Random world challenge

[Frightning]

After beefing up my power system to 5 sets of 1-14-10 steam and directly connecting my Coal line (bypassing the buffer chest), and covering my entire Coal patch in Electric mining drills, I finally had enough sustained power to bring 20 Laser turrets with me and clear out a couple of the huge biter bases between me and the new Iron ore deposit further NE of my existing NE Iron outpost. As a result I have now gathered an astonishing 4441 Alien artifacts, here's to hoping I don't see Behemoth biters soon... The new outpost has almost 110k Iron ore, so I should be set for iron for a while (rate will drop to 4 Electric mining drills once I have mined about 1/3 of it though so Iron mining rate will still be quite low, not that that matters much, since I still haven't found anymore goddamn Oil fields....). Now to find myself some Oil fields....

Map pic of far NE:

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[Frightning]

So the Radar at Iron 3 found two more smallish Iron ore deposits to the east of it, and I also did some more manual exploration, and found two more Iron ore deposits to the SE of my main base, I also cleared out the biters near and on a path leading to the Iron ore deposit along the western edge of the pic in my previous post and setup the outpost there, sans miners, as I am actually making plenty enough Iron ore atm. I put miners down temporarily before I connected power to get the Transport belt layout done ahead of time, and got a rough count of how much Iron ore is in that new patch: ~300k (!) so I am actually quite Iron secure now, with close to 400k under my control and more found on the map. Moreover, I got Iron ore backlogging into my Main Iron station where I unload it now since I am not actually using much resources atm, I have enough Electric furnaces with Productivity module 1s in them to keep up with my Iron ore income by nothing is eating the Iron plates their making fast enough (about the only thing I am making is Science pack 1s and Science pack 2s for research; the rest of everything I'd like to make is waiting on more Crude oil....speaking of which....I still haven't found anymore Oil fields (despite quite a bit of searching). The Radar at my new outpost is beginning to scout it's surroundings, which includes a sizable unexplored area, so here's to hoping I found some oil up there (it's almost due north of my main base, only slightly east).

Map pic: You can also see the two SE iron deposits if you look closely, as well as where my new outpost is (and the area the Radar will be able to scout).

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[Frightning]

35 hours in, still haven't found anymore Oil fields...The Radar to my North and slightly east didn't find any, and neither did the Radar at my new outpost to the SE of my main. My Oil train has over 300 Filled crude oil barrels in it now, so I should get another shipment in about 4.5 hours or so (it hit 300 a little bit before I ended my last play session), and that will be most helpful as I've had almost nothing to do while waiting for Radars to explore and research to happen. Both Iron 1 and Iron 2 have run out of ore, but I've yet to tap the ~300k Iron ore patch that I mentioned in my previous post and the as yet unclaimed patch to my far NE appears to be ever bigger, so I am not hurting for Iron ore, nor will I be any time soon. I renamed the outpost to my N and slightly E to Iron 1, and my new one to the SE Iron 2 thereby recycling the names and rerouted the trains that serviced those outposts before to the respective new sites (I've yet to set up Electric mining drills at the sites, so the trains are effectively just waiting for when the time comes that I need them). I am nearly finished with all Red+Green research, only a handful of upgrades remain, which are slow going as I only have 2 Research labs and I need to wait for more Crude oil before I can make any Science pack 3s anyways so it's not like I'd benefit from more Research labs. It should be just about perfect my oil train to arrive with a full load of oil right when I finish up my Red+Green research, including first 2 levels of Rocket damage and Rocket shooting speed since I have plenty of Alien artifacts, 6176 found in total so far, and that's only from removing bases that I mostly needed to get rid of. Speaking of the biters, apart from the occasional unacceptably close expansion, and rare turret damage at Iron 3, they've been surprisingly cooperative, probably mostly due to how little I am polluting, that said, I see quite a sizable proportion Big of both biters and spitters, so I expect Behemoths are just a largish base away from starting to spawn, which is...unnerving, I am not as ready as I'd like for Behemoths to start appearing... I'll feel a lot better with an extra stack or 2 of Laser turrets stockpiled...I am currently running low on them as most of the ones I have are now serving as static defenses for my outposts (though I have yet to deconstruct my old Iron 2 site, which I will do probably first thing next play session and recycle those buildings at a new Iron outpost...probably the one to the far NE as it's easier to get at and has more unexplored territory for the Radar to explore (here's to hoping I finally find some goddamn oil.....).

