Suggestion : Substation upgrade

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leadraven
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Suggestion : Substation upgrade

Post by leadraven »

It seems to me that power distribution system lacks deapth compared to other aspects of the game. Electric poles is something that I should do but not something I shoud think about. And in this context substations are a huge waste of potential.
As I've seen and experienced, substations are not common things to use. Every time I try to use it, I find it easier and more convinient to replace it with usually 4, maximum 8 medium poles. Price is negligible. The only justified cases are solar and accumulator fields, maybe some other aesthetic setups.

And here are my suggestions for the moment, minors first:
- Any machine connected to at least 1 substation requires 10% less power (upgradable up to 30%, or repeatable), does not stack. This bonus stacks with modules and also can't break 20% threashold.
- Increasing substation's coverage area might be repeatable tech.

More complex suggestion:
To limit the power that machines could get through each type of poles. This limit does not stack (so you can't just place multiple poles). Machines that could not get enough power through nearby poles are operating slowly as if there was a power shortage. And it should be marked with a specific alert.
For example:
Small pole - 100KW. Enough for basic inserters, assembler, drills, labs, pumpjacks (shouldn't they consume more?).
Medium pole - 300KW. Enough for all inserters, assemblers, furnaces, plants, radar.
Big pole - 500KW. Enough for refinery, beacon, centrifuge.
Substation - 500KW + 500KW for each substation in its range. Could supply laser turrets, roboports, rocket silo and machines heavily boosted with modules.
Numbers and boost mechanic are completely draft, such system will require to rebalance power consumptions. Maybe surge devices (laser turret, roboport) will require some other device to operate. But you get the idea.
Increasing substation power limit could be repeatable tech.

Pi-C
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Re: Suggestion : Substation upgrade

Post by Pi-C »

leadraven wrote:
Sun Jan 20, 2019 11:18 pm
Big pole - 500KW. Enough for refinery, beacon, centrifuge.
The problem is, big poles have the smallest coverage area -- their strength is that they span a wide range. People seem to place lots of beacons close together, so they'd have to place forests of big poles to power all beacons. That doesn't seem to make much sense …
A good mod deserves a good changelog. Here's a tutorial (WIP) about Factorio's way too strict changelog syntax!

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leadraven
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Re: Suggestion : Substation upgrade

Post by leadraven »

Pi-C wrote:
Sun Jan 20, 2019 11:39 pm
leadraven wrote:
Sun Jan 20, 2019 11:18 pm
Big pole - 500KW. Enough for refinery, beacon, centrifuge.
The problem is, big poles have the smallest coverage area -- their strength is that they span a wide range. People seem to place lots of beacons close together, so they'd have to place forests of big poles to power all beacons. That doesn't seem to make much sense …
That's the point. At first player will have to place large pole next to each power-hungry building, later use substations. It's like which belt will you use : yellow, red or blue? Blue is better in all ways, but also is really expensive until endgame. In these terms I think poles should cost much more steel (like 3 times more), and substation also should be significantly expensive.

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