Iron sticks instead of iron ore in concrete recipe

[Engimage]

In 0.15 it is even more obvious to have as you did include Stone Bricks for science in a form of electric furnaces. This means we gotta make stone brick lane in the main base. And Iron ore requirement kinda forces you to locate your concrete factory somewhere in a standalone location with its own iron ore station. It is Iron Plates that are delivered everywhere as an intermediate product. I see no point in using ore elsewhere.

Also from a logical standpoint you kinda use iron sticks in concrete Not ore or something alike. Sticks!

And maybe for the same reason it makes sense to change rails to use stone bricks instead of raw stone. Yes it would produce 5 at a cycle (as other way stone will be consumed 5x faster) but this would make sense and would actually simplify understanding of stuff by people - that raw maretials have to be processed first before being used in production.

[Aeternus]

Might be just me, but I run a small 1-length ore train for iron ore from one of the mines to the brickyard for concrete mixing. Also, some of that ore gets smelted to iron and steel for railmaking (3 electric furnaces, 2 for iron and 1 for steel is all that requires). This isolates the brickyard from the main base, unless you indeed want to run a belt of bricks and/or concrete out of there for production. Me, I'd use trains for that too.

[pieterhulsen]

i just run a single yellow belt of half bricks half ore that i take of just before smelting area and run that line down to the water.
Concrete goes into passive providers, bots do my concreting. Takes a lot of power but saves me work

[alexzzzz]

And maybe for the same reason it makes sense to change rails to use stone bricks instead of raw stone. Yes it would produce 5 at a cycle (as other way stone will be consumed 5x faster) but this would make sense and would actually simplify understanding of stuff by people - that raw maretials have to be processed first before being used in production.

I would suggest to use both stone and stone bricks for rails. It makes sense.

[Slayn25]

I've been pondering both these recipes a bit lately as well.

Concrete:
I assume the logic behind iron ore being used for concrete over iron sticks is that iron oxide (used in most common form of concrete) is prevalent in the ore but lost when processed. (I think, not a chemist)
I could see cases made for either stone/brick and iron ore/sticks

Rails :
Right now rails are the only thing worth automating that require raw stone (which sucks). I'm all for bricks instead of stone for that, even if the rationale is that the bricks are crushed back into stone (as with concrete.)

Brainstorm: (If trains came earlier/there was a locomotive that used a steam engine instead of engine unit)
Basic Rail - Wood Board, Stone, Iron Sticks
Fast Rail - Stone Brick, Steel Plate
Express Rail - Concrete, Steel Plate

[leoch]

Brainstorm: (If trains came earlier/there was a locomotive that used a steam engine instead of engine unit)
Basic Rail - Wood Board, Stone, Iron Sticks
Fast Rail - Stone Brick, Steel Plate
Express Rail - Concrete, Steel Plate

Interesting idea. I think an "iron stick" rail would have trouble carrying the weight of a train, though just making the train speed very low (e.g. 40%) might have reasonable game play.

But having multiple types of loco sounds good:
- steam (available early, slow, runs on coal/wood/etc. and water),
- diesel (runs on heavy/light oil/petroleum, long range),
- electric (slightly faster than diesel, no fuel, short range between charge stops)

[Whar]

Brainstorm: (If trains came earlier/there was a locomotive that used a steam engine instead of engine unit)
Basic Rail - Wood Board, Stone, Iron Sticks
Fast Rail - Stone Brick, Steel Plate
Express Rail - Concrete, Steel Plate

Interesting idea. I think an "iron stick" rail would have trouble carrying the weight of a train, though just making the train speed very low (e.g. 40%) might have reasonable game play.

But having multiple types of loco sounds good:
- steam (available early, slow, runs on coal/wood/etc. and water),
- diesel (runs on heavy/light oil/petroleum, long range),
- electric (slightly faster than diesel, no fuel, short range between charge stops)

As a train lover, I really want to see different rails and locos in the game.
I would really want to see something like Slayn25 and you said

[leeknivek]

electric trains don't use batteries, they are usually just powered through electric rails, as there is already a metal conduit run where ever they are traveling.

most trains today are diesel-electric - a high efficiency diesel motor is tuned to a efficient RPM to spin a generator which banks some power and uses electric motors for propulsion. this works out better because a diesel engine does not produce full torque from rest, unlike the electric motor, and runs at a very different fuel efficiency depending on the RPM. having varying torque requires a varying RPM, and thus varying fuel efficiency, usually less, even considering the power loss with batteries and motors.

now that we have new fluid pumps and the mechanic to attach them to trains, i think a "light oil" diesel train would be a big upgrade to coal-powered trains. if i remember rightly, though, there isn't any mechanic for liquid fuel as a power source, so there's that - but ten years ago there were no factorio mechanics whatsoever!

[Frightning]

I agree with the suggestion to exchange Iron ore for Iron sticks in the Concrete recipe.

There are a number of reasons this seems reasonable:
-It is currently the only use for Iron ore other than smelting it, and it doesn't make much sense to use Iron ore as an aggregate for Concrete irl.
-Iron sticks have few current uses: Rail, Lamps, and Iron and Steel axes being the only uses thus far in the game, and of these, only Rail really seems important to automate at some point.
-Iron sticks can be seen as similar to (Steel) rebar, which is actually used in reinforced Concrete irl.

The comparison with irl, the big thing missing in the game is any notion of Cement. This is because the game doesn't have Lime (Calcium oxide/hydroxide) in it. It does have the other ingredient used to make Cement: Silicate, that is, Silicon dioxide, which is a common chemical component of most types of rocks, including (presumably) Stone. From what I have been able to learn about Stone bricks, they are essentially crushed stone (into a powder) that is shaped and then 'baked' in a furnace until it hardens. It makes sense that Stone brick would be used to make Concrete, the bricks could be re-heated to break their shape, and then exposed to water as part of making the Cement. Thus the Stone bricks would then constitute the bulk, by mass, of the Concrete in the end.