Random world challenge

[Frightning]

So I decided to try something different, and used a random integer generator (the one at https://www.random.org/integers/) to randomize all of the drop-down menus in the world gen) and play whatever I got. I had to reroll my Copper size because it was none the first time (and no copper=impossible to survive indefinitely; got normal on the reroll). So I ended up with these settings:

20161023025938_1.jpg (274.52 KiB) Viewed 15188 times

I am now about 3.5 hours in and made myself a nice building store (first time trying this technique):

20161025001454_1.jpg (490.95 KiB) Viewed 15188 times

You can see on the map, that I don't have much iron to work with (about 90k in my start). The radar I built a few hours back still hasn't found another iron deposit, so I am likely going to be starving for iron this game. I also don't have much stone, none in my start in fact, but there's a modest size deposite to me east that I've hand mined from a few times while getting started, once I get Energy Distribution researched, I'll string power out there and put a miner w/ a Steel chest on it and come collect the Stone every once in awhile (might eventually set up a train for it. Oil is also going to be a huge problem, I've only found 1 (yes, 1) oil field, to my SE, and it's like 50% yield. Biters are aggressive too, so I will need to deal w/ them while managing the lack of resources (other than abundant Copper ore and Coal). I'm really happy with my building store, it's nice, compact and efficient (each chest is limited to 1 stack atm, may increase some items eventually if I feel like I need more than a stack at a time.

Would be interested in other people trying this challenge and would love to see how you guys adapt to what randomness gives you (feel free to share it in this thread!).

[AboutTime]

Very interesting idea, it could prove to be quite the challenge!

I noticed you will also probably be starving for oil as well.. Granted, when you find a well it is unlimited, and using modules you could increase the output. Still im not sure that will be enough to pull you out of an oil starvation haha

Good luck! Thanks for sharing, i will probably give this a shot for my next playthrough!

[Frightning]

Very interesting idea, it could prove to be quite the challenge!

I noticed you will also probably be starving for oil as well.. Granted, when you find a well it is unlimited, and using modules you could increase the output. Still im not sure that will be enough to pull you out of an oil starvation haha

Good luck! Thanks for sharing, i will probably give this a shot for my next playthrough!

Yea, this map is probably going to be fairly challenging. I found a small Iron deposit not 10 minutes after posting this south of me, already working on the train setup to get that iron back to my main base (I am already feeling the iron starvation since my main base patch is covered by just 4 miners (had ~90k iron in it though, so at least it will last a good while). I am going to be very conservative with my oil usage, and everything that uses iron and oil derivatives will be using productivity modules eventually (modules are copper intensive and I have tons of that shit, and prod bonus will help stretch what little iron and oil I find, I think I will be ok for stone, as the I don't need tons of it, but I could use prod there too.

Edit: Since Coal is so abundant, I will stick with Steam power and a handful of accumulators to power Laser turrets (once I get to making those), that way I don't have to spend Iron or Oil products on ammunition for defense.

[Frightning]

Update, about 7 hours in now, I've added to my building store, though it is now iron and steel starved, got the iron outpost setup too, but it's small enough 1 miner covered the patch, and it's just 11k ore too, I have used about half of my starting ore (47k left now). I put a radar at my stone mine to the east and another at my new iron mine, the one in my base has explored to its full radius now, no other iron, oil, or stone found, so the search will continue. These biter bases are big, but at least they're fairly scattered.

Thinking ahead for when the iron train arrives dumps a deluge of resources into my iron ore line, I made it's merge with the iron line from my main base iron mine a side-loading setup so that the ore from my main base miners gets priority to avoid the ore from my train causing ore from my main to backup to the miners themselves and prevent them from mining. I also realized that since my inserters moving said ore to my furnaces take from the left lane first, that I needed a lane rebalancer that will more ore from the right lane to the left lane if the right is backed up, hence I made this:

20161026044343_1.jpg (490.36 KiB) Viewed 15073 times

[daniel34]

I'm currently trying a playthrough with random settings, the numbers I got:
Iron ore: Very low / Very big / Very good
Copper: Normal / Very big / Poor
Stone: Low / Medium / Good
Coal: Very Low / Very small / Good
Crude Oil: Very High / Small / Poor
Enemy bases: Low / Very Small / Poor

The good thing are the small enemy bases and availability of oil (which I mostly feared not to have enough of), the bad thing is the absence of coal, and I really mean that:

random-map.png (47.02 KiB) Viewed 15041 times

I'm still in the burner phase as I started this map 10 minutes ago, but the first thing I'm probably gonna do is build a radar and find some coal, or look for it manually by walking around. The starting area is also set to Small so let's hope I find coal instead of biters.

