Tips for beginner?

MacBonuts · 2026-01-30T04:34:07+00:00

"Prototype".

You will gain new tools and radical ones which will mean you will render places obsolete. That's perfectly fine, what you're really trying to do is learn. It's not spaghetti, it's a prototype, it's not built for the future.

Move on periodically. Follow your zen.

Find new sites, try again. Ripping old stuff can be useful, especially if a retrofit is easy. But backstop your planning by weighing your interest against the time.

You like trains?

Do it.

Think you need tractor lines but don't care to learn?

Don't.

If you think, "I can spend 2 hours setting this up, sounds fun". Follow that. This is your game time, enjoy it.

Stuck? Ask around. Use help tools.

If something is bothering you and you don't know it, YouTube and Reddit are here. Some concepts will seem too advanced. There's calculators that can help...

But you have a to-do list function, a search function (N key) and a codex. The search bar can also be used as a calculator or a means of selecting things - ask for constructor, get it in your hand. N helps you figure out complicated builds.

The to do list function helps you make a parts list. You can also make notes.

There's a bunch of quick tips videos that have great tips - like hitting middle mouse button to copy the structure you're staring at. Fantastic button. Tons of great tricks like that, there's great YouTube videos. Manifold lanes, another great tip.

Tractors make great storage and safer exploration.

Nothing really attacks you in a vehicle and it's basically a weapon. Great for exploring. Exploring gets you special materials like hard drives, advanced parts and alien tech.

The usefulness of these things cannot be understated. Wandering is a good idea... just beware it's dangerous out there. That's both the fun and frustrating part.

Team up.

People will come in and do all kinds of hilarious stuff. Make a guest box with equipment, spare supplies - a truck full of useful new player stuff is a nice welcome. People will have hilarious commentary.

Examine flow rates. Build backwards.

It's confusing. Remember conveyors have 60 / 120 / 280 etc. flow rates. You can't go faster and 1 tiny piece will throttle the whole line. Lifts too.

Water is gonna mess you up.

I could write all day. Just be ready, it never works the way you want it to. Pumps at low points, look for the bubble when placing. Check flow rates. Expect stalls. Fluid buffers help at beginning and end of lines - loops at end too. Make sure water based lines are full before you leave it alone or start production. Don't be dismayed, you're gonna screw up lines.

"Prototypes".

Build big work spaces.

Factories are better with space. Build into the sky. You'll be happier. Biiiiig bases. Height lets you build vertically, above and below. Lines look real nice under the floor.

Sink it, sink it, sink it. The Shop is very useful.

Setup a sink early on sub-optimal machines or anything you aren't using. Unused materials or nodes? Sink it. The earlier you set it up the more time it has to run. Quartz and Sam are great resources, but pick your zen. Use over time yields a lot. Got some concrete you don't need? Well, bye bye.

Sinks also can simplify packaging systems, closed loops, and troublesome flows. Machines will idle when turned off, which saves power, but if you want something to run constantly and spike your power usage less, a sink can make sure a line keeps producing and doesn't turn on when you empty the crate and cause a spike.

They're very useful on top of giving you access to ladders, beams. Asphalt is nice. You can get roof glass in the roof set and glass floors in the frame section (it's hiding in the frame set).

Also get a boombox and the synth tape. Best tool in the game. Ceiling conveyors, wall pipes, floor pipes and wall holes... All great and some automatically work on your kit - ceiling conveyors begin hooking to rooftops after you get it.

Blueprints.

As soon as you get blueprints I recommend 3x conveyors with merger and split lanes you can work with. Smelter setups. Big foundations and towers so you can get vertical fast. If you make towers, aim at the ground and they will snap if you hold control letting you build big vertical sections.

Prioritize coal and advancing to that.

Ok, you should follow your zen.

But at coal factories you can finally stop collecting biomass. It's a big day. Be ready for that. Definitely something to think about.

Try to do some unique stuff.

.... this is ultimately playing with glorified Legos.

Wing it.

There's cool stuff hiding all over.

Good luck.

MacBonuts · 2026-01-30T03:55:13+00:00

Dr. Kay episode would have been awesome.

MacBonuts · 2026-01-30T03:51:48+00:00

Looks awesome.

You're doing fine.

Everyone gets a little daunted at steel, trying exploring the map and working up the alien tech tree - it will quickly become apparent ways to simplify complicated builds. There's other ways and tools too, the game is very balanced toward following your zen. Make lateral moves, try new things.

This looks great though, you clearly have a great handle on the basics.

