<\/div>\nThe Factorio level generator offers a ridiculous number of options. This isn’t like Minecraft where you just pick a seed and take whatever the algorithm gives you. The game gives you a lot of sliders for determining how the world is generated.<\/p>\n
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For example, the options for iron deposits are:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Frequency:<\/b> How often does this feature show up? Set the frequency high, and you’ll find an iron deposit every few meters. Set it low and you might go a few kilometers between iron deposits. The latter is really good for making maps that encourage you to use trains.<\/li>\n
- Size:<\/b> When a deposit does finally show up, how large is it? Keep in mind that the size of the deposit is functionally a limiter on throughput. If you’re looking to maximize your base and output stuff as fast as possible, then you want to cover a resource deposit with as many mining drills as possible. If the deposit is small, then you’ll only get two or three drills on it and you’ll need countless different deposits to support your base. I have no idea why you’d want this, but the option is there.\u00a0<\/li>\n
- Richness:<\/b> How much does the deposit contain? How long can your mining drill work on it before the deposit runs out? If you make this low then deposits will run dry quickly and you’ll have to constantly relocate your mining equipment to fresh nodes. If you make it high then a given mining outpost can run for many hours without you needing to worry about it. I don’t think it’s particularly interesting to keep moving my drills around, so I actually use a mod that sets the deposit richness to “infinite”. This is closer to how Satisfactory does it, where a single node can give you resources forever.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
You get these three options for every resource in the game: iron, copper, coal, stone, uranium, and oil.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Biters<\/h3>\n
<\/div>This is a biter nest. This is not a good place to go.<\/div><\/p>\nAnother thing you can control is the presence and density of the biters. (The alien monsters.) At the start of the game, they leave you alone unless you get too close to their nests. As the game goes on you’ll inevitably create pollution. The biters are driven wild by pollution. It causes them to mass in groups and assault your base. Also, the more pollution you release, the more the biters evolve. If you pollute carelessly, then you’ll find yourself fighting larger and stronger biters with more complex unit compositions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To be honest, I’ve never been crazy about the biters. I’ve played a normal game with them in it. I’ve even used the “death world” preset which makes them evolve and attack like crazy. It sounds like an interesting idea on paper, but in the long run I find them to be an annoyance rather than a challenge.<\/p>\n
Back in the days when I worked for Activeworlds<\/a>, the phones were set up so that whenever someone called the company, it would ring every phone in the office. Everyone had a phone on their desk, and it was “everyone’s” job to answer the phone. That might sound crazy, but remember that we were a tiny company with about half a dozen people. The company didn’t have extra funds to spend on luxuries like receptionists and operators.<\/p>\n
So my work would go something like this….<\/p>\n
Where was I? Oh right, we’re getting this weird glitch where users jitter around while flying. Their character looks fine on their own machine, but other people watching them fly will sometimes see them appear elsewhere for a few frames. I’ve never seen it happen myself. Maybe it only applies to large crowds? Or to people on dial-up?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n
So, here’s a structure that holds the user’s positional data. Because we’re working in vanilla C, this block of memory gets raw copied on the spot and the copy is given to the network code to send over the internet to other users. I don’t see how that data could ever be changed, though. So why is the user’s apparent position changing only for remote observers?<\/em><\/p>\n
Oh! now that I’m looking at the network code I see that…<\/em><\/p>\n
RING RING!<\/p>\n
Oh damn it. I hope someone else gets that. Anyway, I was looking at the network-<\/em><\/p>\n
RING RING!<\/p>\n
This is stupid. What kind of lunatic sets up their office so the programming\u00a0 staff has their phones ring all day. Don’t they understand that…<\/em><\/p>\n
RING RING!<\/p>\n
FUCK! FINE. I’LL GET IT.<\/em><\/p>\n
(I answer the phone and spend three minutes trying to figure out who this is and what they want and where I should send them. Finally through the thick accent and rambling story I’ll realize they have a billing question, so I’ll route them over to Tom.<\/p>\n
So where was I? Oh right. This weird glitch. Only happens for remote users. Let’s see, I looked through the movement code, found this copy operation, and… what was that for? Oh right, that gets sent off to the networking code. But so what? That code isn’t supposed to touch the data. Just broadcast it. Right? Let me check. Oh right. I read this a few minutes ago before the distraction when I noticed that… What? I remember sitting right here, looking at this block of code, and I realized something. Maybe it was…<\/em><\/p>\n
RING RING!<\/p>\n
Oh come on. The problem was right here. Or if not the problem, a clue. What does this block do, anyway? I see that it has…<\/em><\/p>\n
RING RING!<\/p>\n
Arg. Come on. Someone pick up. I see that it doesn’t just shunt this whole memory block over the internet like I expected. But then what was that memory allocation and copy for? Was that to-<\/em><\/p>\n
RING RING!<\/p>\n
Fuck this job. I’m going back to McDonald’s<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n
Anyway. Interruptions are bad for programmers. This is a known<\/a> problem<\/a>. Sure, sometimes you’ll see naysayers claiming that programmers aren’t anything special<\/a> and we’re just being babies about this. I can tell you those people are 100% wrong. I’ve done other jobs. I’ve written code, I’ve written books<\/a>, and music<\/a>, I’ve made 3D models, I’ve made texture maps. I’ve made hamburgers and tacos<\/a>. There’s no comparison. While it’s always annoying to get interrupted no matter what your job is, nothing comes close to the annoyance and cost of losing your train of thought while coding.\u00a0<\/p>\n
- Size:<\/b> When a deposit does finally show up, how large is it? Keep in mind that the size of the deposit is functionally a limiter on throughput. If you’re looking to maximize your base and output stuff as fast as possible, then you want to cover a resource deposit with as many mining drills as possible. If the deposit is small, then you’ll only get two or three drills on it and you’ll need countless different deposits to support your base. I have no idea why you’d want this, but the option is there.\u00a0<\/li>\n
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