[Factorio: SE-K2-BZ; Hours 14-24] Starting trains

Been a bit. I … did not realize just how much a bit though. 10 hours? I must have left it running at some point… really I must have. πŸ˜„

In any case, the big change this time has been a massive extension of the main bus (about double) along with initial implementation of a gigantic rail network.

Table of Contents

read more...


[Factorio: SE-K2-BZ; Hours 8-13] Making a bus

You thought I’d forgotten, didn’t you? Well, yeah. It took a while, but I’m still here!

The main reason that it took so long is… I got sick of spaghetti. I like building like that, but for something the scale of what I’m attempting, it just doesn’t work.

Enter: the main bus:

The map: zoomed out

Or as a rendered view with mapshot (I was planning to include that, but the output is a few hundred MB. Perhaps in another post).

The map: rendered

Off we go to the east. As I mentioned in the first post, there are no biters on Nauvis, so I’m safe to do whatever is needed until I get off world.

Table of Contents

read more...


[Factorio: SE-K2-BZ; Hours 1-7] Hello world

Factorio is an absolute masterpiece of a game. It’s perfect for a brian like main that loves to build things up, solve problems, and make things work. Perhaps too perfect. To date, I’ve put almost 2000 hours into the game over a number of runs, getting more complicated each time. Most recently, I’ve started a heavily modded run based around Space Exploration (adds planets!), Krastorio2 (designed to work with SE, think of it as Factorio++), LTN (automatic trains), Rampant (better enemies, although disabled on Nauvis), and the entire Brevven suite of a half dozen additional materials. If you’d like a full list of mods, I’ve included one at the end of this post.

It should be fun. πŸ˜„

I figured this time around, I should actually post my progress. Probably not straight up videos, although that’s a possibility at some point, but rather screenshots and perhaps a few short clips. If you’re interested, take a look, drop me a line. I’d love to chat about it. If not, just skip over it. This is as much for me (supplemental memory go!) as anything. πŸ˜„

A gif

It’s it just so much fun to watch?

Onward!

read more...


Running local proxies

As I’ve mentioned a couple of times recently1 2, I have set a handful of different things on my local machines to make remote development a bit easier. This time around, I have two more to add to that list:

  • Setting up a local SOCKS proxy with SSH
  • Setting up a local TOR proxy for testing / more anonymous browsing
  • Configuring your browser to use these proxies for some/all traffic

In both cases, I have these running on an always-on server that I use for various projects just like this. It could just as easily be set up to run on a Raspberry Pi or on your local machine.

read more...


Firefox vs Chrome

Deciding which browser to use has been a bit of a challenge for me. Many years ago, I was something of an Opera fan, but when Firefox rose to dominance, I moved on and never really looked back. For a while after the release of Chrome, I resisted the change, but eventually Chrome’s rolling release cycle and just sheer speed convinced me to switch. More recently (about two weeks ago), I’ve tried switching back to Firefox. Here’s what I found:

read more...