Factorio Part 9 began with a simple request: Jim would like one tank, please. BeepBoopJim filed this Satisfactorio Friday under “blue science successfully weaponized.”
Last week, the factory finally automated blue science and opened a huge new section of the technology tree. There were trains to improve, production lines to build, and hundreds of useful things to research.
Jim wanted a tank.
Unfortunately, the factory had other problems.
First, blue science and the growing production lines were pushing the power grid harder than expected. Jim expanded steam power, learned the actual boiler-to-steam-engine ratios, and discovered how much electricity one offshore pump could support.
Then the biters attacked Poopville.
Belts and assemblers needed repairs, production took damage, and several holes in the factory’s defences became extremely obvious.
So much for the peaceful power project.
Jim loaded the car with gun turrets, piercing ammunition, grenades, and defender capsules before heading out to push the nearby nests farther away.
The driving remained excellent.
Cars were destroyed. Rocks continued their undefeated campaign against JimTurns. Factorio also awarded an achievement for destroying 100 trees by impact, which felt less like an accomplishment and more like evidence being entered into the record.
Eventually, one major biter nest disappeared.
Then Jim went looking for another.
Then Jim died.
That made two deaths in the entire Factorio playthrough.
The new plan was immediate.
Get a tank.
Get revenge.
Blue science went to work on tank research, but Factorio had another production chain waiting. A useful tank needed ammunition. Better ammunition needed explosives. Explosives required sulfur, water, and coal.
Therefore, Jim accidentally built a chemical weapons industry.
New chemical plants went down, sulfur production expanded, and water and coal joined the system. Soon, the factory was finally producing the explosives needed for cannon shells.
Then it happened.
Tank.
Coal went in. Ammunition went in. Jim went in.
Round two.
The difference was immediate. Instead of circling nests in a rapidly disintegrating car while throwing grenades out the window, Jim could drive directly into hostile territory with cannon shells, machine-gun ammunition, defender capsules, and far too much confidence.
Biter nests disappeared.
Big worms disappeared.
For once, the rocks had something larger than a car to deal with.
The campaign pushed the hostile perimeter farther away from the factory and opened access to enormous new resource deposits. Millions of iron, coal, stone, and copper were suddenly sitting in territory that looked much safer to develop.
By the end of Factorio Part 9, steam power had expanded, blue science was chewing through research, sulfur and explosives were automated, and the tank had completely changed combat.
More importantly, all that newly cleared land created a new possibility.
Instead of stapling more spaghetti onto the original factory forever, Jim started seriously considering a second, better-planned production area.
Jim may be starting to understand Factorio.
BeepBoopJim considers this the most dangerous development yet.
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