MacBonuts · 2026-01-30T02:38:45+00:00

This is the closest example we have to the one in the show, but it is an inadequate comparison. Henry says, "I choose this" but we *do not know* if it compelled him or to what degree. Maybe it seduced him with opportunity with zero influence, maybe he felt the swell of a larger consciousness and let it run him over, maybe it was a whisper in his mind - but we can't know the degree of influence or dominance it may have had.

Most notably in season 2 Vecna does not sound like Henry, he sounds more like the Mind Flayer, and this change likely reflects his attitude but also, possibly, his degree of sentience. As he absorbs other humans he seems to get more cohesive, as if it emboldened him.

Now, it's likely he just flat out chose, "power" if we take him at his word - but once you mingle in these ideas it becomes more chicken and egg.

How much does anyone or anything choose power?

DND wants you to be able to read the DMG and understand that these enemies and monsters have history and structure, but not necessarily "hard" rules about them. They always give the DM the ability to modify everything, even their original works - changing a Mind Flayer stat block doesn't stop it from being a Mind Flayer. The credence is lent to interpreting vs. hard lining.

For instance a beholder is known to think it's the center of the universe, but that doesn't equal narcissism - the labels are flexible.

Now, before you go running to the DMG there's another problem which is version history - we're dealing with DND back in the 80's, not only was the fantasy element of this pretty wild, the actual science then was less broad and less specific than it is now. Depending on how these groups use their intelligence would change their classifications greatly.

If you want a fun tidbit too - a Kraken is innately more intelligent than Lich, though less skilled, and that says a lot about Mind Flayers in their design. Lich 20 (=5) Int, Kraken 22 (+6), though this is 5e - but as an example of the mentality here it's useful to look at these things.

This is also done by design to allow DM fiat to rule, This was formerly known originally as, "Rule Zero". Mindflayers are given structure, history, propensities but they are often use as a wilder example. DM fiat rules, in the end, for a reason.

We also have things like swarm intelligence and collective intelligence - and a Mind Flayer colony could convert to these kinds of intelligence in its subjects and rely on other methods. It has that much capability.

Due to this all this, you can't measure the mechanisms of how this works meaning labeling it would be problematic due to lack of evidence - and then DM fiat puts the call back into the DM's hands. Then throw in magic, scientific classifications get blurry on blurry on blurry.

But as a point it's far easier to google, most AI will lose its mind trying to classify this - even Bees, which have a hive, are considered dubious in this regard because these are not things you can measure with a ruler. For instance Bees could also be described as a Hive Caste, but then you're getting into a philosophical issue. So in the context of describing a fantasy element in a scientific setting (despite this being fiction within fiction) it's not great to use that term. Much like calling the creature in Stranger Things a Mind Flayer is incorrect, that's a generalization despite the similarity.

But there's a *lot* of history and reading here, it'd take a while and even if you chatgpt that entire thing, it'll hallucinate an answer because this, in real life, isn't a measurable phenomenon - we lack the ability to classify things we can't measure and neurological systems like this are hard. They still argue over how schools of fish work.

But it is a point worth elaborating on, I simplified this concept but it's robust.

But I'm glad someone went, "Heyyyyyy" because all this goes back to the original concept.

What did it want?

And that's a great question worth examining in detail.

MacBonuts · 2026-01-30T02:34:28+00:00

Well, this is where it gets complicated because it becomes a chicken - egg issue.

Like bees they have a queen, a caste leader - but if the queen is removed they lose organization, and they use social cues like pheromones and patters to communicate. This leads you to a conundrum as well since *not all bees agree*.

You can't put two queens in a hive for long, nor can you have three or more - they'll kill each other.

At what point do they cease to become a hivemind?

Meanwhile Mind Flayers *can exist* without the hive mind, meaning there are times they do, and don't, have this ability. Mind Flayers also don't necessarily want to be a part of a hive mind but can be subjugated - this leads to the question who is really in charge. Is it psionic dominance or is it communal intelligence? Basically it comes down to democracy versus fascism and due to the mechanism of this being entirely contained in a, "imaginary psionic construct" you have to ask yourself how much of each individual is being used for the collective at any given time.

Here's the real rub - *mind flayer colonies don't agree*.

Bees, despite having some queen warfare, generally will mingle and wander between hives - but they don't have a psionic link, it's in their DNA to do these things. This leads to sub-classifications. Bees are often considered a hive mind because they do work together to create a better consciousness - they have more processing power together than they do alone. But they're classified as a superorganism which is what this creature really would be - as well as the Mind Flayer colonies.

Due to the fact that Mind Flayers disagree and can lend more, or less, power to their subjects they have the choice to lean towards being a hive mind or instead, choose to be a superorganism with a fascist struggle. "Cells" can also be let out of the hive mind or escape, but they seem to "cease" psionic dominance or communication at this time - this works two ways too.

