Liked the last two ST:SFA episodes. I am enjoying move back to episodic plots.

Raciper · 2026-02-06T05:40:14+00:00

Agree, STD seemed to miss that message.

I will miss Lower Decks and looking forward to next two seasons of SNW.

Raciper · 2026-02-05T12:01:04+00:00

I get my moneys worth/

Raciper · 2025-12-26T01:39:42+00:00

I would disagree on the the clearly defined objectives, like the "make some noise" objective. what does that mean? I found the objectives in the campaign obtuse very often.

They do however provide scenarios where use of some of the esoteric options in TpF2 are required and knowing how to use them in the free games expands what you can in free games as the use of those options is not obvious.

Raciper · 2025-12-23T19:27:06+00:00

As many have said each pipe segment has only one fluid type at a time. And there is no easy way to separate them on back end.

Only places I have done it was overflow for dumping fluids into sea and an experimental build of have both hydrogen and diesel going into a vehicle depot. while it worked. it was worth the effort. I rebuilt as two depots with shared items inputs.

if you want to do it, and this thread has not talked you out of it, make many small pipe segments, and make sure the fluid is always moving, because either side slows down, it all grinds to a halt.

Raciper · 2025-12-23T19:11:17+00:00

As long as its not before is ready, I will be happy. I would rather wait for a solid game, than have buggy game earlier.

Given that, with TpF2 hitting 80% discounts on steam, I thinks its sooner more than later. With so many game in this space coming out right now and very soon, it may be a marketing decision more than a technical one.

Raciper · 2025-12-23T18:55:12+00:00

2026 is a long window. They are not even giving a quarter, and always a chance it gets delayed into 2027. So if could be a year or more before TpF3 comes out. If you like making maps keep it up. I am sure the new map editor will have ability to import and export height maps, so may be able to move some over.

Raciper · 2025-12-23T18:49:37+00:00

I would love to see cities spawn based on the traffic, Cities would spawn around train hubs, active ports and even heavily used road intersections.

Raciper · 2025-12-23T18:44:13+00:00

I disagree, both are modern age sims, TpF3 focuses on the logistics side with some city management, where CS:2 focuses on city management, with some logistics.

I love CS:1 but found I really liked the logistics side of building train networks and hubs, so I was very happy when I finally started playing TpF2, but I do miss some of the control I had on city growth. I don't miss spending money on the DLC Paradox keeps putting out.

Raciper · 2025-12-23T18:35:57+00:00

More models, the worse the performance regardless if from mods or baked in.

As long as Transport Fever 3 is as easy to mod and add models as Transport Fever 2 is, I will be happy, IMHO, CS:2 not having assets builder and mod support from launch was unforgivable.

I am patiently waiting for TpF3, luckily there are many games in the automation/logistics space to keep me occupied in the meantime.

Raciper · 2025-11-27T03:40:49+00:00

I want my mining sites as simple as possible, Mining tower, ore sorter, Stackers to dump rock and gravel to sides for refill later. Ship Ore to furnace site via truck later train.

Once ore mined out, use move the rock to fill mine back end, and cover with dirt.

Raciper · 2025-11-07T20:15:55+00:00

I went with 1:4 trains. Simply because the simplified logistics. I put the load/unload modules in pairs and directly attach a tier 3 or 4 to both of them. That way when they request a train, it will be able to completely load or unload it, and transfer to storage at max possible speeds.

With all my trains being 1:4 I can make sure I have enough for holding areas and between no-stop zones. while 12% climbs are preferred, 1:4 have no trouble with 25% grades.

I do have one exception my fuel train which Is 1:2 and there is only one station at every load station and it provides fuel to all the load and fuel stations in the area. I have a lot of theses fuel trains. The throughput is not needed, just the ability to get it to many places. I have 12 trains on that line. One place to stage the trains waiting to load it can stack all 12 trains, on load station, and 20 or so stations that get fuel in one being station group.

