This is interesting coming from a post-expansion perspective. I do feel Space Age in some ways tried to approach this problem, and succeeded in some ways. Ultimately someone else pointed out very well that this isn’t a problem inherent to Factorio. It’s a problem that stems from how humans approach problem solving as a whole. We like to find one-size fits all solutions that we can apply over and over again. Ultimately what the expansion tried to do to solve this problem was to introduce new mechanics to act as new constraints. Spoilage is a constraint, constraining your throughput by time. So is Aquilo’s increase power draw for bots. Likewise Fulgora’s inverted crafting tree and Vulcanus’ lava do force you to rethink how you approach certain problems and they don’t reward a one-size fits all solution. Sure, a bot base WILL WORK for EVERY planet, but…
Spoilage will cause a lot of unnecessary bot work, and bots do NOT take freshness into account, which I think is intentional. Aquilo requires a lot of bots to get anything done in a timely fashion and they drain power like crazy too. Fulgora’s biproducts likewise introduce more jobs for bots. They end up becoming very unscalable on 3 of the worlds, and I think that’s a good thing. Ultimately it won’t stop you from just building huge bot bases on them, but it definitely works to discourage that. Each planet tends to have different optimal solutions, and we’re currently in a time where we’re free to explore those. Admittedly there’s still some of the old problem as the “LDS Shuffle” presents a new endgame homogeneity for solving the Legendary production problem, but something like it would evolve regardless. I admit… I also turned around and went to modded playthroughs after finishing the vanilla game for similar reasons. And I still am doing that, but now it’s less of to explore the fun of the base game, and more to explore new mechanics because I like seeing how people try to create their own challenges for mods. Like I’ve been meaning to do a playthrough of Ultracube myself
there's something kind of amazing about this. that you can take an obviously terrible design approach on purpose as a challenge and then on some level it turns out there's still a one-size-fits-all solution that is... maybe not 'optimal', who knows, but, highly optimised? the whole factory is in large part the same basic building block stamped one time after another. the design constraint prevents the already-existing standard solutions from working but then you find there's a new kind of standard solution, even more uniform.
and on some level you'd think that was an artefact of this run, but no. i've seen this guy's other challenge runs, like the beltless one and the all-burner one. they all end up with 'yeah turns out there's a standard solution i am just going to keep implementing over and over'.
i am reminded of what @definitelynotplanetfall was saying about how the main bus architecture and more broadly the factorio 'meta' of standard arrays for doing things means it's very easy to just take The One Tool That Solves The Problem and implement it and it feels... a bit like drudgery? idk i don't want to put words in their mouth that's the impression i got from what they were saying. and like at the time i pushed back a little because, like, i am having fun playing.
which i am, but. idk. there's something there. it seems easy sometimes to take the tools that simplify your life in this game a little too far and simplify the fun away. but at the same time it's also the case that i hate it when i grow used to a tool and it goes away, like when i started a vanilla playthrough for reasons a while back and noticed how much lacking simple things like module inserter and autodeconstruct was annoying me.
the IRONY of this being one of the only books they'll put on a fucken shelf
oh
and a coat.
I’m trying to find my people
Disclaimer: This story is primarily designed as a story of Ford during his dimensional travels. It features him crossing over to other universes with those being the following (In no order whatsoever): Rick and Morty, Adventure Time, and Steven Universe. This list will probably expand, and might involve travel to AU’s.
Chapter 1:
Author’s notes:
This story takes place directly after Stanley and Stanford’s fight in 1982, where Ford is pushed through the portal. So as such, the story starts as Ford gets pulled through. Thank you for reading.
“STANLEY DO SOMETHING!”
These are going to be my last words, Ford thought as he was pulled into the portal. In his blind panic, he’d thrown Journal 1 at his brother in a vain attempt to get help. Stanford closed his eyes and braced for the horrors of the nightmare realm.
It was pitch black, and Ford couldn’t hear a thing. “Is this what death feels like?”
The only thing Ford heard was his own question. Then he realized his eyes were shut. As he opened them a rather non-nightmare realm looked back at him. He was standing in a lightly wooded forest more or less alone.