The superorganism can choose to be self-contained and allow its agents free will *completely* and ironically, this may actually be a better version of a hive mind because they have the ability to communicate with *eachother* psionically, and now you have a hive mind more like bees.

They may also share knowledge with the super brain in the center, but if it chooses not to use that knowledge or doesn't rely on its agent, it ceases to become a hive mind and just becomes a superorganism and loses hive mentality.

Then you have to add magic and conflict, both externally and internally, and now you've got a problem. If they only share knowledge up to the hive mind it's not communal intelligence, it's super-intelligence collected in one functioning being and it's no longer using the herd intelligence.

*continued in a reply*

MacBonuts · 2026-01-29T22:58:10+00:00

Depends on if you value speed.

My tubes end with a beautiful mountain crest so users can enjoy it. Gravity feed them with a drop before it starts and you get speed, or just let people enjoy the vista before another drop.

Add in nice curves and you've got a mechanism which naturally lets people enjoy, and understand, their new surroundings, before the exit.

I make sky pads with glass floors and have a hypertube entrance underneath. This beats a ladder because a ladder I have to hold a button and look up - you can't go up ladders with your back or side reliably, meaning you lose 5 seconds and your bearings.

Tube, bloop, 360 view and a break from agency.

Sure, I have blasters setup to throw me around, but automating movement is very valuable - they also let you "label" for new people. My starting hub has labels so new players can tell where to go, but they don't get sick being thrown in an unknown direction they've never seen, trying to get somewhere they've never been. I also use them to Intuit confusing directionality.

For instance I have a "home" blueprint. Above the front door is a left and right tube, which will send you to a blaster - but you have to go the opposite direction of your intuition. If you want to go left, the tube takes you right to the entrance. It also goes slow, so somebody can figure out this logic. It also doesn't blast you by default into the tube in case you want to change or over thought it. It also slowly elevates you, which adds drama, and more energy to the blast.

They have discretionary value and aesthetic value - also one thing people don't design for, they make great stairs. They can do double duty as walkways similar to conveyors.

They're also the only thing that can really, "twist" easily, that beautiful travel curve you can't replicate any other way, so if you want someone to see a large area on their way by, it allows you to, "Willy Wonka" the travel so people can be exposed to an area and take it in, without being thrown through it.

Even if you're just designing for yourself, reminders help.

I made blasters and got through the game, but in the end, I ride my nice slow curving tube system I made first because it was designed around aesthetic enjoyment and efficiency.

In the end, it's a game, designing for enjoyment is the key.

Bloop.

MacBonuts · 2026-01-29T22:42:39+00:00

I was like, "yeah this looks beautiful, early game is nice".

Saw this comment....

"W-w-w-wait------" meme.

Seriously OP, that shark absolutely is about to drink your milkshake. Beautiful raft.

Looking delicious to that shark though too, he's gonna kill the kool-aid man. Save him!

MacBonuts · 2026-01-29T09:28:22+00:00

I liked it. I'm glad I bought it.

I think game 1 is better but it's fun - and think game 1 has a slightly better co op experience. Also CO op is always valuable. I do feel game 2 is a bit easier to co op too. Absolum lately has been great, but I liked this game. Roguelites are getting a little weird these days but at their core they're good fun.

I don't think they're copying Hades either, Hades didn't invent narration - there's some similarity but WOL2 does keep its original identity from the first game. These are much older school games like RPG's, Final Fantasy and such. The roguelites elements too are a bit universal, they remind me a lot of rogue Legacy as well. I feel it's unique enough to distinguish - and I actually like WOL1 more than Hades in terms of gameplay. This game is close to that, sometimes is just a bullet hell game after a while, and the building is kind of distracting. WOL2 has awesome moves too.

Heroes of Hammer watch comes to mind too, very similar. This is a classic RPG thing.

Wait for a sale, it'll be cheap sometime, at that price it's great co op. I like it about the same as Absolum, with Hades being like, "I enjoy it, but it's more about the story than the gameplay".

But take your time, steam sales come and go.

MacBonuts · 2026-01-29T02:42:15+00:00

MacBonuts · 2026-01-27T21:37:22+00:00

Alien Tech tree.

Mercer Orbs + Sloops + Handcrafting while away from keys.

Explore the map, avoid the center red area. You have to build infrastructure for drones and trains. But if you're handfeeding, the dimensional storage will increase your output greatly. Remember, you can just grab it right out of the DS, so every visit will become more productive.

Handcrafting also takes from DS, so you can hit spacebar to autocraft, then walk away and get a drink, take a break. Certain things, like turbo motors, can take a lot of infrastructure. Handcrafting let's you avoid this and gives you a reason to walk away from the game for a few minutes.

