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Author Topic: Dyson Sphere Program: Factorio on a Galactic Scale. "Dark Fog" Combat Update  (Read 14051 times)

forsaken1111

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I want to like this, but I can't get over the fact that even with technology capable of building a Dyson sphere, you can't (well, wouldn't) build one that way - many of those node points are not in valid orbits.

You'd build a Dyson sphere starting first with a ringworld, acting as an equator, then you'd start building poleward from that.

I mean, even if you are capable of harnessing all stellar energy, you probably wouldn't waste energy to maintain construction equipment in paths that would be on the surface of a rigid sphere that aren't actual orbits.
There's nothing stopping you from doing it that way. I could just have easily first planned and built a band around the equator, then expanded from there. The game is also still early access with much more content planned, including combat and other goals. I wouldn't assume the sphere building is final at this point.
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marples

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DSP (haven't played yet) - does it have what needs to stand against Factorio? I know fighting local fauna is planned, is it going to be as extensible through mods as Pixelated Heroin (Factorio) is?

It feels more compeling than factorio. There's just something about a battery of rail accelerators launching stuff that tweaks my buttons. Also, everybody loves the BDO romance of a Dyson sphere.
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Chiefwaffles

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I want to like this, but I can't get over the fact that even with technology capable of building a Dyson sphere, you can't (well, wouldn't) build one that way - many of those node points are not in valid orbits.

You'd build a Dyson sphere starting first with a ringworld, acting as an equator, then you'd start building poleward from that.

I mean, even if you are capable of harnessing all stellar energy, you probably wouldn't waste energy to maintain construction equipment in paths that would be on the surface of a rigid sphere that aren't actual orbits.

That is how it works. Mostly. You only start with the capability to build a ring around the equator -- you have to research additional tech to build at progressively greater latitude differences. But if you want for whatever reason you can wait and research the tech before you start building it at all.
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Quote from: RAM
You should really look to the wilderness for your stealth ideas, it has been doing it much longer than you have after all. Take squids for example, that ink trick works pretty well, and in water too! So you just sneak into the dam upsteam, dump several megatons of distressed squid into it, then break the dam. Boom, you suddenly have enough water-proof stealth for a whole city!

Sirian

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I want to like this, but I can't get over the fact that even with technology capable of building a Dyson sphere, you can't (well, wouldn't) build one that way - many of those node points are not in valid orbits.

You'd build a Dyson sphere starting first with a ringworld, acting as an equator, then you'd start building poleward from that.

I mean, even if you are capable of harnessing all stellar energy, you probably wouldn't waste energy to maintain construction equipment in paths that would be on the surface of a rigid sphere that aren't actual orbits.

That depends on the type of dyson sphere. In the bubble model, the individual elements are statites that use radiation pressure to counteract gravity, making classical orbits irrelevant. Considering that in-game they are called "solar sails" and use graphene (which has low enough density), this is compatible with the bubble model.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sphere#Dyson_bubble
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McTraveller

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Ah ok - I think what threw me was the "blueprint" view that must not have been at an appropriate scale - that icosahedron-based framework just didn't seem to make any sense.

I was not familiar with the Dyson Bubble concept - interesting that even current technology is only 4x the density required to make such a thing work.
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forsaken1111

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Ah ok - I think what threw me was the "blueprint" view that must not have been at an appropriate scale - that icosahedron-based framework just didn't seem to make any sense.

I was not familiar with the Dyson Bubble concept - interesting that even current technology is only 4x the density required to make such a thing work.
If you mean the one I designed, I did it purely for fun and did not try to be remotely realistic. You can essentially build as many dyson shells as you wish in the game, as realistic or as fanciful as you like. In fact you can build up to I think 9 nested shells around every star, neutron star, or black hole if you really wanted to and had the time and resources.
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Ozyton

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So after many many hours I decided to start firing off solar sails. I'm just wondering if having larger or inclined orbits have any effect on the swarm's effectiveness, or if it's just something you can do to make the swarm pretty.

Also, can you fire off swarms through a planet? I just built my EM rails on a tidally locked planet assuming it would need a clear line of fire.

On another note, does anyone else have trouble finding the correct ratios for production? It seems half the time I get something backwards or it seems like I can produce way more/less than what I calculated.
E: I would use the wiki for help but the game is so new that there's hardly anything useful on it.
« Last Edit: January 30, 2021, 09:49:34 am by Ozyton »
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forsaken1111

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So after many many hours I decided to start firing off solar sails. I'm just wondering if having larger or inclined orbits have any effect on the swarm's effectiveness, or if it's just something you can do to make the swarm pretty.

Also, can you fire off swarms through a planet? I just built my EM rails on a tidally locked planet assuming it would need a clear line of fire.
From what I have seen, the solar sails have a set power generation per sail and orbit/inclination does not matter but you cannot fire them if the path is blocked by another planet or if the cannon cannot achieve the correct trajectory due to pitch limitations.
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Salmeuk

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A little offtopic: What's with all those amazing chinese games recently? (completely subjective opinions)
Genshin Impact - milion times better Zelda: BOTW (not devaluing early zeldas)
Amazing Cultivation Simulator - better, more interesting Rimworld
DSP (haven't played yet) - does it have what needs to stand against Factorio? I know fighting local fauna is planned, is it going to be as extensible through mods as Pixelated Heroin (Factorio) is?

