"Going NUTZ!!!" - Now this is what I call a MEGA BASE

[Keplergamer]

Second Chapter Time-lapse with music is up. Hopefully with no copyright problems, just gave up waiting.

I'm really, really happy with the crazy soundtrack that I was able to mix.

Last 16minutes is all the songs that I listened a lot on repeat while playing factorio, and the one at 36min is the one that I had on repeat for the last 3 hours of this own chapter.

Actually, I think the first session ends at the end of this song, but since there's a 3h capture cut not so far away from it, included the rest before this loss of footage. Fortunately, this is just about the any footage lost in 7 days of gameplay, all the rest is there waiting to put some kind of audio on it.

Have fun, the soundtrack is a real mix of things, hope you like it. =)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnzj9XkBEUo

[Keplergamer]

ROBOT BATTERY UPGRADE RESEARCH!!!!!
Ahhhhh, found out just after playing the last session, that Klonan had made a mod to upgrade the robot battery research, and this will solve soooo many problems on my base construction!!!! Now I can plan more freely, and won't depend of having tier 4 robots, at least for now.

Other huge discovery, for me that don't look much around about this game, is that you can click on the deconstruction planner with the right mouse button and choose to remove only rocks and trees!!! I didn't know that!!! Oh my god!!! Before that I was relying on the "auto-deconstruct" mod, that removed any trees when you placed a new roboport, but it wasn't updated to 0.15. This was a huge hold for my base expansion, as the deconstruction orders don't stay forever like ghosts do. Once I set like a 500x1000 area to remove all the trees, only to find out that thing. Now with this I can go ahead on the base construction WHILE I wait for anything on the base for the base to be completed. Like more roboport MKIV.

Anyway..... This new mod finally made me automate all the new required research packs for it to go up to at least lvl 10. The first one was re-making the purple science pack, that was the alien one I think, now it's the production science pack. I decided to also make this session available in real-time, I just have to merge all the videos and upload it now, expect it to be available this week. Just so you can look around that mega bus in real-time. Watching all the video could be boring, but one bit here and there must be amusing. This was all played last monday night, June 26.

Also on that day I started the next tier, the Hi-tech science pack, at first, was kinda easy, just linking all things that I already had on the main bus or at least automated. But this pack also required the high speed module 1....

- but to do it, I needed first to research it
- that needed to be done in the modules lab
- and before researching that, I had to research the base of the modules research
- and this needed a LOT of things
- and I also needed to automate the modules lab production
- and thus the original lab production

- so I started it, right at the end of that HUGE BUS....

- also, I connected the road tunnels all at once for the first time and boy, LOOK AT THAT UPS, this is bad, as the megabase main bus should be 200x bigger than this..... ohhhhh boy

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- original lab production was easy, all things were on the bus already
- but to make the modules lab, I needed a lot of module things
- and they required one thing, that was kinda basic, so basic that
- not one, but 2 items weren't on the main bus, and they were being done only on the other edge of it.
- there was some serious belt laying at the end of that monday session.



Next gameplay session, played just now
- After belting those 2, I could make the 3 missing ingredients for the modules lab, they all required the same things, so I decided to play a little spaghetti fun, and at the end, it all looked like this:

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That was fun to make and to watch it working






- Then, onto making the remaining entities required for the basic research to be done in the modules lab
- The first one required the same things of the basic white module chip
- So I emptied the machine on it's right and made that column for it.
- Then, there was the plastic capsule
- And the other 2 were other modules, so I kept expanding that spaghetti

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- After that, finally could research the high speed module 1
- Now that I can craft it, I can see what items does it need
- The only new item was a gold contact
- The rest was just more spaghetti fun, at the end, all the systems looked like this:

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After that, only had to belt the modules back to the science pack, almost all the bus back, near that lake. But it finally is going.

Now, I just upgraded all science pack production to have 12 machines each, or something like that.
Then went to see why I had no gold anymore, turns out the chlorine belt was full of Pumps that stopped working with the new 0.15 update.
Also looked for bottlenecks around the base
And made more storage for all the slags
Then my HD was full and had to stop.....



