Ohlmann wrote:hoho wrote:
Oil - you'd need to feed liquids to your boilers instead of solid stuff.
That's the exact same thing as using boiler with solid fuel for me.
Well, solid stuff can be easily transported with belts/trains/inserters and be stored in chests. Liquids need piping.
It's not a huge difference but a difference nonetheless. I'd say roughly comparable to solar vs wind. At worst it's an alternative to current stuff
Obviously it would need that making solid out of oil to be either removed from game or to be made net-negative in terms of energy production for it to make sense. To be honest I don't really understand why was it added to the game in first place.
Ohlmann wrote:hoho wrote:
Geothermal - pumping water underground -> get back steam -> pipe steam to generators.
So an infinite source of energy without drawback. Flat out problematic on that form.
Kind of like solar-accumulator combo, right?
Main problem is that currently water is infinite in the game. I would imagine it's not even too hard to implement finite water in game - just calculate the volume of lakes based on some extra noise map. That same noise map could be used for gradually draining the lakes and producing new dry ground in their place. Now THAT would be an awesome extra feature with massive game play changes! It would mean people wouldn't be "burning" water in their generators since it would get complicated when they use up all the sources near their base.
It could also "burn" other materials like pipes or even just raw iron as it probably needs it's internals replaced every now and then or something, dealing with superheated things tends to corrode them.
Ohlmann wrote:
hoho wrote:
Nuclear - don't make it "fire&forget" but have some sort of "configuration" options via having to balance fuel/coolant/neutron absorbers allowing different efficiency/output and perhaps even meltdown.
Develop, because not only did the OP say nothing about that, but that mean just about nothing to me.
@see fusion a few lines down
Ohlmann wrote:hoho wrote:
tidal - at last there would be a use for all the water in game
I don't understand what that mean, since water is used, and I don't exactly see how it would work
I was assuming those plants are similar to solar panels in way that you just set them down in water and they'd generate energy by just existing.
"use for the water" was meant as use for the lakes as construction area that can't be used for anything else. Pumps don't take that much space, after all.
And, yes, I do realize tidal energy makes no sense in a tiny lake
Ohlmann wrote:hoho wrote:
Fusion - an end-game goal. Massively expensive and complex production chain for "fuel" but would deliver massive energy.
That's a sale pitch, but who mean nothing to me without actual explanation. What is a massively expensive production operation ? How do it work ? How it is different from a massive solar array factory
It's like nuclear but even better!
/salespitch
Again the main reason one might want it is to have high energy production without using too much land area.
As a bonus it would extend the game by offering new research and factory expansion options.
The resources for it (He3?) would be rare to find and complex to process (many steps needed, various machines, various consumables and side-products in the process, ...).
Basically it would be an excuse to make a different automated production line out of high-end machinery instead of just doubling up the solar production line. It would also add new stuff to research to the game and be a general extension for the game.
Nuclear would be a mid-game option with respectively cheaper machinery, less complex production chain and possibly more abundant fuel.
Ohlmann wrote:
hoho wrote:
If anything it's the wind power that for all intents and purposes is nothing more than a reskinned solar that can also work during night
You can refer to my thread, where I explained *why* it's not a reskinned solar at all for me.
You mean this thread here:
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 267#p32267 ?
I still don't see it as any way different from solars besides that the output is not predictable.
My main problem with Factorio electric system is that there are basically just two "tiers" of it and even those are extremely close in terms of when a player can start using them:
1) solid fuel boilers running hot water to steam engines
2) solar/accumulator combos for infinite pollution-free energy with only cost in initial production and in land area
What I'd like to see is more alternatives to those like after oil-processing is researched one could start burning that instead of solid fuel for higher efficiency and higher energy density per land-area used for the generators. Alternatively coal could be better used in producing other things instead of just shoving it into oven. New options should be introduced as game progresses. To me it makes no sense that I'd be using the very same energy production facilities in a massive plant using hundreds of GW's as I did when I plotted down my first turbine.
[Offtopic]
I've been poking around in some mod code for a couple of days now and I'm tempted to try to make something that would implement some new energy production stuff somewhat similar as in the posts I've discussed here. No guarantees though as my history of promising to make things isn't exactly good