Minor overhaul, new record:

DaveMcW wrote: Sat Jan 06, 2024 5:33 am Great job. 204 chemical science packs is clearly the maximum you can get from the available oil.

I think another way to make the scenario more interesting is to multiply oil richness by 4x, so it is no longer a bottleneck.

Yes, or add modules.

As mentioned in the Aaron's Reddit post , the difficulty is quite off in general. It’s too easy to clear the requirement, even on Hard difficulty. Like mentioned, the coins rewarded for each item is too high, so the cost of the land, the entities, etc. becomes near insignificant. All it takes is to ...

There are several options in the overall design. The major decisions revolve around what to use the various patches for, where to source the necessary iron, copper, coal, and where to produce intermediates like steel, gears, and pipes. We also need to think about where to put power and the refinery ...

After having limited sulfur to 50 batches, and re-directed petroleum to plastic, we suddenly have enough plastic and subsequent RC for 204 BS, but not enough sulfur. Because plastic + RC takes longer to produce than sulfur, we can re-enable sulfur as soon as we have the necessary plastic production ...

Even with the sulfur suppressed and RC distribution controlled as per above, we’re still ending the scenario with the auto-stocked 2 sulfurs in each BS assembler. Unacceptable! We can do better.

We begin by cutting off petroleum at a point where we see that we have enough sulfur for what we have ...

With the sulfur production suppressed, plastic and subsequent red circuits (RC) is ultimately limiting BS production. To ensure we use all available RC quickly and efficiently in the end, we must take control of how the RC is fed into the BS assemblers.

Each batch of BS requires 3 RC. Therefore, we ...

Because we are limited by the amount of oil available on the map, we want to control how petroleum is split between sulfur and plastic. Without any control, too much petroleum will go to sulfur, and we'll be left with a lot of wasted sulfur in the end. Unacceptable!

too much sulfur.png

To limit ...

The core, where the blue science (BS) bottles are produced, includes a wooden distribution box that serves as a logistics hub for all ingredients needed. All sulfur, engines, and red circuits are fed into the box, and the BS assemblers take what they need from it. This basic set-up is compact and ...

Inspired by this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/izl0rf/my_solutions_to_the_tight_spot_challenges/
I got hooked on the idea of optimizing the design of Tight Spot Level 5 (hard), to see how far I could get. As the post says, it isn't really "hard" per se to clear the level, even on ...

Re-created in 1.1.98.
NB. After upgrading and loading the saves in 1.1.98, the burner inserter (to the right of the refinery) wouldn't pick up the coal to fuel itself. Removing and re-placing it solved the issue.

When deconstructing red/green wire or entities connected to red/green wire, the red/green wire is permanently lost. This goes against the spirit of Tight Spot, where the funds are supposed to be preserved.

It becomes a nuisance when trying to maximize the score, because when you want to re-design a ...

When trying to optimize the score in Tight Spot, I noticed that removing three wall segments in this location affects how many flasks are produced in the 15 minute scenario. This should reasonably not be the case? (Or is the mining drill affected by the presence of nearby walls?)
walls location.png ...

I think players just want to keep tidy, and shooting a box just doesn't feel right. Honestly, It would feel more "right" if the items contained within a box fell to the ground when the box was destroyed.

If you want to improve your odds of successful launch, you should perform some task analysis on players that never played the game. Have them sit in front of the game and just instruct them to do what they want with the game. Interview them as they explore the first hour or two of the game, how they ...

It means that when determining the properties for a point on the map the algorithm can't look at e.g. adjacent points to determine what properties the new point has; instead it must base its calculations only on the seed and parameters given initially. This rules out generating maps based on ...

I'm not a huge fan of the results of the current map generator. I understand that the devs want to be able to calculate any point of the map independently of all others, but that constraint it is getting in the way of creating fun, variable, interesting maps with replayability value. I'm sure a ...

I'm not a huge fan of the results of the current map generator. I understand that the devs want to be able to calculate any point of the map independently of all others, but that constraint it is getting in the way of creating fun, variable, interesting maps with replayability value. I'm sure a ...

I'll wait for the results from the user testing of those map generators before I decide which one I vote for.

Sulfur is used for more things than that though, for example, doesn't Zinc processing need Sulfuric Acid, and Explosives need Sulfur?

Yes, the demand can be higher than supply. Personally I've never experienced it more than temporarily, though. It might be so, however, if you use a lot of special ...