ROADMAP
Next time, if I don't have any detour, I'm going to remove a LOT of trees around the base, at least everywhere that I already have robot coverage
Also have to really upgrade the landfill production, cause it takes a TON of resources and time, even with the upgrade, I'll probably will have to wait 1 full day of gameplay just to remove that small lake, nevermind any other I may find up north on the megabase path....
Then I will re-start titanium production, I just remembered that ALL those ores that I stored up at the side of the MEGABASE were exactly the ones I was looking for, unless they're also gone with that update, I just have to transport them.
Next, I'll expand the roboports to reach all the 500x500 areas.
Then remove all the trees of those areas
And put concrete on all of them

Then I'll work on making some big, fancy, pretty and Rube Goldberg like production areas for each series of items that require the same ingredients. But those at the side of those 500x500 areas. As they're part of the base for the base.
Those areas will be
- Modules, not that I'm planning on using them, they just make a wonderful spaghetti chain

- All the colored concrete

- All the colored lights

- All kinds of different grounds



Then, I wanna work on re-allocating that Ugly solar plants

Then, I'll make a proper central train station and storage area, I'm planning on making each megabase train to have 48 wagons, with 1 double loco every 12 wagons, kinda like real trains. I'll also make at least 3 platforms for each ore unload. So like 30 platforms of about 60 wagons long
And a waiting area....

Then the storage area, I'm thinking of using those Angels Warehouses, each ore will have about a screen full of them, maybe more......



Then I can work on the proper ore crushing and sorting 500x500 area
And also the slag treatment plant that I need ASAP
Gonna plan this one very nice, using all the lights and grounds to look nice and all, this will be a huge but fun challenge



Then start making the 500x500 smelting session, but only start, as there's SOOOOO many things to make here


Then also have some fun at the refinery


And finally start properly expanding the megabase and put things as it's needed....

At first, this megabase would be for all things like the other, but I'm thinking of first making it just to launch the rocket, as I've never done that and it's already taking way too long and way too much of the CPU.
After that, then I could think of expanding all the rest, as I originally wanted to make a base that couldn't fit on 2 game maps even on the smaller zoom level. May need to upgrade my ram.....

[Keplergamer]

CHAPTER 2.5 - A Real-Time catch-up tour

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzPt_z_vbY4

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzPt_z_vbY4

Since I lost about 3 hours that I can't Time-lapse, I made this real-time tour just to show the changes, and also a nice way to show a little more of how it was to build this behemoth in real-time. This was recorded last month, while that portion of the game was played in september of 2016. But since I have all the time-lapses around this gap, I remember much of what was happening....


Actually, recording my own game and making the time-lapse of it is the best thing to have so you don't get lost on what you were doing since the last time that you were playing the game. It helps sooo much.

[Keplergamer]

Oh boy, if there's anything that makes you loose the notion of time than Factorio, is editing the soundtrack of a factorio time-lapse. Literally spent around 12 hours on it. Anyway, another 1h of TL with music is done, and being uploaded. Version with commentary to follow later this week.

[Keplergamer]

Chapter 3a is online
https://youtu.be/WSe1kJBJIeU

Songlist will be post at the end of the week, don't wanna spoil it
But lemme say that the first song is one that I listened a LOT over the past couple of years, it was made for Eve Online, but fits really well to set the dark ambient mood, but also the sense of progress. All other songs also are some that I really listened a lot while playing factorio and should also take part of the soundtrack of this chapter 3.

On this chapter 3 I decide that I can't just stand waiting for the 50 robots to do their part, and thus I plan to start a base for the base, specially just to make roboports 1, I planned this as a 3 hour detour, as you can see, it's taking a little longer than that. Specially because roboports 1 have a VERY TINY reach, even MkII I can't stand the way it clutters the base mini-map. Why spend so much making a belt transported base, just to be spoiled EVERYWHERE by roboports....... Well, I'm getting ahead of myself. But lemme tell you, this chapter 3 is great how fast things go. I was on crunch-time mode, specially at part B, which will finish uploading in several hours from now.

After chapter 3, things gets less focused and with a slower pace, so it's kind of another game from here on end. At least up to the present day and I guess 2 more days. Then I hope I'll have all bots and base for the base sorted out.

[Keplergamer]

Chp 3b is online
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuYqLYQTCaY

And sorry for the music end of the previous video, at first, the cut wasn't supposed to be there, but some technical problems appeared.

[Keplergamer]

Chapter 3c Online
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5Kwc6OTbVg

I love the ending on this one.

[Keplergamer]

Oh yeah, baby






IT HAS BEGUN!!!

