[Project Log] I want to turn my Factorio into a Tomagochi

Post pictures and videos of your factories.
If possible, please post also the blueprints/maps of your creations!
For art/design etc. you can go to Fan Art.

Post Reply
User avatar
TheRangerLOL
Long Handed Inserter
Long Handed Inserter
Posts: 74
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2020 11:56 pm
Contact:

[Project Log] I want to turn my Factorio into a Tomagochi

Post by TheRangerLOL »

Hey Factoriolings,

So, I've decided to start working on turning my Factorio into a Tomagochi (remember those little pocket pets people used to have back in the day?). I kinda know where to begin, but I'm probably going to get stuck programming the screen i'm going to be using. It looks like I'm going to be using either this, or this type of screen:
TomagochiSmallDisplay.png
TomagochiSmallDisplay.png (727.41 KiB) Viewed 5581 times
TomagochiLargeDisplay.png
TomagochiLargeDisplay.png (1.29 MiB) Viewed 5581 times
If can't decide which i'll probably just end up using both, just in different capacities.

The cool thing about Factorio, is that all the signals are there that are needed to personify a factory, with a few exceptions. A fact that I think is kind of funny, because it's literally the opposite of what Factorio generally does (although i'm sure it's not on purpose).

What I mean by that is, despite Factorio being a really cool game that allows for some truly ingenius creations to be made, there are a couple of places where it falls short. One of these, is the depersonification of the native species. Now, depersonification is a thing that happens all the time in video gaming, and even the USMC (marines) uses a form of it to brainwash their recruits into killing machines. You can see it all over the place in games like Halo that use aliens that don't even look humanoid, and as such, you think of them differently. Factorio does the exact same thing, and I personally don't think it's a healthy thing, especially in this game which has a non-military theme. This is because, real factories don't work like that, or at least they shouldn't. In Factorio, the "enemy", or what we're led to believe is the "enemy" is just a bunch of tiny bugs that need to be squished. This is probably the single greatest failing of Factorio as an entertainment or educational device (although it is far from the only one). We're being led to believe that real factories should work this way, and instead of considering the consequences of our actions, as well as the environmental impact of our factories, we should just, "Eliminate anyone who opposes the progress of industry, restraint be damned!". That is effectively what Factorio is saying, and it annoys me because it is irresponsible in a really bad way. What annoys me more is that Factorio-dude doesn't even live on the planet, nor does he intend to stay, but that's another topic for another time.

But that's not what this topic is about, it was just on my mind when I realized that I wanted to turn my factory into a Tomagochi, and I wanted to share it here where (hopefully) it'll be received in a good light from the community here.

All that aside, I think this will actually be a really fun project to work on. From what I can tell, it'll have several different statuses to be displayed including: idle/happy, welcome home/goodbye (gate opening), hungry (copper, iron, coal, or something else), thirsty (oil), sleeping/tired (low power), and several others. Some I have in mind already, but no doubt more will be discovered later.

Unfortunately, I don't have any experience in intercommunications, so I'm not exactly sure how to get the screens working yet. I've been looking at a couple articles, but I'm kinda at a loss trying to understand them so far. Hopefully someone can point me towards a couple of articles/posts that can help shed some light.

Cheers,
-Ranger

Current Project Theme Song:
Stuff is Messed Up - The Offspring
The one and only.

MassiveDynamic
Filter Inserter
Filter Inserter
Posts: 260
Joined: Sun Sep 16, 2018 10:44 pm
Contact:

Re: [Project Log] I want to turn my Factorio into a Tomagochi

Post by MassiveDynamic »

I don’t know what a tomagachi is, but I’m pretty sure biters taste like chicken.

User avatar
eradicator
Smart Inserter
Smart Inserter
Posts: 5206
Joined: Tue Jul 12, 2016 9:03 am
Contact:

Re: [Project Log] I want to turn my Factorio into a Tomagochi

Post by eradicator »

TheRangerLOL wrote:
Fri Oct 02, 2020 2:09 am
"Eliminate anyone who opposes the progress of industry, restraint be damned!"
✔ Extinguish animals to get more space.
✔ Burn down the forest to get more space.
✔ Strip mine the planet to get all the resources.
✔ Launch rockets into space for science.

Now. Can you tell me if that list is about factorio or about humanity? Because i think that's exactly how factories do work. And i wish there was sarcasm in this post. The only difference is that in real life industrial pollution doesn't make the animals stronger...
Author of: Belt Planner, Hand Crank Generator, Screenshot Maker, /sudo and more.
Mod support languages: 日本語, Deutsch, English
My code in the post above is dedicated to the public domain under CC0.

