zlacker

>>DonHop+(OP)
When I saw this title, I first thought it was about understanding the cockroach-like aliens in Factorio, but it is actually about queuing and congestion and parallel processing with conveyor belts and factories!

With the caveat that Factorio is EXTREMELY addictive, properly described as "programmer crack", here are some other Factorio related discussions:

Factorio – a game where you can automate basically anything (factorio.com)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11266471

http://www.factorio.com/

"This game is like crack for programmers." -kentonv (Tech lead for Cloudflare Workers, author of Sandstorm.io, Cap'n Proto)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11269098

Raycasting engine in Factorio game – Facto-RayO v1.0 [video] (youtube.com)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19878688

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lVAFcDX4eM

Factorio to talk about horizontal scaling of software services (medium.com)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19095271

https://medium.com/@chrisfauerbach/gamification-of-horizonta...

Mapping Factorio with Leaflet (cloudflare.com)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18185058

https://blog.cloudflare.com/mapping-factorio-with-leaflet/

>>DonHop+f
Pro-tip to others who think 'Programmer Crack' is hyperbole- it is not.

Factorio does have a rather steep learning curve, and the UI is not the most intuitive. But. Once how it works clicks, it clicks, and suddenly morning. And I'm in my 40's, I'd thought my days of unexpected overnights while working on fascinating problems were mostly behind me. Highly recommended, but be aware.

>>Baeocy+9V
I think the reason for this is that it pushes all the buttons your programmer brain wants pushed: designing building and debugging systems with a strong focus on optimisation. However it doesn't contain meetings, sprints, language oddities, politics or any of the stuff that makes normal programming less fun.

>>fredle+pB1
What if there was a package manager for Factorio?

>>twic+tb2
Factorio packages are Blueprints and Blueprint Books! And the equivalent of npmjs.com would be https://factorioprints.com .

https://wiki.factorio.com/Blueprint

https://wiki.factorio.com/Blueprint_book

https://factorioprints.com/

https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/7vnkze/blueprint_...

One of the stages of evolution of a Factorio programmer is learning how to make scalable modular blueprints that you can stamp down one next to another, with their inputs and output routed so they all plug together easily and run in parallel, without having to be manually wired together.

>>DonHop+hp2
yeah at this point I consider a game like that solved and my interest in it disappears along with any craving to explore more. It is solved, move on.

>>serpix+PP4
That's a bit like saying programming is solved because package managers exist.

Just like NPM packages, blueprints just let you get into much more trouble much faster!