u/ProfitOpposite

And DAMN as a fan did I get serviced!!!

I want to be clear: i loved the book, and this isnt even a criticism. However, it does feel clear that D.E.T. has been paying attention to questions and concerns the communtiy had when writing this book. Im not sure why else he would re-introduce... certain elements. A very general figure, you might say.

Still- thoroughly enjoyed! Big step up from Book 5 in my opinion.

Should I shear my sheep as soon as it reads "a handful" or should I wait for another step along? I want to maximize wool production per day (averaged) and I dont know if wool growth is linear or quadratic.

There I am, gearing up for the final showdown in Solaris. Three rounds of fighting, followed by one assasin. One mech only.

I pick the HGN-VEST; a fantastically suited mech for arena combat. Armed with two medium lasers, twelve SRMs loaded with inferno gel, one autocannon 20, and one bigass sword, I was prepared to carve through this competition.

The first round featured much lighter opponents than I expected. My sword made short work of a Locust and a Griffin who got questionably close to me. I convinced them to punch out in short order. An Orion didnt have the same privilege as an AC/20 round usurped the pilot in the cockpit. Round one ends in slaughter, with me at the top. I freshen up and enter round two.

Round two packs much more weight, including an enemy Highlander and a few other assaults. I play it safe, waiting in the crags by the cliffs as I let the other contenders soften each other up. A URB-SA1 zips by, immediately turning tail. I give chase, heading up the ramp and landing my SRMs on them, melting the little trashcan. Well, im out in the open now. I activate my jump jets and land with a MASC-boosted charge. The enemy Highlander is my target- he's distracted by another opponent, a King Crab. His back is wide open, and I slice it open with my sword. Major damage to his internals, but he's still standing. I follow up with my lasers, and then my SRMs. He goes down, but now the King Crab has me in their sights. I continue my charge up the ramp, MASC blinking danger. I ignore it. I hide behind a pillar, eliminating a medium mech who pinged me with his lasers with a well-placed autocannon shot. My sensors show the crab was turning around the pillar, navigating to the ramp. I jump off the edge, getting behind the wide assult mech and lay into his legs. I get the first leg before he completes his turn, but he manages to knock off my left arm. My sword is gone. No matter. I finish off his other leg and he tumbles to the ground. I still have my AC/20.

Third round. Missing my sword arm, i once again try my best to play it safe, but instead of staying near the cliffs I hide behind a large cube. A few of the lighter mechs engage and swiftly disengage, or meet their fate. Then, a Stalker rounds the corner. Thats too much metal so soon in the round- I bounce. I find myself jumping and running across the field, trying to reach cover. An Enforcer stands between me and my goal. He lands a good shot on my right arm with his AC/10, but I do him a few better. Two salvos of infernos later, and he's helpless. I conserve ammo and whittle away his cockpit with my lasers. A minute or so pass, and a few of the other combatants have fallen. Its time I re-entered the fray. I spot the Stalker, firing my autocannon at its leg. I had hoped the Stalker and its current opponent would continue to duke it out, but not this time. The Thunderbolt that was fighting the Stalker turned to face me, banged up. I launch SRMs at the Stalker, mitigating the worst. I focus on the Thunderbolt, but not without taking a good amount of damage. He opens up my shoulder and arm, but I take him out before I lose my autocannon. I didnt notice id already lost my lasers until after he had fallen and the Stalker had rebooted, recovered from my SRMs. This is the last opponent, and I think I can burn down the other leg. I dont quite manage. The Stalker claims my other arm. I fire my SRMs one, twice... twice is all it takes. The leg gives out, and the last opponent has fallen. Ive won the tournament.

The last repair bay pops up.

Right. Theres an assasin to face. I take the repairs, a walking torso. One shoulder is bright yellow, even after the repairs. All I have left are my SRMs.

The assasin shows himself- an Atlas, fully repaired, fully armed, and 10 tons heavier than me even without my losses. How on earth could this work? Even with Infernos, I couldnt shut him down before he drilled a hole into my center torso. I needed to outsmart him. Find an edge he didnt have. I hid behind some cover, and waited for him to get close.

