Do Efficiency Modules Reduce Pollution?

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faloun
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Do Efficiency Modules Reduce Pollution?

Post by faloun »

Looking at the forums and reddit, it seems like a lot of people believe Efficiency Modules reduce pollution, but I can't actually find anything within the wiki or the game itself about it. I know they can reduce pollution indirectly (less power = less pollution from steam engines) but does putting them into a machine reduce the pollution caused by that machine?

n9103
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Re: Do Efficiency Modules Reduce Pollution?

Post by n9103 »

Almost all machines have 2 sources of pollution (assuming not full solar), the steam engines are one, the machine itself is the other.
Eff. modules reduce both of these, meaning even a full solar player can see some use to eff. modules.
Colonel Failure wrote:You can lose your Ecologist Badge quite quickly once you get to the point of just being able to murder them willy-nilly without a second care in the world.

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Re: Do Efficiency Modules Reduce Pollution?

Post by Choumiko »

They do, look at the machines tooltip without a module in it, put one in and look again. Pollution is reduced by the % of the module (i think, not tested). It's because the pollution depends on the power-consumption.
So efficiency modules give you double the benefit when using steam as your powersource

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Re: Do Efficiency Modules Reduce Pollution?

Post by Koub »

Correct : pollution comes from two sources :
- The facility producing energy, if it's steam based
- The consumption of the energy. Any facility consuming less will pollute accordingly less.
Koub - Please consider English is not my native language.

faloun
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Re: Do Efficiency Modules Reduce Pollution?

Post by faloun »

Okay, so they do!

Other modules explicitly say they increase pollution, and no where in the wiki, the research description, or the efficiency module tooltip does it ever say that it reduces pollution.

Based on Choumiko's suggestion I tried putting two assembly machines side by side and comparing, and the one with efficiency modules in it generates less pollution.

In case anyone else is looking at this, the modules reduce pollution by the same percentage they reduce electric usage, and are capped at 80%.

Koub, your explanation of how pollution is generated makes sense, but I wonder if that isn't more of a "developer" answer. From my (a player's) perspective, it seems strange that other modules have specific notes on how they affect pollution, where it's expected that you know electricity generates pollution proportionally. I'm going to post a suggestion that they add that info to the descriptions within the game.

Thanks everyone for your help!

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Re: Do Efficiency Modules Reduce Pollution?

Post by Choumiko »

faloun wrote:Koub, your explanation of how pollution is generated makes sense, but I wonder if that isn't more of a "developer" answer. From my (a player's) perspective, it seems strange that other modules have specific notes on how they affect pollution, where it's expected that you know electricity generates pollution proportionally. I'm going to post a suggestion that they add that info to the descriptions within the game.
The only module really adding pollution is the productivity, it explicitly increases pollution. With the speed module it's because of increased power usage. But i get what you mean, if you don't know the mechanics (pollution increases with power usage) you can easily get confused ;)

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Re: Do Efficiency Modules Reduce Pollution?

Post by Goldenslicer »

In that case, the wiki is incorrect, since it only states that efficiency modules reduce power consumption and doesn't mention anything about pollution, whereas it makes it explicitly clear the speed and productivity modules not only increase power consumption but pollution as well.

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Re: Do Efficiency Modules Reduce Pollution?

Post by Koub »

Goldenslicer wrote:
Sat Jul 27, 2019 8:14 pm
In that case, the wiki is incorrect, since it only states that efficiency modules reduce power consumption and doesn't mention anything about pollution, whereas it makes it explicitly clear the speed and productivity modules not only increase power consumption but pollution as well.
The pollution production is not explicit, but implicit. It's the consumption induced pollution is reduced, not the pollution in itself.
In other words :
Efficiency modules = less concumption => less pollution
Speed modules = more consumption => more pollution
Productivity modules = more pollution and more consumption => more pollution and even more pollution.

At least that's my understanding. If I'm wrong, then indeed the wiki is wrong too.
Koub - Please consider English is not my native language.

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Re: Do Efficiency Modules Reduce Pollution?

Post by BlueTemplar »

The general Modules page does explain that :
https://wiki.factorio.com/Module#Efficiency_module

I guess the issue is that while item consumption/production(&speed) is pretty visible, power use (especially electric) and pollution - isn't ?
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Re: Do Efficiency Modules Reduce Pollution?

Post by Bilka »

BlueTemplar wrote:
Sun Jul 28, 2019 9:00 am
I guess the issue is that while item consumption/production(&speed) is pretty visible, power use (especially electric) and pollution - isn't ?
My guess is that the issue is that this topic is four years old and thus very outdated about the state of the wiki.
I'm an admin over at https://wiki.factorio.com. Feel free to contact me if there's anything wrong (or right) with it.

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Re: Do Efficiency Modules Reduce Pollution?

Post by Koub »

Now that you mention it, I remember the initial necro, and the forgot about it :mrgreen:
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Re: Do Efficiency Modules Reduce Pollution?

Post by Serenity »

You really notice the less pollution when you put them in mining drills. On rare occasions I've done that to not agitate nearby biters. Makes them have a tiny pollution cloud that doesn't really spread beyond the outpost.

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Re: Do Efficiency Modules Reduce Pollution?

Post by BlueTemplar »

Huh, I thought that Goldenslicer's (recent) post referred to the individual wiki pages, but the pages for individual speed modules don't say anything about pollution...
BobDiggity (mod-scenario-pack)

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