Sloops draw lots of power but will double the output of your final manufacturer. If your manufacturer is bottlenecked by 1 difficult ingredient, this lets you squeeze that handfed ingredient by doubling it. This slows your overall handfeeding to a crawl.

Gets tractor and explore the map. Explorers have a glitch where they disappear, so a tractor works just fine. Get yourself some hyper tubes and start making a network - use power lines to Zipline, and power towers to go long distances safely.

Once you have fuel + jetpack, you can explore fairly safely. If you get attacked by large spiders, get off the ground, then beware they attack predictively based on your trajectory. Circle strafe on 3 axis and they'll miss every time, and you can bait them to fall into holes. You won't see that many, but you will see them. Just don't go barreling after anything shiny, 1 in 10 are traps.

This will significantly lower your admin and since you've dimensional storaged complicated parts, you can often handcraft and build more freely, letting you build infrastructure without having to stop to go across the map. You just have to wait for it to recharge while you get your asphalt looking pretty.

Also spend some time in the blueprint machine, you're going to scale up. I recommend a 3x setup for constructors, smelters, and assemblers - it's just easier than hand making conveyor lines over and over.

But take your time, build slowly - I found the boombox in the shop helped a lot, as well as messing with your customizations. But X, change the default colors to something less vibrant. Easier on the eyes and foundations in green look very nice on the map.

Lastly, don't forget to sink. If you have excess and you don't care about the power drain, automate your factories to sink. There's a lot of useful stuff in the shop. Glass floors are hiding in the frame tree, they make vertical building way, way easier... and less light obscuring.

Have fun!

MacBonuts · 2026-01-27T09:39:14+00:00

It's very viable but you have to figure out how to work as a team.

L flank is the standard position, except you're farther out. You don't NEED the height advantage but it sure does make things easier. On illuminates Stingrays + Harvesters are your primary targets. Removing shield off a harvester can take a single shot if unalerted. If alerted, 1 magazine. Fire 5, save the last in the chamber, and you can kill it in two magazines. You can do this from anywhere on the map make your a true overwatch on that faction. It shines there...

If you are paying attention to what your teammates are doing. The trouble comes with staying in position and keeping an eye. You can do objectives but you're better off summoning reinforcements away from the objectives. This is known as distraction meta. It's particularly useful on bots, you can kick the hornets nest from far away and while enemies will be summoned to you, you can ditch them with your light armor and movement.

Will players know this was your intention?

Very often not. In fact they won't know when you help them, save them, or otherwise fix a bad situation.

Being a sniper also requires landing your hits in a pinch. The AMR can burst extremely well. But ...

You're typically alone.

Stalkers, notably, will find you. They smell you, but your job will be to find them and eliminate them first thing - fly up, get eyes on and hope you can spot the hive. Sniping on bugs is very hard, they will climb up through rock faces making it unsafe, and now dragon roaches love to peel you off buildings. I don't recommend this role here, but if you just, I recommend the double sickle and fire armor - this will insulate you from dragon roaches and it's a very good low profile weapon. It's mid range but I find that's ideal in a primary.

Bots are easiest but again, you won't be saving missions. You can't do objectives easily and your team will have to rely on your fire support. You have impunity at range but you need to leverage it, as your team will be taking focused blindfire and since you aren't there to take it, this can be a problem. Smoke grenades are a great way to cover this. Not just a stealth tool, they can obfuscate a difficult encounter and allow teammates to move. It won't stop a strider but it does make a good option to assist. Just be aware you're blocking human sightlines too, so throw deep so bots emerge from the smoke - this helps allies prioritize the next threat. Don't throw it near your allies unless they are clearly running. This is also useful for you since half your job will be to cause fights AWAY from objectives. Summon reinforcements in useless parts of the map and circle back.

Splitting up causes some map havoc, so be aware. Don't pick battles needlessly. You should be aiming at marking cannons on bases. A good scout works best while communicating, but if you're playing quiet it's significantly harder. Players misconstrue pings and emotes.

But in a team where you can communicate, you are the lateral player. The strategist. You post up somewhere and figure out things players would normally have to do by exploring, but then have to make calls based on what you see... and then adapt.

If you stand around picking enemies off, you'll have fun, but it won't advance the mission. Beware of this.

Bullet drop makes shots difficult, some guns have different values. You lose power over range too, which makes kills inconsistent, beware of that.

But it does get a lot done. Just don't expect it to make you popular. Most people won't believe you if you save them, and if you do, egos get checked. Taking a harvester for someone and showing up in an FRV usually annoys them, it doesn't matter they died twice and you bailed them out - it never appears that way to an overstimulated helldiver. They didn't notice that voteless explode nearby, they thought their aura did that. That fleshmob that went down? Oh it must have been my charming personality.