“Wait I thought the portal was linked to the nightmare realm. Unless…”
Ford’s brain immediately snapped back to the fight with his brother. When he and Stanley had been fighting they must have not only activated the portal, they must have also damaged it, changing the destination from the nightmare realm to … well wherever he was. He’d need to take a closer look at his surroundings to figure out where he was and if there was any immediate danger. The flora and fauna he saw was fairly familiar. This could possibly be earth, but these weren’t the pine trees and redwoods of Gravity Falls. Still, it was vaguely North American. In fact he wasn’t even sure if some of these plants were native to his dimension. Regardless of where he was now though, he wouldn’t last long unless he could find some shelter. Then maybe he could think up a way to get out of here. Or perhaps Stanley might reactivate the portal. Though if Stanley reactivated the Portal, he’d be even angrier at him than he already was for putting him in this mess.
It’d been three days already. Ford had created himself a decent shelter and managed to find some edible food nearby. He’d been fairly lucky in that this dimension he’d crashed into had been very similar to his own, and assuming the stars and climate here were similar enough too, he was somewhere on the eastern side of the North America in the early spring. Ford had been waiting to see if a portal opened up somewhere nearby in the event that his brother attempted to rescue him. His daily routine was to get up and explore the surrounding area for survival resources as well as a possible portal back home. He repeated this day after day, noting a mark in a new journal he’d started with. He’d made an estimate of the time of a day on this planet, and indeed, it seemed to be an earth, having a 24-hour cycle.
Ford had been waiting around his little shelter at this point for five weeks now. He’d come to the conclusion that if Stanley hadn’t tried to rescue him by now, that his brother would have just given up. So Ford grabbed the survival gear he’d made and headed east in the hope of finding some form of civilization. After all this is Earth, in a period in which very familiar life existed as well.
After two weeks of searching and walking, Ford stumbled into a small town in what he discovered was more-or-less Virginia. Of course the native inhabitants called their state a different name, but Ford just called it Virginia-1. The town was fairly similar in size to the Gravity Falls that Ford had left and seemed just like any other southeastern town he’d visited. He mainly kept to himself, as he attempted to integrate himself into the town life and possibly find a place to stay. After a few cultural disputes and such Ford just stuck to the junkyard. Ford had found that he’d actually preferred being an outcast here, since it gave him more time for writing. He’d also been searching through the different piles of junk for anything he could use to cobble together a device to track dimensional anomalies, which could help him to get home. Ford soon succeeded, having used some wiring, electronics, and some of his own parts and such that had come through the portal with him.
It’d been about four months since Ford had initially found himself stranded here, and now he had what he believed to be a way out. He was finally ready to leave Dimension 1 and come home. He set off, and after another two weeks of searching he found himself face to face with a dimensional rift. Well, there was only one thing to do now. Ford took a breath and stepped through.
[Chapter 2]
Ladybug: Adrien?
Chat Noir, detransformed: Quick, act dumb!
Adrien: Who the hell is Adrien?
Adrien, internally: Not that dumb!!!
The Author of the fanfics:
My friend
Heyo, it’s GravitiJatuh/Lxilani here. Summer is approaching, which means that updates on my fics will speed up a whole lot. Here is the future of my writing for the next few weeks:
Fearscape Of The Pines, Chapter 3: Our Phobias - out June 11/12
Scar-Crossed, Chapter 1: Orion’s Belt - out July 2016
Shooting The Star, Chapter 2: Blue Universe - out July 2016
unnamed fanfiction, Chapter 1 - out summer 2016
And an original story is in the works! It is called Venn and is inspired by Gravity Falls. I fully intend for it to become a full-length novel. The publication/finish date is completely unknown at this point; I haven’t even finished chapter 3 yet. I’ll give little updates and maybe excerpts of passages here and there until it’s finished, however long it may take (I’m guessing months or years).
I’m sure you all are much more excited for my fanfics, though. Please look out for those, and thank you for reading!
being collectively screwed over by canon is vld fandom culture
[john mulaney voice] THIS IS THE HEIGHT OF ROMANCE
I'd say Wendy still misses Dipper, but hear aim is too good.
Disclaimer: Hey this gets dark real fast (0 to 60) and was written primarily to “Balance out the forces of the universe” After a friend of mine took a join project I’d been involved in and taken it off the rails into Wendip Territory (The stories ended up splitting into 2 stories written by two authors each instead of 1 story by 4). Anyways to balance out the force of the universe (and yes, I’m looking at you Graviti and Futur) I wrote this.
It gets dark so I tagged it as Depravity Falls, and spoiler alert, it involves death. So you’ve been forewarned.
Keep reading
A blog about colony management simulators apparently nowadays. Used to do some fan stuff back in the day, but haven't in a long time. Mostly about Dwarf Fortress right now. Might also feature Oxygen Not Included or Deep Rock Galactic
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