Dyson Sphere Program AAR: First Steps

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 The First Steps

In case it wasn't clear, the scale of objects is not at all close to what you'd see in reality

 

My pod is on the final approach to Zibel 3 now. On my right is a giant ball of fiery death we've named "Zibel", with that small speck in front of it the large moon that is our destination. It's planet sized and decently rich with resources and importantly for our purposes it has oil. It's one of many planets that has a thriving ecosystem, but never got to the large animals stage. Humanity still hasn't found any sign of intelligent life out there, and from what we can tell it seems that animals in general are exceptionally rare. We've found planets with lush forests and thriving waters, but few animals. Plants aren't suited for thinking, and so no other sentients. Therefore, all of the resources everywhere belong to us. Pretty nifty.

 Icarus

I'm hopeful that later in the development cycle we'll be able to customize the look of Icarus

Meet Icarus. This is my mech/bodysuit. It's an amazing piece of engineering and the plan wouldn't have worked at all without him and his one-of-a-kind capabilities. He comes with a mini-factory to process raw materials into more useful things and construction drones to build the facilities I'll need. He's got a computer to run my code so that I can leave the CentreBrain, and a zero-point generator to provide power eternally. And all with thrusters to get across the galaxy and the sensors to see it. Solid piece of machinery this is.

It's also incomplete. Big surprise right? They didn't finish the CentreBrain, and neither did they finish this mech. Or make more of its kind. Part of my mission therefore involves using the raw materials I find along with some research to upgrade the capabilities of Icarus, because right now its somewhat limited.

Awkwardly too, we have the science about what we could possibly make and a general idea of what would be required. But the actual specifics of constructing the facilities and parts we need? Nah. Not with the tools we have at least. It's an interesting problem to have. Back when humanity was first exploring space, they quickly managed to get to the moon. Quite the accomplishment when you're new to space travel and computers are still new. They spent their time afterward with smaller launches, which was very much the correct strategy. When they wanted to go back to the moon, they had a conundrum. They had all the plans for their larger spacecraft, but they lacked the tools and expertise to make them! 

Manufacturing had changed since then, with computers having a larger role in the entire process. So even though they knew what went into these old spacecraft, they couldn't make them without relearning from scratch all the lost techniques they had used. Which is almost mind-boggling considering how few years separated their return to the moon and how much more experience they now had with space in general. This meant redesigning a new set of larger spacecraft, using modern techniques of manufacturing. And return they did. Eventually. Space is too tempting to ignore for long.

So even though I know the principles behind converting high energy photons into anti-matter, but the exacts of the process aren't something I know right now. My knowledge doesn't get far beyond heating up iron ore to make something useful out of it. 

Down below you can see how much energy is stored and which direction the bar is going.

I'm not sure if using a mech suit and a plasma cutter counts as getting my hands dirty, but here goes. Obviously I can't harvest everything I'll need with one small mech suit. So the first step is to get some basic materials, bang them together to see how they work, and build facilities. Those facilities will then do the work to make more tools, so I can research further, and so on and so forth. As well, I'll need to worry about powering my mech. The zero-point energy reactor won't run out of juice, but it doesn't produce much more than the basic upkeep. If I'll want to do high energy activities like mine, I'll need to throw something else into the reactor. 

Yes. This means I'll be powering a high tech mech by throwing some wood into the fire. It's almost embarrassing how low tech I'll have to go for awhile until I can use proper power sources like fusion or antimatter.

Wind turbines produce a steady amount of power, though different planets will have different rates. Some even have no atmosphere, and thus no wind power.

And so we start with some low tech but surprisingly useful machines. The mining machines are obvious, but we'll start by powering them with wind turbines. It's certainly one way to harvest power from the sun, if a few degrees removed. The simplicity of wind power means it'll be the main staple of my power generation for a good long while. If not for the entire trip.

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New AAR: Dyson Sphere Program

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Introduction

It looks even cooler in motion

Hello, and welcome to my new writing project for Dyson Sphere Program (DSP). If you're unfamiliar at all with this form of writing, the idea is to construct a narrative out of a game, and accompany it with pictures or videos. Personally I find it entertaining to write them out, and I find they give me a good amount of motivation to play through the games further than I might otherwise. Games like these without a definite end-point and long play times can really make for difficulties in getting very far, as I'll often want to do something else partway through. Always with the intention to return later, but still.

I do hope you enjoy! Please do share and/or comment if you like this. Or even if you don't like it! It's always great to see people interact with your works.

