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. 😄
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.
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:
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).
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.
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. 😄
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. 😄
It’s it just so much fun to watch?
Onward!
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:
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.
A long time ago1, in a galaxy far, far away2, I moved my blog from WordPress to a custom written static blog generator in Racket. And for a while, all was well.
The eagle-eyed among you1 may have noticed something a bit different since last night:
That’s right, I’m finally using HTTPS!
I use a MacBook at work. It’s nice, since it’s Unix’y enough that I can work in the terminal yet works much better out of the box than Linux. On the downside, the keyboard is less than great for carpal tunnel syndrome. So instead, I’ve been using a Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard. Then though, you have the difference between Control/Windows/Alt keys and Control/Option/Command.
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: