User:H. H. P. M. P. Cole/A (fictionalized) story involving Factorio

(This is a fictionalized story inspired by the discovery and reception of Factorio in the wiki and forums. Several users are characters in the story, fictionalized. H. H. P. M. P. Cole and Haycat2009 are pictured as long-time collaborators.)

Harsforden decided to take a business trip away from Team Oganesson and his hometown. His second-in-charge, Rédox, asked for information. "Where are you going?", asked Rédox, eagerly waiting for an answer. This was the fifth day he has asked Harsforden about his business trip. He had been planning to finally go to the Bahar Junction Integrated Institute to meet his long-time collaborator, Mr. Haycat Durnak. Harsforden gave an answer to the eager Rédox. Next, he commanded the entire team. "I want you to work on ether, the mystical substance that we have been studying for two and a half years. There is still no progress. While I am away, can I entrust you, Rédox, to take care of the researchers?" Rédox saluted in respect. "Yes, Harsforden.", and turned around and closed the door behind him. Harsforden packed his belongings for a trip to Zumaland. "I'm coming for you, Haycat.", he said to himself.

The story was equally tense in Zumaland. Haycat was teaching a class of twelve-year-olds about chemistry - specifically, bonding of elements in the second shell. At the end of the lesson, he got a message from Harsforden. "I'm coming for you." He looked at the class and cried. Evan, his best student, and prefect of the class went up to him and asked him if everything is fine. Haycat stood up, trying to hold his emotions. "Dear students, I will be leaving for a few weeks. My colleague, Jayden, will be teaching you then." Everyone was preparing to throw their schoolbags at him. Jayden was known to be a nice person with his colleagues, but fierce with his students. Apparently Haycat never knew about this, or he wouldn't have chosen Jayden to be the substitute teacher. Haycat ran out of the Institute, hoping to protect himself from the barrage of haversacks.

Luckily, Harsforden had an inter-dimensional portal ready-made using ether. He set it to Bahar, Zumaland. The portal was not large - about an inch in diameter. However, just when he started to set the coordinates, the portal widened - it was now big enough for a man to go through. He stepped through the portal, trying to protect himself from the deadly cosmic rays. And he did – somewhat successfully. One of the wheels on his luggage was cut in half, but thankfully it was not a serious injury.

He saw the bustling streets and a dome over him. He knew that he was in the right place.

He checked his Global Positing Service for the Bahar Junction Integrated Institute. It returned ‘no results’. Harsforden was furious. He would never know where to go to. Just then, a man came to him. “You seem like a tourist. Where do you want to go to?”, asked the man, in a tired tone of voice. He had been pulling a rickshaw behind him. He was the last rickshaw puller in Bahar, hoping to protect his tradition of rickshaw-pullers. Harsforden asked to go to the Bahar Junction Integrated Institute. The man allowed Harsforden to sit on the rickshaw. The route to the Institute was filled with turns and loops, but seemingly never straight roads.

Finally, Harsforden saw the Bahar Junction Integrated Institute. The institute’s name was written in big gold letters juxtaposed by a brick building. Just then, it was the end of the school day. Several hundred students were leaving the building and running with their schoolbags on. Just then, a tall male figure was standing at the main entrance of the institute. “You must be Harsforden.”, the figure said. “I’m Haycat.” Harsforden shook hands with him. “It’s a pleasure to meet you in person after so long.” Haycat welcomed Harsforden into the Institute, giving him a tour of the entire building. Just then, it was dinnertime. Haycat knew a great restaurant that served spicy curry, called The Rajah’s Resting-Place. “Let’s go there.”, he said.

The two went to The Rajah’s Resting-Place and decided to order. Harsforden ordered the malai kofta, and Haycat ordered the vindaloo. Harsforden was discussing a simple game he invented. It was a cellular automaton – what led Haycat to connect with Harsforden in the first place. “The rules are simple. Take the orthogonal neighbours of a cell one to three cells away. If the central cell is off and three of its neighbours are on, then the cells turns on. If the central cell is on and two of its neighbours are on, then the cell remains on. Otherwise, the cell turns off.”

Finally, it was the end of their dinner. Haycat paid, using his salary for the day.

