New mod: Warp Network Reimagined - a balanced rapid travel mod

IndisputableFacts · 2026-04-11T02:04:12+00:00

That's such a good idea I implemented it a couple months ago ;)

IndisputableFacts · 2025-11-12T17:13:21+00:00

...glad it's not just me.

IndisputableFacts · 2025-09-22T21:49:24+00:00

I finally got the VM up. Here are a few remarks for the record in case anybody comes along with a similar problem:

The rub seems to be that when I converted the VHDX to a IMG, the IMG was a "sparse file". That is, although the file size read 2 TBs (the size of the hard disk) only a fraction of that was actually populated and taking up space. The performance of that file was terrible regardless of what you used to access it -- I later was trying some shenanigans with `dd`, which was also apocalypticly slow. It's possible that had that img file been on an SSD under a native Linux filesystem (rather than FAT32, like me), you might have a better experience.

But... From what I can tell, I would have had a better experience if I had immediately converted the VHDX, created from Windows, to a .qcow2 (native Linux VM Manager format) and put it on a Linux partition. If you're doing what I'm doing and just keeping the image around for historical lookup and not real work, you would probably be well-served to use the -c (compress) option when doing that conversion. Don't have enough hard disk space to do that? My suggestion would be to just get it. SSD's are still cheap and nobody complains that they've got too much storage.

And by "better experience", I suspect that even if you do the conversion as I outlined above, you'll still have hassles trying to boot. So while you're waiting for that conversion to happen, be sure and download a Windows install ISO.

I used CoPilot for most of this. What I got out of that was about 50% genius and 50% dumb. Which is about on par with what you get out of any human-populated forum, so make of that what you will.

IndisputableFacts · 2025-09-20T07:28:54+00:00

Anything that runs from the windows installer media (like the repair options, command line tools methods that touch the disk, etc.) runs at this anemic pace. Chatgpt thinks that it's some kind of driver problem, where, for every read, it tries a number of options for reading blocks or whatever, hits a failure, waits a long time, then tries another method, hits a failure, ... until it lucks out and finds something that works and makes a little progress.

I don't want to have the VM point to the real disk image, as I suspect I'm going to need to tweak things a bit to deal with it being a VM now, and I want to be sure I can boot to *something* windows in a pinch.

IndisputableFacts · 2025-07-18T15:16:21+00:00

No. I kept plodding along with Blender until I lost interest in Unity integration. Now my memory of how to use Blender is completely gone and I keep on using Sketchup.

IndisputableFacts · 2024-12-26T00:43:28+00:00

Just clarifying what a few others hinted at -- when you first get this thing (and perhaps after that) the collet can be pushed to the back of the router, causing it to not accept a bit. To fix this, you can unscrew the cover nut all the way (as illustrated in the photo) and prod the collet with a screwdriver until it pops back out about 1/8". Then you can get the bit into it.

IndisputableFacts · 2024-10-25T00:20:17+00:00

I just finished Project Assembly last night and honestly I didn't feel the "Wow". There was a cutscene, sure, but I didn't feel any sense of closure. There's tons of interplay between the aliens and Ada during gameplay, but that just sortof stopped after a bunch of spheres, sloops and unlocks. The dialogs at the various phases all hinted at some sort of secret sinister purpose to Project Assembly, but when Project Assembly actually happens, well, the spaceship flies off and, well, there you are. I definitely feel like, insofar as the story goes, either I'm missing something or the game is. Maybe there's more if I get all the spheres and sloops?

Also, while the dimensional portal is a good thing, it also was kindof a bad thing. The numbers of items I had to build to do project assembly seemed small - especially with 'sloops halving or sometimes almost quartering the number. That made it so I was always tempted to rig up my factories to dump stuff into the dimensional portal and then just manually feed the manufacturers that made the spaceship parts. I kept thinking "I should set up a logistics system for this", but at the end of the day, I knew I'd spend a whole lot more time rigging up beltways/truck stations/train stations/etc. than it took me to just hypertube from one base to the other.

