Coal in the (current) late game.

[roman566]

The problem with coal is that player will either need tons of it if relying on Steam Engines, or very little of it if player went solar and uses coal only in plastic production.

That is why I am proposing an option to use coal to create petroleum products. It is a technology available in RL so why not add it to Factorio (yes, I know I can mod it, but it would be a nice addition to the vanilla game)? A new research project that would allow chemical plants to create oil products from coal + hydrogen in form of water and some catalyst that we could just handwave as space magic and only use water + coal.

I think the advantages are pretty obvious. Coal has little use in the late game, while oil got a new one in form of Solid Fuel -> Rocket Fuel. I suspect we will be sending rockets by the dozens so oil will quickly become scarce, even with oil fields with dozens spots. That's obviously not counting the games which do not have huge oil fields every couple hundred meters. Late game in such situations might be mostly a waiting game to get enough oil to send that rocket up.

[Ranakastrasz]

There are a few mods that let you use coal to get oil-byproducts. Coal Liquifaction, and berganis process (or something)

[MOD 0.12.x] Bergius Process --daniel34

[nobodx]

I think OPs point was to get something like that as part of the base-game

[Ranakastrasz]

I am aware of that. While that would be nice in the base game as well, It is possible to get such functionality immediately via using one of several mods.

[Nasabot]

I agree with the idea, however, I see the problem in the solar panels, which provide unlimited energy.

Allowing to change coal into patroleum is a good idea, but personally Id like to see a change like this:

-build limit for solar panels
-research allows player to increase build limit and output (reserch might even be infinite, however, the cost steadly increases)
-introduce research for steam energy
-maybe introduce bigger powerplants which have to be fueled with flameable materials

This would make coal very useful because then "coal = energy" and also oil will become more interesting, because oil is infinite energy, but expansive and "costly".

My proposal also has some downsides of course, but I think its a discussworthy idea. A game which is driven by the creativity of the player, should not have lame and simplified optimal solutions like solar panels, electric furnances and laser turrets. At least not with permanent and non compensateable downsides.

PS.: My current factory is in lategame and even though I genoursly consumed my local coal field and I play with fewer resources, there still is more than half of it available..
The game would be enriched, if there was a meaningful way to use coal in big quantities.

[roman566]

I think no one will go for build limit for solar panels. There is no way to tell 'this is enough'. I have several thousand of them and it's not enough. Someone else could win the game with less than 1k solar panels. Limiting the amount of certain buildings is simply against the sandbox idea of the game.

Still, we could get better steam engines, better boilers and most importantly - something to use that power on. Beacons and modules, which are the biggest power drain, are completely optional. With some power heavy buildings and steam engines providing much more power, players might actually switch from solar back to steam to get the power required for the new stuff.

[Ranakastrasz]

I have myself pretty much banned myself from using solar panels at this point. It makes the game a bit more fun. Spent some time figuring out a good way to set it up so that I could cover it with roboports and use substations to grab all the power. Was somewhat challenging to do so, and probably isn't optimal.

[dakenho]

Coal/oil is not the only product that has this problem, trees also have little use in the late game, its easier to make power lines with steel and using wood as a fuel is pointless out side of the first few minutes of the game. I find my self using a flame thrower to clear trees instead of chopping them in the late game.

as for coal maybe it can added into the production line later on
Activated carbon - used in filters for water and air purification (need for space ships/bases/facilities)
Carbon fibre - an extremely strong but light weight reinforcement material used in construction (rocket hall? space suits?)
Silicon metal - used to produce silicones and silanes, which are in turn used to make lubricants (required to made the lubricant material fluid?)