Progression

The new metalworks and construction shop. A couple automatic miners can be seen sitting in the yard off the side of the metalworks too.

I spent most of my time today making a metalworks, construction shop, stone smelter, and an electronics factory. I can really feel myself advancing. These new buildings will help my progression by a lot.

The electronics factory isn’t really operational yet, but the basic layout is already placed. What stopped me was the fact I needed redstone engines.

This leads me to the next thing I plan to for the next time I play: Expanding the laboratory and moving the workshop there while also developing and microchip facility. The reasons for this is because the workshop is usually a place I go to for creating newer tech. Then as they become common, specialized buildings such as factories are erected—like the electronics factory. I believe it’ll fit best in the lab.

The windmill and smeltery is slowly becoming abandoned as I move to the bigger, better buildings.

The watermill power plant is sustaining my new development well.

I’ve also been getting a ton of iron and a few diamonds from those automatic miners. They have made a great investment to me.

My main goal now is the pave the path to the Immersive Engineering’s excavator. The rock crusher makes that possible. I just need to construct a facility for the industrial squeezer, refinery, and diesel generator. But first, the lab will have my attention.

Improvements

My settlement so far.

In preparation for the upcoming goals, I decided to made a bunch of improvements and complete the constructions of the unfinished buildings.

I also wanted to test those powered lanterns—which guaranteed to repel enemies in a 35 block radius around it—by building them in the cattle and sheep pastures. It worked really well! A couple nights passed and no enemies spawned on the grounds.

One thing got me thinking however, was how I need to start pushing now. I feel like I’m hitting a plateau. Maybe I’m afraid of expending resources on expensive projects that might not work out. Nonetheless, I should focus on a simple miner machines to speed up the ore collection or stick to the tunnel bore.

Furthermore, during my wiki research, I discovered the steam boiler. I can power it with coal and it definitely looked promising. It might be a good idea to build one if the water mill plant isn’t enough for those miners.