Both of these pictures come from the default main menu. They make for a great introduction.

Let's get on with thing shall we?

A Brief History Lesson

 Some indeterminate time ago, humanity built themselves a supercomputer, one so advanced that calling it a supercomputer doesn't do it justice. With it they could upload themselves to the computer, and there live virtual lives. They turned it on, uploaded everyone, renamed the supercomputer the CentreBrain, and people were happy. The designers were smart and built larger than they needed to. More computing power meant more virtual people, and better simulations. Except they unloaded everyone before finishing the power requirements to run the thing at full capacity.

It's time to dream big. The CentreBrain is well equipped to live a long, long time with what it currently has. There's no rush, which means we have plenty of opportunity to dream big. Real big. Have you ever heard of a Dyson Sphere? Popularized by one Freeman Dyson, the proposed sphere is to built around an entire star. That way you'd collect all of the solar energy coming from the star. All of it. If you're unfamiliar with the size of stars, that might not seem like much of a challenge, but let me assure you, stars are massive. Correspondingly the energy output from such a device would also be massive. Why build a fusion plant if you already have one that's naturally occurring?

This would be a huge undertaking, obviously. Unfortunately for me there's only enough spare parts lying around for one mech. The ancients didn't exactly think of what to do to keep manufacturing going when everyone moved into the CentreBrain. Which means building this massive megastructure has become a one-man job. Yay me?  How hard could it be?

I have some support at least. Me and others have formed the group COSMO, and while I'll be piloting the mech, they'll be there to help research and provide morale support. And training. Using a real body in the real world isn't something I've ever had to do before, having been "born" in the CentreBrain. Should be fun to visit the vastness of the Real World. My supervisor has selected a world in a remote system for me to start. It has all the raw resources I'll need to get my journey started.

You can see the planet off in the distance, the one orbiting that gas giant

 

I think it needs to be said. The real world is beautiful. The stars and planets are a real sight to behold.

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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.

XCOM 2 AAR - We're on fire!

It's guerrilla ops time! Same mission as last op; aliens have an unsecured terminal up. Go in, grab the data we need before they lock us out, and make sure all hostiles in the immediate area are eliminated. The battlefield today is a small town out in the suburbs, with a large group of aliens on one side of a small bookstore, and us on the other. I hope he has insurance, because that store isn't going to survive the fight.

The team sets up, hidden from the alien squad, and Lovenought begins the ambush with a cute little trick on his modified GREMLIN: set off a large discharge, potentially stunning and damaging any foes within reach of the blast.

That little machine is a beast. The uninjured soldier rushes towards us and is met with a rather unhealthy sight:

Boom! Headshot! Gedierond gets a kill with his first shot.  Culise takes up a forward position and grenades the wounded trio, killing the trooper and viper, leaving the archon disoriented and horribly wounded. Susanne is forced to retreat from the roof by a surprisingly nimble heavy MEC bearing down on her.  The aliens aren't able to do much besides fire suppression fire down on the newbie. We're that well setup. Hyme can't get a good shot from her position, so instead opts for a grenade on the MEC to damage and distract it.

Whatever this shop was selling, it's clearly out of business now. Susanne gets her revenge on the poor MEC with a burst from her cannon, finishing it off. Lovenought misses his shot on the disoriented archon, but Gedierond lands his second shot for a second kill. That's the first group down. Next to destroy is the restaurant holding our target. Susanne spots the next patrol, two sectoids and an andromedon having tea or something. Culise blows out the side of the restaurant with an acid grenade, shredding the armor off the andromedon and exploding the gas tank injuring him further.

But the hulking thing is far from dead and manages a brutal bunch on his aggressor. Her anger and pain prevent the first sectoid from messing with her mind, and the second does his ol resurrection parlor trick. Fires everywhere, Hyme lands a quick pistol shot on the andromedon, killing the alien but leaving the suit still intact. Gedierond lands a grenade on the nearby sectoid, destroying the rock it was using for cover. Gaius fires two shots into the andromedon, but fails to kill it. Hyme finishes it off with her rifle, then kills the wounded sectoid with her pistol, which also ends the puppeted soldier. The last sectoid is held down with suppressive fire from Susanne, giving Culise a chance to outflank and kill it.

