Factorio Forums

TL;DR

The recipe for "portable fusion reactor" should also require steel, instead of only processing units (blue circuits).

What ?

Currently, the recipe for "portable fusion reactor" only requires processing units (blue circuits) and nothing else. I am proposing that it should also require steel.

Why ?

The nuclear reactor building requires steel, concrete, advanced (red) circuits and copper. It does not make sense that the "portable fusion reactor", which is carried by the player in his power armor, only requires processing units (blue circuits) and nothing else. Therefore, I believe that it should also cost steel (concrete should not be used in portable devices).

Related suggestions:

The following suggestions threads are related to the subject of portable reactors:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=36204 Charge power armor from electric grid
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=53603 Change Portable Fusion Reactor to RTG
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=44430 Predecessor Fusion Reactors

Are you telling us that you've never built a high pressure nuclear environment entirely out of motherboards before?

The portable fusion module predates uranium as a resource. I think it might be nice to incorporate the new nuclear recipes in some way.

The fusion reactor should be replaced entirely by an U-235 RTG.

Optera wrote:The fusion reactor should be replaced entirely by an U-235 RTG.

By RITEG we must to reduce power output based on half life of isotope. I'm not sure that we can change by inventory power output by the way.

Actually it should contain plastic since it's a refferance to the back to the future movies. The Mr. Fusion portable fusion reactor powers the time machine.
In real life it's a coffee grinder. The small graphic also looks like the modell in the movie.

I don't think complicating the crafting receipe grants you any benefits gameplay wise.
It is challenging enough to create your first 250 blue circuits.
Adding e.g. 5 pieces of steel won't be a gamechanger.

Plus you may craft 4 pfr's in total.
Could change if you can use them stationary.

I really like the idea of pocket fusion being changed to a RTG. The main reason is that fusion power isn't very well implemented in game. We can build a small scale fusion reactor but not a large scale reactor? That certainly doesn't make a lick of sense. The second major reason is FACTORIO HAS NUCLEAR POWER! Miniature fission power is a real thing we can do today(it's called a Radioisotope thermoelectric generator), and the idea fits very well into the idea of a tiny, long lasting power supply. There is absolutely nothing wrong with our engineer carrying a few KG of nuclear material on his back to keep the green glow in his night vision goggles.

The crafting recipe also leaves a little TOO much to the imagination. I don't know what science fairs you guys have attended but I have never seen a fusion reactor built entirely out of CPUs. The blue chip recipe is of course very expensive (for balance reasons) but at the same time the recipe is basically a large grind. This kind of "deep cost" forces the player to do the same thing many times over and I don't think is appropriate for end tech.

Let's use the new nuclear recipes instead. Change the mini reactor to use something like heat pipes, concrete, a chunk of U235, and Module3's. Maybe add a full nuclear reactor if you're feeling crazy. The real crafting effort isn't about using "a lot of stuff" so much as it comes from demanding a wide reach of tech from nearly every production line. This forces the player through most of the game's content and turns the mini reactor into a satisfying reward for accomplishing most of the goals in the game.