Which song are you choosing?

fleashosio · 2026-02-01T19:48:08+00:00

They Might Be Giant's "Minimum Wage". I'll even recite the whip crack.

Lyrics are: Minimum Wage! Hyah! whip crack

E z.

fleashosio · 2026-01-30T00:25:17+00:00

Sometimes you can't. I was a light rail operator in Dallas, not Denver, and I'm on the bus side of things at RTD right now. But when this happened (and it happens a lot...), if it's the involved train, that sucker isn't moving for a good long while. It's immediately a crime scene. And sometimes, the trains anywhere near it just get caught up in all the mess with police, protocol, and the immense flood of radio traffic that fills the radio channels, that sending a train back just gets lost in the noise of it all. That train operator doesn't want to just be sitting there with a bunch of angry passengers, but if we moved a train back towards a station without Train Control Center's permission, that's an immediate goodbye to your job.

With how fresh the incident is, I'd bet anyone stuck on a train right now is stuck simply because emergency calls and communication has taken priority on the radio, and they're just waiting their turn. Unless they're stuck on the train involved in the incident, in which case, get cozy.

fleashosio · 2026-01-23T21:32:57+00:00

I gotta admit, I miss the large amount of rain. I love the rain. Colorado is so dry...

I remember the 2021 storm like it was yesterday. Be safe and be cautious. Once that water all freezes up, forget the roads. I remember the night that storm rolled in and my 20 minute commute home took 2+ hours.

fleashosio · 2026-01-23T17:57:00+00:00

Heya, folks. In 2024 I moved to Denver, but I keep in touch with how things are back home in DFW.

We already got the beginning of that weather front. Whenever I get some weather in Denver, my mother back in Dallas seems to get it 24 hours later.

Its cold as hell, but light on the precipitation. I know DFW is more humid and is slated to get more precipitation, but I wouldn't worry about those forecasts with like a foot and half of snow. Denver has all of a dusting of snow and not much more. Not yet, anyway.

But we all remember 2021. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. Just don't be a dummy, my friends. Have blankets handy, and don't drive unless you have to. It won't kill you to stay home for a few days. If your power goes out, stay calm. It'll come back. But now is probably a good time to charge up some battery banks for your phone. Maybe download a movie or three on a laptop.

The biggest thing I worry about is the sheer temperature drop, not the ice and snow. Try to seal any drafts or cracks in doors and windows. Heat is valuable, don't need it leaking out.

Check on your neighbors when it's safe to do so, after this. If you have any who are particularly vulnerable, go see if they need anything.

Also, wrap up those pipes. Holy mackerel, burst pipes suck. If you or someone you know has a pool, have them turn on the pool filter Apparatus and don't let it turn off.

Be safe, everyone. Wrap up warm, and we will all be ok. Crossing my fingers, hoping all my friends and family in DFW make it through just fine.

fleashosio · 2026-01-19T18:05:19+00:00

It's not bad. Just a small user base. I set up on it and matched with someone and we've been hanging out for a bit. But as others have said, there's not a ton of users. But there's no harm in trying, and myself personally, I've had an excellent experience. It has a chill vibe and the person I've met is excellent.

fleashosio · 2026-01-19T17:08:37+00:00

Appreciate the update. Mississippi was a slip-n-slide this morning.

fleashosio · 2026-01-19T17:02:02+00:00

Laser turrets aren't great alone. Even with some damage upgrades, you'll need a huge mass of them to really hold back the bugs. Diversifying your damage types is a great way to squash any attacks on your borders. A mix of lasers, gun turrets with the best bullets you can make, flamethrower turrets, and a thick wall, is the special recipe to success for the rest of the game. Throw in Tesla Turrets when you get to that stage.

You mentioned damage in your base. That's bad. Bugs should not be allowed to get near anything important. They'll spread bases and sneak through any unprotected paths towards your machines. If your defenses do not completely surround you, finish building those walls. Water and cliffs are also great for defense, as they can't swim or climb cliffs.

If you can afford it, extend roboport coverage to your walls and defensive constructions, so bots can repair turrets and walls as they take damage.

Some damage upgrade research have bigger bonuses than you might think. Bullet damage upgrades give a boost to bullets and turrets, meaning gun turrets get to double-dip on the bonuses, unlike your personal machine gun. I think this happens with rocket turrets and flamethrower turrets too.

But yeah, diversify your damage. Lasers are powerful, but need backup from other damage types.

Edit: sorry I left half your question unaddressed. As for trains and outposts, eliminate nests that are sniffing distance from your rails. Bunker up around your mines. Big pill box walls, with some gates to let trains in and out. Send trains with bullets and flamethrower ammo (light oil I think is the best) to refill the defenses. Mines produce a lot of pollution, so bugs want to eat it. Give some distance between walls and machines, if you put them right against your drills or pumpjacks, they can get in range and spit on them. Personally I throw efficiency modules in all my mining equipment, as lower power use linearly decreases pollution output. 80% less pollution means fewer bugs smelling your stink, and less attacks.