User avatar
TheRangerLOL
Long Handed Inserter
Long Handed Inserter
Posts: 74
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2020 11:56 pm
Contact:

Re: [Project Log] I want to turn my Factorio into a Tomagochi

Post by TheRangerLOL »

MassiveDynamic wrote:
Fri Oct 02, 2020 2:23 am
I don’t know what a tomagachi is, but I’m pretty sure biters taste like chicken.
I'm pretty sure the biters think you taste like chicken. :P
eradicator wrote:
Fri Oct 02, 2020 2:51 am
✔ Extinguish animals to get more space.
✔ Burn down the forest to get more space.
✔ Strip mine the planet to get all the resources.
✔ Launch rockets into space for science.

One could argue that those qualities aren't really human attributes, but rather corporate qualities, since corporations pretty much invented industrialization.

But I didn't make this post to argue, so I won't.
The one and only.

mmmPI
Smart Inserter
Smart Inserter
Posts: 2674
Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2016 6:10 pm
Contact:

Re: [Project Log] I want to turn my Factorio into a Tomagochi

Post by mmmPI »

You are personificating the factory to feel less guilty about what you do to the in-game environment ?

Some big companies do that with their surveillance AI to ease the sales :)

What kind of brainwash is required for someone to create a fake animal on a polluting computer instead of taking care of real life bees and birds and not even seing the contradiction while advocating for environmentalism ?

advertising ? green washing ?

Apart from that, you may want to take a look on those : viewtopic.php?f=193&t=19825 and viewtopic.php?f=193&t=37490 and viewtopic.php?f=193&t=88678&p=514489

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPZU8_chH1U

There are about screen and display with various level of complexity, there are plentyful of them on the internet :).

User avatar
darkfrei
Smart Inserter
Smart Inserter
Posts: 2903
Joined: Thu Nov 20, 2014 11:11 pm
Contact:

Re: [Project Log] I want to turn my Factorio into a Tomagochi

Post by darkfrei »

TheRangerLOL wrote:
Fri Oct 02, 2020 2:09 am
If can't decide which i'll probably just end up using both, just in different capacities.
How about this mod? https://mods.factorio.com/mod/LED_arithmetic_combinator

User avatar
TheRangerLOL
Long Handed Inserter
Long Handed Inserter
Posts: 74
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2020 11:56 pm
Contact:

Re: [Project Log] I want to turn my Factorio into a Tomagochi

Post by TheRangerLOL »

mmmPI wrote:
Fri Oct 02, 2020 4:36 am
You are personificating the factory to feel less guilty about what you do to the in-game environment ?
Quite the opposite actually, I randomly had the idea to make a Tomagochi out of the factory and then i realized the aforementioned rant.

As for the rest of your post but i'm sorry i kinda don't understand what your point is =\

Thanks for the links though. I've actually got a few of them bookmarked already.
darkfrei wrote:
Fri Oct 02, 2020 7:20 am
How about this mod? https://mods.factorio.com/mod/LED_arithmetic_combinator
I try to play vanilla as much as possible, sorry. Mod looks cool though, thanks for the post :)
The one and only.

mmmPI
Smart Inserter
Smart Inserter
Posts: 2674
Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2016 6:10 pm
Contact:

Re: [Project Log] I want to turn my Factorio into a Tomagochi

Post by mmmPI »

I don't want to go off-topic and/or hijack your topic, so i'll try to reformulate my point without extending too much on it.
counter-rant

Apart from that philosophical discussion, a "simple" way to make a tamagochi would be to have all lamps in your display screen associated with a unique signal, "enable if A=1""enable if B=1" "enable if C=1""enable if D=1"and so on ( here mods adding more signals could help).

Then you can use constant combinators to encode a particular shape ( 1 constant sending A=1 B=1 D=1 G=1 H=1) , and allow them to send their signal to the screen only if a condition is met, such as low copper , low oil, low energy and so on using 1 decider combinator per state. ( "If copper < 10K => output everything ).

To improve on this, one could try to make an "adress system for lamps" to allow for encoding more complex shapes. One easy way would be to "slice" the screen, so that each unique signal can be used several time on the same screen. If you make your screen 4 modules each shape could then be written in 4 constant combinator activated simultaneously, each of them could then hold a part of the total image you want to display hence reusing the same signal ID (avoiding mods).

If you want to "animate" your virtual pet, you will (imo) need a clock system https://wiki.factorio.com/Tutorial:Comb ... sic_clocks , for example one that counts to 200 and restart over and over, then you do things such as showing one "image" if "copper is low and clock under 100" and another image if "copper is low and clock above 100". This means 1 state will be associated with 2 alternating frames. ( or more if the clock counts to 1000 and you make a different image for each 100's).

If you want to make it seemingly hungy or bored, you could add a clock system that needs to be manually reset by player action, and this one would be used to show a special image/ set of images, when 100K ticks have passed without player intervention for instance.

