improved geothermal mod

[technocrazy]

I know there's the hot spring mod, but using those springs you have to use oiljacks and pollute the environment - plus you also have to run on coal until liquid handling is researched.

Also, I feel that mod is kinda backwards.
Hot springs boil water with geothermal energy, even direct contact with lava in some springs, while cold(er) water keeps flowing in; this results in displacement of heated water.
Natural hot springs would overflow violently with water, sometimes to the point of cracking the ground around them with steam explosions, not remain some damp spots on the ground.

I myself tried to write a mod to introduce geothermal shafts, where you simply pump in cold water after drilling down and receive hot water, but a total lack of understanding of lua and zero knowledge about the interfaces coupled with the inability to find the buildings with similar functions makes me want to shoot myself.

Drillrig suggestion:
required materials:
two liquid tanks (for subteranian cold/hot water buffering)
30 steel plates
50 iron sticks
3 small pumps (for water moving)
power intake: 3x small pump??!

after building it you need to feed it 10 more steel plates to build a drillhead or a pre-build one, then pipes and concrete while it drills down.
if the map supports background amplitude (guessing from resource placement it does), it could be used to write an invisible depth map for a "heat layer" that has to be breached for the drillrig to start producing hot water.

-Water heating-
any temperature water can be pumped into the cold storage tank, from where it's processed into hot water. this process is throttled unlike coal boilers which simply pass through colder water to the engines, meaning unless the water reaches 100+°C, it won't be passed into the hot water tank (as long as water is in the cold tank it's "assembled" at a fixed rate when the hot tank is less than 100% filled).
The drillrig won't allow speed or productivity modules, only up to 3 efficiency modules to lower the drill/pump power intake.

I have a very rough understanding of the technology of the game, and I believe something like this can be pulled off. Just don't know how...
Yes, this is expensive and that's intended since it's a build-and-forget type of construction that can power your factory indefinitely and won't attract aliens.

[Hyratel]

ok here's what I'm seeing

- Look at how the pumpjacks "constrain" their placement to the Seeps, grab that

- Look at how the Chemical Plant handles its Fluid Input and Output

- KS power Oil Boiler "manufactures" Hot Water instead of Heating Water. you could use that mechanism

I don't have a direct solution for the need for a wellhead pipe, but you could use a Module system, and have a limited number of slots, and modules of different "lengths", and have an auxiliary factory (or make them in an Assembler) to make Wellpipe Modules

[technocrazy]

I don't have a direct solution for the need for a wellhead pipe, but you could use a Module system, and have a limited number of slots, and modules of different "lengths", and have an auxiliary factory (or make them in an Assembler) to make Wellpipe Modules

I was thinking of a dynamic circle recipe based on the heat layer. Either it makes a single. separate unremovable item to start up the production process or simply spits out what is fed in, together with the water.