Factorio Forums

It would be gangster if using nuclear power generators every time it consumes a fuel cell it may have a chance of a nuclear explosion and you could have a alarm hooked up to it telling you if one is about to happen or the chance of one happening is high. Because at the moment nuclear power is a bit to over powered. And also this nuclear explosion will be a massive explosion with massive pollution.
And also have the atomic bomb have more of a explosion radius at least twice as much.

Wouldn't the chance of one happening always be 1/1,000,000 like IRL the major nuclear disasters didn't have warnings.

Also why? I mean who would benefit from their power exploding, it'd be a pain to fix, you'd power down the factory preventing fixes and disabling defences and to most be considered a random thing that ends their game

Why would the blast be bigger than a nuclear rocket? They have less fissile material I can see chain reactions but it's like 500 fuel rods to a nuclear bomb right?

JohnyDL wrote:Wouldn't the chance of one happening always be 1/1,000,000 like IRL the major nuclear disasters didn't have warnings.

Also why? I mean who would benefit from their power exploding, it'd be a pain to fix, you'd power down the factory preventing fixes and disabling defences and to most be considered a random thing that ends their game

Why would the blast be bigger than a nuclear rocket? They have less fissile material I can see chain reactions but it's like 500 fuel rods to a nuclear bomb right?

It’s just to make the game harder. Like I guess there could be a setting for it for people who want more of a challenge like me rather then the only threat being only aliens. But you are very right about the chances of one actually happing and the warning thing is like if there is not enough water it could over heat or something like that. Also they don’t really explode I guess on a mass scale with a shock wave they just leave lots of radiation. (I am probably wrong about the mass explosions thing) but the point is that there needs to be more threats and explosions

The_Mtn_Dew_Master wrote:but the point is that there needs to be more threats and explosions|

Threads are only interesting if you can defend against them. Adding a random chance of catastrophic failure to nuclear power just makes it completely unusuable and everyone goes back to solar. Adding overheat+heat sensor+forced cooling solution and then it might be viable. But that just makes nuclear even more complicated than it already is and thus is not desirable because nuclear is already only a second-class solution due to high in-game and performance upkeep.

If you just want "more difficult+explosions" go to the mod requests forum and ask for a random-meteor-showers mod ?

The_Mtn_Dew_Master wrote:...but the point is that there needs to be more threats and explosions

If you want explosions...

There's a mod for that.™

No explosions in vanilla. Never.

PacifyerGrey wrote:No explosions in vanilla. Never.

I know. That's why I provided the mod and hoped he'd stop at that .

Maybe a setting or something like that for some disasters to happen

I think it would be make the game have more of a dramatic gameplay because the only bad thing that happens is an alien attack, running out of ore and getting hit by a train. But saying all this about disasters there is most likely a mod of this.

(Some times I sabotage my own factory’s so I have something to worry about )

Lots of people (myself included) really dislike getting hit by random events that you can't defend against, can't avoid, and that don't telegraph themselves. If the devs added nuclear reactor explosion, my response would be solar power, let's not risk a nuclear explosion that cripples my power productions, shuts down my laser turrets and lets the biter overrun the walls.

I think what you really want is a SimCity (original) style Natural disaster button that randomly makes some sort of disaster that you have to deal with (Mod territory I think)

One kind of nuclear disaster I can accept is when a nuclear reactor is destroyed it would cause a explosion similar to an atimic bomb explosion.

Its not going to happen, as has been repeatedly stated. Random failures and explosions will not be a part of the vanilla game, as they provide a trivial nusiance at best and a gamebreaker ending at worst.

I'm sure there are mods for the task if you feel like having this sort of thing happen. I wouldn't want it myself, but my factory would simply keep a stockpile of spare parts and have bots standing by to completely rebuild the exploded reactor facility hopefully before the system battery runs out.

