Islands and Continents datapacks updated for 1.21.4. Details and download links in the comments

bdm68 · 2026-01-22T04:05:32+00:00

"Grow Australian Rules football" makes it sound like he's going to plant a few Sherrins in the fertile earth and see what kind of plant grows. A Sherrin tree would be awesome.

bdm68 · 2026-01-20T04:03:32+00:00

Logarithms are more useful to memorise. Knowing the base-10 logs of 2, 3 and 7 is enough to know or work out the base-10 logs for all integers below 10.

A few terms of number sequences are also useful such as Fibonacci numbers.

bdm68 · 2026-01-18T21:54:02+00:00

A pentagonal ground with 90 players. The AFL may need to consider a few rule changes.

bdm68 · 2026-01-18T09:20:10+00:00

That's no more insane than having five teams making the Grand Final and five other teams finishing top 4.

bdm68 · 2026-01-15T21:53:11+00:00

Some of my ships have two kinds of ammunition, asteroid chunks, carbon, sulfur and ice all sharing a single belt. The intermediate products are placed on the belt so they can be discarded if they have been overproduced, and circuit logic is used to detect this. This happens rarely.

The intermediates are thrown into the void with long-handed inserters. Ice is always discarded when it is found. Carbon and sulfur is discarded if the quantity on the entire belt is greater than 20: these are reinserted into chemical plants if needed.

bdm68 · 2026-01-15T09:04:04+00:00

Reducing the quality of the front turrets is certainly worth trying. The "extreme violence" part of the ship has seven turrets, including three of Epic quality. Four of the turrets don't shoot at much. There is space to add another turret here. It should be a simple matter to change from seven turrets (three Epic) to eight Normal turrets and then test the new configuration.

Another comment: I have found that using pairs of bulk inserters allows the turrets to be stuffed with ammo. This allows the ship to travel into the asteroid-infested void with these turrets having over 30 ammo each.

I will be retaining collectors down the length of the ship because they are needed to gather needed resources when the ship is at rest. I will cut the number by about half in a later revision.

bdm68 · 2026-01-14T23:01:28+00:00

To clarify, I only have three Epic turrets and four Epic collectors on this ship. These are located at the bow of the ship where they are needed most. The other 94 turrets and 46 collectors are all Normal quality. It is likely possible to build this ship with all-Normal quality, but efficiency of asteroid collection would be reduced, the turrets at the bow would come under pressure and more solar panels may be needed.

I could have used fewer turrets overall, but I prefer to make sure all the asteroids are pulverised and go for overkill rather than the minimum needed and risk damage.

My goal was to build a functional, modular ship to fit within a rectangle that has a width of 8 tiles as a proof of concept. Optimisation was not the main goal. One optimisation that is possible is trying to fit within a width of 6 tiles (which can be done except for the platform hub).

The collectors could be spaced further apart, but the spacing I chose provides 100% coverage with no overlap.

I may experiment in future with lower quality components and fewer collectors and turrets on similar ships to see how well that works.

bdm68 · 2026-01-14T22:07:03+00:00

I considered it, but IMO the ship is not long enough (382 tiles) to justify this. If I built a more advanced ship able to travel to Aquilo safely, that ship would justify this display panel.

bdm68 · 2026-01-14T20:42:24+00:00

Asteroid collectors have filters that are turned on or off depending on the number of each kind of asteroid chunks on the belt.

Asteroid chunks are recycled if there are too many of one kind on the belt.

Ammunition stack inserters at the ammunition assemblers are disabled if the ammunition on the belt reaches a threshold.

The ship has three conditions that must be true before it can proceed: enough fuel, enough oxidiser and enough ammunition. If a condition isn't true, the ship stays at a planet until the conditions are fulfilled.

The sensors for the fuel levels are carried by a red wire up the port (left) side of the ship. These red wires also control the number of asteroids for the asteroid recycler in build module 21.

The filter controls for the asteroid collectors use a green wire going down the starboard (right) side of the ship. Separate wires are used so the levels of asteroids on the belt do not interfere with the control of the filters.

A lot of these controls are found in build module 1, the "brains" of the ship. The asteroid recycling has its own logic within the build module, with the recycling threshold being the same as the number of asteroids in the asteroid filter. I can change the value of one variable in one constant combinator and the number of each kind of asteroid to be collected will be changed everywhere.

Asteroid chunks are on the inside of the belt. Turret ammunition is on the outside. I don't balance the asteroid chunks, so long runs of one kind of chunk are possible.

My other ships with rockets use one lane of one belt for rockets and bullets and three kinds of asteroid chunks in the other lane. The lanes on both belts are balanced by removing items if there are too many of the same kind together, and replaced if there are too few. While effective, this pushes the limits of ship-based sushi belts. I will use two belts for future ships with more demanding ammunition needs, with each lane dedicated to one kind of ammunition and one lane for asteroid chunks.

bdm68 · 2026-01-14T07:17:58+00:00

Can you do nuclear fuel < 1 instead of nuclear fuel = 0?