A squad of reinforcements comes to try and salvage the situation, but we've already gotten our information with a rough hack from Gedierond. The elite trooper drops down and is immediately killed by Susanne and Hyme. The accompanying shieldbearer drops from Lovenought and Gedierond's combined fire, leaving only an unwounded heavy MEC to contend with. Lovenought has it handled though and easily executes the machine. All that's left is to find the last remaining patrol and deal with them. Preferably without taking any damage from the numerous fires we've started. Or the fumes of deadly acid we dropped that are currently eating through the roof of the restaurant.

Gaius's stealthy movements let her spot the new patrol undetected. Two soldiers and an archon, taking a stroll through the nearby woods. Apparently not understanding that the smoke and fire in the distance means they should probably be helping.

Susanne enlightens them as to why they should have helped by firing her rocket from a far-off defensive position. (And starts a forest fire). Lovenought easily handles the soldier on the left, while Gedierond gets his first miss of the day firing on the archon, missing and setting the fridge on fire. Culise makes his shot though and brings it down. Susanne seems angry, using a strong grenade to obliterate the last soldier.

I have a feeling Smoky the bear would be very ashamed of us right now, if he weren't already dead from the alien invasion. Sixteen aliens dead and a town and forest on fire, we head home for the day.

Back at base, life is boring. The science team is still waiting for enough supplies to start researching the psionic gate we brought back, or for additional corpses to carve up. Shen lacks the resources to use our new weapons tech to build weapons for the team, but does manage to construct a new suit of armor from the leftover bits and pieces we have in storage.

The wraith suit. Less armored than the warden suits the rest of the team prefers, it does contain an interesting "Screw you physics" device that lets the wearer phase through solid objects. Should come in handy. Shen also attached a grappling hook to the suit for maximum mobility. Will be handy for any additional missions.

Such as the new rescue the VIP mission that Mr. Mysterious now has for us.

XCOM 2 AAR - Chryssalids!

That mission done, we've bought ourselves some time on stopping the alien's AVATAR project. I certainly want to investigate the coordinates we found in the last codex brain, but Tygan has sent news that he's almost finished with a new type of plasma weapon and we do find ourselves with a fair amount of supplies on hand for a weapons upgrade. I can't resist a good new weapon.

He gives me an even better surprise: not only does he have a new sniper plasma rifle, but also a plasma pistol and a fusion sword. Those should all come in hand for future missions.

Our waiting does give the aliens time to launch another retaliation strike against the resistance, so off the team goes to stop them. The new weapons are perfect for this kind of mission, and I send two each of the rangers and snipers. The area we land in is typical for the resistance: lots of trees and good cover, away from any population center, and with most of it burning. Seems like they even have a bug infestation this time around:

Chryssalids. Bradford tells me of them when he fought them occasionally after my capture. Their claws are quite sharp, able to cut through armor with a fair amount of ease, and they reproduce by killing humans and injecting their larva into the corpse, creating a zombie that will eventually mutate into a new chryssalid. I'd think he was pulling my leg if I thought he had a sense of humor. Lucky for us, we're heavily armed and our armor should be capable of withstanding at least one blow from these bugs.

JCan starts the battle with a grenade into their group, as they for some reason decided on sticking together. The entire battle seems a bit different this time around, as both Gaius and Van Wezel are quite skilled with melee combat, wading into the fray and each getting a kill. Culise follows up with cannon fire to kill the final beast. A fourth chryssalid comes from out of the darkness. Health manages a glancing blow on it with her pistol, followed up with a second for a kill. A wandering soldier and heavy mec come around the corner, but we're ready for them. Health fires three pistol shots into the soldier, easily killing him. (Don't ask me how the new pistols fire so quickly)

Gaius shoots twice into the heavy mec, weakening it enough for a plasma blade slash from Van Wezel to kill it. Another chryssalid appears and slashes at him, but he dodges. Spyhawk shoots from his perch but the darned thing is too nimble for him to get a solid shot in. Culise tries the same but his cumbersome weapon isn't quick enough. The beast can't dodge quick enough for JCan though.

In a blasted out church is a horrid sight: two ADVENT soldiers, a heavy mec, and a chryssalid attacking a civilian. If Bradford is to be believed, that means zombie time. The mec advances towards us and JCan gets two good shots in, but the mec's armor holds. A grenade from Culise and a pistol shot from Health later and it goes down. The grenade also removed cover from the heavily armored shieldbearer, giving Spyhawk the opportunity for a well-placed head shot. Gaius takes down the nearby chryssalid, and JCan manages a good shot on the remaining soldier.

