Concrete is a silly feature... and I want more!

[JackTheSpades]

TL;DR

There should be higher tiers of concrete with increasingly ridiculous costs for decoration and flexing.

What and Why

I think concrete lies at the foundation (pun intended) of every finished base. Is your base really finished if you haven't eradicated all signs of nature and made sure that not a spec of your delicious pollution is absorbed by the land?
NO! The factory must grow and said growth must even seep into the ground itself!

Passionate opening statement aside, I think concrete is great.
For one, it is an innate flex to pave your factory as Refined Concrete requires smelting stone, crafting it with water and iron ore and then with more water, steel beams and iron rods. It is hilariously expensive to just a little bit of paving... and that's why it's a flex, a status symbol of your abundant resources and ever-growing want!

Now you could just pave everything with Refined Concrete for maximum flex but I (and some others as I've found) like to use it as our only real means of "decoration" (aside from the inert beauty of a well structured base).

Decorated.JPG (405.79 KiB) Viewed 2037 times

So what am I asking for... concretely (last pun, I promise)
When you think about it, the first tiling is stone, the second incorporates iron and the last requires "processed iron". Almost like we're progressing from the stone age through the iron age!
So what should be next then? Plastic Age I guess? With Advanced Concrete requiring the previous Refined Concrete + Crude Oil + Advanced Circuits + Barrels.
Then what? Perhaps the Electronic Age, for Intelligent Concrete which requires Advanced Concrete + Heavy Oil + Processing Units + Electric Engine Units.
And finally, the Space/Nuclear Age, for Supreme Concrete requiring Intelligent Concrete + Lubricant + Uranium Ore + Low Density Structure.

The beautiful thing about these recipes is not just how expensive they are but also how incredibly inconvenient it is.
Are you really going to spend all these resources on some floor tiling? Are you really going to try and fines a belt layout that supplies all these ingredients? What, are you scared? Too poor to afford some floor tiling? Or can you just not do it?

Honestly, I don't even care about any potential walking speed increase because at this point in the game you will long since have unlocked the Exoskeleton and Spidertron so really, this is all about more means of decoration as well as... just flexing on nature I guess?
And obviously I'm also not really hung up about the recipes I listed as they are more to illustrate what I mean in terms of expensive and inconvenient.

There's also the topic of "colored concrete" for which my search yielded this comment from Klonan which basically boiled down to "not now" back in 2020.

When you think about it, (base) Concrete is used in some recipes but Refined Concrete already just exists for player enjoyment, so is asking for more really such a bad thing?

[Vulkandrache]

I want concrete removed from the game.
It is completely useless, a pain to make and at this point little more than a meme.

[phooenix]

This is why we have mods, i had 2 pages just for different floorings at one playthrough, and looked through the mod portal now a quickie and saw that there is even concrete that distributes power just to name one. I agree with you i also like to beutify my base and have structure and order but the base game is just there to give us the tools. Maybe someone can make a mod for you that adds reinforced concrete with industrial diamond and depleted uranium that requires a whole lot of complexity. Mining 10 coal and compress it one time, add that with 99 other compressed coal and compress it again to make a diamond, in a building that uses 5 MW and takes 60 seconds, so 1000 coal and like 20 depleted uranium and 100 reinforced concrete give you one floortile. That is one hardcore flooring.

[thedoh]

I want concrete removed from the game.
It is completely useless, a pain to make and at this point little more than a meme.

Concrete is essential for the rocket silo, centrifuges and nuclear reactors, where it makes complete sense. What would substitute? We are "lucky" that the base game, unlike some mods, do not require concrete in more buildings.

[Shadowlords]

I would actually like more uses for concrete; like more advanced buildings require the higher tier concrete on the ground before you can place the buildings.

For instance, centrifuges and nuclear reactors require refined concrete to be placed on the ground before the building can be placed.

Assembly machine 3 and electric furnaces require normal concrete or better.

Assembly machine 2 and oil refineries and chem plants require stone brick or better.

I'm sure there is a way to make a mod for this, but it would give more incentives to actually place down foundations and paths.

