David's Space

Tag: Blog Post

  • Satisfactory: Transport Transformation

    Satisfactory: Transport Transformation

    Massive transformation underway, but like other large projects in takes time

    I love large projects, I think I am slowly getting better at them. The biggest challenge I had for large projects in the leisure category of my life was finishing them. Now I just keep track of where I am at with them, and I will bounce around to other projects and finish it over time.

    Screenshot from the game Satisfactory. Showing a road with a light leading towards concrete foundations.
    My road blueprints in the Sandstorm Logistics Hub
    Screenshot from the game Satisfactory. Showing a road leading down underneath some foundations where a road network continues on to connect the parts of the logistics hub with other factories.
    Screenshot from the game Satisfactory. Showing a large area covered with foundations, and a rail line running up through the centre of the image. In the background is a rail yard of sorts, and the half-dismantled building behind that.
    Screenshot from the game Satisfactory. Showing a large area covered with concrete foundations and truck stops in the middle. There is also a power tower clipping through the foundations.
    Screenshot from the game Satisfactory. Showing two streetlamps lighting up a road underneath my logistics hub.
    Screenshot from the game Satisfactory. In the foreground there is a train station, in the main area of the screenshot is a half-dismantled building in the desert.

    I have been hard at work building my new logistics hub. I still need to work on a better way to track what each place is called, and what the code for it is. I sense a spreadsheet in my near future. But I have been making lots of progress and I am happy with it. Even made more after I took these screenshots.

    The train line is in the process of being re-aligned, and will eventually be fully, and properly, integrated into the design of the hub. I am hoping to keep building off of what I have and eventually expand to a city of sorts connected by roads and trucks running through.

    Screenshot from the game Satisfactory. There is a two-track rail line running through this photo, including temporary tracks run in the upper middle.
    Another example of the re-alignment happening to my rail line

    I have many rail lines to remove so I can free up some space and add trucks in for small logistics transfers. My ultimate goal is to have long trains running between the stations. I would love the look of that.

    Screenshot from the game Satisfactory. Showing a road running through the desert with streetlights and crisscrossing power cables. In the upper right is a rail corridor.

    Here is a long stretch featuring the road blueprint I made. I am very happy with it. I like having the curb, and it helps it integrate into large swaths of other foundations and not seem out of place.

    Screenshot from the game Satisfactory. Showing a truck depot with two truck stops in front of a factory town. There is a rail line running in the background on the left.
    Screenshot from the game Satisfactory. Showing a rail line broken in two segments that are yet-to-be-connected. In the middle there is a power tower, and the HUB area with storage containers and blueprint designers.
    Screenshot from the game Satisfactory. Showing a hypertube snaking around obstacles, and a power tower is sitting in the foreground to the left.

    I have lots of things to do still, such as clean up the truck depots and figure out if I want to make them look nicer, and how. Then re-aligning some rail lines. Luckily this corridor was not being used yet, so I can take some time. I think I will need to raise everything below and rebuild my HUB area around the road and rail network. This will be a large undertaking but I can integrate the old with new stuff and create an underground city for things that can stay. I have a fondness for “renovating” things instead of tearing down. Though the foundations need to be good. That old building I am tearing down, was not build on the world grid and therefore is not useful so I am tearing it down. The HUB area is built on the world grid so it is salvageable.

    Screenshot from the game Satisfactory. Shows the sun, space elevator and captures a number of factories dotting the skyline. On the left is a rail line and a train is approaching.

    I leave you with this photo that I particularly like. That rail line to the left has already disappeared since I swapped it to a truck connection utilizing my new road.

    There is much more to come. I hope you enjoyed reading and seeing the screenshots. I am having a great time sharing them and my progress. It also helps keep me on track and remember what I am up to in the game when I have to pause for work or life. Until next time.

  • Hello, world!

    My first post on my new blog.

    I will be the first to admit that I have had nearly a dozen first posts across the many many versions of my blog. So who can say if this one will be the first of many posts on this blog or if I will end up replacing WordPress with something else in the future. My journey has lead me back to this CMS after some time. More on that below. At this time though I am happy with having a platform like WordPress to be able to create content on.

    Why WordPress? Well the answer is pretty simple and unfortunately boring. It is what I have time and capacity for. It gives me a website out of the box that I can just leave at default settings, and while not perfect, is good enough. I have been adopting this philosophy lately because I noticed that I was drowning in projects and things I wanted to do. Perfect is the enemy of good, and I just need good enough.

    I love the concept of static site generators, I think it is brilliant and would be perfect for my blog. However they are not perfect for me. I am a busy person with a full-time job that sees regular overtime. I also have pets, a partner, and.a household to take care of. I love the concept but I cannot commit to the execution. Likewise with other frameworks like Wagtail, Gatsby, Next.js, 11ty/Build Awesome, or whatever the framework-du-jour is.

    I discovered that I enjoy and understand the systems administration aspect of self-hosting more than programming and coding. I used to make websites by hand with just HTML, CSS, and some copy-pasted javascript. It was fun, but for right now I just want a platform that lets me easily publish. Otherwise I will never do so because I want to make that “perfect” website with the neat framework that I want to learn all about.

    Anyways, I am excited to be here, excited that you are reading this (thanks for reading!), and I am excited to see what I post in the future, and how the site may evolve. I may or may not plan on doing light theme and plugin development, but this time I am not putting any pressure on myself to do so. The website is started, everything else can be extra.