Why does oil extraction work separate from other resources ?

[d0w1ts]

As the title says, I'm wondering why the oil extraction system in the game is yield based while all the other resources(ores) are set numbers. Why did the devs decide that oil specifically needs to be different from everything else ? How does that balance the resources ?

[DaveMcW]

Because oil extraction in real life works that way. Oil wells never extract all the oil, production just declines until the well is no longer profitable to operate.

Early versions of Factorio had a much harsher and more realistic oil decline curve. This forced players to expand to find more oil. After playtesting, the 20% floor was added so the endgame did not become a constant hunt for oil.

[Bauer]

Also, it is attractive to different mechanics in the game so that not all production steps look the same.

[Durentis]

Good thing we can't spam an oil field with beacons in real life, eh?

[astroshak]

Good thing we can't spam an oil field with beacons in real life, eh?

[Moderated by Koub : Off topic]

[Xeorm]

To go off what was said before, I found that having a trickle of oil come through was annoying. You wanted to maintain the oil field because it was generating more than zero, but generating as little as it did made that effort feel pretty bad. Not to mention thinking that I was losing out on production because you'd find oil, start pumping, get overfilled and so stop pumping because the pipes were full. You'd produce for a bit and it wasn't too long later that it'd be producing almost nothing.

Having infinite wells is unrealistic, but it's also not terrible. Even in longer games I found I didn't get through too many patches. Did 120+hours on one marathon factory and I think I only made it through the 6-9 ore patches. It takes awhile to get through and the tech increases go a long way towards prolonging each ore patch.

[Alexoates]

I advise you not to worry about resources. It's enough to use productivity modules wherever possible. On the current version of the game infinite resource productivity research is available, I advise you not to forget to pump. Oil extraction should start with the opening of blue flasks, otherwise there will be no further development. And "intermediate targets" and "how many cookers to put up" depends only on the extraction capacity.

[ptx0]

Good thing we can't spam an oil field with beacons in real life, eh?

main impact is allowing more plants to breathe

edit: no longer required, moderated away