A tip for everyone who wants to do the same challenge: generate 24 integers between 1 and 5 and set the column width to 3. Then use the values directly in the game, ignoring the "Only in starting area" and "None" options.
This link should provide the required numbers: https://www.random.org/integers/?num=24 ... ml&rnd=new

[daniel34]

Well, this is going to be an early solar or solid fuel powered playthrough because there is no coal found anywhere on this map.

random-map-2.png (78.21 KiB) Viewed 15030 times

[Ratzap]

Ok, this looks interesting enough. I went to that page and told it to generate a grid of 24 numbers from 1 - 6 and format in 3 columns. That seemed the simplest way since that will directly map onto the generation table just ignore the values for water and starting area where there is nothing (see image). Also if there is no 6th value, use the 5th.



It spat this out for me:

Code: Select all

Here are your random numbers:

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

Which then goes into the gen table as this:



First map it generated is this:



I'm actually going to try to do this map. If I can get to landfill I have a chance to bridge out in the south.

[Frightning]

Ok, this looks interesting enough. I went to that page and told it to generate a grid of 24 numbers from 1 - 6 and format in 3 columns. That seemed the simplest way since that will directly map onto the generation table just ignore the values for water and starting area where there is nothing (see image). Also if there is no 6th value, use the 5th.



It spat this out for me:

Code: Select all

Here are your random numbers:

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

Which then goes into the gen table as this:



First map it generated is this:



I'm actually going to try to do this map. If I can get to landfill I have a chance to bridge out in the south.

That's actually a REALLY nice start, enough stone to get landfill to bridge the channel at it's narrowest point, EZ defense. I would recommend (in the future) using 1 to 5 for the range instead of 1 to 6, since you really don't want none for any of the resources anyways, letting 6 count as 5 doubles the chances of very high setting compared to the others.

[Frightning]

Well, this is going to be an early solar or solid fuel powered playthrough because there is no coal found anywhere on this map.

random-map-2.png

Making Solar work requires oil for the batteries for accumulators, so you might as well rush oil tech and start making solid fuel to start (and transition to solar as you hit advanced oil and start having the industrial capacity to make adequate solar). At least you appear to have decent iron and plenty of copper! In the meantime, spend a lot of your 'free' time mining wood to keep things fueled (and keep your setup small and research focused so you can keep up with tree chopping by hand).

[Ratzap]

That's actually a REALLY nice start, enough stone to get landfill to bridge the channel at it's narrowest point, EZ defense. I would recommend (in the future) using 1 to 5 for the range instead of 1 to 6, since you really don't want none for any of the resources anyways, letting 6 count as 5 doubles the chances of very high setting compared to the others.

It's pretty limited space but yeah, it's viable. I beelined landfill and just got it now. Desperatly need copper and the stone patch is going to run out very quickly. I've never had an island start before that wasn't 4x4 or smaller.

I didn't consider the 6 much, I just looked at the gen table and saw some things had 6 levels. You might want to be more specific in the original post? Or just see what people come up with.

[Frightning]

That's actually a REALLY nice start, enough stone to get landfill to bridge the channel at it's narrowest point, EZ defense. I would recommend (in the future) using 1 to 5 for the range instead of 1 to 6, since you really don't want none for any of the resources anyways, letting 6 count as 5 doubles the chances of very high setting compared to the others.

It's pretty limited space but yeah, it's viable. I beelined landfill and just got it now. Desperatly need copper and the stone patch is going to run out very quickly. I've never had an island start before that wasn't 4x4 or smaller.

I didn't consider the 6 much, I just looked at the gen table and saw some things had 6 levels. You might want to be more specific in the original post? Or just see what people come up with.

Nothing wrong per se with weighting the probability distribution, just wanted to make sure you were aware that you had done so.

