Friday Facts #432 - Aquilo

[FasterJump]

You can imagine that the ice is thicker at the middle of the iceberg. Or you can imagine that the rocket silo is built below the water, like a boat hull.

Anyway, to add to my previous posts, Aquilo visuals and mechanics look cool and I'm hyped for the expansion.

About the embargo lift, if we don't want too much spoilers, are we supposed to read the next FFF? Will the comments be moderated to prevent spoilers?

[Danjen]

Looks like a nightmare, cant wait

Also has any thought been given to expensive recipe mode? Sometimes I like a slower, grindier game

[Danjen]

Using Pumpjack rather than offshore oil rigs and boats feels like a missed opportunity, but on the other hand I understand the gameplay choice of not having boats. Having a new massive building just for that would be a waste of graphic asset / RAM.

Pumpjacks are probably fine as long as it cannot deplete the source (reducing it's yield overtime). Since the fluids floats up (in a very straight line!) from 200km below, the extraction should not affect the source.

Conceptually, could there be a cristalline conduit (of ice or mineralised matter)? That would explain the straight line. The conduit could have been naturally created by chemical reactions from the fluid or microorganisms.

I know theres one mod that adds boats as a form of aquatic railway and has offshores. Fun idea.
One thing I never liked is that the Nauvis crashsite is the center of the world (or thereabouts) and everything scales up as you move away. I understand why from a gameplay perspective but it always felt weird to me

[CyberCider]

• It is possible to craft copper, as well as calcite and sulfur, and there is some crazy reason why you need them. (If this is true, than that makes Tungsten the only truly unique resource (but also kinda goes against what the dev's said about needing to import calcite if you wanted to use foundries for liquid metal on Nauvis).

Uranium and holmium are also “unique” to their planets, not just tungsten. And the same goes for all of Gleba’s plant items and all of Aquilo’s chemicals. Space can only provide the “basic” resources.
But funnily enough, there appears to be one missing: Stone. Just regular stone. You can get iron, copper, calcite… Actually, the chain of sulfur+iron+water=acid, sulfur+carbon+water=coal, coal+calcite+acid=heavy oil should even let you access all oil products completely in space. But no stone, that’s where the line is drawn. Of course, I could be wrong, but that’s how it looks so far. It amuses me greatly.

[Saphira123456]

So there's no way to store items to prevent or slow down spoilage on Gleba, and yet there's an entire planet full of ice AND cryogenics research?

Make it make sense devs, because this practically screams "ICEBOX!"

[Rico_Suave]

Let's go baby

[CyberCider]

So there's no way to store items to prevent or slow down spoilage on Gleba, and yet there's an entire planet full of ice AND cryogenics research?

Make it make sense devs, because this practically screams "ICEBOX!"

It’s just a case of gameplay over realism. Besides, if you really need one, it’s possible to come up with an explanation: Maybe cold temperatures would damage the chemical/cellular makeup of the Gleba plants.

[Brother Matthew]

Love you Devs <3

[Fred_Svev]

Can we have melting ice as a map gen option, disabled by default. Or something like that.

If this isn't in the DLC I am not buying it. I don't care if it's the most annoying mechanic in the world, I will always play with it enabled.

[nthexwn]

Current real-world military railguns have a publicly stated range of about 20km, with 300km+ ranges being theorized for plasma accelerated models.

Meanwhile, the endgame hyper-advanced railgun in Factorio's sci-fi Space Age expansion can only shoot about 40 meters? What the hell man!? I can throw things farther than that myself with zero technology involved...

[dimm]

With the need to route heat pipes everywhere, aren't belts even more debuffed compared to bots and logistic system? Can bots fly outside of heated areas?

It appears that roboport require a heat source to function.

[XT-248]

I will add my voice about Railgun ejecting spent cartridges (or whatever you want to call it in-game).


The concept of 'Railgun' is to remove the inefficiency of using chemical fuel from the equation (gunpowder, solid/liquid propellant, etc.), utilizing a magnetic coil to generate a powerful magnetic field that is formed in a particular way to accelerate the 'entire' solid projectile at a very high muzzle velocity, which overcomes air friction through sheer brutal force. The only thing resembling anything being ejected from a Railgun would be the armature, which keeps the projectile moving in a straight line out of the barrel (as opposed to cartridges falling out to the side from a gunpowder-powered military rifle being used in the #432 Railgun animation).

I am not advocating for 'realism over gameplay' here. But seeing spent cartridges being ejected after the Railgun fired a round does break the immersion.


If I were the artist working to change the animation, I would remove the spent cartridge falling to the ground, instead opting for a slightly less subtle air shockwave expanding from the business end of the Railgun. The smoke effect is too subtle in the displayed version in FFF #432 compared to what I have seen of prototype Railguns that actually fire rounds in real life.

Another alternative would be to change the cartridge to an armature falling out forward from the Railgun business end.



The 40-meter range seems a bit short for a Railgun unless there is a good balance reason for it. I hope there is research to increase the Railgun range; artillery range exists, so there is precedent.

[ErubianWarlord]

Cool mechanic which get inspired by The Frostpunk game,
However, why electric smelter (or any smelter) would need an external heat source is beyond my understanding of smelting.

my guess would be that the heat from the smelting was designed to stay in a box so it didnt damage the internals so in this frozen place the choice was completely redesign the smelter or run a pipe you already knew how to make and use to warm things up

[1000i100]

we don't actually turn the ice tiles into ocean... anymore

With high temperature, Ice don't melt instantly, so event a heated area could be buildable with concrete addition before the melt append isn't it ?

It can be back in hard mod i hope

[Tricorius]

:: presses play on the railgun demo video ::

:: faints ::

I can hardly wait until the 21st…

I wonder if I’ve forgotten how to play Factorio.

[GregoriusT]

On the complaints about the Railgun Ammo needing "Shells", I wonder if it is because the metal rods are loaded with a belt like a Gatling Gun is, and the shell is just the thing used to connect the Ammo Belt.

[Tricorius]

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?

I'm fine with it. The US Military railgun tests in the 90s included a system that had an armature that was discarded after every shot. Further, if a railgun uses an APFSDS round there will be a discarded component with every shot.

I’m, personally, hoping that the casing is an inert shielding for a radioactive core that gets accelerated into the faces of oncoming bugs…

But that’s probably just me.

[yarolig]

Just random funny thoughts about the railgun:
- ammo recipe should contain rails
- there is railgun wagon. Like an artillery wagon. It easily destroys a locomotive and rails if not used properly. Rail railgun
- the same technology unlocks Delivery Canon (as in Space Exploration). But here it shoots wagons.

About freezing electrical furnace:
- Yes it can freeze. There is a red circuit, it insulated by bricks from heated metal but not from the outside. Red and green circuits seemingly are based on relays, not transistors or vacuum tubes. Relays likely stop working at very low temperatures and bad weather conditions.
- But it is still funny and realistic when some buildings generate heat while working. And freezes when not woking! Not sure if all planets contain oxygen. So burner inserters and burner furnances can't use every kind of fuel. Rocket fuel should be ok.

About railgun shells:
- the recipe for ammo should explain what the shell is used for.

[PrinceDest1ny]

At the very least we won't have to worry about enemies here. Unless they add ghost leviathans or something.

Also railgun turret my beloved.

[danielbrauer]

Those empty railgun cartridges (?) should be floating off into space, shouldnt they?