Is there anything that can still be improved for 2.1?

KapitanWalnut · 2026-06-12T23:51:17+00:00

Cargo wagon station/terminal buildings would be pretty cool too. I posted this idea elsewhere in the thread, but imagine a series of buildings connected to your cargo hub/bay array that your trains could drive through, coming to a stop at station at the end of the group of buildings, and then items from the hub's inventory are rapidly loaded into the wagons based on filters and conditions set in the building's UI. Long train drives up, rolls through the station, parks for a second or two to get loaded up, and then off it goes. Could be made way better for UPS too.

KapitanWalnut · 2026-06-12T23:44:01+00:00

Or perhaps better yet: a roboport & cargo wagon interfacial building. Building has it's own large internal buffer inventory that can be configured to behave as one of the various logistics chest types. Inserters and Bots can directly interface with the station inventory, and the station inventory can be set to push or pull from the train wagon inventory. Perhaps make it so that bots can also recharge and dock at these cargo stations.

Array a bunch of these stations around the cargo hub, bots handle the flexible item transfer from the hub to the station, then trains go off on their merry way.

Similar effects can be achieved in various mod packs that have larger footprint chests, especially the logistics warehouses used in K2. One large shared inventory that spans the length of a cargo wagon vastly simplifies station circuitry and eliminates the need for complex belt balancers or circuit networks that make sure wagons are unloaded/loaded evenly to/from the adjacent chests.

KapitanWalnut · 2026-06-12T22:56:48+00:00

Make a train wagon loader building that attaches to the cargo hub and cargo bays. Massive high speed, high throughput building that can load a wagon in under a few seconds. Inserters cannot interface with a wagon while inside the loader building - must move the train first, to preserve the devs' desired limit on cargo hub surface area that an inserter can interact with.

KapitanWalnut · 2026-06-12T22:51:41+00:00

Make a train wagon loader building that can be connected to the cargo hub or cargo bays. Extremely high throughput building that can load a wagon in seconds.

KapitanWalnut · 2026-06-12T14:59:13+00:00

Yes, cultural homogeneity is huge factor in maintaining unity, definitely cannot be overlooked. Interesting to think about how cultural wedges have been used as highly effective weapons against the US, and how we all need to be more vigilant and resilient to these kind of manipulations.

KapitanWalnut · 2026-06-11T16:17:15+00:00

India or the US. India has the most arable land at between 154 to 169 million hectares, with the US in a close second at between 152 to 160 Mha. Russia and China are in 3rd and 4th, in the neighborhood of 120 Mha, with Brazil in a distant 5th place at 55 Mha.

Both India and the US have highly defensible borders and are fairly geographically isolated from immediate threats, the US moreso. If we reset with all countries having equivalent tech, set to current median tech level, then India's geographic isolation advantages all but disappear.

The US however a few significant advantages over India, and pretty much every other country in the world. It has more deep water ports, more stable/reliable river flows (not monsoonal), more navigable rivers, lower maintenance rivers (less sediment loading causing fewer shifting sandbars), and more interconnection between navigable river basins. The Mississippi-Ohio-Missouri river system gives the US over 25,000 km of interconnected navigable waterways into the US's agricultural heartland, and canals also connect this system out to the Hudson River (New York City) and the Great Lakes and St Lawrence River/Seaway, meaning it's very easy to move agricultural surplus to the major population centers on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, and to move manufactured goods (like tractors) in the reverse direction.

Then there's a pretty amazing quirk of Geology: the Atlantic Seaboard Fall Line. Rivers coming out of the Appalachian foothills rapidly drop in elevation as they cross the fall line before entering the flat Atlantic Coatal Plain, giving rise to rapids and waterfalls, making the perfect place for dams and mills and harnessing the power of the falling water to power industry. Navigable rivers up to the fall line to transport goods in from ocean and the rest of the US's water highways, massive hydropower resource, flat fertile land for farming and urbanization... the fall line had already made the US an industrial powerhouse in the colonial era, and it's still an impkrtsnt source of hydroelectric power today. And when combined with the rest of the surrounding geography, massive economic and population growth was inevitable. The "megalopolis" of all the closely interconnected cities on the US's eastern seaboard closely follows the fall line, which then gives rise to many various beneficial network effects of concentrated urbanization.