[Frightning]

About 8 hours in now, still no new iron or oil beyond what I mentioned last update. This is a problem...I am already feeling the iron starvation and no doubt will feel the lack of oil almost as soon as I start using oil derivatives (still waiting on steel to get started setting up the pumpjack and barreling station and 400 barrels). In the mean time, I decided to take out some of the smaller biter bases around me to keep their expansion in check, found a few new ones that my radar hadn't yet revealed in the process to, but thankfully they were small and I was able to remove them. My Light Armor is mostly worn out, but I have already researched Heavy armor, will just need to poach the steel for it from my belt leading to my building store when the time comes to make it (I have plenty of copper).

Map as revealed so far:

20161026195444_1.jpg (97.78 KiB) Viewed 14988 times

[Pirion]

Looks like the random gods were good when it comes to oil products. With this much iron though, who knows if I'll even get that far..

[Frightning]

As I figured, didn't find anymore iron with my radars, so I searched my perimeter with the help of my car and managed to find two small iron deposits (YAY!)....but they have like 40 spawners on them (crap....) I got my oil train setup and the oil pumping, just waiting for the first delivery (40% full). I'm at about 10.5 hours in now, so far, still small biters only, I hope it stays that way long enough me to get a stack of flamethrower ammo. I think, with that and a gun turret with piercing mags I can actually clear those giant biter bases so long as I only have small biters to deal with (Heavy armor=they do almost nothing to me). Those bases do have some worms, including even big worms, but flamethrower hit&run can kill them. Also, the 2nd deposit I found is actually next to a large biter base, so I may not need to clear it completely, just enough to prevent them from constantly streaming into my defenses. If I don't beat the evolution I may be able to get some Laser turrets and then string Big power poles out there to clear the biters instead. I'm down to 4/5 miners on iron now, first one ran out, another is less than 500 away, at least I still got about 10k under the one with the most iron left...this is going to be close.

Can you see the iron deposits?:

20161027013309_1.jpg (135.08 KiB) Viewed 14965 times

[nuhll]

crazy! but good luck!

[Frightning]

Spent some more time of my save, now almost 13 hours in. I am starting to run out of Iron ore, my outpost is out, last shipment has already been delivered and is still being smelted. Main base still has 1 miner with about 8k Iron ore under it. I have halted research and most other production, I am stockpiling Steel plates for making Laser turrets, and will hold onto to enough Iron plates to make plenty of batteries when my first Crude oil shipment finally arrives (train is nearing 60% full of Filled crude oil barrels, but it has been there for quite some time, and the Pumpjack is nearing depletion, so I expect I'll have quite a while to wait for that). One the train arrives, I'll be able to make Flamethrower ammo and Batteries for Laser turrets and Accumulators. Armed with those, it will be a fairly simple matter to add Rail and Big power poles to the NE to that tiny Iron deposit up there. (Did you manage to find it in the map pic I posted last time?) The Laser turrets will clear out the biter base, with support from my personal weapons and then I will appropriate the Iron ore there, it also has a sizable Stone deposit next to it, so once the Iron ore is gone I can covert it into a Stone mine (the small patch in my main seems adequate, but with that new stone mine I can afford the luxury of laying down Stone brick pathing over my main base (will avoid Concrete because it uses Iron ore).

My plan once I secure that Iron will be to research and start producing tier 1 modules, as well as researching Electric furnaces so I can start exploiting productivity bonuses to stretch my Iron ore as much as possible. I'll also get Speed modules into my Pumpjack and Productivity modules into the rest of the oil processes (and anything that uses oil products).

[Frightning]

So I decided to get a head start laying Rail out to where the outpost is going to be (now maybe you can actually find it on the map ). Good thing too, as I found a new outpost the biters built in the way of my intended Rail line, which fortunately only had 2 Small worms and about a half dozen spawners, one of which was a Spitter spawner and it was spawning Small spitters (so Medium biters aren't far off...glad I decided to go the Laser turret route now). So I spent my remaining Piercing ammo in my Armoured car and my SMG taking out most of it, I ran out with 2 spawners and no worms left, so I decided to use my Defender capsules to finish the job (can only have 1 out at a time since I've yet to do any Follower count research, so I meleed the biters and spitters as they spawned while the Defender drone took care of the spawner itself (you apparently can't melee the spawners).