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Better update to follow later, bad week with bad sleep which started with editing the songs for chapter 3. Better and exclusive internet is coming, I'll try to play this on twitch when it does.








Took 7 days instead of the planned 3 hours, but what a ride, totally worth it. Better update when I'm in a better state. Gotta take a good break now. I'll probably go celebrate my birthday, which I still haven't done (it was June 17), on the same pizza place that I went just before starting this megabase, can't see a better fit to this saturday evening celebration.


This colored concrete is just the first concept of a zillion possible, in layout and size, gotta find a place away from the base and just try them all and see which fits better with what I want, and actually discover what I want. For each of those 500x500 sections, and the giga train station, and the main bus and 50x50 modules.






Anyway...........









































ALL EASY TO REDO NOW THAT I HAVE PROPER BOTS!

[Keplergamer]

Now also alive my voice over version of the first chapter in Portuguese, I think I can speak much better in my original language.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1quRisu1Vg

[Keplergamer]

REAL-TIME FEATURE

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWmEVqgKTxY
And here the real-time feature of me making the missing science when I found about the Robot Battery Upgrade research mod. Also with music that was what I was listening while playing this, very happy to find the mod. The first song kinda fits with me coming back to work on this factory after a lot of bottlenecks and other design walls.



At first I was messing with the white circuits, then started making the missing science packs.

[ira]

Nice stuff. Inspired by your showing of the "process," not just the finished state. In a future build I'll have to remind myself to capture my base state more often!

[Keplergamer]

Thanks ^^

Indeed, I miss a lot having a 12x time-lapse in that NegativeRoot's Break The Game series, as well as hearing that Colonel Will had a megabase with 500 hours on it, and that I couldn't find at the time not even a single video about it, let alone a time-lapse on how it was done. That's how I decided to start this. That and the hugest megalomaniac dream.......

Because of this dream, which I'm afraid will really break the game way before it's done, I'm just enjoying myself while I can. If the game actually holds itself whit that megabus being really used, better. But first I'll have a very fun time making all those 500x500 areas. Which I may have to turn into 1000x1000 areas, with room to expand on the sides. Just wait for my next update to understand why this may be the case...... But I wanna properly fish this next addition before posting any screenshots. Probably tonight or tomorrow.

[Keplergamer]

Well, not all stages are finished yet, but here's a little teaser...


I'm turning this prototype:

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Into this:

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[Keplergamer]

Going Nutz on Plastic Production!!!

Now this is my FIRST BUILD on the scale, at least in size, and layout of what I had in mind for the "refinery" section ever since I started dreaming about doing this factory. I had to upgrade plastic production, then I decided to, as a rehearsal, practice building how will be the big contraptions of the mega base. I wanted to put a lot of pretty colored concrete and other floors for like the path to walk around and to separate each section, but there's so many possibilities and might be better to just leave this how it is. Still, need to take a break now and let's share how it is right now.

All I can say is... I don't regret a single bit of the 2 days of gameplay that I spent upgrading this game to the petrochem mod.

Thank you Angels

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Hope you liked it
Once I'm finished with the final touches, I'll make a video-tour of it. And maybe uploading a save game. But boy I really wanna remake all those solar panels for that. Might be a great motivation to clean up some parts of the base....

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Now, look at this thing on the base map!!! It's huge!!! Like it's using so much of the base space already. And that's why instead of 500x500 areas, I'll have to make 1000x1000 areas, but with that I would need to realocate all things, not sure..... Let's wait for all the concrete to be layed out while all the other problems are adressed. I have a ton of ToDo things, that I might as well learn how to use those Trello cards.

Maybe I can simply remove the each thing when it's mega base big brother is already done, making the less painfull, not stopping the production area and way more rewarding. Yeah, I like that.

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And on this one you can really see how crazy the scale is this compared to the base for the base bus and the rest of the base, and why the area may need to be 1000x1000, maybe even more....

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And I've never really posted a big map image, with the rail sections, so, there you go. Much more concrete is already been put down. But now I'm having concrete shortage, go figure , but starting to crush slags into stones will help speed up bricks and concrete production.


Ah, 8 days and a half of gameplay already. This kind of precise building planning really eat's up a LOT of time, specially when you're just starting on it. But I always wanted to make a fun artistic building game like the ones of Fluxtrance on Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 and Cities: Skyline, but those require a lot of motivation and really know what you want to keep going, those videos that you just watch wanting to make the same but it's not so easy to get into it as it takes a TON of time and dedication.... Guess I found my own playground.

