TL;DR
Parts of the electric network should be able to enter an "overload" condition that eventually damages it or shuts it down if not taken care of for too long.Idea
The power grid should have some sort of limits, similar to real power grids. At the moment there is none and you can literally have your entire power generation in one location and transmit it over a single copper wire to the rest of your factory. I suggest that there will be some limit as to how much current a single wire and power pole can handle before bad things start to happen. The player has to plan his network more carefully, use multiple parallel lines or put multiple wires on a single pole. Each pole can carry up to 3 wires at the moment but this is limited to one for each color, instead the player should be able to use the free slots for more copper wires.Implementation
The power grid has to be implemented in a way so that power is actually routed through it (or is it already?).Each power pole has a "power factor". Multiplied with the number of parallel wires spun over it, has a maximum amount of current it can transport.
If the rated current is exceeded, the wire starts to glow and eventually disconnects. How fast this happens depends on how much you go over the rated capacity.
The player has multiple ways to prevent this issue:
- Putting multiple copper wires on a power pole. This takes the space that circuit wires could use otherwise
- Using larger and more expensive poles
- Multiple poles in parallel
- Distributing power generation and consumption over a larger area
- Map
- Fuses
At the moment the map shows the power grid in blue but it would be nice if it could show the load on each connection with color (Blue,Green,Yellow,Red). Parts of the grid without power are shown in black.
Fuses
Power Switches either get a slot to accept a fuse or a new type of switch with a slot.
There are two types of fuses, one is obtainable very early and is simply a case with a wire in it. If it blows the player has to take it out of the switch and rewire it. From a recipe view, the fuse consists of a wire and a case; if blown, only the case remains and a new wire has to be crafted.
The second type of fuse is the breaker, which can just be turned back on once it trips (maybe automatically?). It's more expensive as it needs plastic, a wire and a circuit.
The breaker can be reset manually by taking it out of the switch and inserting it again. As an alternative to that, the Switch GUI could have a "reset" button.
Simpler wiring
I can imagine that players would just always fully wire each power pole. To make it easier, power poles are always wired fully by default but putting circuit network wires up will take the place of a normal copper wire.
Circuit Network
Fused switches should emit two signals, one is the Power throughput in Amps (absolute), and one is the Throughput in % of the Fuse rating (relative). This allows people to wire a speaker alert system. Players should also be able to see the throughput of poles too, apart from how much the wire has become a lamp already.
Splitting Inputs
For simplicity reasons, the output of generators is split evenly across all poles that are in range.
As an alternative, generators are wired to the grid and no longer use the pole power area.
Shift+Click
Shift clicking on poles still removes all wires. If the player just wants to remove a single wire he can either replace it with a circuit wire or craft wire clippers. They are used in the same way wires are but are reusable.
Reason
There is virtually no limit as to how much power you can transmit over a single wire. Factorio is all about balancing and optimizing to get the most throughput out of your system. The electrical grid is currently left out. The only thing that you ever have to do is add more power input to it. I would like to see this changing.Expansions
Below are expansions on this Idea, some evil, some not.Pole combustion
Wood burns. If a wooden pole is at one end of a burned wire it will burn down too.
Damage
Downed power lines could damage nearby stuff (poles, factory elements, biters, players) as long as they are energized.
Generator Overload
If generators are overloaded for too long they eventually overheat and shut down.
Generators output a circuit signal that shows the operating percentage.
Ground Fault
To give players the incentive to use fuses and switches at key interconnection points throughout the factory, a downed power line causes a ground fault, which essentially uses up all generated power (power pole becomes consumer with gigantic input rating). If the network is not fused properly, this naturally causes a cascading failure of wires. A ground fault is either stopped by replacing the pole the wire hangs from or by putting up a new wire over the disconnected part, which removes the disconnected wire.
Transformers
If a large pole connects to a smaller pole, the smaller one should get a pole mounted transformer.
Either as a pure graphical gimmick or as a source for a violent explosion since they are usually filled with oil.
Science
Things that need to be researched:
- Fuses, Breakers and Fused Switch
- Putting multiple wires on poles
- Personal Ammeter
- Map Ammeter
- High capacity poles
Especially when running multiple nuclear reactors at one location this system would force you to place an inhuman amount of poles next to all the turbines.
A solution would be the high capacity pole that can handle these gigantic input loads.
Very expensive and they have no area of power they radiate off, but span the same distance as big poles.
Optional
This entire idea is optional and can be set as a map option by the player.
