Friday Facts #347 - New hope demo levels

[conn11]

Where is SPIDERTRON?

This has been discussed some weeks back:

I am trying to hype people up for disappointment so that when 1.0 is released, they can be pleasantly suprised they are not disappointed as much as they thought they would be. (But for real, Spidertron is not coming in 1.0 nor before)

source
The necessity for at least an improved bluprint library and, I would argue, a fluid dynamics overhaul dose exsist. It remain to be seen what else will be implenented before 1.0

[factoriouzr]

Where is SPIDERTRON?

This has been discussed some weeks back:

I am trying to hype people up for disappointment so that when 1.0 is released, they can be pleasantly suprised they are not disappointed as much as they thought they would be. (But for real, Spidertron is not coming in 1.0 nor before)

source
The necessity for at least an improved bluprint library and, I would argue, a fluid dynamics overhaul dose exsist. It remain to be seen what else will be implenented before 1.0

Thanks for the information. I didn't see that comment.

[GrumpyJoe]

And then we draw the rest of the owl. Fix places where the automated cloning hasn’t been good enough, add more ruins to be explored, tweak the gameplay and we will have a finished scenario.

Klonan, how sad are you that, so far, noone read careful enough to notice this masterpiece?

How to draw an owl

owl.jpg (26.2 KiB) Viewed 1494 times

[DanGio]

And then we draw the rest of the owl. Fix places where the automated cloning hasn’t been good enough, add more ruins to be explored, tweak the gameplay and we will have a finished scenario.

Klonan, how sad are you that, so far, noone read careful enough to notice this masterpiece?

I noticed

[5thHorseman]

And then we draw the rest of the owl. Fix places where the automated cloning hasn’t been good enough, add more ruins to be explored, tweak the gameplay and we will have a finished scenario.

Klonan, how sad are you that, so far, noone read careful enough to notice this masterpiece?

How to draw an owl

owl.jpg

I noticed too. I read it more as a metaphor than a sneaky joke.

[Mur]

I was playing though the tutorials again for fun sakes and the 4th one takes forever to get though the science, i would highly suggest giving the user some research speed or something to halve the amount of time needed.

[EnerJi]

Are there significant improvements to blueprints still planned? I'm still on 0.17 stable and I'm really looking forward to a proposed blueprint revamp that I thought I read about months ago?

The 0.17 blueprints implementation confuses, irritates, and bothers me in tons of small ways with the overall effect that I really despise using them despite knowing that I need to in order to advance my factory.

Sadly it looks like they won't, at least it's very likely they won't. Seems internally the blueprint code is a bit of a horror show.

From viewtopic.php?f=6&t=83790

All I can say is I agree with you and hope they'll revisit it some time after release.

Thanks for the insight. Fingers crossed they revisit this soon(ish). My personal humble priority list has blueprint improvement #1 by a big margin over anything else. The improvements in 0.18 are nice, but I'd trade them all for the current 0.17 stable + a complete and intuitive revision to blueprints.

[brogild]

After fulfilling the mission I decided to carry on playing the map and found out that it was large enough to be entertaining, but not infinite. As it is finite I set myself a mission to wipe out the biters completely - which of course wouldn't be possible on an infinite map.

The first hurdle to this was the discovery that the technologies are limited and that further ones are not available. I managed bring the list back although it means doing a load of research again to get back to the same point. I then couldn't find any oil (there is uranium though) and without oil it's going to be hard if not impossible to get to the higher levels. I could use coal liquefaction and hopefully that will enable me to produce plastics.

If anyone has discovered oil please let me know. I know how to create oil, but I don't want to go down the cheat route.

[sp55aa]

After fulfilling the mission I decided to carry on playing the map and found out that it was large enough to be entertaining, but not infinite. As it is finite I set myself a mission to wipe out the biters completely - which of course wouldn't be possible on an infinite map.

The first hurdle to this was the discovery that the technologies are limited and that further ones are not available. I managed bring the list back although it means doing a load of research again to get back to the same point. I then couldn't find any oil (there is uranium though) and without oil it's going to be hard if not impossible to get to the higher levels. I could use coal liquefaction and hopefully that will enable me to produce plastics.

If anyone has discovered oil please let me know. I know how to create oil, but I don't want to go down the cheat route.

no oil in this map, confirmed.
but you can find 100+ solar panels and 20+ laser turrets, use them you can clean all enemy. tested.

[brogild]

Thanks for that, plus the confirmation that it can be done anyway. I managed to scavenge all the old stuff lying around the map, plus I found the odd little 'retreat' in the top right-hand corner. Did you manage to defeat the biters** with the limited technologies available? I sort of gave up for a while when I found I couldn't do any more research and there was no oil, thinking that the lack of plastics meant I wouldn't be able to progress much further.