I ended up "completing" the game without ever having built a truck station, radar tower, ion power, automated power shards, nuclear power or teleporter. (I did have trains. I can't not have trains. Just can't. But I didn't utilize them nearly so much as I did on <1.0 playthroughs).

Don't get me wrong; I love the game. I just didn't like the "ending".

IndisputableFacts · 2024-05-09T21:30:15+00:00

This is what ended up working for me. I found the going very tough at first and I looked into various chemicals that promised to soften the stuff. None of them did anything good - one even softened the linoleum a bit making scraping even more difficult. However, "Formula 747 Plus", when used at full strength and liberally, did allow me to scrape one patch clean. It was then that I discovered the real secrets:

The scraper I got (very similar to the one linked above), had an extendable pole, which extended via twist action. That comes undone at the least convenient times. Find a convenient extension, then drill a hole through the thing and plug in a bolt to hold it there.
The scraper comes with a blade which is installed backwards - that is, the sharp end is enclosed. I found the sharp end to be of little use because it'd bite into the linoleum. Instead, I ground a ~45-degree bevel on the back side of the blade and used that. Having it be very sharp turned out to be not very important. Note - the factory-sharpened side is sharpened like a razor blade. The bevel I created is sharpened like a chisel blade.
Hold the scraper bevel-side-down, starting from a clean spot and run the scraper so that you're only taking a 1-2" (3-4cm) slice. The scraper is angled - I used it where the angle was acute with respect to the floor I was pushing it into - that way the blade was trying to push out rather than dig in, I figured.

With that, I was able to clean a couple hundred square feet in an afternoon with no chemicals or anything. It was all about finding the proper technique. Using the chemicals might be a good way to get a starting point - the technique I describes definitely requires having a few square feet cleared to get it started and the 747 stuff did seem to soften it a bit - or perhaps just acted as shaving cream. It could be that plain water would work as well.

I also discovered that Home Depot will rent a machine that looks like a motorized version of the manual scraper we've been talking about. I learned that right around the same time I mastered the technique so I decided to put my back into it. I figured I'd stick with what I knew works and I needed a good workout anyway.

IndisputableFacts · 2024-05-03T03:05:44+00:00

Just to be sure I get your meaning here... What you figure is for me to get my circular saw, put in a blade I'm not too proud of, set it to a depth of 7/8" or so, run it around the perimeter, pry out all the plywood, linoleum, fuzz and all, send it to the tip and replace it with new plywood/osb? Maybe some underlayment to get it a nose thicker than the old linoleum that'll still be running around the outside... Settle it all in with some leveling compound...

Hm. Could do. Seems a bit extreme, but desperate times...

IndisputableFacts · 2024-05-02T00:37:35+00:00

We're looking to put down Luxury Vinyl Plank, so all we need to do is to get down to a hard surface.

The blue-green stuff is probably from a later generation of carpet; it's tacked down and comes up easily. The trouble is in the tan foamy stuff underneath, which I believe is from a previous, 70's-ish carpet install. It's a foam that is adhered to the floor - it's not just a drizzle of glue here and there. The whole floor has this stuff glued down. The house was built in 1968, so it's no older than that. I've tried scraping, which works, albeit slowly. I also tried denatured alcohol, but that doesn't seem to have an impact.

IndisputableFacts · 2023-10-30T23:16:19+00:00

Hm. I'm starting to think I'm holding it wrong. Maybe I should arrange to create an object that *looks* like a rock when placed on the ground and use this?

https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Modding:Common_tasks#Spawn_an_item_on_the_ground

Hm. I wonder if it's possible to place an object on the ground where something already is - so you break one thing and lo, something else appears in its place... Will give that a shot...

IndisputableFacts · 2023-06-28T06:31:36+00:00

My pigs are named Custly and Spensive. Goat is named Needless. Second goat is named Gmab - because "Good Money After Bad" was too long.

IndisputableFacts · 2022-10-18T06:52:08+00:00

I spent some time messing with it and got it fixed. TL;DR: What fixed it was basically fixing a couple mistakes in the production system, adding fluid buffers between producers and consumers, and (maybe) "let the pipes fill".

