copper wire. I'll leave some space between each line for...shenanigans. This setup isn't the most efficient, but it's simple and easy to modify.

I also made a shotgun. I'm a simple guy, with simple tastes.

Factorying Factorio

We left off last time with researching the technology for basic factories. Making objects with the nanites in our super-suit is fun, but it's not really a factory game if we don't have actual factories. Which I kind of need to use, or I don't feel at peace. Why do things yourself when you can have robots do them for you?

This is the recipe for basic science beakers

Our research finished and I build our first factory object. Factories work similar to furnaces. Supply it with the necessary ingredients, and it will produce a finished good. Factories are much more varied in what they can produce though. Basic factories can produce any recipe that has 2 or less ingredients. This one by itself isn't terribly useful. We can transfer the copper plates to it easily enough, but also making the iron gears before anything useful is done would be a pain. Instead of doing that ourselves, we'll make more factories instead.

If I were smart, I'd have put an inserter to take the beakers and put them in the science lab

That's better. I drop copper plates in the red factory, and iron plates in the chest, and this setup will work to keep producing items. But I'm still not thinking enough like I should. Automation is the goal; I want to do the least amount of work for a given point as possible.

This game has a day/night cycle. A mod I use makes it gloomier.

Much, much better. Inserters move the iron plates to the transport belts, the belts continuously move items placed on them in the direction of the belt, and at the end inserters take the plates off the belts to be used in the factories and to allow for easy pickups. Glorious! Of course, there are still holes. Each of the furnaces still has to have coal delivered, I still need to deliver copper plates to produce red beakers, and coal needs to be delivered to the boilers to keep the lights on.

In effect, this is how the game goes. I build up sections of the factory that, once I'm done with them, take no additional inputs in order to keep running. Then I move on to other parts that need work done on them, with the occasional shortcut needing additional attention.

If you're clever, try and spot where I went wrong with the new addition

Give that I want to keep the lights on more efficiently than carting fuel back and forth, I add on belts from the coal mine to the boilers. I also expand the whole bit so that I won't worry about power for a good long while. The night is dark and full of terrors. Best to keep the lights shining bright. And by lights I mean big polluting furnaces.

They look uglier when alive

With the boilers setup, we get our first guest: a weird looking thing that could only have been designed by a crazy hippy. I was able to easily put it down with my survival pistol, but I'd prefer to be better prepared for later attacks. Luckily I'm almost done researching our first military tech which will give access to a submachine gun and shotguns.

These things are crazy. No idea who spread them to this place, but they've done a number on this world's biosphere. There's the usual trees and plants, but no wildlife that I can see, outside of a few fish safe in their watery habitats. A hippy's experiment gone wrong, they work wonderfully to stop polluters. Getting a whiff of pollution (sections of the map in the minimap get steadily more red to indicate having more and more pollution) will drive them bad, sending them long distances in order to attack the source of pollution.

Even better, they'll feed off of this pollution. More pollution will cause them to reproduce, expanding in number. As well, they'll evolve into bigger and stronger versions of themselves, doing more damage and requiring more punishment to be put down. There was a whole swath of information on them in astronaut survival school. Sadly the only way to really take care of them is to eliminate the infestation one by one. We'll automate that of course, once we're more situated. For now, we kill them off by ourselves, and try to minimize damage to our factory. This hippy madness will be purged.

Factorio!

So, as a general rule, the type of games I like to play are not the ones my friends do. Because of that, today I'd like to share one game that I rather enjoy with those friends, precisely because I know that they would never play. Maybe they'll enjoy the writing, at least. If you find yourself ever interested in playing, it's sold on Steam for a round $20. (Exactly $20. They're weird in more ways than one) and it's one of the few games I've seen with a demo. It does have a multiplayer option, as well.

Factorio is a game about making a factory, or more precisely turning ever-increasing amounts of raw goods into finished products, all for a nebulous goal. This is not really a game that you can "win" in the classic sense, and even the goals and background are kind of senseless. It is most assuredly a sandbox game, one which I'd put in the "zen garden" genre of games. There is no goal, aside from managing and creating something, and in the process gaining peace. While it may be strange that my sense of peace is a massive, polluting mess of machines that exist only to create more machines may be strange, it is still peaceful.

