Flare Stack (Vanilla)

[Proph3t3ss]

That feeling of being overwhelmed by petroleum byproducts..

Has a flare stack (for vanilla gameplay) been on the drawing board? Deleting the contents of a system IS fantastic but what if we wanted a 'more' regulated/regulatable approach to ridding our factory of fluids?

..featuring options such as slow | medium | fast burn? ..maybe percentage-based burn? ..a 'potentiometer' to control both speed and volume of burn?

[ssilk]

https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Flare%20Stack

Muchos downloads, muchos chances for implementation.

[Koub]

On the contrary of Ssilk, I think it's unlikely to be added in vanilla, no matter the number of downloads on the mod, because the oil industry overhaul (that started a war on this forum) was the answer from the devs to the "overwhelmingness" of oil industry. The one that introduced the crude oil => Petroleum gas recipe.

[Kyralessa]

I think once you get into advanced oil processing, it's intended that there's a bit of complexity associated with it. There are several ways to deal with too much of something:

• Too much heavy oil or not enough light oil -> Crack heavy oil to light oil
• Too much light oil or not enough petroleum -> Crack light oil to petroleum
• Too much petroleum -> Turn it into solid fuel and burn it in place of coal for your steam engines
• Not enough heavy oil -> Use coal liquefaction to get more

I always set up a set of tanks for each product (heavy oil, light oil, petroleum) and monitor the levels and use pumps connected by circuit wires. If there's more heavy oil than light oil, I pump to heavy -> light cracking. If there's more light oil than petroleum, I pump to light -> petroleum cracking. This keeps everything balanced.

If you're low on crude oil, you can use coal liquefaction to supplement your supply, because it gives you a lot of heavy oil, which you can then crack to the others.

[i_i]

Three Versions of the same items with Teaks.

1. https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Flare%20Stack
2. https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Flare-Stack-edited
3. https://mods.factorio.com/mod/FlareStack_HC

[jodokus31]

This should also be mentioned, because of the valves (overflow, top-up, etc.)
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Flow%20Control

On the contrary of Ssilk, I think it's unlikely to be added in vanilla, no matter the number of downloads on the mod, because the oil industry overhaul (that started a war on this forum) was the answer from the devs to the "overwhelmingness" of oil industry. The one that introduced the crude oil => Petroleum gas recipe.

Exactly. It's part of the "puzzle" in vanilla. A flare stack trivializes it.

[Saphira123456]

I think once you get into advanced oil processing, it's intended that there's a bit of complexity associated with it. There are several ways to deal with too much of something:

• Too much heavy oil or not enough light oil -> Crack heavy oil to light oil
• Too much light oil or not enough petroleum -> Crack light oil to petroleum
• Too much petroleum -> Turn it into solid fuel and burn it in place of coal for your steam engines
• Not enough heavy oil -> Use coal liquefaction to get more

I always set up a set of tanks for each product (heavy oil, light oil, petroleum) and monitor the levels and use pumps connected by circuit wires. If there's more heavy oil than light oil, I pump to heavy -> light cracking. If there's more light oil than petroleum, I pump to light -> petroleum cracking. This keeps everything balanced.

If you're low on crude oil, you can use coal liquefaction to supplement your supply, because it gives you a lot of heavy oil, which you can then crack to the others.

With respect, even with that overhaul it's still possible to have too much of one resource and plenty of the others, to the point that exchanging one oil-based resource for another won't solve the problem, it'll exacerbate it instead. A flare stack is a viable solution and doesn't trivialize anything.

Sorry for the thread necro, but it's needed.

[Abarel]

I am not against the idea of a way to "magically" ride excess of anything in vanilla. Said that, I would like to give my opinion on some ideas here discussed.

With respect, even with that overhaul it's still possible to have too much of one resource and plenty of the others.

I had that problem on my first 2 or 3 plays. There are several possible solutions, being the best (and the most complex) what Kyralessa said. The key is to control when to "spend" a resource to get another.

Anyway, since we have now a "simple" oil processing, there are easy (but less efficient) ways to get what you need.

A flare stack is a viable solution and doesn't trivialize anything.
Sorry for the thread necro, but it's needed.

I disagree, it is not needed and it trivializes the problem. I even try to not use or use as few as possible when using complex mods, but not needed in vanilla at all.

[FuryoftheStars]

I think once you get into advanced oil processing, it's intended that there's a bit of complexity associated with it. There are several ways to deal with too much of something:

• Too much heavy oil or not enough light oil -> Crack heavy oil to light oil
• Too much light oil or not enough petroleum -> Crack light oil to petroleum
• Too much petroleum -> Turn it into solid fuel and burn it in place of coal for your steam engines
• Not enough heavy oil -> Use coal liquefaction to get more

I always set up a set of tanks for each product (heavy oil, light oil, petroleum) and monitor the levels and use pumps connected by circuit wires. If there's more heavy oil than light oil, I pump to heavy -> light cracking. If there's more light oil than petroleum, I pump to light -> petroleum cracking. This keeps everything balanced.

If you're low on crude oil, you can use coal liquefaction to supplement your supply, because it gives you a lot of heavy oil, which you can then crack to the others.

This is pretty much the answer, though I change this:

If there's more heavy oil than light oil, I pump to heavy -> light cracking. If there's more light oil than petroleum, I pump to light -> petroleum cracking.

To be more along the lines of if heavy oil exceeds a certain threshold, or light goes below another: heavy -> light crack. Same for light and petrol.

[aka13]

Tbh the oil processing 2 is a very nice way to introduce the player to combinators.
It's done very nicely, and to not ovewhelm, the original oil cracking got simpllified, which allows you to touch fluids and errything without overwhelming yourself.

[jodokus31]

With respect, even with that overhaul it's still possible to have too much of one resource and plenty of the others, to the point that exchanging one oil-based resource for another won't solve the problem, it'll exacerbate it instead. A flare stack is a viable solution and doesn't trivialize anything.

Sorry for the thread necro, but it's needed.

A flarestack would trivialize vanilla oil processing for sure.

[morsk]

This is just asking for trivialized blue belts. I don't want it.

There are only two ways in vanilla to have extra petroleum, 1) lubricant for blue belts, 2) burning light oil (as solid fuel) for smelting/power without an option to fall back on petroleum gas. No other combination of recipes will do it. Flying Robot Frame used to run you out of lubricant, but not since 0.17.60 (2019-July-30) increased the Heavy Oil in Advanced Oil Processing.

Blues are end-tier belts. It is good that you need to plan how you will get your lubricant for it. It can always be skimmed from builds doing science or modules.

[SoShootMe]

There are only two ways in vanilla to have extra petroleum, 1) lubricant for blue belts, 2) burning light oil (as solid fuel) for smelting/power without an option to fall back on petroleum gas.

There are many ways to end up with extra petroleum gas or similar, but almost all can be solved by design (such as your second example). Designs that solve those problems are what the suggested flare stack would trivialise.

The exceptions are where you can't avoid extra petroleum gas (or light oil). AFAICT, the only items this is the case for are express transport belt and express underground belt, although express splitter, exoskeleton and rocket silo require use of coal liquefaction to avoid extra. However, even without coal liquefaction, none of these seem to be problems in practice.

In other words, there seems no need for a flare stack in practice. If devising designs to avoid problems without a flare stack is considered part of the game, which I think it is, then adding flare stacks is in fact taking something more important away.