Notes:

*construction design method
 - There's two possible design methods for the construction of furnace groups:

#piece by piece construction
 -definition:
Piece by piece construction allows the smelter to be modified as each block is placed down.
groups of smelters are merged and demerged together when linch-pin blocks are added.

*pros
 -placing is organic

*cons
 -merge and demerge require tracking adjacencent squares (which is required anyways if I plan on implementing the connected building images)
 -requires method to handle where materials are placed when a demerge happens
 -bot placement and removal of pieces will generate a lot of de-merge/merge calls.

#designate once placed
 -definition:
Place everything on the ground then group the buildings together using a selection-tool, deconstruction uses the same tool.  
unplanned deconstruction deletes the script record of the furnace, basically destroying a bunch of plates in progress. building placement images
handled in independent scripts.

 *pros
  -simple
  
 *cons
  -player may forget to use the selection tool to create the furnace group



Type: Mod
Name: Compound Furnaces
Description: A mod to reduce the UPS impact of large furnace setups by 6x+
License: The MIT License
Version: 0.0.6
Release: 2017-06-01
Tested With Factorio Version: 0.12.16
Category: UPS reduction
Tags: New Items

About the mod:
[i][b]Please read for known issues[/b][/i]
This is the 2nd mod I've made to reduce the ups impact of aspects of the game.  This mod, in short, simulates a group of up to 60 furnaces, and 100 beacons in one pass.

What the mod does:
The mod makes a few shortcuts to simulate things. Most notably, it uses an electric energy interface, which acts like an accumulator, to 'pre-purchase' the energy needed to run the furnace at 100% for a complete cycle.  

[spoiler=change log]
-0.0.6 - first Release
  - fix: loss of inputs when not enough power
  - fix: handling of multiple types of inputs/outputs
  - added logistic requester/passive provider chests
  - using standard beacon/furnace graphics for speed/batch entities
  - new graphics for: core, input, output, known issue: the buildings perspective is out of place compared to the beacon/electric furnace graphics
  - fix: power draw accounts for amount of ore used in the batch cycle
  - new icons

-0.0.5
  - Early test for variation changing
  - 0.15.12 is the minimum required version (for the production graph)
  - limited groups to 360 total (4 million copper/iron plates per min.)
  - fix: existing usage check
  - fix: production graph now displays properly
  - fix: power draw ammounts now correct.
  - fix: steel usage
  - fix: new method for handling furnace groups
-0.0.4
  - improved debug readouts
-0.0.3
  - Simplified creation logic: 
     -blueprint item selects the furnace group and add's it to the backend scripts
     -removing or losing 1 furnace piece will lose the current cycle of materials and disable the furnace group
  - one furnace group will process a cycle every 6 seconds, yielding up to 1152 plates (fully laden) off 960 plates intake.
  - a battery backup allows the mod to assume 100% power usage while the mod will switch to 33% usage of there isn't enough electricity.
    about 4 million plates/minute on .02 ms script time (on my i5-4670k) with 360 furnace groups processing.
known issues:
  - Electrical network values incorrect
  - the consumption/output statistics show up only in the all section. no graph, no nothing. 
    lua request made here: https://forums.factorio.com/47462

-0.0.2
  -changed how furnace pieces are added and removed from the backend scripts
    a. removing one piece loses the furnace contents and the entire furnace 

-0.0.1
  -initial testing
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=License][size=150]The MIT License (MIT)[/size]

Compound Furnaces - Copyright (c) 2017 CmdrKeen

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software 
and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, 
including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, 
and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, 
subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial 
portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, 
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR 
PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE 
FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, 
ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Old Versions]None yet[/spoiler]