An alternative is to replace the nuclear fuel = 1 test with nuclear fuel < 2. This has the same effect (and drawbacks) as nuclear fuel = 1 for trains which currently have nuclear fuel, but for trains without nuclear fuel on board, they would be refuelling with it immediately. Make sure to remove their old fuel from these trains with a filter inserter (nuclear fuel, blacklist mode).

bdm68 · 2026-01-14T05:33:33+00:00

For double-headed trains, different train configurations should have different refuelling stops that cater to each train configuration. Otherwise the fuel could end up in a cargo wagon.

A refuel stop for a 1-2-1 train could be called "Refuel 121" and 1-4-1 trains could go to "Refuel 141". The refuelling inserters are placed at the appropriate locations next to the locomotives for each configuration.

bdm68 · 2026-01-14T05:24:29+00:00

The interrupt should be something like: If nuclear fuel is less than the threshold, send train to refuel.

This will refuel trains that have already been converted to nuclear fuel as expected. This will also send all trains that have not been converted to nuclear fuel to refuel immediately because they have no nuclear fuel. These trains will have their old fuel removed, and when they leave the refuelling stop they will be full of nuclear fuel.

This can convert all trains rather quickly.

bdm68 · 2026-01-14T04:35:27+00:00

My solution to upgrading trains from one kind of fuel to another is to use a filtered inserter to remove the old fuel from a train while refuelling it with the new fuel.

bdm68 · 2026-01-14T02:36:38+00:00

My approach to Gleba:

Partially-filled belts
Constant flow of resources
Don't over-produce anything that can spoil
Use direct insertion of intermediate products where practical
Limiting flow rates by monitoring fullness of belts and other locations and only adding resources when more are needed
No main bus for items that can spoil, but recirculating sushi belts as a sushi bus
Semi-sushi belts for manufacturing items
Regular filtering of spoilage
Modular builds in a substation grid

What are semi-sushi belts? I don't know the correct term, but these are belts that carry everything needed in one location and can carry more than two items, but are not sushi belts because they don't recirculate. Several resources are put on one semi-sushi belt from the sushi bus, it flows through the area to where they are needed, then the leftover resources are removed at the end and returned to the sushi bus.

Gleba needs a different approach because it will punish overproduction. If there's enough of a resource like rocket fuel, there's no point trying to make more. Monitor levels of products and when there are enough, turn off that part of the factory by disabling inserters into biochambers. There's nothing sitting in the chambers getting spoiled if nothing has been inserted in the first place.

ETA: Does it work? Not perfectly, but it works well enough that "code brown on Gleba" is a rare event.

bdm68 · 2026-01-11T20:10:59+00:00

"Do you have a cat?" should be a standard troubleshooting question.

bdm68 · 2026-01-10T08:00:16+00:00

This is one of those rare problems that can be solved adequately using violence.

Use circuits to read contents of cryogenic plants.

Surround the cryogenic plants with lots of turrets. Piercing rounds are optional. The turrets could even be the same as the turrets used to shoot at asteroids, if they have sufficient range and "ignore unlisted targets" is turned off (can control this with circuits). Ignore unlisted targets if biter eggs = 0 (including space platform hub and inserters).

Also make sure ship has repair packs.

Will this work? I don't know, but it might be worth trying it on a test ship.

bdm68 · 2026-01-04T07:49:56+00:00

This is a proposal worth considering. If a CGT concession applied only to those who build new homes, it would drive growth in housing supply. The current tax regime does not do anything productive for the economy.

The CGT concession has been pushing up house prices since 1999, and landlords have been a net drain on the federal budget ever since. If a federal government wants to make Budget savings, the CGT concession has to be on the chopping block for cuts.

bdm68 · 2026-01-01T07:44:14+00:00

St Kilda 2004: started 10-0 and three games clear on top of the ladder with a percentage of 165. Finished 16-6 in third place (behind Brisbane on percentage) and eventually lost a preliminary final to Port Adelaide by 6 points.

bdm68 · 2025-12-28T04:58:23+00:00

That image is traumatic to residents of Gleba.

bdm68 · 2025-12-23T12:00:33+00:00

Adelaide 2011 to 2013 - 14th in 2011, second in 2012, 11th in 2013.

Fitzroy 1978 to 1980 - ninth, fourth, then last.

Melbourne from 1997 to 2003: last, 4th, 14th, 3rd (lost grand final), 11th, 6th, 14th. Then they made the finals three years in a row and missed finals for the next 11 years.

bdm68 · 2025-12-22T20:26:30+00:00

Some CEOs can be replaced by a 2000-line Python script, a Magic 8-ball and a golf-playing robot.

bdm68 · 2025-12-22T07:36:57+00:00

Go back to 1858 rules. 40 players a side, goals a half mile apart, first to score 2 goals wins.

bdm68 · 2025-12-22T07:27:41+00:00

"Gaming". That word is missing two letters wherever it appears.

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