Factorio Forums

Hey,
a friend of mine and me discussed ideas to make energy a more choice-heavy and meaningful aspect in Factorio as the current binary system. What we need is a mod that does the following things:

• Moves accumulators further down the research tree (available later)
• Increases the cost of accumulators considerably (maybe processing units or modules)
• Introduces at least one alternative mid game energy source, like wind, thermal, nuclear etc.

It would be preferable if there are several mid game energy sources all with distinct advantages and disadvantages. It should not really be a progression between them, but a choice. For progression there is steam -> mid game energy sources -> solar.

Some optional content would be:

• More tiers of solar/accumulators
• Steam engine requiring less water, so one pump can supply several rows of steam engines

Both of these have been done in separate mods, so it would just be about including these changes in the mod as a whole.

Syrchalis wrote: [*]Steam engine requiring less water, so one pump can supply several rows of steam engines

Physics of the game said that when you have less water, then you have less power.

darkfrei wrote:

Syrchalis wrote: [*]Steam engine requiring less water, so one pump can supply several rows of steam engines

Physics of the game said that when you have less water, then you have less power.

Higher temperature real steam engines would require less water for same amount of power. IMO the current steam engines should be renamed Stirling engines, boilers renamed to heaters. Later on real boilers and steam engines could be introduced.

There already is a mod called increased water heat capacity that seems to solve the problem. My only issue would be that it may be a bit too generous (engines use almost no water). But it certainly does away with the ridiculous plumbing you had to do to feed the boilers.

Moffmaster

Moffmaster wrote:There already is a mod called increased water heat capacity that seems to solve the problem. My only issue would be that it may be a bit too generous (engines use almost no water). But it certainly does away with the ridiculous plumbing you had to do to feed the boilers.

Moffmaster

Well, from a quick google search I found in 3 different places that steam produced from 1 liter of water would occupy 1600-1800 liters under atmospheric conditions. I figure 1/10th of that for a system under pressure( or else the engine wouldn't work) and we still have >1:100 ratio. There are so many variables beyond that, but still the water need at steam level is minimal in comparison to current game mechanics.

I meant more from a gameplay perspective, than a realism one.

With the mod, water has so much thermal energy capacity that it takes two minutes or so until a boiler has reached max temperature. So when setting up a new power plant, you have to wait rather long before it produces meaningful power, because it has to get rid of the cold water first.

Ishakaru wrote:Well, from a quick google search I found in 3 different places that steam produced from 1 liter of water would occupy 1600-1800 liters under atmospheric conditions. I figure 1/10th of that for a system under pressure( or else the engine wouldn't work) and we still have >1:100 ratio. There are so many variables beyond that, but still the water need at steam level is minimal in comparison to current game mechanics.

I'm hoping the new boilers actually boils a small volume of water to produce a much larger volume of steam. Steam would need much more reduced resistance to flow thru pipes, though.