Map pic:

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new Iron 1 pic:

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new Iron 2 pic:

20161202014926_1.jpg (165.63 KiB) Viewed 8379 times

[Frightning]

So I have since claimed the two remaining previously unclaimed Iron ore deposits and had Radars on them long enough to scout their full perimeter: no new Iron ore deposits or Oil fields...I have completed all my Green science research and had my first full 400-barrel oil shipment arrive from my only oil outpost, with the 4000*1.08=4,320 Petroleum gas from that Oil, I made mostly Advanced circuits and Batteries for use in Science pack 3s. With those, I have researched Advanced oil processing so that I can begin cracking the ~2500 Heavy oil and nearly 6000 Light oil I have accumulated into more Petroleum gas. I am going to research Beacons and Speed module 2s next (I'm currently finishing the 1 remaining Lab research speed upgrade, did the other one before researching Advanced oil processing since I had the Science pack 3s to spare and because I only have 2 Labs and no room in my layout to increase that number). Once those researches are done, I'm doing to make 12 Beacons and surround my only Pumpjack with them and fill them with Speed module 2s. (as well as replace the Speed module 1s in the Pumpjack with Speed module 2s). Once that's all done, I'll be getting 0.42 Crude oil/sec instead my current 0.14 Crude oil/sec. That's triple my current income rate for oil, which will reduce the time between shipments to roughly 6.5 hours instead of the current nearly 20 hours, that together with the fact that I have now researched and setup Heavy oil cracking and Light oil cracking (with Productivity module 1s inside the Chemical plants too, for maximum yield) should result in a halfway decent level of Petroleum gas production.

[Frightning]

So I underestimated how expensive the tier 2 modules would be, I've run out of Heavy oil and Light oil to crack as well as Petroleum gas. managed to get all 96 Speed module 1s that I will need to make the 24 Speed module 2s I need to fill 12 Beacons, but that ate up a lot of oil in the form of Advanced circuits using Plastic bars. I've started making the Processing units I will need for the Speed module 2s as well, but that's where I've run out, I still have some Plastic bars left, but that will only get me about 50 more Advanced circuits, and the Beacons alone need 240, not to mention I need about 90 more Processing units and 120 more Advanced circuits to actually make the Speed module 2s. So I will have to wait for one more shipment, would is approximately 11 hours off... In the meantime, I think I will do some manual searching beyond what my Radars have explored, maybe with some luck I'll find some more Oil fields...

How about the rest of you guys that started your own random maps? What trials and tribulations did you encounter?

[Lee_newsum]

What I got from Random world

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My map

Random world challenge 2.png (71.32 KiB) Viewed 8227 times

look like copper is going to be a pane.
Edit1
Full map I have NO new copper

Random world challenge 3.png (56.46 KiB) Viewed 8221 times

[ssilk]

I will move this now from General to Maps&Scenarios.

[Frightning]

Done some further manual searching, but didn't find any new Oil fields (it was hard to even find any places where I get between the biter nests and trees to go have a look at what was beyond). So I've kinda settled into waiting for the Oil to accumulate. If my math is right (and it usually is), I should have plenty enough Petroleum gas out of this next shipment to make the rest of what I need to surround that 1 Pumpjack with 12x Beacons with Speed modules 2 inside, which will take my Oil income from 0.16/sec to 0.52/sec (over triple what it is now). Got about 4.5 hrs left on the waiting, since I have about 295/400 barrels filled now.

[Frightning]

At last, the oil shipment has arrived, and I am now handcrafting the 24 Speed module 2s, and awaiting production of Advanced circuits needed for the 12 Beacons. Once that's done, I'll go to my Oil outpost and refactor the layout to allow room for the Beacons and kick my oil product up to an actually half-decent level (compared to what I've had to deal with so far anyways).

[Frightning]

Oil outpost upgraded, now working on upgrading all my Productivity modules to tier 2, prioritizing those involved in the oil chain, and especially those used to make said modules. The new and improved oil outpost started spitting out much pollution as expected: jumped from 19.8 to 80.6 (!) so I had to push back a few biter bases (and so far one rebuild attempt). Total Alien artifacts found is now 7840 encounting. Once I get the Productivity modules upgraded and make some more for when I need to establish Electric mining drills for my next mine (current one is at about 10k left), I'm going to resume research, but that's a while off, given how expensive Productivity module 2s are (I think my Oil income my end up almost keeping pace with usage, since I'm mostly bottlenecked at Advanced circuits, which only have a single Assembly machine 2 with 2 Productivity module 2s in it making them. Since I'm manually moving my oil based products around to keep tight control on things, so I will at least have something to do besides wait in the meantime, at least, besides waiting for the biters to expand into my pollution so I have a reason to go push them back...

