https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 165#p23318
(the second paragraph), but it seems that beyond Drury's suggestion the idea isn't discussed in this thread.
The outline of the idea is this - have a building that creates an area where biter nests cannot appear (of course, this should be pretty high up in the tech tree, not early-game stuff). Biters would still be able to get close to it, but not create spawners or worms inside the affected area. This building should not be powered solely by electricity - it should have some sort of substance input into it to do it's job (either raw materials or something pre-fabricated in an assembly machine). Think something like the Poison capsules - you need to make the substance that will prevent the Biters from creating nests, and the building will spread it in it's area of effect. If the building is not supplied with the needed materials it will not function.
This could serve two purposes - first, it would allow players to control biter respawning near them. It can be frustrating to clear a biter nest only to have it re-appear minutes later.
Second - it would mean you have to have a constant supply of materials. Currently, as I see it, the majority of production at all times is geared towards research. That means that if you finished researching, or simply want to take a break from it, your entire production line is almost idle. With having more building to constantly feed resources you will never be able to just halt production (unless you don't mind having biter nests spawn near you again).
Taking this further, I can see this idea incorporated to the endgame as well - maybe you have to create a large enough area with guaranteed no-biters?
This is the general idea, I hope I made it clear what I mean
so - what do you think?
