4 ms·
Come on, we all know this problem and we all know the solution. It's probably red-circuits that we are talking about here. We've all been there: you have your y
by neals 5y ago
Come on, we all know this problem and we all know the solution. It's probably red-circuits that we are talking about here. We've all been there: you have your yellow belts full of green-circuits, but the red ones are just so much more complex. You need to set up the entire oil production chain for that, which is tedious and you probably rushed it just 'get a few red circuits so I can get my electric furnace'...
I say, take a step back, take some time and really automate plastic-bar production (yes, even the oil wells and refineries, and don't just put rocks in a container, belt them over there like a grown-up)
Only after producting enough for a full red belt, should you continue expanding into other branches, like robots and faster belts.
Don't they teach this stuff anymore?
- spsesk117 5y agoI love playing Factorio, but it's moments like above when it starts to stop feeling like a game and it starts to feel like refactoring code at work.
- blunte 5y agoFactorio is a nice and simplistic (and fun, for a while) way to demonstrated many aspects of software and product development. You go through basic product planning and design, first quick MVP, then some feedback loops where you recognize some needed design changes, etc. Then once you have it figured out, you want more. So you start scaling up. That scaling often necessitates refactoring, because it necessitates space and time management (no sense having a bottleneck in your system which limits your growth potential). Then you have the aliens which represent unexpected problems and failures. A while back someone posted about playing Factorio with job candidates as a way to see how they thing and solve problems. This is probably much better than most tech interviews. If you can be decent at Factorio, you can probably be pretty decent as a software developer.
- TeMPOraL 5y agoI'd laugh but then I saw this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28233436 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28233436. Yup, Factorio is a nice way to learn about supply chains. Unfortunately, like almost all videogames, it assumes the whole system is run by a benevolent dictator (i.e. the player). In real life, most of the complexity and most of the waste comes from the system being built incrementally and operated by great many parties in a mix of cooperative and competitive relationships.
- neals 5y agoI think you're still allowed to laugh
- jameshart 5y agoThink of biters as a metaphor for competitors, taxes, and regulatory compliance.
- swiley 5y agoAh yes, the blackstart situation. So terrible once you switch to nuclear.
- elihu 5y agoReal life work in the tech industry at a large employer is like a playing some sort of multi-player game of Factorio where you can't actually see what's going on outside of your little corner of the factory. Once in awhile the logistics bots will all just vanish for twenty minutes, or the power will go out, or the belt with copper plates will suddenly be carrying iron plates. There are all kinds of blueprints to make your life easier, but most of them are deprecated or obsolete, and the one your really want is buried in some email chain.
- elihu 5y ago> Don't they teach this stuff anymore? I feel like the world could use a series of Katherine of Sky-narrated video tutorials on how to build out real-world infrastructure and supply chains. "...and now let's see if we can get our shipping container shortage worked out; wait, what's this? Oh no, we've got a ship stuck sideways in the Suez, and all of the stuff and all of the things are stuck in a traffic jam in the Mediterranean and the Red sea. The sadness is real."