I have been a little obsessed with the thought of pollution control and sustainability in the game, so I was thinking, how about the conversion to wood instead of coal? One benefit of making this possible would be that all of the machines that accept coal currently seem to accept wood as an alternative already. This, however, is currently not feasible with the relative scarcity of wood (compared to coal and the need for fuel). One way to alleviate this problem would be to implement the tree nursury. Either through giving a "seed" resouce on the destruction of a tree (maybe one per tree to keep it from pilling up), or by "refining" wood specifically into seeds, a sustainable tree population could be maintained. As an added bonus, it would give another reason for having the pump besides just for the steam engine. If you wanted to go even further, you could even make a "fertilizer" item (which would, of course, increase growth rate) that could use science packs, thus creating another resource sink (maybe their entire use, if you've finished the tech tree) for them. Thoughts?
P.S. This would also tie into my pollution-native anger/wave strength-sustainability relationship I am hoping for.
Tree Nursury (and the future of wood economy)
Moderator: ickputzdirwech
Re: Tree Nursury (and the future of wood economy)
Maybe you want to check out my mod, it includes nearly everything you have described.
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=14&t=522
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=14&t=522