I did use underground belts, to define the chosen lane, so that both can go to the left side without one lane beeing preferred over the other or one needing to loop around and because it needs a little bit less space. The whole construction was done before fast belts were available. Now, knowing of ...

I don't see any gameplay benefits for these types of energy storage. We have accumulators for short term and (hacky) hot water for other special cases. No real gaps, that need filling. Also, in place of hydrogen, there is other, more conventional stuff, like gas preassure, or kinetic energy. However...

With it's 2D sprite-based graphics, this game is all but perfect for HoloLens.

I do split the lanes deliberately by side-merging on underground belts. The other lane I use for coal, so I only need one input inserter per furnace and no long inserters.

Splitters show some strange, unexpected and undocumented (as far as I know) behavior, when both lanes of a belt are filled with the same items. It splits the lanes for some time, then suddenly switches without reason. splitter.png If there is a curve beforehand, the items on one lane are shifted a l...

Small lane mixer with underground belts: Without underground belts, I suspect Tallinu's design already is minimal.

That is also a bottleneck, though smaller. The back-feed has a 2 full belts times 1/3 load. This merged with on full belt in the bottommost splitter, which outputs to one side only, will back up. Concerning curves, they are on a segment with a 2/3 load. Not sure if this backs up for the inner lane o...

, yeah exactly.
We understand each other. Mechanical energy transfer is the logical step before electric power.
But still no better solution on how to pace progression, than the tech tree and/or product drain.

Here is how I split one third of the items of a belt. This back-feeding probably allows more odd proportions.

But don't use splitters too much. Overproduce! Backed up belts are better for sanity than distributing scarcity.

and at this point, "stone age" is over I do agree, that the early game feels rushed, it's items too soon obsolete and all in all uneventfull, when you have some practice. Under the impression of your post, I first wanted to make the suggestion to add water mills as early game energy sourc...

I like it, but ... Factorios belts are magic also in another way. They still move if the content is blocked and backs up. Roller conveyors can do that, but are unfit to transport ores. On real belts, this would cause an ungodly amount of friction. So Factorios belts actually behave more like roller ...

Lower end would appear to stick out of the cliff at the lower ground level [...] That could quiet effectively help not to break the elevation illusion. From a gameplay perspective, cliffs are meant as obstacles which are not easily overcome. A factory should not be able to simply spread over the cl...

I like fsjd's ideas for the underground pipes. Halving the distance also provides a good explanation, why underground belts aren't fit for cliffs.

Thanks and no need to apologize.

If that were the case, factorio would probably be laggy as hell. Na I'm fairly certain that it's done this way, cause even with the current curve pieces, the amount of possible cross combinations is astronomical.

"could break the elevation illusion" Good point you make there. Could be saved by introducing hacky special cases, where the opposite end is shifted, but thats not very elegant. No traversing the cliff for underground belts then. Underground pipes however? It's done frequently in real life.

The explosion of needed sprites shoudn't be that bad. There are two variants to the curve and the 3:1 diagonal depending on the connecting rail piece, and the special cases mentioned. The variants are very similar and maybe dont even visibly differ (try to spot how the translucent pieces have a slig...

On the problem to park exactly, I'd like to point to my proposition to use "roads/streets as steering guide. Cars will try to stay on it" https://forums.factorio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=10315 For that to work well, the stearing guide should probably extend to a brake assistant as...

And here I thought, I made the "why" clearer in this proposition: - In the terms of my little game theory discurs posted over there https://forums.factorio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=12770#p85969, to increase resemblence and diversity. - The promote the liquid handling from its side...

Why? To make the game better obviously. Kidding asisde, I probably should have anticipated that objection. So, "realism". It is a problematic thing in games and I have my personal little opinion around it: Realism should not be a goal in game design, as games are in many ways the opposite ...