so managing pollution has always been a fun thing for me to do as I use it as deciding where to build a base for a good long-term benefit. I would usually build a base flanked by dense forests or better still, a large body of water since water absorbs a lot of pollution per second. but sometimes it's difficult to find a good spot if the rng doesn't put one near your start location.
So here I go:
1) Upgrading the Roboport to a Foresterport. ie upgrading the assembling machine or conveyor belt. The Forestport will have 2 areas, logistics and foresting area. the logistics area will behave the same as any port, allowing it to extend your network and also allowing robots to charge. the foresting location will allow the player to designate areas for trees to be planted with the same interface as getting blueprints (click and drag). the trees will be planted by construction robots... or maybe a specialized bot ie forester bot? essentially the idea is to allow th player to plant up dense forests to help contain the pollution.
perhaps the player may also be able to get a slow harvest of the trees as they grow for a lightly more sparse forest but with a limitless supply of wood? maybe being able to convert it to biofuel and then to solid fuel? don't really know about this as it's just a side thought.
2) Platform built atop water. It's like making a concrete floor but only placed on water squares. Why? well, to build at the centre of a large body of water! If you can find a really really large body of water, the pollution will be almost entirely absorbed! I understand with the current mobs, such a mechanic can cause some serious abuse but I think it's a decent enough idea to flirt with. also, being able to build a bridge would be nice.
3) Spore disperser. It slowly converts dirt to grass in a systematic way like the radar removes the fog of war. I mean have you seen how pollution spreads across a desert!
4) Pollution absorbing additives. produced in the chemical plant and pumped into a body of water to increase it's pollution absorbing stat. the additive will spread across the body of water the same way pollution spreads across the map. (transferring part of its value to the neighbouring squares and so on). one can pump it in with a pipe outlet, a special pipe piece that can only be placed on the border of water and land like the offshore pump.
All in all, I think pollution is an interesting concept of the game which I feel isn't touched on too much. as it is, the only real impact of gameplay that the pollution mechanic has is choosing a good spot to build a base. from there, it is just an overcomplicated way of calculating your base size and time spent playing against biter difficulty level and attack wave frequency.
What do you guys think?