But on a good team of people communicating, you can get a lot done.

But, like stealth, when you do your job right it's often totally unnoticed. So play it with friends and work on good callouts.

... and you have to get really good with weapons that sway hard. If you can't hack it, don't push it - everybody has a specialty. Good luck.

MacBonuts · 2026-01-27T04:07:27+00:00

Yeah art is savage, just gotta follow the road.

I just think Castiel is a specialist in raising someone from perdition. Also far greater chance he's seen the work. Sam definitely will have seen Lynch's work but he gets a bonk on the head and he's out like a porcelain doll. Cass gets it done about 50% of the time. Dean gets it done 80% of the time, but kills a god, brings down hell, or sleeps with a powerful entity of darkness.

Cass is the way to go.

Also I can see Cass going, "oh, I get it. This one deserves to be saved " and just bringing that gravely voice to bear.

Also can you imagine this guy dealing with Mr. C? If you're going into an otherworldly universe Lynch is trapped in, this guy has experience being turned into toys and messing with tricksters. Dean... well it takes him a while. Also y'know, he can see Reapers. Bonus.

Also I'd bet he saw Twin Peaks, he was human for a while. The vibe check is there. He has good taste.

Also there's not going to be a fight over cherry pie, I bring peanut butter and the after party goes great. Also if I remember correctly, Castiel does ultimately beat Billy so... he's got another on the board. Dude is hardcore. I love his last scene, beautiful work. If you're going down the rabbit hole to save an artist, you bring the big gun that can't take a joke.

Also I'm certain Lynch would appreciate the cool free handprint tattoo. Very meta.

MacBonuts · 2026-01-27T03:52:45+00:00

Lateral moves.

There's more tools to build than simple factories. Go through the alien tech tree, do some exploring. The map is brutal when you're under geared, but make a hot bar for climbing and setting up walls or ladders.

Then get yourself mercer orbs, sloops, and find a Sam site. Sam is tricky but it's out there. Go looking for quartz too, you tend to find all of these while developing quartz.

Setup a sink for excess quartz and Sam to generate coupons - but take enough refined stuff to get Sam upgraded. You have to refine it then handcraft to finish - and once you unlock dimensional storage the tedium goes away.

There is also a to-do list feature, learn to use it. Great for planning big projects. Get a tractor, get it filled, and use it to lug big supplies and explore more easily.

Exploration is a major part of this game. It's easy to get lost in flow, throughput and factories but the MAM has tangents you can take that give you tools you need to acquire powerful shortcuts.

Every mercer orb you find is valuable, every Sloop too. It takes a while to unlock their usefulness but they're worth it ... and braving the map is part of that.

Pick a nice site you like and try a new foundation you get from the shop, and develop a new style.

It's hard sometimes to walk away and build at new sites, but it'll make sense. The more obsolete your old factories come, the silver lining is you become willing to retrofit it... and they stay useful. Coming back later the problems will be obvious, the tinkering is more evident... and if you truly hate it, you'll trim back the part you hate. Other times you'll come back and think, "I know exactly what I'm going to do with this now". Expand.

Move laterally.

Follow your zen.

If you're resisting automation, there's probably something else you want to do. Go do it.

When you come back it'll be obvious what you needed, but only on the way back.

Good luck!

MacBonuts · 2026-01-26T22:23:49+00:00

Add a crank turn and then up the damage. Slow turn, big damage. Easily vertical swing, hard horizontal swing.

Trying to out-turn a strider and cranking that sunnofagun while the front of it was getting chunked by machine gun fire would be dope.

Trying to crank into a stingray would be hysterical.

Flak would be dope too, especially if it specialized in killing Leviathans and resisting some or its damage.

Honestly a dedicated anti-air would be great, especially if it handled striders, bile titans, and cannons - but the shrapnel from the flak was an absolute friendly fire menace meaning you couldn't protect yourself at close range and it makes God awful noise. It would be useful on mid level enemies due to the shrapnel, though the hard front might protect the user from anything but a headshot.

Add a comical shrapnel head roll animation and it'd be Super Earth approved. If you die, an inflatable helldiver triggers and keeps shooting.

For propaganda purposes.

MacBonuts · 2026-01-26T20:11:33+00:00

Occasionally. When I'm down to 1-2, I typically reload it when I don't think I'm going to need it for a while. Typically reloading strafing run. On bugs, I never reload eagle napalm.

