If we were to make Factorio more realistic...
Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2017 4:23 pm
(Yes, this wasn't posted in suggestions. I only want to discuss it.)
We've all seen these suggestions: "Make the offshore pump require power!" "The diesel engine should need water!" "Everything produces junk!" "How about damaged machines jamming up?"
But what if we were to take this all the way?
Make fuel more realistic.
The way fuel works in this game is by providing the energy directly. If Factorio were more realistic, all machines would be more like the boilers: The fuel is used to raise the internal temperature to the required minimum and then keep it there. The "required minimum", in this case, is dependent on the task. Also, different furnaces would have different rates of heat loss.
Water makes everything more efficient
I've read elsewhere that all "burner" machines work like stirling engines where the energy comes from temperature differences in the air. This is extremely lossy, so supplying any burner machine with water would greatly increase their efficiency. But since in-game this would only really be relevant for trains, there's another option: Research called "Water jet cutters", that would make certain recipes take less time provided the machine doing it is supplied with water. (to make this easier, assemblers could be able to pass water from one to another.) Note that this water would NOT be part of the recipe itself, but rather appear in its own slot. There was a similar suggestion in the past, except with lubricant, but I can't find it right now.
Pre-processing ressources to increase yield!
In real-life, you don't just put iron ore in a furnace and expect ingots to plop out. You crush it, you clean it, you press it, and only then do you put it in the oven. In Factorio, making this a requirement would break the game, however it could be implemented that pre-processing ore gives more bang for your buck, as it were. A new building, a processing plant, would do this.
Again, I'm not suggesting this, I just want a discussion. Do you like these ideas as such? Is there a way you know that would increase realism (regardless whether it'd improve the game)?
We've all seen these suggestions: "Make the offshore pump require power!" "The diesel engine should need water!" "Everything produces junk!" "How about damaged machines jamming up?"
But what if we were to take this all the way?
Make fuel more realistic.
The way fuel works in this game is by providing the energy directly. If Factorio were more realistic, all machines would be more like the boilers: The fuel is used to raise the internal temperature to the required minimum and then keep it there. The "required minimum", in this case, is dependent on the task. Also, different furnaces would have different rates of heat loss.
Water makes everything more efficient
I've read elsewhere that all "burner" machines work like stirling engines where the energy comes from temperature differences in the air. This is extremely lossy, so supplying any burner machine with water would greatly increase their efficiency. But since in-game this would only really be relevant for trains, there's another option: Research called "Water jet cutters", that would make certain recipes take less time provided the machine doing it is supplied with water. (to make this easier, assemblers could be able to pass water from one to another.) Note that this water would NOT be part of the recipe itself, but rather appear in its own slot. There was a similar suggestion in the past, except with lubricant, but I can't find it right now.
Pre-processing ressources to increase yield!
In real-life, you don't just put iron ore in a furnace and expect ingots to plop out. You crush it, you clean it, you press it, and only then do you put it in the oven. In Factorio, making this a requirement would break the game, however it could be implemented that pre-processing ore gives more bang for your buck, as it were. A new building, a processing plant, would do this.
Again, I'm not suggesting this, I just want a discussion. Do you like these ideas as such? Is there a way you know that would increase realism (regardless whether it'd improve the game)?