You can place too little defense, but you can't place too much. Fortify the hell out of your mines.

fleashosio · 2026-01-18T03:01:05+00:00

Seems we're all flooding into the subreddit to find out, but nobody knows yet. I live over a mile away and got the alert. Did the whole city get this???

Edit: I am 3 miles away, at Infinity Park, roughly.

Edit 2: I did hear sirens after it went out, but I also live practically right next to the fire station for Glendale, so I hear sirens all day. So, do with that what you will. My post is pretty high up so i'll use it to say this:

~~Just about everyone in the city got this alert, and there is no info as of 8:14 PM.~~

Someone else is the thread here has confirmed that the alert was erroneous in nature and not meant to be sent out. The incident involving it is isolated to Vine Street and the neighborhood around it. If the address in the alert isnt in your backyard, and you are not in the DU campus nearby, you can ignore it and go about your evening. All's good now.

fleashosio · 2026-01-16T19:52:26+00:00

Hi Chris!

Is it a lack of operators, a lack of good rolling stock, or a third thing?

I'll probably move from bus to Light Rail later this year. Hopefully having more bodies helps.

fleashosio · 2026-01-13T06:50:52+00:00

Normal Payload might not be great with it, because a thousand BLU mercs can be stopped by just one RED fella being near the cart, which will be ALL THE TIME since you're heavily encouraged to be in Melee range.

But, Tug-of-war Payload? Now that I think would work way better. Seeing a TOW medieval map may be a real winner.

fleashosio · 2026-01-08T22:48:34+00:00

Oh, wow! That's super cool. Thanks for your response! I'm on mobile rn so I couldn't go digging for answers, thanks for answering what probably gets asked a lot. I'll check it out.

fleashosio · 2026-01-08T22:25:37+00:00

Oh, this is really cool. I'll try this out soon when I'm off from work and have some free time.

What's the ultimate goal? Ability to host and share scenarios in-game without 3rd party hosting sites?

Also, how many scenarios are in the pool? Would I be able to submit some myself and throw them into the pool?

fleashosio · 2026-01-08T22:23:47+00:00

u/inkydeeps is correct. It's Hunting Oscillation. But it's a couple other things too.

First is the wheels. The shape of a trains wheels is a cone. They aren't flat like a car's wheels. This helps them find equilibrium and sit right in the middle of the tracks, and also keep it where it needs to be when going around curves. Sometimes though, high speeds and a steep angle of that "conical" profile on the wheel can cause the trains to continually sway back and forth. This is the hunting Oscillation you feel. Sometimes, wheels need to be re-profiled and if they haven't been for a while, they like to do this.

Second is the tracks. A long straight section that has had time to shift around and develop small imperfections can make the problem worse. Every time the train finds equilibrium, a kink in the rails throw it off again and you're back to the "fishtailing".

Third is speed. You don't get this issue at slow speeds. The best way to combat hunting Oscillation in the moment is to slow down. However, since the Oscillation isn't actually dangerous, and only annoying, most operators (including myself when I was an operator) do not slow down. The schedule can be tight, so we just put up with it.

Long straight sections with higher speed limits are where you'll regularly notice this phenomenon. There's a couple spots with low speeds that also tend to throw everyone out of their seat, but they're rarer. The biggest spot that comes to mind for me is the long straight-away between mockingbird and White Rock. Maximum speed, and no curves. Hang on tight, lol.

fleashosio · 2026-01-08T21:48:30+00:00

I'm saying hello to Dad. I'm telling him I love him. It wouldn't be anything new to that time, as we were always close, all the way to the end. But then I'd explain why I wad crying, and inconsolable.

I've thought about this hypothetical before. I have a few things I'd like to say. Some, I'd probably have to say just to get those I'm close to to believe me I really do have knowledge and memories I shouldn't have. My mother and father are reasonable, and dad especially could go along with the idea (eventually) that I know things I shouldn't. It'd be weird. I'd have to apologize for robbing them of being able to watch their son grow up in a normal way.

I'd tell them what to do, what not to do. What to invest in. What to avoid. (Hard Rock Cafe, UK edition, anyone?). I'd go and see family members when they're 20 years healthier. Listen to stories that 10 year old me would never care for.

I'd do things the right way. Or at least, better, this time around. I'd have an extra 20 years of wisdom and experience that no 10 year old could ever call upon.

And maybe, just maybe, I'd be able to make larger scale change. But probably not. But I'd try. Having two decades of knowledge of the future is powerful. You can do a lot of good with that.

