I said it could be explained away - consider that Burner Inserters and Burner Mining Drills don't need an engine to work, so the power generated from "burner" entities isn't from an engine. The engines used in cars, tanks and trains therefore doesn't comply with your idea of an engine, and therefore it could possibly be some design that can easily be upgraded to electric by adding parts only (no need to remove or replace anything). Is it thin? Sure, but so is a lot of logic in the game.eradicator wrote:Same for electrical engines. Makes absolutely no sense to build them from old mechanical engines, totally different physics.
It's generally agreed a machine would be pointless, as you say the return generally wouldn't be worth it. That is why I would suggest an inventory recycler instead, no fuss just delete the item --- particularly useful when you're dismantling an old outpost and can't fit the last few items, just delete all the junk items that inevitably build up in your inventory as you replace stuff (I'm looking at you Small Electric Pole).eradicator wrote:As for stuff in chests, i don't really understand why everybody seems to care so much about that. A generic recycling machine to turn old machines into scrap metal to remelt into plates? Sure i'd use that. But trying to design a belt based system that properly moves all the random stuff from the "garbage" chests to some place in the factory where it's actually needed is far more trouble than it could ever be worth to me. That kind of back-into-production recycling is only feasible with bots, and i don't want to put random requester chests all over the place just for recycling. So...i'm glad to tell you that i already have large amounts of old belts stored...somewhere. Factorio is about mass production, not micro-recycling
Belts are a must-recycle for me. Each Fast Transport Belt is worth 11.5 iron so 1,000 of them would cost 11,500 iron, and I usually have several thousand by the time I begin properly making blue belts. Even suggesting they should not upgrade is inane, I don't care how illogical it is, it would severely discourage most players from expanding their factory early (far more so than shying from Steel Furnaces), we have enough of that already with how tedious it is to replace belt lines. And it's really not difficult to have an "upgrade" production line, just have each belt type output to chests before the next Assembler picks them up, and use circuits to limit production. When you get bots you can replace them with Requester Chests - using circuits to limit production means you can otherwise fill them as you wish, even manually until you get bots. This actually works really well with Player Logistic/Trash Slots, as you replace belts the old ones are taken away, upgraded, and returned to you.
I agree micro-recycling is pointless, I've said that a few times, but so is having relics lying around. I'm pretty sure every single new player upgrades all their Mining Drills and Furnaces, looks at the old ones and goes "right, where's the trash can?" Many will search online for a solution, which is "there isn't one, just keep them forever. If it annoys you then put them in a bot and shoot it." Not particularly innovative solutions, especially for the more OCD-inclined types.
It's not so much getting the materials back, it's using them in the first place. If the player knows they're going to be upgrading anyway, why bother with the slow stuff? It's just a waste of resources. Most players jump straight to the third tier of Power Armour for this reason.bobingabout wrote:I also did an experiment with robot stuff in logistics so that you can build robots of the right tier straight up, with appropriate costs, but it does leave that hole where the old ones go unused. which is where recycling them back for raw materials would be a good idea, but then if everything you build costs titanium, why would you need your steel and aluminium back?
It's been a while since I played your mods but from memory you have tiers of resource right? From your example Aluminium is typically used in lower level products than Titanium, but if the higher-level products are built from scratch then what's the point of even mining Aluminium in the first place? Just brute force your way through the science and go straight for Titanium, why would I waste my time setting up Aluminium mining, smelting and products when such products are going to be redundant pretty quickly anyway? Maybe there's a few things it's needed for, either to break through a barrier (such as how Oil Processing is needed before you can research Advanced Oil Processing) or if a small amount is used in some top-tier products, but I could set up a much smaller production in that case.