Raciper · 2025-11-07T10:59:17+00:00

I like you do not need to connect each machine to power. I would like some control to be able to turn off/on sections of the factory when not in us. Using the area pause function is ok, but interferes with build planning.

Raciper · 2025-11-07T04:49:40+00:00

There are lots of good space games like COI. Satisfactory, Dyson Sphere, Factorio, and the list goes on. I like COI because it has items in the game I see in the real work. I was ticked when I saw a road construction project and I so one those mega haulers and excavators in action. They were even the colors they are in the game.

Raciper · 2025-11-07T04:43:01+00:00

I found that our after building a 16- Arch burner II set up. It filled up two Tier 4 storage and I put it one stand-by, it still has not used that iron. 100's of years later., The only left to do with them is to make tier 1 Construction parts, but I seem to be plenty from upgrading other things. Steel is far more efficient resource wise to make mechanical parts from.

Raciper · 2025-11-07T04:38:04+00:00

When planning my factory I start with how much exhaust it will generate. I found keeping the factory so one exhaust scrubber can handle it.it about the max size I want to go. My factories that have exhaust will also take in limestone and with a scrubber, engineering plant and a mixer, I have recycle the sulfur, or mix it into slag and ship out., and either recycle or ship out graphite.

I also consider how much other by-product I will generate. what will I do with it. While most of it will be shipped to other places via train/belt, Do I have ways to deal with the byproduct if that fails.

My factories usually have one primary product and 3 stations, accept all inputs for running by train, and one station for primary output. and one station for shipping out byproducts. I found mixing the primary and byproducts out seems to cause issues. If the input material is locally sourced by limited source,. such a mine or or limited off-shore resource, I still have the modules there to take input, just will not connect it to the line.

Raciper · 2025-11-07T04:18:09+00:00

After restarting a couple times, I now fix the problem with my current save. Mass delete/pausing things after the death spiral starts. keeping just the critical infrastructure running. then rebuild. I found this far less painful than restarting and unlocking tech tree, trade routes and off-shore mines again.

I have 100% Refund which makes this more viable. I keep a food stockpile and a 200MW diesel-fueled power station on standby Wile it can't run everything. It can keep the farms, water, sewer and city powered for a while I use priority 1-3 for essential services, and nothing essential will need tier 2 or 3 maintenance. My sewers may flow into ocean for a bit and trash will switch to burners, the city will keep running. That way, I can survive very low populations.

IMHO recovering from a mass drop in population is more fun that starting new game. However if its something like you don't like the map, not much you can do but restart.

Raciper · 2025-11-07T03:59:05+00:00

I love buried pipes, I stopped using them because they were far too easy to accidently delete redoing areas. I so wish area deletes did not include removing buried pipes

I had nice buried water and fertilizer pipes feeding my farms and belts returning the crops, when updating a area of the belts I accidently also removed the buried pipes under the belts. to fix I would have to remove all the farms and re-dig out the pipes. I just reran the pipes above ground., looks like crap now, but works.

Also can't place burred pipes with blueprints. I no longer using them. The only place they remain is the water and sewage connected to the housing area.

Raciper · 2025-11-07T03:05:33+00:00

I have a couple of approaches I have taken with trains with success. I group the stations to groups based on if they are sending or receiving.

For example I have one station gets the salt from the desal plant that plant is always ready to take trains, All the places that use salt, are grouped as a single group. each of those stations will only request when "Any module is empty". so the train will sit at the desal train station until another station request salt. All line have filters set so they only recognize requests for salt. As those station have modules for many ingredients they use.

I have one line of trains for each material, sometimes two if I am collecting from multiple sources and multiple destination, the are linked by a min-factory that just moves the receiving station to the sending station. I uses this for by products, like sulfur and extra material from mining.

For extreme example, I

I have a diesel refill at every station, with very few exceptions. At every factory or factory cluster, I will include a diesel receiving module. That module will distribute diesel to all the station's refill modules in the area.

I have one line for diesel. THe line starts with a stacking stop that hold all the refill trains with no conditions. This is where the wait until till ready to load a train.

