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Did a quick search on the Steel Furnace but nothing like this popped up...
I'd like to suggest adding 2 module slots to the Steel Furnace, bringing it on-par with the Electrical Furnace. Reason for this is that while the Steel Furnace enjoys the same crafting speed, it becomes less useful once you get access to modules, because you can't improve their production or reduce their energy consumption at all. When you first get access to Electrical furnaces the Steel ones still outperform them - if you burn chemical fuel for electrical power and then use the electrical furnace, you're 50% less efficient then burning fuel directly in the Steel furnaces, since there's a big efficiency loss in the boilers. However, once you throw 2 Efficiency modules into an Electrical furnace (even the tier 1 ones), it immediately surpasses the Steel one in every way.

If you can also improve Steel furnaces like this, you get a choice: Choose the smelter that needs a fuel input instead of electricity (run an extra resource to the smelters) or use the more convenient Electrical ones, that need more space and take a bigger draw on your power grid. Having options is good!

i think it's been suggested already. putting modules in something that runs on coal/wood etc just doesn't feel right.
compared to electric furnaces (without modules) steel furnaces are already upgraded.

Yeah, I'm one of those guys who opposed the idea back when it came up the first time.

I think modules should only go into machines that are electrically powered.

On top of that the Steel Furnaces are 2x2 and the Electric Furnace is 3x3... and I think the abillity to use the Modules exclusively in Electric Furnaces is what makes up for their size penalty. You can pack Steel furnaces a lot denser, so there's a higher item/sec/area ratio already by default, except if you are using Beacons with Electric Furnaces, but they also require a lot more power.

And as you said... Stone/Steel furnaces are energy efficient as well due converting the energy better than the 50% loss of burning the fuel in boilers to create electricity. And when it comes to the Energy Efficieny modules... well their balancing is broken anyways... Some expert players have been discussing it multiple times already that they need a downside, but the general playerbase just doesn't care about it being a balancing issue (like they mostly don't when a game mechanic obviously works in their favor). Hell, not even the devs see it being a problem, and that's the actual problem why they are allowed to remain the way they are.



I think what could be done is that Steel furnaces could be used as an ingredient for a Boiler MK2 recipe together with a boiler item. The boiler Mk2 would obviously have a higher Power Output... That way you could get rid of Stone/Steel Furnaces and Boilers to upgrade them for late game usage (like preheating water for Nuclear Reactors as some people do). A way of getting rid of obsolete items in a way they are useful again is always favorably.



But what would also be cool to see though is if furnaces would get a Heatpipe output like Reactors... which then can be hooked up to Heat Exchangers... so your furnaces could be used as an additional source to create electricity.

Obviously Stone/Steel Furnaces would be more efficient at that than Electric Furnaces because the later require already Electric power to heat up so you can't gain all that power back... only maybe a fraction of it... the waste heat.



Maybe it has been suggested already, don't know... but someone could make a thread about it.