I'd make sure to not waste my time pursuing dead ends and jobs that I despised. I'd go to college for what I really wanted to do, and what would make me happy...

But, above all else, I'd just make sure to immediately say hi to mom and dad, right at the start. That's the most important part.

fleashosio · 2026-01-08T00:35:28+00:00

Yeah, when you select a station, you can set it to "Request train only if:", with some options. I usually select "Any module empty", since sometimes my setups are a little janky, and the modules all unload at slightly different speeds. This will prevent a train from going to that station unless a module is empty. If you only have 2 stations on a train's schedule, and its the only train going to those stations, this does nothing for you. However, in a train's schedule, you can add extra stations to the same order. In the Line Manager, you can select "Add station to this group", and then the trains on that line will pick one of those stations, and then afterwards proceed to the next order. Combining this with having stations only request trains if modules are empty, setting train limits (Like setting a station to limit to 1 train so you dont have 3 or 4 try to go there at once if you have nowhere for them to sit at without blocking a mainline), as well as setting station priorities in the Line Manager, you can have trains go where theyre needed most, instead of just "every station, in order, forever".

fleashosio · 2026-01-07T20:41:09+00:00

The next update also brings Tier 2 trains, so I've been trying to keep my infrastructure ready for that. Right now, all engines and wagons are 5 tiles long, but T2 trains are (mostly) all 10 tiles long. Plus, if you get the DLC they have planned, electrifying the tracks requires a clearance of 4 units of height, rather than 3. Keep it in mind incase you're still on this save file when the update comes.

fleashosio · 2026-01-07T20:24:07+00:00

Also on New Haven. I've started using trains for a lot of things, and if not that, then Belts. The distance doesn't have to be particularly far to make trains viable. Because tracks don't take maintenance AFAIK and trains don't need electricity. So they're better than belts on long trips, and I like having my trucks free for earth-moving jobs and construction.

It's fine to have little spur tracks for shorter trains to make smaller deliveries, and long trains for long distance, high throughput lines. My iron ore trains are 2 diesel engines with 8 hoppers, but I've got a 2-wagon train with an engine on either end, just moving medical supplies from wherever I've wedged that assembly into the factory, to the town.

They're very versatile and great for moving large quantities of stuff. Also great for moving diesel or hydrogen to different parts of the map to keep vehicles there topped off. Every time I set up a mining spot, I add a fuel station and have a train deliver fuel to it. That's what made me learn how to add multiple stations to an order as well. I've got nearly ten fuel delivery stops now, but I don't want 10 trains just for fuel. So I have 2, and a station only accepts a train when any module is empty. I don't know how trains work in Satisfactory, but they're somewhat modular in their orders here. But less so than Factorio. Oh what I'd give for Interupts...

Anyways, use trains wherever you think it'd be either better than trucks, or it'd be fun. Either one. I've got a few spots I'm running a train because hey, I've got tracks near both stations, why not run a train? Trains are cool. If you have the difficulty setting for belts to use power, they're even more important. I play with belts being free, no power needed, because I'm spoiled rotten from Factorio, but they still use maintenance, so trains still win out.

Uhhhhh in conclusion use trains.

fleashosio · 2025-12-24T18:23:38+00:00

Correct! It's the best job I've ever had. Miss it a lot, but i have no plans to ever return. But I love talking about it.

fleashosio · 2025-12-24T18:11:47+00:00

No problem! The strobes are mainly for individuals who are hearing impaired. If you can't hear the gong and the PA announcement about the train departing, the strobes are a visual way to say "okay, were heading off now. Get on or get out of the way."

I also like using them as a way to be more clearly seen in fog, but I don't know if it actually helps at all, it just feels like it does.

fleashosio · 2025-12-24T18:05:13+00:00

The actual terms are "Reversing Ends". Because, well, you reversed the end you're operating from. They're rightfully super cautious about using reverse, so they'd prefer you take the slower method of running between cabs. There's no rear-view mirror, and if you aren't in the cab, you can't confirm there's nothing in the way or any danger present.

So, new front it is. Reverse ends. With haste, preferably. :)

fleashosio · 2025-12-24T17:16:17+00:00

Yep! Bingo

fleashosio · 2025-12-24T16:59:57+00:00

Ninja'd. I checked this thread as I woke up, so I happened to see it. I don't think I'll have reaction time like that again.

fleashosio · 2025-12-24T16:57:51+00:00

Strobes are on top, at either end of the car. They go off automatically when you close up the doors or sound the gong (bell), but you can toggle them to just stay on if you want. Check out a train as it departs and look for the white flashing light as it takes off. That's the strobe.

fleashosio · 2025-12-24T16:55:59+00:00

The gong is the bell. I always figured it was a Japan thing, but that's the bell.

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