I recently started playing Factorio and a few things quickly became apparent. Let's state some facts.
1) Assumption: the world of Factorio is an infinite plane.
Confirmation: it says right at world gen screen that if you do not specify the dimensions, then the generated world is potentially infinite.
2) Assumption: there is a day/night cycle in the world.
Confirmation: play at any map and let time passes a bit, the pattern soon become obvious. If you want more precision, install a ui mod that shows the daytime. If you want precision without any mod, build a solar panel nex to a electric pole not connected to anything, then observe the power levels on it.
3) Assumption: the world generates gravity.
Confirmation: it says in the backstory that the player was on a ship that fell.
Now, how exactly can all of these facts be true at the same time? Let's try a few hipotheses:
A) Simple Star System hipothesis: the world orbits a star, much like the way Earth orbits the Sun.
Counter: the world cannot be tidally locked to the star, otherwise there would be no day cycle, but if there is axial rotation, then the star would soon collide with some point of the surface.
B) Binary Star System hipothesis: the world orbits a binary system, composed of a (small) blackhole and a normal star. When the blackhole passes in front of the star, it appears to be night.
Conter: if the world orbits a star system, then there can be no other star system in the universe, othewise those would eventually collide with the surface; moreover, the game says that the player is on an alien world, which implies they came from a different one, contradiction. If, instead of orbiting, the world is stationary in relation to the star system, then a positive attraction exists with its center of mass, which means they would eventually collide. Another counter is that if the world orbits a binary system, then the further you travel from the origin coordinates, the less light reaches the surface, which would mean distant solar panels would generate less energy.
C) Moving Star Grid hipothesis: on a plane parallel to the surface exists a star grid, travelling at constant speed in one direction (say, east->west). The distance between lines of stars on this axis is considerably larger than on the transversal axis (north-south), so as the stars move in relation to the ground, it creates the appearance of a day cycle.
Counter: Again, gravity laws mean the world and the stars would attract each other, eventually colliding. Also, if the player hops on a train and travel great distances in the direction the stars are moving, they would observe doppler effect on day lengh, which does not happen.
D) Infinite Stack hipothesis: the world/star grid planes described above are in fact part of an infinite stack of such interleaving planes. There is gravitational equilibrium everywhere (while still allowing each world to exert gravitational force on surface objects), which would explain why the star grid do not collide with the surface.
Counter: still does not explain the absence of doppler effect on day lengh.
E) Simulation hipothesis: the world exists as a simulation inside an electrical device. Thus, it can be constructed in such a way that it works outside any plausible astrophysics explanation.
Counter: because reasons.
Well.... "When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth".
F) Illumibiter hipothesis: Flying biters exist. Their sole task is flying in circles and emitting light from their skin (hence their name - illumibiters), an ability that helps them locate their prey. They eventually developed the ability to stop emitting light in a cyclical pattern as to induce any prey into eventually enter panic attacks as "night" falls.
Counter: none. All three initial statements hold true without incurring any absurdities.
Phew, I can finally take the tongue out of my cheek.
I think even a completely filled inventory of a car and character is not enough.