Maybe it’s could be prevented

The_Mtn_Dew_Master wrote:It would be gangster if using nuclear power generators every time it consumes a fuel cell it may have a chance of a nuclear explosion

You know nuclear reactors don't and can't actually go critical and explode*. It takes some very specific and precise engineering to make a nuclear explosion. Reactors melt down into a kind of radioactive lava that spews out radioactive ash - particularly if using flammable moderator (i.e. graphite). But Factorio guy's environment suit and his wolverine-level regeneration would probably handle that just fine. So a Reactor meltdown would be essentially just the reactor becoming inoperable, merely annoying.

* When a reactor does explode it's a steam explosion caused by the reactor core superheating water, the steam eventually bursts the pressure vessel, scattering radioactive material around, not particulary good but nowhere near a nuclear explosion. Factorio reactors seem to use molten salt or molten metal for coolant so would not be able to undergo a steam explosion.

P.S. What I really wanted to say is the game already has nuclear disasters, when you forget your rocket is loaded with nuclear bombs and blast away half your factory (and yourself).

P.S. What I really wanted to say is the game already has nuclear disasters, when you forget your rocket is loaded with nuclear bombs and blast away half your factory (and yourself).

I already do that
It makes the game more interesting. (I find it fun repairing stuff)

But what if (something) could happen when it is destroyed when it is turned on and having it on the aliens top priority of destruction.
I understand that a nuclear explosion would be extremely unlikely but if something serious could happen if it’s destroyed or some thing like that. It would be annoying of a lot of people (But that’s what the aliens are their for... being annoying). But would people be up for putting defensive all around their nuclear reactors if it was on the aliens top priority of destruction. because it is very important for everyone’s factory’s.

Meltdown [0.15]
If nuclear reactors reach 1000 degrees, they start taking damage and spew fire. If an active reactor is removed or destroyed, it will cause a nuclear explosion and create massive pollution.

This is a very good idea and it fits the game perfectly. The biggest problem with end game of Factorio is that it becomes a bit booring, because somethimes it turns into a grinding game to make a bigger factory that does the same thing you already do. At the moment, you can improve your factory by making it more efficient (which I believe is the point of the game), but it's often equally good to just make another shitty factory next to the first one and reach double production that way.. Off-topic? I think not, because no matter how many times developers will nerf the power output of the nuclear reactors - they will never become any less OP unless they become straight out useless because of the sheer amount of time it takes to produce them. Does anyone want that? The solution that is brought up in this thread is much better. Atleast with a bit of polishing, here comes my solution:

Remove the "1000 degrees maximum" Let each degree produce a certain amount of steam pressure (above 100c obviously), then make the machinery break if it's too hot (copper has a melting point of 1084.62C, this seems suitable). The most exciting and fun result of a breakage of the heat exchangers would in my opinion be that the nuclear reactor no longer had anywhere to funnel all the heat, resulting in a rapid heat increase inside the reactor which would make break and leak toxic stuffs everywhere. Aliens wouldn't like this. Is there any reasonable way to explain how this could result in a massive explosion? Because if it were, that would be fun from a game playing perspective, but I also feel quite strongly about everything needing to make as much sense as possible in a game like this..

The result of a solution like the one I described above would be to encourage players to make the power plant balanced. Electronic devices could be used to avoid disasters (or atleast try to), and the reactors could be very strong but at the same time difficult to master. Make it complicated as to balance it out - and dangerous. It's good with the late game stuff to be something else than just another steam engine that does the same thing as the one before but with a lot more energy output, it's just repetitive.

i think possible meltdowns where originally planned, along with cooling towers.
both were scrapped i guess because it would be too complicated for some players.

i for one was looking forward to a melt down.

Nuclear power is op

I like the idea of having a risk associated with nuclear power, just like IRL.
"With great power comes great responsibility", and that would be a literal implementation of this principal.

One way to model it would be to lower the HP of the reactor with random small hits while it generates power.
To mitigate it the player would have to periodically reaper the reactor, possibly with building bots.

In the case of an active reactor's HP depleting an explosion should happen akin to a nuclear bomb.
That would encourage building nuclear power plants in remote locations with heavy defenses against biters.