Electric pumps shouldn't pollute

[dood]

Every other logistics based tool such as inserters, pipes, bots or even trains don't generate pollution so to bring them in line, electric pumps shouldn't pollute either since they are clearly not production facilities.
It just came up somewhere else and I suppose this is an oversight from the rail tanker patch.

[Aeternus]

Anything that consumes energy, pollutes. Pumps consume energy, thus generate minor pollution. Inserters do as well, I think.

[impetus maximus]

inserters don't produce pollution. not even burner inserters.
if it doesn't have a pollution stat when mousing over, it doesn't pollute.

[dood]

Anything that consumes energy, pollutes. Pumps consume energy, thus generate minor pollution. Inserters do as well, I think.

Nothing in the logistics tab pollute, not even trains.
You will find all pollution coming from items in the production tab.
Pumps are the only exception.

[Red]

I'd rather it be able to support green modules...

[QGamer]

I agree on this one.
The only way the pump could ever pollute is if the contents of the pump were to leak out. But that would undermine the entire point of the pump, and make it a bad choice to use. If the pump were to leak, I would either patch it up or take it out.

+1. They shouldn't pollute.

[betrok]

The only way the pump could ever pollute is if the contents of the pump were to leak out. But that would undermine the entire point of the pump, and make it a bad choice to use. If the pump were to leak, I would either patch it up or take it out.

Noise and even heat can be pollution factors as well. How do you think radars are polluting?

[QGamer]

How do you think radars are polluting?

Radars do not produce pollution.

Noise and even heat can be pollution factors as well.

You are correct in this. Even light pollution is a thing. But in the context of Factorio, I believe they mean air, water, and ground pollution. Toxic waste, smog, dust, etc.

Pumps shouldn't produce any pollution. Everything should be contained within the pipes. They should even be quiet (which they already are).

[bobingabout]

I have to debate with people constantly if Radioactivity (from using nuclear fuel) should be considered Pollution. I think it should be, but many believe it shouldn't, because it's not the classic smog you think of when someone mentions pollution.

[QGamer]

I have to debate with people constantly if Radioactivity (from using nuclear fuel) should be considered Pollution. I think it should be, but many believe it shouldn't, because it's not the classic smog you think of when someone mentions pollution.

I think it should be a different kind of pollution.

Back to electric pumps, I'm not sure why the devs made them pollute in the first place. They even polluted back when pumps required Electric Engines to craft instead of just regular ones. Does anyone know why they pollute in the first place?

[Zavian]

SEriously in game pollution is a gameplay mechanic that helps drive biter evolution and attacks that is a sort of analog to real world pollution. But it is a game mechanic. Not every in game pollution source needs to rigidly represent a real world source of pollution. I view radars and pumps causing pollution as a game mechanic in the same manner as I view a player able to carry several railway locomotives in his pocket. They are game mechanics.

[dood]

Well that's my point, from a game mechanics perspective it makes no sense because pollution comes out of things in the production tab, not the logistics tab.
Consistency and all that.

[Zavian]

No that is looking at it from a real world perspective.

Looking at things from a game mechanics perspective is more like a game designer saying I want something at this oil loading station that will attract biters so players need to defend them, or something that means that very long oil pipelines (the sort that might need occasional pumps to repressurise the pipes) need defences. On that basis it is perfectly reasonable that pumps might be a source of that magical biter attractant we call pollution.

[dood]

No that is looking at it from a real world perspective.

I'm looking at the literal tab with the icons of the things you can build in this game, mate.
It doesn't get any more gamey than that and I'm not arguing that "pumps shouldn't pollute because realism", I'm saying they don't follow the internal consistency of pollution coming out of production buildings.

If I would be on a realism trip, I would argue that trains should pollute because they burn coal and electric mining drills shouldn't because they run on electricity.
Do I do such things? No.

[Zavian]

What on earth does the location of something in the crafting menu have to do with the price of fish in China? Or whether something should create pollution?

Why do you think that only things in the production tab should be able to create pollution? The tabs are simply a logical sorting of items into an order that the developers thinks makes sense. The placement of an item in the tabs should not determine whether an item causes pollution, instead the game designers/developers should decide that based on what they think will make for more interesting gameplay. (Don't forget that solar panels also exist in the production tab. If we continued your argument about consistency, then we could argue that they should create pollution. But where something is placed into the tabs isn't relevant to whether it should create pollution).

About those electric mining drills. If we wanted to argue from a realism pov, instead of game mechanics pov, then regardless of their power source, all mining drills should create pollution, because digging lots of resources out of the ground tends to create pollution. But again that is relevant is whether mining drill creating pollution is desirable from the perspective of creating interesting gameplay.

[dood]

Name 1 logistics thing other than the pumps that generates pollution.
Also I am not saying every single thing in production always pollutes.

[Zavian]

Irrelevant. What matters is whether pumps producing pollution enhances the gameplay.

[dood]

So does it?

[Zavian]

I think it probably does, but it's such a miniscule amount of pollution that for most setups you probably won't notice it. But things like an oil loading station which is some distance from the pump jacks, and repressuring long pipelines both are capable of generating pollution to attract biters, and hence need defences when you might otherwise be able to gamble that biters won't walk close enough to attack them (More relevant to games with expansion turned off. It's also possible that I'm wrong here). But it is a subject on which different people will have different opinions. Ultimately it is the devs opinion that matters.

[dood]

Now explain why inserters shouldn't pollute and pumps should.