Friday Facts #19

[slpwnd]

Friday Facts served with a 15 minutes time reserve: http://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-19

[Shirow]

"There is the snow outside, the air is fresh and some worm clothing is a must."

I believe you mean "warm" clothing.


As always, thank you for your wonderful work on the game. Patiently and eagerly waiting the next update. =)

[dusho]

nice.
looking forward to v0.9

[ficolas]

Almost saturday in my country! (17mins :0)
Pumpjack graphics look awesome

[slpwnd]

"There is the snow outside, the air is fresh and some worm clothing is a must."

I believe you mean "warm" clothing.

[ssilk]

Must-do-sounds-for-inserters.

[Nova]

Looks nice.


One thing: The link to the suggestion forum contains a sid. That's never good, because it can be used to attack the account of the person who has copied the link. Never include this number in any link on the internet.

[Malkasphia]

Cannot wait for oil tech. Factorio's pacing for most of the game is super solid. I hope that oil really can find its niche inbetween solar and coal. Perhaps it is an infinite energy like solar but produces a lot of pollution but functions at night much like coal does, albeit with stacking pollution or biter prioritization?

I hope to hear more about the mechanics soon!

[BurnHard]

What irritates me a little is that stiff rod on your pumpjacks "head". Usually the connection to this pumping rod is some sort of flexible steel cable (only fixated on the very upper edge), because in motion it has to follow the form of the head. With your current design it would be not really possible to transfer force from the pumping jacks engine/head to the rod.

I hope you understand what I mean.

http://www.lifting.com/images/photo_gal ... ridles.jpg
http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/oil-pump ... 322582.jpg
http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/oil-rig- ... 697206.jpg

http://videohive.net/item/oil-jack-animation/460483

and just one another small detail If you'll have to build the machine in RL, you would reverse the spinning direction of the engine. The upward-motion of the hammer is the point, where the machine has to do the most work, so the lever from the engine should be at 90 degrees there, and not in your current hammer-downwards-motion. The force would be stronger that way, because the hammer has to move less way in the same time. The rotation would be like in the animation I linked you.

[ssilk]

To the stiff rod: this type is also common, but I think more in the eastern regions. I like it, because it has more moving parts. It looks much more weighted.

To motion: yes, that looks wrong.

[BurnHard]

To the stiff rod: this type is also common, but I think more in the eastern regions. I like it, because it has more moving parts. It looks much more weighted.

To motion: yes, that looks wrong.

Could you show me a detailed picture of how such a stiff rod (that thing that goes vertically into the ground) is connected to the hammerhead? If we aren't speaking of different things it's physically impossible. You need a flexible connection between the head and the rod. A single joint wouldn't to the job because that would induce a undesired horizontal motion as well.

[ssilk]

Hm. I found some pics:
http://tau0.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/pumpjack.jpg
http://images.fineartamerica.com/images ... -ganci.jpg
http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/oil ... c4d/634375

This last one locks quite similar...
The rod has no real use. But I keep thinking that it looks ok.

But I'm sure I saw another construction of pumpjacks anywhere...

[BurnHard]

Hm. I found some pics:
http://tau0.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/pumpjack.jpg
http://images.fineartamerica.com/images ... -ganci.jpg
http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/oil ... c4d/634375

This last one locks quite similar...
The rod has no real use. But I keep thinking that it looks ok.

But I'm sure I saw another construction of pumpjacks anywhere...

I see what you mean and how it is achieved. If you look closely, especially in picture 2 and three, the rod itselt is not connected to the hammerhead, but the link are the 2 flexible steel cables that are there left and right. The stiff rod is just longer that technically necessary. But I see now where the origin of the factorio graphic came from, thus in the actual game graphic/3D-WireframeI still see no steel cable at all. (Small details, I know, and maybe no one except me cares after all)

[ssilk]

And to the speed: I found this
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiefpumpe

In the first pic there is this comment:

Der Pumpentyp „Mark II“ des texanischen Herstellers Lufkin eignet sich durch seine spezielle Bewegungsgeometrie (langsame Aufwärts- und schnelle Abwärtsbewegung) besonders für hohe Förderraten aus großen Tiefen.

Which can be translated in

The pump type "Mark II" of the Texan producer Lufkin is suited for very high feed rates from very great depth, because of it's special moving geometry (slow up- and fast down-movement)

So the slow up movement is kind of aim to achive.

[askovdk]

About music and sound.
The game ’Pit Droids’ from Lucas Learning had a wonderful way of mixing sounds and music, where the rhythm of the game and the music was in synch, so the sound effects became part of the music.
I’m not sure it will fit Factorio however.
Pro: It makes the sound and music work together. Many sources of sound will be in rhythm instead of creating a blanket of noise.
Con: It requires that the sounds follow a steady rhythm, so be visuals will either have to be out of synch with the sound (bad), or the game will have to ‘snap to a time grid’ corresponding to the rhythm (also bad). It also requires that all the music keeps the same rhythm.

So all in all I don’t think it can work, but it is still worth checking out when seeking inspiration for the combination of ‘Factory, Sound, Music, Mechanical’.
I found a youtube, - I can’t check if there is sound on from here though:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ24qH3-Wn8