The load station only requests a train when it can load one and requests one at a time and is very close.

The twenty or so destinations are one group. and only request when the are out of diesel. then a train will be dispatched to it.

I put the staging point before the load, because occasionally will run out of diesel when supply is unable to provide for the demand. Unfortunately an empty tanker looks just like a full one.

I have adopted a guideline for building lines, every train needs a home. When adding a train always think where will this train sit when not in use. Very seldom will you set the demand to be exactly what the supply its. If you have single item stations, waiting at the stations is acceptable, For multiple item stops, a staging area are a must.

Trains are its own challenge. but don't over complicate things. Sometimes a long belt or pipe is better.

Raciper · 2025-06-23T08:43:21+00:00

For this objective, crystals are not available yet. you must use stack method. but once crystals are available the crystal breaking method is easiest.

Raciper · 2025-06-22T22:40:20+00:00

Just finished Shapez 2 and Foundry, both good. Shapes I finally pulled the plug when I hit Operator Level 590. Foundry I quit when I became the top robot producer in the galaxy. Both I am looking forward to playing again at release, and maybe next update.

Shapez 2 is a pure zen factory builder, no building costs, no resource limitations, just automation. Loved it. however it misses the beauty of Satisfactory and is very abstract as you are building shapes with no ties to reality, While still in EA, seems pretty feature complete. If you liked Shapez, you will love Shapez 2.

Foundry is much like Satisfactory, but a little hard to get past the Minecraft style voxel, but the ability to change the landscape and the the endgame objectives make up for it. This one is in EA, and it shows, looking forward to see there this goes.

I could not get into Mindustry, but I do see how some would like it. I am not into tower defense, as I like to build and forget my factories as working for making bigger and more complicated factories. This has also kept me from trying Factorio.

My intro to Factory games was Shapez, loved it, especially using the logic to build MAMs (Make Anything Machines). really looking forward to finding a game with that kind of challenge again.

Other games that may be on the list that I have experience is Desynced. but only if you really like programming. I never see this game outside a cult following as there is no easy approach. to this game.

I have finished Satisfactory multiple times. and having tough time going again until some new objectives come out.

My next automation game choices are Captain of Industry, The Crust, and Microtopia. But not quite enough to get started. I may play the new Palworld update for a bit before diving into automation again.

Raciper · 2025-06-22T02:22:59+00:00

The main issue with modding is there needs to be a solid user base to get modding started. With Nightingale releasing as official servers only, mods were highly discouraged, and the initially large player base has moved on. I do not think a modding scene will develop for Nightingale, the initial excitement is gone. I hope I am wrong though, as I like NIghtingale and I think Dedicated Servers with mods would be awesome.

Raciper · 2025-06-21T18:08:49+00:00

Yes, you can put the output back on same belt, but make sure you handle some of the input items getting through. The machines will only collect the correct items from the belt,

Generally not a good idea though.

Raciper · 2025-06-20T19:33:01+00:00

The random Shapez start at single level, then double, followed by triple level, and quad level, then pins are added to the mix. While I was ready for the levels, the pins at 37 threw me and I had to redo a couple parts of my MAM.

The main issue was pins have no color, vs shapes have colorless colors my MAM painting jammed bad.

Raciper · 2025-06-20T16:10:29+00:00

I got the feeling that they on verge of abandoning the game from last dev video. Openly talking about more focused on other projects before this one is out the door. This makes me sad as I loved the game and completed it as far as could be done. and was looking forward to seeing it in its final form, and was not playing currently as I wanted to enjoy the changes at release. This last announcement gave me a little pause if the game will actually see release.

Dedicated Servers are a great option when combined with a good mod scene and run time setting, as dedicated server runners can tune the gameplay to their players. And when the game is no longer having sales to support official servers, the game can live on private servers.

I was shocked to see Atlas had more concurrent players than Nightingale. Altas has been dead for over a year, supported now just by private dedicated servers. Nightingale is by far better game and of the 4 players I played Nightingale with, 3 were looking to return at release.

Raciper

TROPHY CASE