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Understanding Kafka with Factorio

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Re: Understanding Kafka with Factorio

#41

Post by opportune »

gambiting wrote: post #8
gnulinux wrote: post #3

For those who don't know factorio is truly a masterpiece of a game. It's described as "programming the game". Strongly recommended to everyone here.

So I must be the only person on HN who doesn't like it too much. I love the concept and the factory building - but I found the necessity to move a player character manually with direct controls to be incredibly detracting from the process of building factories. I have no idea why they couldn't just include a mode where you have your typical RTS-like mode where you just go and click on things that you want to do witho…

I don't like it because it feels too much like work. For my job I already do a lot of ETL so why would I do ETL in my free time if they aren't even going to pay me

Re: Understanding Kafka with Factorio

#42

Post by lucb1e »

Baeocystin wrote: post #33
DonHopkins wrote: post #2

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 (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.

> Factorio does have a rather steep learning curve

Not... at all? I mean, Vim has a steep learning curve[1]. Factorio is a game meant for the masses.

Of course any game is hard to master, but in that case any game that is not made for 3 year olds has a steep learning curve. You won't know how to set up and manage a 1kspm factory from day one, but that's okay, you can start by exploring and have a lot of fun doing that.

[1] (if you ignore that you can just start by hitting "i" and save with ":wq" and you have an ordinary editor, but that's not the point.)

Re: Understanding Kafka with Factorio

#43

Post by vlunkr »

lucb1e wrote: post #42
Baeocystin wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> Factorio does have a rather steep learning curve Not... at all? I mean, Vim has a steep learning curve[1]. Factorio is a game meant for the masses. Of course any game is hard to master, but in that case any game that is not made for 3 year olds has a steep learning curve. You won't know how to set up and manage a 1kspm factory from day one, but that's okay, you can start by exploring and have a lot of fun doing tha…

The fact that you would even consider comparing the controls of a video game to vim probably means it’s not the most intuitive.

Re: Understanding Kafka with Factorio

#45

Post by GaryNumanVevo »

mabbo wrote: post #39
Baeocystin wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I had to uninstall it last weekend because I came to realize my playing it was no longer healthy. I mean, that sounds funny, but I'm being totally serious. I've had a few games like that in my life, and I've come to recognize a few signs that what I'm doing is not good for me anymore. But wow, what a great game.

Whenever they release a new version, I'll boot it up and waste the better part of a weekend to get another mega-base running. Always satisfying

Re: Understanding Kafka with Factorio

#46

Post by penguat »

seaish wrote: post #36
GauntletWizard wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's neither surprise nor accident in Factorio's Turing completeness. The developers were aware of and fans of the existence of proofs of games on that list (Transport Tycoon is a particular example that they intentionally modeled train mechanics from)

Obviously the circuit system is Turing complete on purpose, but I believe the belts and splitters may be Turing complete on their own, which would definitely be accidental and surprising to most.

with filter splitters being a thing now, I think they would be, yes.

Re: Understanding Kafka with Factorio

#48

Post by IggleSniggle »

Baeocystin wrote: post #35
pul wrote: post #20

I wrote this article a couple of months ago and didn't expect it to appear on my news feed all of the sudden. Thanks for the love everyone. Any questions are welcome of course!

How do you like the .17 update? :D More seriously, I am curious about what people who haven't played Factorio think of the article. Since I've sunk $bignum hours in to it, I found your explanations clear, but I'd like to hear what those who haven't think.

I haven’t played Factorio, and have just barely used Kafka. Therefore, if there was any subtlety, it was lost on me. Nonetheless, this article was clear. I thought this cute and I liked it, but I’m not sure that I gained any new insights into Kafka. This is not a criticism!

However, one of the main advantages of Kafka, I thought, was that it’s so much more than a queue, since data is replayable, etc. The article does mention this as a shortcoming of the analogy, but isn’t this one of the main selling points vs other message queues?

Re: Understanding Kafka with Factorio

#49

Post by derefr »

vlunkr wrote: post #43
lucb1e wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Factorio does have a rather steep learning curve Not... at all? I mean, Vim has a steep learning curve[1]. Factorio is a game meant for the masses. Of course any game is hard to master, but in that case any game that is not made for 3 year olds has a steep learning curve. You won't know how to set up and manage a 1kspm factory from day one, but that's okay, you can start by exploring and have a lot of fun doing tha…

The fact that you would even consider comparing the controls of a video game to vim probably means it’s not the most intuitive.

I think the parent was assuming "steep learning curve" here was qualified as "for a piece of software used by programmers"; while the people that downvoted them assume "steep learning curve" here was qualified as "for a game." It is certainly easy to learn compared to a code-base; it is certainly hard to learn compared to Bejeweled.

Mind you, compared to other “programming games” like e.g. Shenzhen I/O, the main gameplay loop of Factorio is quite a bit simpler to wrap your head around. It's only when you try to ultra-optimize everything that it reaches that level of complexity. (Or when you "program in Factorio", ala "programming in Minecraft.")

Re: Understanding Kafka with Factorio

#50

Post by novok »

Baeocystin wrote: post #33
DonHopkins wrote: post #2

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 (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.

I tried factorio several times and it didn't click for me as a 'crack' game. And I'm a software engineer, and I've loved computers since I was 5, and I spend most of my free time on my computer.

I didn't learn to write code until I was in my late teens although. Ultimately I've found factorio a rather tedious game, that kind of reminds me of my job. I also tend to not code things for fun, seeing how it will ultimately turn into a large project I won't have time to maintain. Kind of like how mechanics don't like maintaining their own cars.

It makes me wonder sometimes.

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