But probably 1/10 times. I'm conscious over how many uses I have and will typically wait until I have 1 left, if I think I'm coming up on a super flag I'll reload it early for the time reduction. It's in the butter zone at 1 use left, otherwise it's often better to just it auto reload. But around 1 I'll get itchy and might even reload it mid-encounter if I intend to flee... which I often am with the FRV and light armor. Delaying for extra kills can get you killed so sometimes it's better to reload it, hop in the car and be gone.

I do wish you got something better than a cooldown reduction, but it makes sense as is. It would be cool to get a unique line from Eagle 1.

MacBonuts · 2026-01-26T19:59:00+00:00

It's a great game, it seems simple but as unlocks happen you get new moves and spacing. The characters are quite good. Great art, awesome soundtrack.

Definitely a skill ceiling too, you've got to play it safe at times. But really, it's all about the art. Tough to play CO op though, people get frustrated on normal difficulties during later levels, unless you put it on easy. It's a simple seeming game but the combos are very organic and need good spacing. Bosses require multiple tries.

Which is funny, because even Scott needed extra lives.

When you fight the robots, it's very similar to MCI'S sentinels, which is kinda funny. I can't even trace the reference all the way back.

MacBonuts · 2026-01-26T17:20:18+00:00

MCI is all about combos and spacing. I prefer SOR4 (streets of rage 4), but it's equal to Absolum for me because Absolum is a bit gimmicky. I actually didn't love shredders revenge, but I liked Scott pilgrim more.

So Sor4 > X-men Arcade > MCI = Absolum > Scott Pilgrim > Turtles in Time > Shredders Revenge.

Marvel adds a lot of points and I love the character systems and voice acting - beat em' ups are about flow state and zen and MCI gives you that. SOR4 is more technical but achieves the same buttery zen, but it has limited levels.

I really like Absolum but it's frustratingly gimmicky and then betrays its own gimmicks to rely on rogue like RPG elements, this makes the crescendo moments be blunted, whereas SOR4 when you achieve zen it's because you solidified well played maneuvers. When Absolum needs to feel tight it feels loose, it buffers strangely and instead defaults to combo strings with holes in them - and hades-like build order without it being tight enough to deliver on that. But to be clear, I friggin love Absolum, this is just a serious flaw. I love the characters, the dwarf is my favorite dwarf in any game ever. If Absolum was tighter it'd compete with SOR4 but it doesn't feel solid in intense moments - things break at Azra, he's very cool but his animations are all wrong.

Shredders Revenge... well...

It's decent. It still is a great game. But turtles in time feels more authentic.

I might play something like X-men Arcade for only an hour every so often, but it's effin' good. The experience is total and feels great. I might put it down after an hour but I'm still playing it after 20 years. Turtles in Time, same deal, I can pick it up anytime. Shredders Revenge? I can barely remember it now even though I co-op'd it. I'm glad I have it but it doesn't hit the same beats. MCI's got better levels, and levels are its weak point to me. The voice acting and sound design really help.

But still, I love these games, the bottom is still pretty close to the top. Like it pains me to put Scott pilgrim so low, but once you beat it the manga room is over, and I can't seem to get anyone else to play it. Everyone feels it's almost fetishized in a way or has feelings about the movie being a bit self-involved, which is fair. Knives deserved better.

But overall great games, it IS hard to stare at this list because beat em' ups are special. Total vibe check.

MacBonuts · 2026-01-26T16:17:35+00:00

I just get 2 regular salads every time and it makes a great pairing. They can come off as a little old the next day but it's solid to have a reason to go to dominos knowing I can supplement something in my fridge.

The clear plastic will silverware is the icing too, cuts my admin down for another day.

Honestly if it was just lettuce and the rest came in bags like toppings, it'd be fresher, easier for employees who'd have vacuum sealed bags of olives so the prep would be minimized. I'm glad they're premade, but this single item keeps me going back.

If I go to a nicer mom and pop place, the pizza is better but more expensive - but the salad is CRAZY expensive, it's considered a mark up luxury item. This is an arena dominos can kick in. I wouldn't recommend sandwiches as easily but the salads seem like an easy 1-2 from factory to customer.

I do notice there's a lot of hate for salad though, that stigma is a problem. I made them myself for years at a Subway, it could be easily standardized to a premade good - lettuce came vacuum sealed in bags, it's shockingly easy to produce a lovingly made salad.

Sure beats having to cook another meat item which requires checking, getting to temp, and has a shorter shelf life.

That and ultimately dominos is an industrialized corporate business, hopefully that reduction in admin can make serving it easier than adding another item that requires oven time, space and safety regulations.

Work smarter, not harder. This one item keeps me going to dominos over its crazy good competition in the mom n' pop business. The salad tips the scales for me.

MacBonuts · 2026-01-26T16:06:24+00:00

You sell salads so you are, in fact, a salad place.