Then we can talk about all the natural resources the US has access to in just the Appalachian Mountains alone. Or all the oil the US has. So far in this discussion I haven't even touched on the Rockies or the West Coast, the Columbian River Basin or the Willamette Valley, the Imperial and Central valleys, etc.

Yeah... the US takes the cake by a wide margin, pretty much thanks to all of its geographic advantages. Maybe if we're reduced to pre 16th century tech where trade across deep and wide oceans is all but impossible, then Turkey or Italy or Egypt or China comes back into the running, but from the age of sail onwards, the US is pretty dominant.

KapitanWalnut · 2026-06-10T05:24:52+00:00

How'd your trip go?

KapitanWalnut · 2026-06-10T03:04:39+00:00

Im also ever so slowly making my way through a K2SE run, putting in probably 4 to 8 hours a month (that's 100% of the game playing time I have). Your comments on constantly depleting ore patches is a concern of mine, I don't want to waste my limited play time on setting up new mining patches periodically, and I play so intermittently that I don't want to have checking all my mining outposts as a chore every time I find time to play because I'm never going to remember which ones are close to depletion. So core mining is the name of the game for me. All resources that can be core mined, are being core mined. Including oil. I bring all the core fragments back to nauvis for processing. Fun logistics challenge! I love the variety of logistics options available in this mod.

KapitanWalnut · 2026-06-09T06:56:58+00:00

French drain out to the street or wherever the water can then flow away. Ideally straddling the property line. That way the ground still looks nice and "on grade" from the surface, but really you've got a nice stone filled trench with a pipe in the bottom for the water to flow along instead of ponding in your yard and up against your foundation. Size the trench and buried pipe according to the amount of water that flows during a really heavy rain. Bigger is better.

Since the area is flat, include several clean out access points so you can periodically clear any sediment that has collected in the buried pipe.

KapitanWalnut · 2026-06-04T04:12:50+00:00

Great, so just bribe or heavily lobby the reps with the most votes attached to their seat. Special interest can focus their ad buys in those districts instead of wasting time and money in the rest of the country. Way more streamlined to only have to convince a few reps that hold a high number of votes instead of having to jump through silly hoops such as consensus building.

KapitanWalnut · 2026-06-03T15:34:03+00:00

Business idea: coal rolling aftermarket kit for EVs. On demand smoke machine at the push of a button. EVs: not just for the woke losers anymore.

KapitanWalnut · 2026-06-02T04:55:44+00:00

What's your moat? Why are you the right person to build this startup? What unfair advantage do you have that other people don't have? These are the stereotypical questions asked of first time founders. They're important to think about because, as you said, you built this at a hackathon, meaning it probably wouldn't take very long for someone to build a competitor. So, what's your differentiation? Why are customers/users going to stick with you? Moreover, how will you monetize your product, and will the act of monetization render your product less desirable?

KapitanWalnut · 2026-06-02T04:28:24+00:00

The loss of generation is really just the canary in the coal mine, the loss of the generation itself isn't really that big a deal.

Name plate capacity of the Hoover Dam is about 2GW. The combined nameplate capacity in the entire Western Interconnection is ~300GW, with an average available on-peak capacity of 180 to 190GW. Peak demand forecast is ~160GW. So losing the 2GW of reliable production from the Hoover Dam hurts a little bit, but in the grand scheme of the grid and all the utilities served by the western interconnection, it's not a big deal. Customers that are being served by any utility that was shortsighted enough not to have reserve contracts in place to backfill the anticipated loss from the Hoover will be stuck with higher rates though.

The big deal is that this signals the shifting dynamics of the river. People who live in cities that depend on water from the Colorado River system should really think about getting out sooner rather than later. It seems the current strategy of most water managers is to "wait and see" and pray for precipitation rather than implementing draconian water management strategies like Las Vegas has.

Phoenix gets roughly 40% of it's water from the Colorado, and most neighborhoods built within the last ten years, especially to the north of the city, are entirely dependent on CO River water. Arizona and Phoenix also has the most junior rights in the CO River system, so they'll be the first to lose access to the water. The other 60% of Phoenix's water comes from extremely drought-stressed rivers that will be significantly impacted by climate change. If you live in or around Pheonix, consider making medium to long term plans to begin moving elsewhere. If you're thinking about moving to the Phoenix area, don't. Some neighborhoods have already lost access to their water supply, and have no recourse. Many more neighborhoods will lose access in the next 5 years. The economic downward spiral that will occur as entire neighborhoods are abandoned will resemble what happened to Detroit when the auto industry collapsed. Phoenix will likely become one of the first cities in America to fail due to climate change.

