Pump power usage

[hoho]

Feel free to skip the spoiler part, it just describes where I come from

I've not played the game a whole lot yet but the little I've seen it seems to have tremendous potential. I especially like the way one has to run stuff through various machines to get final output. I also play a whole lot of modded minecraft. The main mod I build my personal pack around is Gregtech (obviously) but buildcraft with oil also has a big part in it. I quite dislike all sorts of "greengen" and I want to spend resources to do anything useful. E.g I find MC treefarms cheaty and I usually also don't burn wood to charcoal in anywhere but Railcraft coke ovens. Free item/fluid transport also seems quite OP to me and I'd LOVE to see this game at least have the option for having to pay (with energy) for as simple thing as pumps and perhaps conveyor belts.

The moment I set down my first pump I was really surprised it needed zero energy to put basically infinite amounts of water to pipes. In a game where a simple filler requires energy that doesn't make much sense to me. Same for more advanced/faster conveyor belts. Is there a particular reason why they do their stuff for free?

[MCDomYT]

If a pump needed power then, currently, you cant get any water to get the steam engine working. Steam power is a basic start to the game. Where as oil and solar are more advanced and require researching to get better energy

[hoho]

Notice I never said it would need electric power

Just as one can magically burn coal for making inserters move there could be a low-end pump that burns stuff to move water. Perhaps require two such pumps to fully feed a single steam engine?

[slpwnd]

Yeah, pump running "for free" is a bit strange. We might do something about this. Maybe have it run on electricity but also put a small burner inside for the kickstarting.

The coveyor belts are moving "for free" because it is a very elemental building block in the game and we reckoned that it would be annoying to build electric poles everywhere.

[hoho]

Yeah, pump running "for free" is a bit strange. We might do something about this. Maybe have it run on electricity but also put a small burner inside for the kickstarting.

Wouldn't it be easier to have two different pumps, one for using only coal and providing little water and other running on electricity and being (at least) as powerful as current one?

The coveyor belts are moving "for free" because it is a very elemental building block in the game and we reckoned that it would be annoying to build electric poles everywhere.

Wouldn't it be possible to have the belts to just need power in one end? Perhaps even have them provide power to other conveyor belts* as well as long as at least one is connected.


*) and ONLY to other belts, not machines. Free power cables with belt is a "bit" OP.3

[ssilk]

Realistically I would say, that they need power in every ... Belt. So, when a belt for example side inserts into another, the belts ends there. Or it begins. Depends on standpoint. You would be surprised how many connections you need to make.

And even if every belt which connects to any other belt would have power, if one piece of that network has power, even then you would be surprised. Think a bit about it, the next time you make belts.

[ficolas]

What about a crank to start up the pump? Ye player would need to rightclick the pump a bunkch of times for it to start up the entire system, same when the there are long blackouts.

[ssilk]

Hehe. Like starting a lawn mower? You have to drag with the mouse, until it starts. lol. That might be really fun.

[cube]

My favorite solution for this is saying that boilers have some pumping stuff inside (at least some low end boilers). Steam trains used injectors to pump water. And the first fill of water ... let's say you just brought a bucket to the mashine when you built it.

[MCDomYT]

Steam trains

steam trains would be nice

steam trains run on coal and water.
diesel trains will run on oil/diesel
Electric Trains will run on......

Electric, of course

[SilverWarior]

We have wind in the game right? So why not make windmill powered water pumps?

Or maybe making a wind power generator which barely produces enough energy to power a water pump or a two basic electric inserters (burner inserters always semed to strange to me as you wouldn't be able to generate enough power by buring coal in such small device to actually make it move).

[BurnHard]

Or maybe making a wind power generator which barely produces enough energy to power a water pump or a two basic electric inserters (burner inserters always semed to strange to me as you wouldn't be able to generate enough power by buring coal in such small device to actually make it move).

That's exactly what I did propose some weeks ago