The bright orange stuff to the top is mineable copper. This world has abundant surface deposits, lucky you!

This is you. You start on an alien planet, crash-landed with few supplies. The emergency supplies are pretty standard for the sci-fi genre. You come with a pistol, a few magazines, some random parts you were able to scrounge from the wreckage, along with an automated mining drill and furnace. And a super-suit that gives you super strength and has nano-bots capable of constructing nearly anything that doesn't involve heat or liquids.

Yep. Standard. How will you ever survive with just the bare essentials? Much less make the rocket to serve as a flare for people to rescue you?

Not only are you able to easily carry the wood from this entire tree, but you go through it in 3 seconds.

Your first step is to gather fuel. Easiest option is to chop the entire forest down. 50 trees later and we're good to start drilling. There are 5 main raw resources you can collect from the environment. Iron is used to make anything structural, and is the bulk of what we need early to make what we want. Copper is used for anything electrical, and is mostly used later when circuit production begins in earnest. Stone is essential but only used in a few recipes and is relatively scarce. Oil is very useful, but complex enough that we can't even mine it yet. Then there's coal, which we'll use as our main energy source, supplemented by oil if needed.

Each tree gives 4 wood. We're carrying 50 trees while running at full speed. Don't take this game seriously

Now we get to the actual factory portion. Our burner drill (as in, it burns it's own fuel to power the drill) will work automatically as long as it has fuel, an available resource, and empty space to put the ore it mines. In front we'll drop the furnace, which takes fuel, along with some material to produce a more refined product. In this case, our drill produces iron ore, which will be turned into iron plates. We only have the one mine, if we want more mines, we'll need to gather stone as well.

A quick bit of stone gathering and waiting, and we've produced 2 more mines. One to get us more stone, and the other to produce copper ore, which is promptly made into copper plates. Our steady, though slow, supply of copper, stone, and iron will allow us to start the next step: electric power. Electricity is used for the vast majority of machines in order to run (How surprising!) It's only in the strict beginning of the game that you use fuel directly. Aside from furnaces for which the electric version is far away.

The pump has a wheel on the side to get things started, if you wondered

With our initial supplies, we've created the first real new thing: a steam engine. Water is pumped up, fed into a boiler, then into the steam engine in order to create electricity. Super suits and space travel, and the most efficient form of electricity generation is still boiling water. Now that we have electricity, we can start our research to go down the tech tree and expand our budding factory.

To give a sense of how good your nano-bots are, it took 9 seconds to make and get it operational

Our new drill is all around better than the previous. More efficient, faster, though a little larger. It's fast enough that we can almost run two furnaces off of one drill. Look closely and next to the mine you can see 2 arm-contraptions. They're called inserters, and work off electricity to move things from one square to another. They're programmable to interact with the nearby objects if necessary. In this case it will take items from the box that the furnace needs, making sure not to overfill or give it the wrong item.

The research material the lab requires a copper plate and an iron gear, to create a red beaker. I have no idea how this works

Most objects of any complexity are made from multiple intermediate objects. In this case, we want to build our lab to begin research. The lab requires 10 electronic circuits, each requiring a metal plate and 3 copper wires, with each copper plate being made into 2 wires. An iron gear takes 2 iron plates, while the transport belt requires an iron gear and an iron plate. Luckily our nano-bots can take care of everything, once we've collected our iron from the furnaces.

I have a mod to increase research time and materials by a factor of 3, it doesn't normally take this much

Finally, with our lab done we begin our research. Our first item is for basic automated factories. Each factory we make can produce items continuously without our input, which is useful consider the number of items we'll need. Making 4 belts ourselves to create the lab is fine, but making hundreds of belts we'll want for our entire factory would take far too long and be far too tedious.

I should note that the intro bit here is abnormal for the rest of the game. Most of the time later is spent building the factory instead of bootstrapping the beginnings. They even recommend for anyone that does videos to skip the first 15-20 minutes precisely because it's so tedious. The good part about it is the introduction it gives to basic mechanics. Hopefully the silliness of the entire concept helps make it more interesting for a reader.

Let me know what you think too, if you ever get this far down.