Why transport coal when you can transport water?

[thereaverofdarkness]

I've been having endless fun with the Resource Spawner Overhaul, Oil Tanker, and Fluid Barrel mods. While trying to hook up a new coal field to meet the tough energy demands from Harder Energy, I noted that the coal field was pretty far from any water. I had an idea: what if I used a train to transport the water to the coal field? In the end it proved more difficult logistically than just making a long transport belt, but the idea stuck in my head and I decided to test it out.

Well apparently it works! I got 5 steam engines and 7 boilers to run some scouting radars from Radar 2.0, and they were enough to keep the steam engines running at full capacity (with a bit left over for inserters and assembling machines). They go through water pretty fast, but not as fast as you might think. 2 blue assemblers is more than enough to empty barrels into the tank and fill it up. One train cargo car will hold 30 barrels, or 3 storage tanks. Or you can streamline the process a bit and reduce energy costs by using oil tanker train cars. The barrel method will fill the tank all the way up, but you need a tank system with a pump at the last tank to actually keep the tank full using the tanker cars. But it works!


So I was thinking the best way to put this system to use is to find a coal patch that's next to some other good resources but far from water. As I was searching my map, I realized that's just not very likely. I might find a good resource patch, but there's water everywhere. At worst I might have to go several hundred squares to get to water, that's not really far enough to set up a train network. So that's where you modders come in. I have a solution waiting for a problem. Can one of you guys edit the terrain generation algorithm to make water generation less even? Not less common necessarily, just with larger spaces between the water, so sometimes when you're wandering pretty far, you might find yourself in an area with no water for a long ways in any direction.

That could be fun to play with!

[BlakeMW]

Why transport coal or water when you can transmit electricity...

But have you tried lowering terrain segmentation in the map generator? That makes all terrain features larger, like being on a much larger world. It's a very potent setting, even setting it to low has a dramatic effect.

[thereaverofdarkness]

But have you tried lowering terrain segmentation in the map generator? That makes all terrain features larger, like being on a much larger world. It's a very potent setting, even setting it to low has a dramatic effect.

Hmm, after playing around with it for an hour and a half, I think it is exactly what I wanted. There's not very many settings options there, but it seems to make both the water and the non-water terrain larger. Also, the starting area had just a bit of water like always, but I started in the middle of a huge desert and I had to travel hundreds of chunks to get out of the desert. I discovered a coastline in a distant part of the desert which I followed for quite some time before it took me into a dirt ground area.

Interesting. Thanks!


Would be nice to have more options in-between, however. The "very low" terrain segmentation setting seems to have made terrain segments perhaps 25x larger or more. It seems to be using a large (>3) exponent for a single settings change.

[binbinhfr]

if you are in need of water in the middle of the desert, you can use my waterwell mod :
viewtopic.php?f=93&t=23297

[thereaverofdarkness]

if you are in need of water in the middle of the desert, you can use my waterwell mod :
viewtopic.php?f=93&t=23297

What I want is a logistics problem that must be solved strategically in-game. Your mod circumvents the problem, thus eliminating all of the building that could have gone into solving it.