Map pic:

20161112092054_1.jpg (124.13 KiB) Viewed 14594 times

[Grimakar]

Ok, this looks interesting enough. I went to that page and told it to generate a grid of 24 numbers from 1 - 6 and format in 3 columns. That seemed the simplest way since that will directly map onto the generation table just ignore the values for water and starting area where there is nothing (see image). Also if there is no 6th value, use the 5th.



It spat this out for me:

Code: Select all

Here are your random numbers:

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

Which then goes into the gen table as this:



First map it generated is this:



I'm actually going to try to do this map. If I can get to landfill I have a chance to bridge out in the south.

I want your seed... PLEASE!

[Frightning]

So I managed to push back the biter base to the far NE, it was MUCH bigger than I expected, I only cleared about half of it, and left some of the Alien artifacts, which were too dangerous to try and grab off of the ground, I may finish off that base a bit later to collect those, but I'm hesitant to kill any more spawners that don't absolutely need to, given that I've already accumulated over 2000 Alien artifacts (almost half of which came from clearing the base to the far NE, with much of the remainder coming from the base to the W that I have also since cleared. I had to upgrade my Steam power setup to 3 sets of 1-14-10 in order to keep up w/ the amount of biters that base was throwing at my Laser turrets, I noticed my fuel storage was down about net 1k Coal afterwards, despite having about a 9/7 ratio of Coal mining versus usage under normal power loads. I used the Plastic bars I managed to make from my first early Oil shipment to make some Advanced circuits, most of which went into Productivity module 1s which are in my Electric mining drills over my Iron ore as well as in my new Electric furnaces (which also used some of the Advanced circuits) for Iron plate and Steel plate production. I also made 2 Speed module 1s for my one and only Pumpjack to speed up Crude oil production (I REALLY need more Oil fields). My remaining 6 Productivity module 1s went into my Oil refinery and two of my Chemical plants that are using Petroleum gas (Sulfur used for Sulfuric acid and Plastic bars used for Advanced circuits). I put a Radar at the new Iron outpost to the NE and it has since found another larger Iron ore deposit to the N and slightly E of it, which appears to be decent sized (prob ~100k ore instead of the ~30k ore of the other Iron ore deposits I've found so far). So I think I'm actually fairly Iron secure for now at least...now if only I could find some more Oil fields.... I have also setup the Iron ore mine on the deposit to my W that I recently cleared, but I am holding off starting mining until I can get some Productivity module 1s to put into the Electric mining drills...wouldn't wanna miss out on the opportunity to stretch that Iron ore as much as I can. I also put a Radar in there which is beginning to explore the surrounding area (here's to hoping I find some goddamn Oil fields).

Here's a look at the map now (I think I'm nearly 20 hours in at this point, Medium biters have been around for a bit, but so far not really noticing any Medium spitters, but I bet they'll start to show soon; this is most of the map, but I couldn't zoom out anymore and have it still show resources so I left off the bottom part, since I haven't explored anymore in that direction):

20161113130314_1.jpg (146.57 KiB) Viewed 14510 times

[Frightning]

So I still haven't found anymore Oil fields (game plz.....) but I did manage to scout via Radar another Iron ore deposit, and this one's even bigger than the one I've yet to claim north of the far NE outpost. The new deposit is west of the far NE outpost, right at the edge of the Radar's range (getting Rail over there will probably involve clearing some biter bases). I have been seeing some Big biters and Big spitters now, *gulp*, so I was definitely wise to avoid killing any more spawners than I needed to (still have close to 2500 Alien artifacts, so I have cleared a lot of them, and will need to clear some more to get my next Iron mine up (I should be able to get by just clearing the base closest to it to the west of it). I sent my Oil train to base early again, between the two trips I've moved one full load of 400 Filled crude oil barrels. I used this Crude oil to get Productivity modules in everything that I can that uses iron or oil products so I am now stretching both resources as much as I can with tier 1 modules.

Map: Note Iron ore on west edge of explored territory around my Iron 1 outpost

20161114074131_1.jpg (157.95 KiB) Viewed 14437 times