Finding Uranium was nice, but without using a cheat to enable all research it's pretty useless, so I'm guessing that rocket would never be built, and if I have to stay then the biters have to go. Ways to live with the biters are pretty limited and I think that biotechnology is something missing from the basic game Heck we might even discover a use and farm them, at the very least use all those bodies to make for fertile ground and regrow forests etc as a pollution absorber.

** actually, it is the spitter worms I have the real problems with, when there are several it's hard getting close enough to do enough damage.

[sp55aa]

Thanks for that, plus the confirmation that it can be done anyway. I managed to scavenge all the old stuff lying around the map, plus I found the odd little 'retreat' in the top right-hand corner. Did you manage to defeat the biters** with the limited technologies available? I sort of gave up for a while when I found I couldn't do any more research and there was no oil, thinking that the lack of plastics meant I wouldn't be able to progress much further.

Finding Uranium was nice, but without using a cheat to enable all research it's pretty useless, so I'm guessing that rocket would never be built, and if I have to stay then the biters have to go. Ways to live with the biters are pretty limited and I think that biotechnology is something missing from the basic game Heck we might even discover a use and farm them, at the very least use all those bodies to make for fertile ground and regrow forests etc as a pollution absorber.

** actually, it is the spitter worms I have the real problems with, when there are several it's hard getting close enough to do enough damage.

1. use solar panels + accumulators as power resource, wait until accumulators fully charged
2. use laser turrets to kill biters and spawners, with repair kit
3. catch fish for your health

[brogild]

It's the static acid spitters I have trouble with, if I place a turret within range they tend to destroy it pretty quickly, and if it's further away then it ignores them and concentrates on the moving creatures instead. Maybe it's different for laser turrets, I've just been using regular ones up till now.

I've found a way though. I place a regular turret close enough to attract and kill off biters and while they are being distracted I dash in and out with the car, machine gunning the static worms and nests with armour piercing ammo. This is quite fun and is working ok so far, it's still early days and none of the creatures have evolved yet. I might need a different approach later on if I don't manage to kill them all first.

[jodokus31]

It's the static acid spitters I have trouble with, if I place a turret within range they tend to destroy it pretty quickly, and if it's further away then it ignores them and concentrates on the moving creatures instead. Maybe it's different for laser turrets, I've just been using regular ones up till now.

turrets target closest enemies. laser just have far bigger range.
You can run in an attract the worms(-> what you call static spitters) to shot at you and dodge, while you place turrets to kill them off. or stand behind and repair the targeted turret.

can you research grenades? Those are very good to one shot a big group of small biters. also quite decent aoe damage for spawners and worms

Your car tactic is also decent

[brogild]

It's the static acid spitters I have trouble with, if I place a turret within range they tend to destroy it pretty quickly, and if it's further away then it ignores them and concentrates on the moving creatures instead. Maybe it's different for laser turrets, I've just been using regular ones up till now.

turrets target closest enemies. laser just have far bigger range.
You can run in an attract the worms(-> what you call static spitters) to shot at you and dodge, while you place turrets to kill them off. or stand behind and repair the targeted turret.

can you research grenades? Those are very good to one shot a big group of small biters. also quite decent aoe damage for spawners and worms

Your car tactic is also decent

I haven't got good enough yet to place a turret and arm it before the spitter(s) destroy it or me, which is why I like to use the car so I can retreat and repair my health. I will consider grenades as it takes quite a while to destroy the larger nests one enemy at a time.
The car tactic tends to fall down if there are obstacles such as trees around, and dead trees are the worst because they are a lot harder to see

My method is working pretty well though and I have decided to leave just the one nest in the top right-hand corner so I can use it as an evolution experiment and practice for the bigger foes when they appear.

[Anachrony]

I haven't got good enough yet to place a turret and arm it before the spitter(s) destroy it or me, which is why I like to use the car so I can retreat and repair my health.

If you just place a turret singular, then sure. When I use the turret method (early on, prior to having laser turrets), I always keep the button down in front of me and run toward them, placing a whole line of turrets. The key is you're placing them ahead of you, so they always attack the turrets, not you, at least not until the turrets are all gone. When I get close enough I move the cursor around to place more of them in between them and me. Only then do I start loading them, and I only choose the ones they haven't chosen to attack yet. Early game turrets are relatively cheap, but stacks of ammo are not. Once I've got enough turrets loaded, I switch to the repair tool and try to prolong the lives of the turrets, especially the loaded ones. If the turrets no longer have targets in range, I'll clean out the ammo and advance again using the same tactics, until the nest is clear. Then I'll pick up all my turrets and repair the damaged ones.