I waited. His marker on the map approaching ominously. Closer still. Not yet. I wait for the red triangle to be right around the corner as I activate my Jump Jets, springing over his head, spinning in mid-air. I land, facing his back. The 100-tonner begins the slow journey about, causing my SRMs to hit his arm instead. No matter. Before his weapons can reach me, my Jump Jets are ready to go again. I hop over his head, and slam the next volley into his back. Over and over, I soar above his head. Every time, just before his weapons can fire at me, I'm gone. After the fith or sixth volley, his Mech, without having fired a shot, shuts down from the heat overload. I dump more SRMs into his exposed back, and finally claim victory.

Or laser boats, or srm boats or what have you.

Why "boat"? Ive been using the terminology since i first heard it in 2012 but I still dont know *why*. Does anyone know the etymology?

If youre looking to solve the lightswitch puzzle in the Work Zone (before Genesis-01) fast, you can solve the puzzle in as few as 3 moves.

1 3

2 X

X X

X's on switches that need never be pressed

I just got SoS after trying and loving the demo. Ive started a new game, starting with Cretorians. Im about 5 years in, so I imagine very early game.

What are good things for a very new player to know- common pitfalls/good QoL, etc?

Also, ive seen a lot of round designs. How??? And how can I make irregular housing shapes?

Just trying to figure out what songs stick in peoples heads the most

For me, its Mime Maze, Poisonous Flower, and Fishing Daytime

edit: rough consensus- the surgeon is a rock star

If you find a cornfield early enough, it can be trivial to stock up on hundreds upon hundreds of corn. Each corn is only worth 88 calories as is, but you can nearly double their caloric value by turning them into cornflour!

If you dry corn into corn (dried), you can grind them up 20 at a time to make a full bag of cornflour. A full bag can be used to make 6 loaves of bread, each worth 532 calories.

532 × 6 = 3192 calories, vs eating corn on its own for 88 x 20 = 1760 calories. Thats an 80% increase in calories! Plus, cornflour can be used in tons of fun recipes.

Obviously, the kind of improvement in calories you get is contingent upon how you use the cornflour and having the supplemental ingredients (salt, yeast) to make said recipes.

Ive been starting CDDA in build 42, but i keep dying after 1 hour. Seemily right on the hour. This is vanilla, completely unmodded.

Ill have the beginning of a run set up- ill pull the glass, rip a curtain, bandage the wound, get some clothes (sometimes fully clothed!) And manage to escape to either the nearby house or the north field and clear myself of threats. Great!

But then I'll just... die. Suddenly. I tried a lot of runs, keeping my health panel up. This last run, i managed to make it with ~70% of my health left, a bunch of clothes, and some medical supplies. Im doing good.

Then, i catch my health jumping downwards, about 25% per second. And then... im dead. This run where i had a lot of health to start is the only one to reach the 2 hour mark- every other one says 1 hour.

Does anyone know whats killing me? Im not standing near corpses, i dont have prone to sickness nor weak stomach, i have outdoorsy... what on earth is killing me?

Im playing on Java 1.21.11, vanilla skyblock.

I've got automated iron, and with that, a desire to connect far-flung stations by rail. I will have a central hub near my iron farm, and many lines running out from that, making a wheel and spoke design.

The problem: If I make asymmetrical trips (going from hub to station A but taking station B to hub, making a one-way trip from dying, going to station A but taking the nether back, et cetera), then minecarts will pile up at some stations but run out at others.

One major complication is due to the distances involved, there will be large stretches of unloaded chunks between each station.

Is there an automated way for stations to send out excess carts to stations that don't have enough that doesnt run into issues with unloaded chunks?

Im playing on a skyblock and I will soon have access to iron, so I'm thinking ahead to dirt farms (especially since im having to go through so much difficulty to make a large grassy area)

Does anyone know good dirt farm designs that are skyblock-friendly? I have/will access to stone, moss, iron, woods, redstone, sticky pistons, and TNT. Fully automatic designs are preferable, but semiauto would work. And while i will soon have greater access to iron, fewer hoppers will be preferable.