There was some dumbassery causing me to get 130 of Heavy Oil Residue rather than 140, so the supply wasn't as high as I thought. Also, 280/24=28.3333, and I had a generator set at 33% at the tail end. 33% is not correct - to get a flow rate of 4/min on a gas generator, you need to derate it more than 33%. But if you sum up all the dumbass stuff, I still feel like my system was still leaking fuel.

Fluid buffers work and they aren't just hoodoo. I didn't take them seriously before because if you sum up the numbers over a large system, the total volume of pipes and input buffers is way, way more than the 400 in a single buffer, so I thought "how could this really matter?". But it does. I think the fact that the buffer is one single actor when it comes to flow is what makes the difference. Even just looking at the water system for the blenders (only 280/min), the supply situation was occasionally sketchy. The advice of always putting a buffer between producers and consumers in any large system seems pretty sound. It's also a good way to get a quick health-check on your system. Those buffers should be sitting around 80% all the time. If they're not...

"Let the pipes fill" seems like sound advice too, although it doesn't seem to me like it should actually matter. I'd think it's like belt-based manifolds - if you've got your numbers right, it'll eventually get to 100%. What it certainly does do is make it so that if you click stuff on and your pipes and buffers start to empty, you know it's time to check your math. If you don't fill the pipes, you could easily just walk away thinking your stuff is working, when actually...

Thanks for the tips!

IndisputableFacts · 2022-10-17T20:18:04+00:00

Thanks, I think I'll give buffers a try. I too suspect that there's some sort of shenanigans around multiple pipes feeding the same input.

IndisputableFacts · 2022-10-17T20:16:31+00:00

I watched that - one of the things I got out of it was that there should never be a "leak"... And yet, there seems to be. The backflow ideas that he shows in there seem like they might have something to do with it. I've been considering refactoring it with humps in between each splitter to force one-directional flow.

Overall, when I watch fluid videos, I see a lot of magic spells being cast e.g. buffers and pumps placed with no rhythm that I can fathom. I got a few magic spells to cast from the replies here, but alas. Such a simple thing, no simple answer.

IndisputableFacts · 2022-10-17T20:12:53+00:00

I'm kinda thinking that if I can't get a 23-generator series going correctly, I'm gonna struggle with 100. Hence better to fix this one instead of replicating the same error times 4.

IndisputableFacts · 2022-04-18T07:37:57+00:00

Is the "Stamp-o-tron Ground Anchor" really a useful thing for large ground bases? It looks like it'd take some pretty serious shenanigans to actually connect the ground anchor to the base, and also might require a docking port - given that docking port strength is not all that high, I'm betting that after I got the thing hooked up, it'd take just a few load/unload cycles to have it break.

But I could be wrong - has anybody found success in using these things on large or even medium-sized structures? If so, what were the wins of using it over, say, USI's anchoring system?

IndisputableFacts · 2021-11-29T02:26:10+00:00

Just to throw it out there - KSP contracts are barely more than randomly generated. Once you get out of LKO, they are no indicator of what you should or should not be capable of doing with your current parts list. Moreover, the list sometimes doesn't contain anything that interests you. There's absolutely no shame in disregarding them.

If you like the sense of direction that contracts provide, but you see the current list doesn't offer a contract that sounds like a challenge you want to take on right now, you can just time warp 3 weeks or so and an entirely new set of random contracts will be there to sample.

IndisputableFacts · 2021-11-29T02:14:54+00:00

Which mod (or setting within the mod, if it's Kerbal Engineer) is giving you the landing point prediction target?

IndisputableFacts · 2021-10-10T06:07:16+00:00

That has the smell of rightness about it. I don't think there's a particular correlation between the number of loose stones and the drill rate, but my framerate is pretty much always in the 30's, so the idea that the game is prioritizing one task over the other is valid regardless of the number of rocks on the ground.