[Keplergamer]

After finishing that last contraption. I took my time to chill-out, and wait for the real-time captures to process on megui and be uploaded to my portuguese channel. As well as thinking how I could free space on my HD to work again.

Then my PC had power-source problems, the house has some work going on and the Factorio MMO happened, and decided to get back to my old NR2003 racing league and cast some races again. That was great motivation to finally go throug my PC and it's 5 zillion files and start deleting what I can. Now from the 5.5 Terabytes, which of those only 10% were free, now is like 40%, and I can play without interruption when I start. And collegue is starting again, so I can just leave the pc processing while I'm away making plans for the next sessions.


Also, Dota 2 international is coming up and I'm planning on casting at least 1 series each day, either live in bad quality, or recording it on 1080p 60f. Probably in portuguese but maybe also in english for once.

[Keplergamer]

Well, well, well....

I was looking for something to play just for the 20mins that I had and still fullfill my satisfaction needs, and also while at it record something to fill the gap of let's plays to leave the computer reprocessing the video and the internet uploading. Guess which game I choose.

It's good to be back!!! Also using the Excel todo list that I compiled while I waited for the last recordings to process but still wanted to play the game somehow. It had a first section that was the most urgent things that also wouldn't be much work for the reward they would give. It was supposed to be just 5-10 items but.....

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I also thought at first that I could finish the list in around 8 hours, but only plastic production took about 13h.... that's why I may have also taken a break from the game. Time to digest the frustrations, re-think the work flow and redo the expectations..... This base probably wont be near as well as I wanted it to be, have to deal whit it, it's the first one I'm doing with this purpose of aesthetics over all else, and also creating the aesthetic pattern altogether. But, gotta finish it if I ever wanna make another one after that even better.... And it still is going to be something great to look at and fun to make. So, let's go.....

Decided to start with the first item of that list, not even looking the next ones, and that was Re-deploying all those ugly solar panels, accumulators and electric poles very badly spread all over the southeast portion of the base. But the thing I'm picturing over my mind is wayyyy to hard to just do it. So I'm just working on a more organized small blueprint to build this second solar power plant while I try to create the design of the massive one. At least I'm finally going to stop having a very bad feeling each time that I wanna look at the base map and see that ugly thing.

This is the first blueprint prototype made, it's taking a long time cause the bots are busy with all the concrete.... Not even and no idea on the ratios, at least much better than several blueprints all around the map.

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I will try to make all the needed items on the ToDo list before diverging to other things, like the Factorio team address all the bugs before moving back to game development. Just deal with it......

[Keplergamer]

A few updates....

Was eagarly waiting for the belt-optimization opgrade. A shame that it didn't happen on 0.15. The upgrade from 0.14 to 0.15, and all the Bobs and Angels new mods that come with it change a lot of things, but a lot for better. So I'm mostly just waiting for 0.16 to become stable and all the mods also be updated to it. Cause now things will mostly be built like the plastic processing plant. So I don't wanna have to change any layout due to new mods.

So I'm probably making the last change of game version or mods. Unless there's a bigger gain than the losses. But that we will see when time does arrives.



On another note. I had to move all 250 GB of 12x time-lapses that were waiting to me to edit and publish to my Removable HD. Putting music and all is fun, but hard to start working on it. Always leaving to later. Then the HD failed. I may recover it, but don't have a lot of hope. This was a big let down as well. Though most of the building trought those days were non-organized, a little bit of something everywhere. Only I who did it all may be able to follow properly, and even then with a lot of effort. I was trying to see when I did that huge concrete plant, and it was all over the place during 2 and half days of gameplay..... So now I'll try to be more organized with my building sequences. Making it better to follow through...


Also, making a solar template of that size looked simple, but the solar and accumulator seems to never fit evenly. Spent more time than any other blueprint, like 4x more, and still couldn't make a simple boring square to fit evenly on all 4 edges and corners. Let alone a beautiful one. That was very frustrating. Probably when I come back to this. I'll finish it for once. Or not. Hard to know how's the best way to built a new solar-accumulator blueprint of this size. That you take 30 seconds to run from one edge to the other every time you have to check something....