Friday Facts #432 - Aquilo

[CyberCider]

This is amazing. Love the Railgun design! Do heat pipes lose less heat with quality? I hope so as that would also make nuclear builds better on Nauvis.

Pipes, belts, chests and other such entities gain no benefits from quality (besides higher health)

[EustaceCS]

Finally.
Frostpunk we don't probably need but (given how much of a dumpster fire was original F) we sure deserve.

> The thought of running heat pipes through all your designs is starting to make your head spin.

LOL

> Cryogenic plant

Oooooooh... That's that I confused with antique diving suit back when Christmas teaser was released.

> What do you need the turret for? I'll let you speculate.

Whatever it is, it sure will have a Very Bad Day.
10k base damage...
Exile from Path of Exile is not a Godslayer.
THIS turret is a Godslayer.

[Phauxstus]

What you should be able to do is irrelevant, if it's possible at all to softlock yourself there someone is going to do it

You can already softlock yourself if you mine out your starting patches while all others have biters on them. You can softlock yourself before the game starts by setting biter and evolution settings so high that producing a pack of ammo generates more biters than it can kill. Plust you can always kill yourself in factorio so the Aquilo thing isn't even a true softlock. It will keep you on your toes and make sure you've prepared well.

[Terrahertz]

Why the railguns are shooting backwards in space? The asteroids are not usually catching up with the platforms from behind.

Maybe on Aquilo even parking in orbit gets you bombarded with large asteroids, and if you are not moving those may very well come from behind.

[EustaceCS]

Why the railguns are shooting backwards in space? The asteroids are not usually catching up with the platforms from behind.

Maybe on Aquilo even parking in orbit gets you bombarded with large asteroids, and if you are not moving those may very well come from behind.

Or maybe whatever chewed the space platform in this FFF's intro sequence is still on the prowl in outer space.

[Terrahertz]

on the other hand... this looks like a place where I am going to die. Horribly. Because I know I'm going to forget stuff.

I wondered about that too. Do we get data analysis of the planets in-game with enough information for us to plan?

You can travel there look around and then 'order' whats missing via remote view, this is also I guess only a problem on your first run, in every subsequent run you'll have your knowledge from the last time.
Also if in doubt, just bring a bunch of base materials you can use for handcrafting needed equipment.

[gnutrino]

What you should be able to do is irrelevant, if it's possible at all to softlock yourself there someone is going to do it

You can already softlock yourself if you mine out your starting patches while all others have biters on them. You can softlock yourself before the game starts by setting biter and evolution settings so high that producing a pack of ammo generates more biters than it can kill. Plust you can always kill yourself in factorio so the Aquilo thing isn't even a true softlock. It will keep you on your toes and make sure you've prepared well.

Sure but it seems like an odd design decision to have carefully and deliberately avoided the possibility on the first 3 planets only to allow it right at the end when it would be the most frustrating. I was also under the impression that when you die in space age you respawn on the last surface you were on but I could have got that wrong...

[doktorstick]

Or maybe whatever chewed the space platform in this FFF's intro sequence is still on the prowl in outer space.

Or we've gone full circle. Something caused us to crash on Nauvis...

[EustaceCS]

Or maybe whatever chewed the space platform in this FFF's intro sequence is still on the prowl in outer space.

Or we've gone full circle. Something caused us to crash on Nauvis...

...and it's our turn to crash it on Navius, yipee!

[Terrahertz]

Why the railguns are shooting backwards in space? The asteroids are not usually catching up with the platforms from behind.

Maybe on Aquilo even parking in orbit gets you bombarded with large asteroids, and if you are not moving those may very well come from behind.

Or maybe whatever chewed the space platform in this FFF's intro sequence is still on the prowl in outer space.

Asteroids yes, the intro said it was unable to leave orbit, so I guess the asteroids smashed it on it's way back to one of the other planets. There might be a possiblity that there are space creatures, but what would be the reason for two different types of threats in space if you are dealing with them in the same manner?

[Pepsilian]

I know this might be a bit nitpicky and I also know that it is just a game, but... am I the only one that gets thrown off that the railgun has a cratridge that gets ejected? I mean the basic principle of a Railgun is to take basically a metal spear and yeet it forward using magnets (I will let myself happily correct by others), So why is there a cartridge that would typically hold the propellant?

[Phauxstus]

The railguns dropping shells like artillery is a cool detail but may be misplaced, they would use discarding sabots. But maybe the shell is just a matryoshka doll encasing the sabot encasing the bullet.

[nathan67003]

I, for one, am greatly looking forward to the Bonfire Aquilo mods.

Nothing quite like setting an entire planet on fire.

[Terrahertz]

What you should be able to do is irrelevant, if it's possible at all to softlock yourself there someone is going to do it

You can already softlock yourself if you mine out your starting patches while all others have biters on them. You can softlock yourself before the game starts by setting biter and evolution settings so high that producing a pack of ammo generates more biters than it can kill. Plust you can always kill yourself in factorio so the Aquilo thing isn't even a true softlock. It will keep you on your toes and make sure you've prepared well.

Sure but it seems like an odd design decision to have carefully and deliberately avoided the possibility on the first 3 planets only to allow it right at the end when it would be the most frustrating. I was also under the impression that when you die in space age you respawn on the last surface you were on but I could have got that wrong...

I would say as the first 3 planets can be visited in any order, while the last planet is the last you visit, this makes a lot of sense.
Especially as we know now, you base on Vulcanus is safe if it does not intersect with the territory of a worm. So this planet should always allow you to get back on track even if all other planets have failed simultaniously for some reason.

Also it would'nt be the last planet if it wasn't also the most challenging one

[urmet]

The railguns dropping shells like artillery is a cool detail but may be misplaced, they would use discarding sabots. But maybe the shell is just a matryoshka doll encasing the sabot encasing the bullet.

maybe it's some hybrid design where the projectile is shot into the railgun part that then accelerates the bullet even more?

[Agamemnon]

Ooooh, I like a good heatpipe spaghetti challenge!

[Phauxstus]

maybe it's some hybrid design where the projectile is shot into the railgun part that then accelerates the bullet even more?

I don't think a high velocity entry is good for such a capricious design as a railgun. Could work for a coilgun though.

[Malfeason]

I don't think it's going to be their style but I sincerely hope for some kind of cosmic horror. Some entity that needs every ounce of technology you can bring to bear in order to kill it. Maybe some form of alien life that acts as a barrier between you and going "home". Even if there's just an alternate win condition or "secret ending" that involves killing some kind of biological space titan. That would be really neat. Oh well, the rail gun will probably be for killing asteroids or icebergs like some of you suggested.

[morse]

I know this might be a bit nitpicky and I also know that it is just a game, but... am I the only one that gets thrown off that the railgun has a cratridge that gets ejected? I mean the basic principle of a Railgun is to take basically a metal spear and yeet it forward using magnets (I will let myself happily correct by others), So why is there a cartridge that would typically hold the propellant?

The obvious reason is because it looks cool. I can come up with several pseudo-scientific explanations of what exactly that cartridge held that was essential for the turret to function, but we won't know which one is more believable without knowing what this cartridge was made of. Something tells me its ingredients include more than just some iron.

[gGeorg]

However, why electric smelter (or any smelter) would need an external heat source is beyond my understanding of smelting.

To jumpstart it. Same reason why in the north, we plug in our cars even though the engine gets hot enough to sustain itself once running.

You pre-heat mechanical engine with lots o moving parts which has lubricant turned into solid. Smelter, especially electric smelter has almost non moving parts (perhaps doors). It is enough to turn smelter on, then wait for heat which melts ice on the door.

External heat for smelters is nonsence.