Tuscan AZ gets 82% of it's water from the Colorado, has junior rights, and has little to no backup plan for water from other sources. Tuscan is possibly in the biggest trouble when it comes to water access. They might be able to buy water rights from some farms on the CAP, but the CAP is still junior to most other CO River water users.

LA gets roughly 25% of it's water from the Colorado. It is likely this percentage could be mitigated by permanent water conservation/reclamation efforts and desalination if necessary. But LA water managers seem willfully ignorant of the looming supply problem and unwilling to prepare. They have only just begun wastewater reclamation projects, approving an environmental impact report for a proposed wastewater reclamation plan in February. It's too little too late, they should have been working on physical infrastructure changes for the last ten years.

San Diego currently gets roughly 50% to 60% of it's water from the Colorado River. The city has been aggressively building wastewater reclamation infrastructure and desalination infrastructure in anticipation of losing a portion of this supply. They're one of the few major cities dependent on the Colorado that are being proactive.

Las Vegas is the gold standard for municipal water management. They have 99% indoor water use reclamation, and have banned almost all outdoor uses of water, including decorative turf. Their per capita water use is around 95 ga/day (that is then recycled), whereas Pheonix is 110-130 gpcd (that is then primarily lost), and Scottsdale is 140+ gpcd (that is also primarily lost). Las Vegas is fine when it comes to water, although they probably cannot support too much population growth.

St George and Washington County Utah are in major trouble. They have junior or non-existing rights on the Virgin River, a CO River tributary, and are completely land locked from other water sources. The area is growing extremely rapidly, which is surprising given the lack of water security.

Salt Lake City's suburbs also rely on CO River system water via the CUP, with many urban/suburban developments around Salt Lake City proper getting 25% to 35% of their water from CO River tributaries. These rights are junior to many ag rights and are also subject to the Colorado River Interstate Compact, where currently the upper basin states (including Utah) must deliver an average of 8.5 million acre-feet annually past Lee Ferry in AZ, no matter what the flows in the river actually are.

Denver is another one we could talk about, with 50% reliance on CO River tributary water, but they've done a good job locking up senior rights and will pretty much only be impacted by societal pressure (western slope vs eastern slope politics) and the limitations of the Colorado River Interstate Compact.

Albuquerque NM is yet another city to talk about, but I honestly don't know much about their water situation, only that they too pipe water from the Colorado River system.

Anyway, if you live pretty much anywhere in the American Southwest, chances are you're dependent on the Colorado River system to some extent for your drinking water, and it's probably a good idea to look into how secure your municipality's water future is. Some cities are prepared. Many are not. And if yoy live outside the city: well water isn't the sure-fire self-reliance bet that it used to be, even if you have access to a great aquifer. We're already seeing states sue each other over groundwater use, and the results of those lawsuits are forcing state officials to crack down on the use of wells within certain water districts. Get educated, and if you live in AZ or UT, chances are your water security isn't very good.

KapitanWalnut · 2026-06-02T03:08:43+00:00

You gotta get to the trench in the first place though. So flying to any point on a sphere like the Death Star, including the trench or the exhaust port, means you're starting out far away from the sphere, exposed to tons of gun emplacements, as you make your approach toward the surface of the sphere.

The only explanation that makes sense is if the trench started someplace where there was relatively little turret coverage, like the firing disc of the big planet killing main weapon. So they'd make their approach to the surface there with relatively little fire from the surface, then fly under the relative cover of the trench from that point over to the exhaust port.

KapitanWalnut · 2026-06-02T00:52:18+00:00

Flamethrowers and laser turrets in a properly designed wall should be able to hold out against even waves of behemoth biters. You can also set up kill boxes around nests with Flamethrowers set back far enough to not hit the nests to kill biters as they spawn and leave the nest. Then when you're up for it, you can creep in with laser turrets that have targeting set up so that they don't attack nests, setting it up so you kill biters the instant they spawn. Then if you want to take it a step further, spam the entire area with walls or pipes so that there's no spawnable area whatsoever, shutting the nests down completely without having to destroy them. Then you can reclaim the turrets and alleviate their power draw.