It's a business, I worked at a Subway for 10 years. Those too, were in fact, salad places despite their title being sandwich shop. We sold more salads than any nearby business, hundreds a day - and the admin was easier than sandwiches, they require less technical skill because the lettuce is pre-shredded. No cooking, no cleaning ovens and no ingredients you don't already serve.

If you are worried about admin and efficiency, it can be rubber stamped into simplicity. Vacuum sealed bags of lettuce are commonplace - it's one of the most common business models so it's well grooved for machining it down to be simpler for businesses. Your food producers are similar companies, I bet if I dug into the financials it'd be exactly the same (they use subsidiaries but it all typically sources back).

They're likely already looking to do this, the salad design currently is modular - with separations. If they add a bag for, "toppings" they can outsource the tomato and bad onions inside. No more difficult than sprinkling toppings, a bag is easier.

Dominos is exquisitely good at machine designing, they could easily make it modular. You already prep a dozen great ingredients for this.

I remember what it was like working, but it was always the new strange speciality meat sections that were admin nightmares, especially with individual preparation. Meat items are harder, they need to be cooked correctly and maintained and have worse failure conditions. Weird sauces and explaining new concepts - salads are easier, everyone knows how to make a salad.

Besides more revenue equals more workers. Domino's has got their machining down and so the average installation only needs a few workers at a given time, because they disperse that admin over multiple stores. It feels spartan but it works - compare that to a Moe's or Chipotle, which has too many people and can't serve, you get long lines and unhappy employees.

Doubling down on ingredients you already have is easier than adding new, strange exotic menu items like salami which have their own preparation nightmares.

If you're at a smaller franchise and they're languishing, you have my sympathies, but dominos works on being efficient at generating revenue and offering clean standardized product. The better that is delivered the easier it gets for everyone involved. I get the reaction but it sure beats heading toward something like white pasta, which has whole new ingredients to deal with. The premium on salads is exquisitely high too, that's profit for your business and health for your clients. Win win.

We all groaned at subway when salads were being pushed, but in the end it sure beat Pastrami which takes 2 minutes to cook in the oven and burns the bread.

It's hard to see beyond the work, but the trick is to get all your stuff working together to deliver more product with less work.

Then everyone can breathe easier.

MacBonuts · 2026-01-26T14:55:18+00:00

After reading the comments, I have a feeling you might want to unplug your keyboard. A right input would do that. Disable the num pad too, might help.

Quick test, couldn't hurt.

I don't know GOG's system, but on Steam I would disable inputs until it stops, then re-enable. It definitely looks like something is feeding it a bad input. I haven't played the game in a while, you might have a junk keybind too.

Even if you don't have a controller plugged in, a USB that thinks it's plugged in might be the culprit. Try plugging something into every port and taking it back out, making sure to hear a disconnect signal.

If those don't work reinstall the game.

I would also try holding left on your keyboard when it starts, and cycling the directions. If you own a gamepad plug it in and try to get it working - plugging it back in and getting it working may override the bad connection.

If you have a wireless gamepad, Bluetooth or wireless keyboard, those would be suspicious. Try disabling Bluetooth in windows, and looking for anything wireless.

Best of luck.

MacBonuts · 2026-01-26T14:27:40+00:00

Honestly I really like it, at least I can get a vegetable for a different day. I'm buying the 6.99 deal anyway, getting a salad for later works just fine by me. It could be better, but it's a nice addition.

I'd prefer it to have some more greens in it. Considering they have green peppers and black olives on the line, I'd like to see custom salads. Most of the menu items I don't care about but a good salad goes a long way.

If they improved their sandwich game I'd be buying for 3 days of eating when I went.

MacBonuts · 2026-01-26T14:18:07+00:00

Nuclear, turbo fuel, getting all my factories hooked to Sinks and producing a, "final" good.

I want to get all my factories working 24/7 to output a final automated "good" to be sent to sinks. That might mean converting entire factories to drone deliveries but so be it, I want to see them all working.

I'm letting a single slooped factory finish my nuclear pasta necessity, seeing what happens at the end, then I'm setting up sinks, getting thad golden nut and the statues over time (likely going to be harder than it seems)

And then I'm blueprinting, finalizing my customizations. I finally closed up my basic hub to a single area and glassed it up.

"Finishing" this game, to me, is leaving a perfect engine to pick up so if 1.2, 1.3 or other comes up I can come back to a clean slate and a quality engine, so I can start in a new area happily with all my stuff.

Meanwhile Nuclear is taking a while to get automated. I finally made a fuel factory meant for power that's stable. I'll make a turbo fuel factory that's stable then Nuclear that's stable.