[Frightning]

Most of my production buildings that had Productivity module 1s have now been upgraded to have Productivity module 2s (a few left to go). I had another Oil shipment arrive when I still had 900 Crude oil and a full tank of 2500 Petroleum gas left, so I am actually making Crude oil faster than I am using it to make Productivity module 2s. So with that in mind, I put some Batteries into making more Laser turrets, Accumulators, and Flying robot frames, and now have a proper reserve of each of them (Flying robot frames are still being made atm). My Heavy armor finally broke down, and I am now sporting the Modular armor I had made a long while back (complete w/ Nightvision goggles, 2 Energy shield MK1s, 3 Battery MK1s, and 5 Portable solar panels). Once I finish the module upgrades, I will be making even more Productivity module 2s because my current Iron mine has almost run dry, and when that happens I want the new mine to have Productivity module 2s in the Electric mining drills instead of the Productivity module 1s my current mine has.

Edit: I have surpassed the 67 hour mark at this point, and have acquired a total of 8197 Alien artifacts.

[Ingress]

Alright boys and girls I think I am going to give this a shot. The numbers I am going to run with is


3 1 1 4 3
2 6 3 3 2
3 1 2 2 5
6 2 6 5 6
3 2 5 5

Seems like a good string. Going to be problematic due to Iron and stone shortages though. When I do find Iron it should be a nice patch with good richness but stone will be the resource I will need to be careful with. I have yet to actually build a rocket so I see this as a good opportunity to officially do it.

[Frightning]

So at last I've upgraded all my Productivity modules to tier 2. In total, made 74 Productivity module 2s to do it. My Iron mine appears to have ran out, though the chests there, and at my base are still giving a healthy buffer for now. I will assess how many Electric mining drills my new mine will need and get to work making more Productivity module 2s to fill said miners.

Passed 68 hr mark, and have found nearly 8300 Alien artifacts.

[Ingress]

So at last I've upgraded all my Productivity modules to tier 2. In total, made 74 Productivity module 2s to do it. My Iron mine appears to have ran out, though the chests there, and at my base are still giving a healthy buffer for now. I will assess how many Electric mining drills my new mine will need and get to work making more Productivity module 2s to fill said miners.

Passed 68 hr mark, and have found nearly 8300 Alien artifacts.

Nice man. I have recently accepted this challenge and seem to have the same low iron levels.

[Ingress]

OK so I am about 3 hours in and have just finished all oil products, (plastic, batteries, red circuits, and last but not lease blue chips. With such low Iron deposits I am starting to run out. However, my Radar has found a nice size path to the south east. I just crafted so trains so I am going to get an iron outpost set up and upgrade my smelting. Still using the stone furnace as I do not want to waist Iron on steel furnace when I am going to upgrade to electric eventually. Radar has also picked up 4 or 5 nice size Biter nests to the south west. I have the all might flame thrower but no good armor yet so I may do a laser turret creep to eliminate the threat if I can not fortify a good turret wall for defense. The best defense is a good offense. I will post some pics tonight for I am pretty proud of my science build. It came out very unique and compact as hell. Here to hoping I survive another night.

Ingress Kerensky out....

[Frightning]

Nearing 74 hrs in now, and I have finally finished making the 45 Productivity module 2s I need for my 15 Electric mining drills that will go in my new Iron mine. I will wait for the buffer chests at my old mine to finish running out before setting up the new mine. In the meantime, I have reached 8677 Alien artifacts found, and, now that I have completed the modules, I will be able to resume...finally...my research (which has been on hold for like 20+ hours now). Still yet to see Behemoth biters/spitters, which surprises me a bit, though my pollution levels have been quite low due to the small scale I've had to maintain due to scarcity. That said, I have noticed that the bulk of the biters and spitters are Big, so Behemoths are likely not too far off, though I am in good shape to be able to upgrade my defenses to deal with them when the time comes.

[Frightning]

A few more hours in, things got a little hectic when I established the new mine as it started spewing out the pollution and aggravating the nearby Biter nests. Beefed up the defenses at the outpost and then automated repairs with a Roboport and some Construction robots. Nearing 9500 Alien artifacts found, I cleared some of the closest biter bases to my outpost but the pollution was also hitting a few huge bases that I didn't really want to clear. Once that outpost fills its buffers pollution should become intermittent and thus the outpost won't be attacked as much. In the meantime I've started doing all Blue science level military research, got all of the weaponry and the Tank, working on equipment for Power armor now. Took a pic of my improved oil setup:

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