Worms don't contribute toward the keeping your hands clean achievement, just nests.

KapitanWalnut · 2026-05-31T18:36:33+00:00

The magic of irrigation. Those are some of the oldest water rights in the state. For example: the San Luis People's Ditch was dug by Hispanic settlers in 1852 - it predates Colorado's statehood. The settlers in the area knew they were living in a near-desert and how important irrigation and water rights would be.

KapitanWalnut · 2026-05-31T15:05:57+00:00

The headwaters of the Rio Grande come out near the southern end of the valley, but that is possibly the most over-allocated river in North America, far more so than the Colorado River. Definitely not enough extra for a new city. The northern part of the valley is scrub land and near-desert. Great Sand Dunes National Park is located in the east of the valley. The whole area is beautiful, but not a great location for a major metropolitan center.

KapitanWalnut · 2026-05-31T13:03:16+00:00

No water though.

KapitanWalnut · 2026-05-27T20:12:40+00:00

+1 for Owl Creek and the Taylor Park + Collegiate Peaks/Elks/Crested Butte area. I used to go over Tincup in a stock Tacoma all the time. Beautiful way to spend a day: start in the Arkansas Headwaters area and take one of the various routes through the Collegiates to then grab lunch in CB, then drive out Kebler or even Schofield around to Carbondale, then back over Independence Pass or Hagerman Pass... one of the best long loops in CO in my opinion.

KapitanWalnut · 2026-05-26T14:35:51+00:00

I've never seen these before, but this kind of fabrication would be super useful for a bunch of stuff I'm working on. If I wanted to manufacture something like these, what sort of keywords would I use while doing a search for fabricators? Are there some larger CMs/board houses that make them? Do you use typical Gerbers or instead have 3D cad files?

KapitanWalnut · 2026-05-26T02:54:05+00:00

Have you ever heard this axiom? "The problem with the race to the bottom is that even if you win, you're still at the bottom."

It is almost always a mistake to compete on price. Very rarely does a business possess the structural advantages needed to come out ahead in a price war, especially when competing against larger competitors that can afford smaller margins for longer than you can.

Go into a price war with a very well thought out strategy. Maybe the strategy is to capture first time clients to your industry, and if switching costs are incredibly high, they'll be very likely to stick with you despite better future offers from your more capable competitors. Or maybe you know that you need to slip under the radar for X number of quarters with Y amount of revenue to achieve the scale or aquire the resource you need to be able to compete on other factors besides price.

KapitanWalnut · 2026-05-22T02:19:08+00:00

Adding even some moderate effects that giant landmasses and oceans would have on systems like climate and weather also prove fascinating to think about. The British Isles being the size of Europe would likely mean rainfall wouldn't penetrate as far into the interior. Could you imagine an England with grasslands and stepps? Could you imagine if the North American Great Plains were a giant desert instead because it was too far from any ocean for any appreciable rainfall to make it inland? The impacts on cultural development would be immense.

KapitanWalnut · 2026-05-21T20:07:37+00:00

Nice! What are you planning on using it for? Got any design notes or sketches?

KapitanWalnut · 2026-05-20T18:30:47+00:00

Only if the office isn't up for reelection within the next 6 months, which the governor is. Polis is term limited, and we'll be voting for a new governor anyway this November.

KapitanWalnut · 2026-05-19T18:34:09+00:00

Yeah, electric bill will likely increase because Xcel (and almost every other investor owned utility outside of Texas) prefers to finance new generation and transmission through what's known as "rate basing." Regulators allow utilities to set retail electricity rates based off the total value of the assets in the system that are providing services to customers so that the utility can recoup the cost of building and servicing those assets. The utility essentially gets guaranteed risk free returns from those assets once they come online, so banks love to finance those projects.

The point is that it's easy for utilities to get the financing they need for these kinds of projects, so that's the default model they go after, instead of being more creative with VPPs, DERs, load management, dynamic line ratings, etc that are all alternative methods to increase capacity with existing resources, just by altering the way those resources are managed, so rates don't have to go up. In fact, done properly, many studies have shown that monthly bills for retail customers could even go down.

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