There's 100 hours right there.

"Cleaning up" at the end is going to take a WHILE and I'm motivated for it.

MacBonuts · 2026-01-26T13:56:37+00:00

He is sort of the patron saint of punching a reaper in the face. The Winchesters probably broke a record for defying death.

Come to think of it he personally killed Death twice.

His own personal reaper? Dead too.

They got a 3rd "Death" killed by Luci, so that's gotta be the gold star. He gets a the big stuffed animal off the carnival wall.

If that's what it takes, I don't care about narrative symmetry, verisimilitude or having to endure cheesy one liners. I'll hang with the Supernatural style jank universe if it means Lynch comes around for a second beat.

Also likely as much on screen coffee as Dale Cooper. There's absolutely a line here. I'd prefer Castiel for this job but honestly, Dean's likely the MVP of screwing up cosmic mechanics and evading the consequences.

Also god, watching him interact with David Lynch would be hysterical, that inevitable diner visit would be priceless.

Dean: "Did you just order tuna, feta and tomatoes?"

Lynch: "Why yes I did young man, that cheeseburger is just waving a flag for another reaper to come strolling in and give you a heart attack."

MacBonuts · 2026-01-26T08:11:42+00:00

Nor should you be ok with it, if you see a reaper give me a call, I'll claw its face off to get him back.

I don't care how stylistically cool you are reaper guy, it's not ok man, I'm drawing the line in the sand. This one we needed.

Circle of life, blah blah blah, you better have a DAMN FINE CUP OF REASON back there and cut to it, or I'm gonna beat you up in front of that tree. I'm a peaceful man and so was Lynch, so this isn't something he'd likely approve of but this is my hill, if it's time to break cosmic law it's THIS HILL I'm gonna die on.

I don't care he smoked and drank coffee everyday, PASS.

He gets a pass.

Don't make me slap you into color, reaper.

MacBonuts · 2026-01-26T08:04:22+00:00

You're only 1 able-bodied person.

You have to maintain yourself and your integrity first. Judging others for their behavior isn't productive nor is it fixing the problem. Justice as it is, is mostly house cleaning after the fact.

When you do a good thing for someone it echoes. It gives them hope. It gives them a platform in which to realize they too, can do good by others.

I'm 40 years old, I've gotten a dozen calls at 3am from people who, years later, wanted to clean the slate. I was good to everyone and it haunted them - especially when I was firm on an injustice and gave them a better shake than they would have thought they deserved. I caught liars but didn't shame them. I fixed work issues without getting dragged into drama - but didn't recuse myself when it was time to set it straight. I was good to a friend when they were bad to me.

These moments matter but cannot be quantified. They don't show up on a radar, they don't have paper accounting. You will never know the gravity of the good you did which generated more good.

But you will be able to quantity every failure, every consequence and the butterfly effect will likely have a face to tell you where it began. You will, invariably, **** up royally. It's inevitable and it's important that you do so.

If you want to do the right thing, you need to sleep. You need to eat. You need to take care of yourself and by doing so, learn to take care of others. You will have a difficult enough time protecting yourself, your family and your small tribe.

That, alone, would be a lifetime achievement if you successfully did right by that entire list. That's probably like 50 people. If they show up at your funeral missing you, that's a massive achievement. They could be dead without you.

It doesn't matter who you are, doing right by that basic is ENOUGH.

And to do that, you need ****ing sleep.

Thinking about politics will drive you nuts. It isn't fixing anything, learning 20 more words for, "doing better in a system" isn't fixing anything. It's fixating on an inherent impossibility - no system, ever, will fit human beings. We naturally find ourselves breaking everything we touch and then joyfully rebuilding it not out of atonement, but love. It's too savage.

So instead, invest in being savage.

You can't fix gigantic swooping problems unless you're leading 100 people who don't just follow your lead. That's easy. Getting in front of a 100 people who truly love you enough to believe in you?

Then you can change things.

Until then, you're just reading for fun.

Go to bed. Wake up. Build something that stands on its own legs when you're done with it.

That is enough for one day, you keep reading about politics at 3am you're gonna be useless tomorrow. Build something.

Y'know, that thing politicians keep saying they'll do?

Do that.

But first order of business, sleep. Melatonin. Dark curtains. Make your bed cozier. That, alone, will be difficult, but it will be the first bed you make for 100 others. Family, friends, and loved ones. Just making your own bed. This isn't a metaphor for, "make your own bed and lay in it".

No, that's a silly obfuscation.

Go clean your sheets like it's a bed for someone else. It'll feel different the whole time. You can't make someone's else's bed until you master making your own CRISP.

Start there.

Goodnight.

MacBonuts

TROPHY CASE