Factorio Forums

Literally *every* thing else in your base ceases polluting when idle. Except pumps. They always pollute, even when not doing anything. And I know the game knows they aren't doing anything, because they stop animating when they're idle. Exceptions are bad for teaching and intuition - though sometimes exceptions are the right thing to do. I just don't see why *these* needed the exception. If anything would pollute while idle you'd think a chemical plant or refinery.

There are some reasons:

- In reality a running pump needs always the same energy (more or less), no matter if it does work (pump fluid) or not (and so it pollutes).
- Everything pollutes always. Not only the pumps.
- You can turn pumps off via circuit network.

Except not everything pollutes always. Maybe I have a buggy version, but my pollution goes to literally 0 when my base is idle. Except for the pumps.

So you don't use inserters? No? The idle power produces also pollution.

Sleeping assemblers don't pollute. Sleeping miners don't pollute. I'm pretty sure pumps should be the same way. It's just a very rare thing to see.

Idle inserters do consume some energy which counts as steam power pollution. They do not pollute on their own.

I guess inserters produce so little pollution that the game just says 0?

I mean, if you load this save ( http://silverchat.com/~silver/factorio/3-101.zip ), you'll find 3 actual sources of pollution. One way to the NW in the oil field, a bunch of pollution around the pumps that flickers on and off as it dissipates pretty much as fast as it comes, and mystery pollution in the middle of the main line (presumably in some way related to those being the only 'purely stone/concrete' chunks)

What you don't see is pollution flickering on and off around the inserters, assemblers, or furnaces like you do around the pumps in the refinery.

I checked with F4->always show pollution values. If you examine the map with that on, the chunks not containing pumps (or in the mainline) do not even show up with numbers, despite being loaded with tons of inserters, assemblers, furnaces, roboports, and lights.

If everything were polluting while idle, I'd expect my whole base to flicker with pollution that dissipates quickly. What I'm asking is: why are pumps are so different from the other things? But, just to reiterate from my original post, it's not that I hate exceptions, nor do I "mind" per se, it's just a weird exception with no readily apparent explanation.

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edit: I know, I know: "I found your problem: your base is idle. you're not supposed to notice the pump thing because the rest of your base should be, you know, DOING something"
LOL, this save is after I let it run overnight while I slept