I too have noticed an uptick in Chinese developed games that really hit the sweet spot for me. To add to your list, Gunfire is a compelling (though simple) rogue-lite FPS that really nails the formula.

And that's it - these games are formulaic. They all feel like a mish-mash of previously successful games in the genre. I hesistate to call this dev style unoriginal, but in some cases it really feels that way. In other cases, it's a serious refinement and polish of previous mechanics, and I currently am enjoying DSP far more than I ever enjoyed Factorio. I honestly think there is going to be more and more examples of Chinese developed games that overshadow their western inspirations. While I bounced off Amazing Cultivation Simulator, I think that is the closest we have gotten to a DF level of mechanical depth, so I hope to see more like that.



As far as DSP goes, it's got less tweaking and fiddling to deal with, which I never particularly enjoyed, and more glitz and a much more compelling end goal than uh 'launch the rocket' which we all know is just a convoluted way to say, 'I'm bored and want to restart.'

It sort of lacks the granularity of Factorio, and you find yourself with fewer options for tweaking and processing. On the other hand, without so many options, there is less to get wrong, and your prod train tends to stay simple enough I feel safe destroying everything and starting all over - a thing I never found myself doing in Factorio due to the annoyances involved.

As others have said, the game's stability and speed is impressive. The game kind of feels like how the Spore endgame should have gone - beautiful, scaled-down planets as resource containers, and a wide open space frontier where you can Manifest Destiny your way to material dominance. I haven't played enough to experience the variety in planet forms, though honestly nothing will impress me there after playing No Man's Sky, so I'm just hoping for a a mixed set of generation parameters that result in planets that are, if not necessarily unique to look at, unique to design your base on.

Tech tree is deep enough you have to zoom out to see it all, and that's always a win in my book!
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BigD145

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I miss Factorio's copy and paste-ish features. Don't want to tear apart my DSP setup when I just need to move it over x spaces. Can't plan anything temporarily and if your inventory is full anything you pick up goes *poof*. I don't want to double or triple production because I have to build it from scratch and move stuff at the same time. I get that it would be fairly impossible to paste things designed on the equator and placing on the poles but let me equatorialize it all. I'm most likely going to run a bus on the equator anyway. I'm potentially going to use similar setups from planet to planet to make intermediary products to ship back to the starter system.
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forsaken1111

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According to some things the devs have said in discord they are working on solution for copy/paste, blueprints, etc. Coming soon are easy machine and belt upgrades and a few other things.
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Jopax

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So did you guys know you could change the shape of a splitter by pressing tab? Even tho it says so on the right hand side I never actually noticed that bit :V
It's pretty funky and makes stuff way more useful than I thought initially.
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forsaken1111

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So did you guys know you could change the shape of a splitter by pressing tab? Even tho it says so on the right hand side I never actually noticed that bit :V
It's pretty funky and makes stuff way more useful than I thought initially.
yep, the tutorial says it as well and it's incredibly useful. You can also stack splitters as high as your technology allows which can help you run multiple parallel belt lines and easily tap into them
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LoSboccacc

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idk how modding works for this game but this might interest you

copy inserters: https://dsp.thunderstore.io/package/thisisbrad/CopyInserters/
demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=718rpiFHYmk

when you copy a factory, remembers the inserters and if source > destination exist will place them along with the copy
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Chiefwaffles

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There's been some recent patches as well; nothing too major but very nice QoL, including but not limited to:
  • Quick Upgrading - Instantly replace lower tier buildings/conveyors with better ones.
  • Chain Dismantling/Upgrading -- Replace/remove entre conveyor belt chains at once.
  • Basic Logistics Control Improvements -- Some minor stuff giving you a bit more control over how your logistics stuff works. Importantly, this includes the ability to set a minimum distance for your vessels to use warper and the ability to require those vessels to not travel past that minimum distance without warper. No more automatic sub-FTL year-long journeys between solar systems!
  • Keybinding -- You can actually change keybinds now.
There's some other stuff as well. English localization improvements, more building working sounds, some tweaks to starter planet generation, and so on.

In the near future (post Chinese New Year holidays) they'll be publishing a more detailed roadmap including Combat, "Assembly Space Platform", and "Workshops" (which I assume with somewhat low certainty to be meaning Steam Workshop support) in it.
[/list]
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Quote from: RAM
You should really look to the wilderness for your stealth ideas, it has been doing it much longer than you have after all. Take squids for example, that ink trick works pretty well, and in water too! So you just sneak into the dam upsteam, dump several megatons of distressed squid into it, then break the dam. Boom, you suddenly have enough water-proof stealth for a whole city!
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