Spent, we wait for the upcoming zombie. Instead, what pops out is a very quick, very angry baby chryssalid which promptly starts tearing away at Van Wezel. JCan heals him up, reports that the poison from the baby was also cured, and then shoots it dead. Poison? Baby chryssalids? Time to uncover what's going on over there. I have Van Wezel toss a grenade in and destroy the cover blocking our view of the dead body.

That...does not look like a zombie. Gaius and Culise both burn the cocoon out with heavy fire. No more baby chryssalids for us. Off in the distance we hear the sounds of mimics transforming. Why are these aliens so disgusting?

Out from behind JCan comes the mimic, ready for a strong swipe at him. JCan has his weapon ready, and his aim is true, but these things are too tough even for a plasma rifle.  Thankfully, Spyhawk is watching and his aim is also true, bringing the alien down before it can do any damage. The other mimic targets Gaius, but she's experienced with melee combat and easily able to dodge the cumbersome blow. Van Wezel cuts at the the thing with his blade and even manages to set it on fire, but it stays standing long enough to get cut down with cannon fire from Culise.

9/13 civilians saved. Our best record yet. Why Bradford is so scared of these things, I don't know. The mission went so well, I have the team suit up for another mission, with a few replacements.

The coordinates lead to a rather lonely looking place in the middle of the Asian desert. With what looks like purple psionic rain. Something seems fishy here. We land near an abandoned house, inside of which is a group of three chryssalids standing near the gas container. Culise starts the ambush by igniting the container and leaving them easy kills for the rest of the team. One kill each to Health, Lovenought, and Trajan. As long as we stay cautious, I don't see the chryssalids being any real threat. No civilians around here to reproduce with.

Near the house is a small ADVENT storage area guarded by a turret. Turrets seemed tough with ordinary bullets, but it's nothing against plasma weapons. Two other soldiers and a heavy mec guard the outpost. The first soldier goes down to a burst from Gaius, while the second soldier hits only cactus with his return fire. Trajan locks the mec behind a psionic stasis wall, giving JCan the chance to get close enough for a successful hack. Gaius kills the second soldier with her new blade. The team advances, mec first.

Another chryssalid appears in the open, and Culise nets another kill. Lovenought fires at the mec, because it certainly doesn't look like the chryssalids will kill it before the hack wears off.

The mec spots more chryssalids in the distance, this time springing out from the ground. Guess that explains why the chryssalids are guarding the area. Why they don't wait before springing out, I have no clue. Gaius lands a shot on the approaching chryssalid, followed up by Culise and Health. The thing stood no chance having to traverse so much terrain. Oddly enough, Lovenought managed to protect the mec from the attacking chryssalid. The mec lands a shot on another chryssalid, weakening it for Lovenought to kill. The mec, having done it's duty, is killed by Health with a headshot in the back.

The last chryssalid is too far away for the team to reliably hit, but too close to allow to roam free, so Trajan binds it with another stasis. I'm beginning to think she might have a thing for that kind of work.

Before now it's been standard desert terrain (if you ignore the purple crap falling from the sky), but behind this chryssalid the land turns alien. Lovenought lands his hit on the chryssalid, with a followup kill from Culise. I get everyone in range before I start walking on that...whatever it is.

At the end of the alien pathway sits a psionic portal. Creepy. Looks like this is where the coordinates lead.

Out of the portal comes what I can only describe as a giant, mechanical, psionic eye. It quickly rockets forward, well in range of the team. It wants to die, I see.

Culise fires his acid grenade right on top of it, but it still has plenty of armor. JCan uses his precision fire to strip the armor off the eye, leaving it vulnerable. Health fires five pistol shots at the eye, and while you'd normally expect the sound of "plink plink plink" coming off the shots, her laser does serious work on it. Trajan ends it with a blast straight into the center. We group up and reload in case another eye comes out of that portal.

Instead, three chryssalids come from behind the portal. Trajan and Gaius take out the first, while Culise kills the second. The third makes it surprisingly far before JCan and Lovenought kill it. JCan moves up towards the portal, but the last chryssalid, the smartest chryssalid, stays buried until he gets close. It pops out of the ground and gets him in the face. He and Culise kill it, but we'll have to see how he does with that injury.

We bring the gate back and hand it off to the research team. They think they can manage it, but will need additional supplies - supplies which we don't have. We'll have to wait for the next supply drop.

Our newest recruit has finished his training. I hope he's luckier than the late Ms. Potassium.