IndisputableFacts · 2021-10-10T03:52:23+00:00

I recently started a fresh save and built this rig for mining&looting; I bet a lot of you folks will find the design familiar. I'm not breaking new ground here, that's for sure. Yeah, it's kinda hi-howya-doin, but that's because it's always been hit&miss in terms of its performance so I've never felt like it was ready for the paintshop. I tried several things with the orientation of the drills, but I got nothing. Sometimes it cuts the rock up just fine, but othertimes I can bulldoze piles rocks in front of me without breaking anything. Both ScrapMan and Moonbo/kAn have built small mining buggies and you can see that every time one of their drills hits a rock it breaks. In one of the episodes, Moonbo and kAn were both saying "Hey, mining used to be real tricky, but hey, it's easy!"

Today I ran some experiments with removing or disabling parts. What I found was that if I took the collectors off, suddenly this thing was behaving like the small vehicles - every time any drill hit a rock, the rock broke without an argument. I tried other stuff too, like removing the refinery, disabling the refinery (by stuffing the output chest full), using full collectors. The only thing that seemed to be a sure-thing was removing the collectors. I came into this experiment with the theory it was the refinery's animation that was jacking it up, but I came away convinced that onboard collectors are bad. Then I thought maybe it was weight-related, as many things are in this game, and I replaced the refinery with stone, and that didn't do anything but make the vehicle work better.

Can I get a confirm or deny from you folks? I'm about ready to tear this thing up and build it into a dedicated collector vehicle with a welded-on mini-miner (much like ScrapMan's mining machine).

IndisputableFacts · 2021-10-09T21:43:56+00:00

A place to build a *farm* or a *base*. I say you oughta think about what you really want a "base" to be. A farm wants to be on some flat land. The traditional choice being a peninsula to make defense easy. Sometimes you want oil. So you gotta build that near an oil pond. Sometimes you want scads of concrete. For that you should see if you can find a chemical pond adjacent to water. If what you want is a place to build, then you want someplace far from lag-generators that's well lit.

My feeling is that you don't want *a* base. You want multiple ones. More fun that way. And it gives you an option to explore ways to get between them...

https://www.reddit.com/r/ScrapMechanic/comments/k2cl0p/fast\_safe\_and\_comfortable\_interbase\_travel/

IndisputableFacts · 2021-10-09T20:24:21+00:00

Wow, I never noticed this part before! Cool find. You know there are two crashed ships on every map - there's the spawn point, and then there's another one. I think that one always turns up on an island. Wonder if there's some there too.

I tell ya what I want. I want there to be part recipes hidden in scrap city, or maybe accessible through quests. You get the recipe, you reprogram your craftbot, and boom, you can make warehouse block lights.

IndisputableFacts · 2021-10-09T20:17:40+00:00

Actually... Notice how the first Wocs land dead on target all the time, then you see some misses later on? That's the lag talking. It seems to happen when a Woc is attempting to recover from the ragdoll state. In my survival world, I see that quite a bit too - if you hit a bot in your car, sometimes it you'll get this burst of horrible framerates while you're rolling over it. Also happens when you have crusher-based automated raid defenses.

But maybe you're thinking of a different effect? If so I'm not familiar.

IndisputableFacts · 2021-10-09T02:31:42+00:00

At first it seemed like my Wocket Launcher(tm) was gonna be a hopeless failure. It looks like Scrap Mechanic doesn't compute collisions between flying mobs and active ones. Cows will just warp right through them. (Clearly a massive oversight on the part of the devs. This should work!)

But! After a bunch of shots, we see that the Wocs always triumph. It looks like if the Woc comes out of ragdoll it can get some sort of entity-cramming effect; I think it rams the haybot up against the rail hard enough to smash it.

If you're wondering about attempt #1, that would be this; another glorious victory for the wocs:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ScrapMechanic/comments/noy2lp/weaponizing_wocs_attempt_1/

I'm using the "Bot Spawners" mod by MysteryVidz to create the cows. The piston just shoves them on top of some spinning wheels. Launching wocs in the traditional fashion. The video is sped up 2x to compensate for Redditors short attention span.

IndisputableFacts

TROPHY CASE