The most straightforward "memory" system to hold those different animation (imo) would be using constant combinators.

Choosing which images to display if copper and iron are low at the same time could be a challenge but you could also have a different image for this particular state :).

User avatar
TheRangerLOL
Long Handed Inserter
Long Handed Inserter
Posts: 74
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2020 11:56 pm
Contact:

Re: [Project Log] I want to turn my Factorio into a Tomagochi

Post by TheRangerLOL »

mmmPI wrote:
Fri Oct 02, 2020 1:45 pm
I think that your rant is mistargeted and the fact that the game shows the "enemy" as tiny squishable bugs is a pretty acurate depiction of how real factory function. I don't think the game leads players to believe factories SHOULD function this way but that they DO.
Ah, i get most of what you were trying to say. Thing is i barely mentioned environmentalism at all. Perhaps you've just been so conditioned to despise environmentalists (and trust me, some of them can be really annoying at times), that I kinda triggered you. However, I will say this, just like there's "green-washing", there is propaganda on both sides of every argument.

What I want to know though, is do YOU think that's the way factories should work? There is always a better way to do things, it's all just a matter of perspective on what "better" is. For those in power, "better" means "BIGGER, FASTER, STRONGER". However, it doesn't necessarily have to be that way, but following that vein of logic quickly takes us down a deep rabbit hole that could fill an entire textbook's worth of discussion.
And in this case (imo) it is a pretty valuable educational tool because instead of moralizing you it puts you in the shoes of the culprit :).
If you're not getting a real option, then it's kind of forcing your hand. This is where it fails as an educational tool, because people will say "screw it", and not even try.


As for the rest of your post, thanks for the input. Unfortunately, I accidentally overwrote the save that I had where I was just about to begin working on this project. So now I have to start all over again on a new map. >.< Oh well, so it goes.
The one and only.

mmmPI
Smart Inserter
Smart Inserter
Posts: 2674
Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2016 6:10 pm
Contact:

Re: [Project Log] I want to turn my Factorio into a Tomagochi

Post by mmmPI »

TheRangerLOL wrote:
Fri Oct 02, 2020 2:09 am
We're being led to believe that real factories should work this way, and instead of considering the consequences of our actions, as well as the environmental impact of our factories, we should just, "Eliminate anyone who opposes the progress of industry, restraint be damned!". That is effectively what Factorio is saying, and it annoys me because it is irresponsible in a really bad way.
I do have concern over the environment, i just think that moralizing people and calling them irresponsible for making a video game is part of why some other people could be reallly annoyed at "environmentalists".

If you do a documentary on a polluting company, you will not hide the fact that they are polluting.(if you do you are green-washing the company, hiding its responsability). It doesn't mean that you led people to think every company should pollute. You just tell them how it works.
If you play a city simulation you are free to put oversized highway everywhere, you don't blame the game for it. Because that's what is done in real life. Else you'd be making a utopian simulation.
If you play a simulation of a factory, yes you will be polluting. That's what most factories do.
TheRangerLOL wrote:
Fri Oct 02, 2020 6:38 pm
If you're not getting a real option, then it's kind of forcing your hand. This is where it fails as an educational tool, because people will say "screw it", and not even try.
In real life you can't make cellphones, satelites or computers without extracting vast amount of ressources while polluting in the process. In real life you are not getting a real option. It would be lying to people to make a game where you are given a magic wand that allow you to do so without consequences. ( that would be green-washing ).

In the game you say "screw it" and it makes you understand somewhat why we are here today in this polluted world. Because this "screw it" has been the driving philosophy in real life. Here the games makes you (and me) , and the environmentalists, share the state of mind of big company. And this is a valuable lesson i think. It allows player to understand by showing/sharing, rather than saying/telling.

User avatar
TheRangerLOL
Long Handed Inserter
Long Handed Inserter
Posts: 74
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2020 11:56 pm
Contact:

Re: [Project Log] I want to turn my Factorio into a Tomagochi

Post by TheRangerLOL »

mmmPI wrote:
Fri Oct 02, 2020 8:21 pm
...
Morality exists, whether you want it to or not. It's not in what we play, it's how we play it.
The one and only.

Tallywort
Inserter
Inserter
Posts: 22
Joined: Thu Mar 25, 2021 11:57 am
Contact:

Re: [Project Log] I want to turn my Factorio into a Tomagochi

Post by Tallywort »

TheRangerLOL wrote:
Sat Oct 03, 2020 2:25 am
mmmPI wrote:
Fri Oct 02, 2020 8:21 pm
...
Morality exists, whether you want it to or not. It's not in what we play, it's how we play it.
Sure, and games can be valuable teaching tools for why and how to care for the environment. I just don't think Factorio needs to be that game, nor do I feel like Factorio is even a good fit for that.

Post Reply

Return to “Show your Creations”