[quyxkh]

I would actually like more uses for concrete; like more advanced buildings require the higher tier concrete on the ground before you can place the buildings.

For instance, centrifuges and nuclear reactors require refined concrete to be placed on the ground before the building can be placed.

Assembly machine 3 and electric furnaces require normal concrete or better.

Assembly machine 2 and oil refineries and chem plants require stone brick or better.

I'm sure there is a way to make a mod for this, but it would give more incentives to actually place down foundations and paths.

Gotta say I do love the OP's idea and these too. I've got this feeling I'm going to wake up tomorrow still wanting them.

[toprakkoyun]

Imagine new type of tile which takes uranium as an ingredient and when they have been placed they glow like uranium ore. Would be beautiful to look at especially at night

[FuryoftheStars]

I would actually like more uses for concrete; like more advanced buildings require the higher tier concrete on the ground before you can place the buildings.

For instance, centrifuges and nuclear reactors require refined concrete to be placed on the ground before the building can be placed.

Assembly machine 3 and electric furnaces require normal concrete or better.

Assembly machine 2 and oil refineries and chem plants require stone brick or better.

I'm sure there is a way to make a mod for this, but it would give more incentives to actually place down foundations and paths.

Gotta say I do love the OP's idea and these too. I've got this feeling I'm going to wake up tomorrow still wanting them.

+1 from me on this, too!

Imagine new type of tile which takes uranium as an ingredient and when they have been placed they glow like uranium ore. Would be beautiful to look at especially at night

But hazardous to walk on. Ooo... new defense!

[phooenix]

I would actually like more uses for concrete; like more advanced buildings require the higher tier concrete on the ground before you can place the buildings.

For instance, centrifuges and nuclear reactors require refined concrete to be placed on the ground before the building can be placed.

Assembly machine 3 and electric furnaces require normal concrete or better.

Assembly machine 2 and oil refineries and chem plants require stone brick or better.

I'm sure there is a way to make a mod for this, but it would give more incentives to actually place down foundations and paths.

Gotta say I do love the OP's idea and these too. I've got this feeling I'm going to wake up tomorrow still wanting them.

+1 from me on this, too!

Imagine new type of tile which takes uranium as an ingredient and when they have been placed they glow like uranium ore. Would be beautiful to look at especially at night

But hazardous to walk on. Ooo... new defense!

There is already a mod for this Albeit that it's required for everything.
Here -> https://mods.factorio.com/mod/placeonconcrete

[FuryoftheStars]

There is already a mod for this Albeit that it's required for everything.
Here -> https://mods.factorio.com/mod/placeonconcrete

Hmm, yeah, I'm not sure I'd want it required for everything. And on reflection, maybe even the required bit should be removed and made more optional in the sense of the tiles providing a slight buff to the machine they are under (or machines having a slight debuff without... whichever way strikes your fancy). But that buff would be more to speed, not pollution produced. I'd be ok with leaving the required for reactors and silos, though, but at least tier 3 and lower should maybe be optional.

[Panzerknacker]

I don't want more types of concrete, I do want more use for it tho.

[phooenix]

There is already a mod for this Albeit that it's required for everything.
Here -> https://mods.factorio.com/mod/placeonconcrete

Hmm, yeah, I'm not sure I'd want it required for everything. And on reflection, maybe even the required bit should be removed and made more optional in the sense of the tiles providing a slight buff to the machine they are under (or machines having a slight debuff without... whichever way strikes your fancy). But that buff would be more to speed, not pollution produced. I'd be ok with leaving the required for reactors and silos, though, but at least tier 3 and lower should maybe be optional.

Yeah requiring floors for belts seems a little too much, and like stone furnace aswell as a bunch of others, adding buffs seems more logical like you're saying speed decreased by 50% when not having floor, but boosted 25% when having it, because machine can't operate at that speed because of vibration or something. And another tier that makes the boost 50% instead. The mod that adds power distribution to concrete would be a nice pick for me. Having an option to leave the airspace just for big power poles and logic cables.