Factorio Forums

TL;DR

Uranium ore processing and red rocks should not have a random component, instead they should have a fixed yield.

What ?

Both uranium centrifuges (ore processing) and one type of red rocks have a random element to them. The centrifuge sometimes spits out U235, and the rocks give 25-50 stone+coal.

Given that natural uranium has a very specific ratio of U235 and U238, it would make sense for them to also give those products at a very specific rate based on that ratio. Ideally this would be two separated progress bars showing each separate result, but this could also be achieved with the use of an intermediate product (a "nugget" of U235) that can then be crafted into an ordinary piece of U235. This would not make enrichment invalid, since the ratio is incredibly far from what you want when running a reactor and weapon-based consumption fluctuates.

For red rocks, the addition of min/max yield feels tacked on more than anything. I can't think of a good reason that they don't just drop 30 of each, other than to be somewhat interesting whenever you happen to find them.

Why ?

In a game about building a perfect factory, where everything is designed to be in perfect harmony producing the ideal amount, it's extremely strange to have a wrench in the works just for the sake of it. Both existing random elements of controllable gameplay have viable alternatives that would not depend on RNG.

In real life uranium shows up randomly at a predictable distribution, this is to all intents and purposes what the game does.

As for collecting resources why should resources from rocks be any more or less predictable than resources mined, their positions are random or are you suggesting you want the map fixed to generate ores and biomes in the same place every time?

I think what factorio is about is overcoming the challenges and limitations inherent in the game one of these is the tiny amount of unpredictability of uranium and they have kovarex to help you do that, it's a slog to get there but nothing good comes easy

I don't mind some randomness in natural entity mining. It's like that in real life: the amount of usable resource in a vein at first exploration is difficult to predict, e.g. how much gold you pan doesn't usually match the claim's yield. It's the most tedious way to gamble and lose.

That said, I thoroughly hate the way uranium processing has been done in Factorio. On Earth, the ratio of uranium isotopes is remarkably consistent, with an average of 0.714% (IIRC) and the only sites where it doesn't go to some 0.7xx% are near Gabon on the gold coast of Africa where a lot of the U-235 has been burned off by natural water-moderated criticalities. The RNG part isn't what I hate though: in real life, the difficulty of utilizing uranium is unmixing the two chemically identical isotopes, the process called enrichment. And it is done to degrees. Some reactors can burn straight 0.7% natural uranium. Most need 2.5% or 3%. Some rare little reactors used in subs and satellites use 20%. Nuclear explosives like 98% or better. There's also very important distinctions between uranium and plutonium that make them far from interchangeable. It isn't just that it's unrealistic, in fact, that's secondary. The reason I hate it is because it is out of character with the previously established game, i.e. it's un-Factorio-like.

featherwinglove wrote:I don't mind some randomness in natural entity mining. It's like that in real life: the amount of usable resource in a vein at first exploration is difficult to predict, e.g. how much gold you pan doesn't usually match the claim's yield.

But this doesn't really fit with trees always giving 4 raw wood, and regular rocks giving 20 stone. It feels weird that some natural entities are always the same, while only one sinlge (very rare) entity is random in its yield.

Due to the way the game works, the only way to guarantee 1:99 in every 100, would be for the recipe to take 100 ore, and run the entire recipe to give 1:99 in the results.

The way the game works at the moment, there is no way to say that every 10th cycle should give the other item, it's just pure chance every recipe cycle.

Just process enough of it and let the law of large numbers take care of the rest...