Haycat drove Harsforden to his house to discuss the game further. Haycat’s car was a dark red Toyota, with definite signs of its old age. The car was still functional, and the car could still drive fast. By this time, it was already nine p.m. Harsforden and Haycat went to his study room. Harsforden opened Haycat’s computer and configured it to Golly, a cellular automaton simulation program. He took his rules and typed it in. Next, he ran a random configuration.

He zoomed in at various points of the grid. There were still-lifes, period-2 oscillators, and spaceships. Both of them were impressed by the sheer variety of objects. Among the most unique was a spaceship that looked like an exclamation point. He called it the factorial, after its usage in mathematics, and called the cellular automaton Factorio.

It was time to go to sleep. That night, Harsforden had a dream of the many ways he could use factorials. He rode it, played darts with it, shot them using a bow, and much more. Finally, he woke up in the middle of the night. He transferred his self-coded search program from his to Haycat’s computer and let it run for the rest of the night. From this he ran close to about a hundred million 16-by-16 configurations, and he found several new oscillators and still-lifes by the morning.

He tabulated and organized this menagerie. Finally, he decided to find spaceships. He stabilized most of the ‘false positive’ oscillators his program gave out, found some wicks, stabilized them, found spaceships along the way, and finally posted it on the ConwayLife Forums by the end of the afternoon.

Both researchers felt a large load lifted from their shoulders. They have sent their discoveries to the world, now it was time to wait for replies. "We did it!", said the duo, who were high-fiving each other.

In the evening, Haycat and Harsforden were at the Rajah’s Resting-Place again. They thought it was a completely normal dinner. They ordered the same thing as before, making sure nothing abnormal is happening - however, in Zumaland everything abnormal becomes normal.

Suddenly, a knight which seemed to be riding a giant feather came into the building and smashed one of the side windows. He took off his helmet. “What’s up, you two?”, he said to Harsforden and Haycat. “I’m the Feather-Weight Knight-Ship, or FWK for short. Glad to see you. By the way, Harsforden, I ran my program on your cellular automaton and found a period-8 and a period-9! How cool is that?”

Harsforden felt his heart sink. He never expected someone to reply to his post so soon, and come with new important discoveries.

A girl wearing what seemed to be giant wings in the shape of a butterfly came in next. When the wings came down, they formed a gigantic gown. All the guys seemed to look at her, dumbfounded. “I’m May Thirteenth.”, she said, in a flirting tone of voice, and looking at the already astonished trio of cellular-automaton enthusiasts. “I investigated your cellular automaton too, Harsforden. I found two period-5 oscillators, three period-12 oscillators, and a period-2 photon!”. She said “photon” while she dazzled the men with her poses. Harsforden was astounded by May’s beauty. However, he had to grapple with her misuse of terminology. “Your period-2 photon shouldn’t be called a photon.”, he said in a scolding tone, drawing a knife. May laughed at him, ignored him, and flew out of the restaurant.

Harsforden was flabbergasted. He had never expected someone so experienced with cellular automata misuse terminology so mercilessly.

By this time there was already a hole on the roof of the building. “Let’s get out of here.”, said Harsforden to Haycat. They, and the other customers, ran out.

Just then, Harsforden got a call from some Arie de Paap. He took up the phone and called her. She was not there. However, she had emailed Harsforden on her findings on his cellular automaton the next minute. Harsforden knew that his time was over. He created a new pattern collection; with the new things everyone has found. Haycat helped him too, cleaning up the messy bits and adding new information. They enumerated the period-2 oscillators up to 5 cells and the still-lifes up to 6 and found several interesting bits of information relating to all aspects of the cellular automaton.

Just then, a few days of exploration later, FWK flew his giant feather, this time outside the study window. This time, they could only see his silhouette and mistook him for an enemy of theirs. Haycat and Harsforden got ready some swords. "You again?” Harsforden asked. FWK threw a scroll through his window. It contained a scroll with a period-24 and a period-72 oscillator. Harsforden knew that there was no more time to waste. He created a page on Factorio and put it on his user-page. Haycat coauthored the page, adding new sections. Altogether, they felt that they have achieved something great – a deep understanding of a new cellular automaton.

To be continued…