Now I read that the developers quite liked modded minecraft, so if they've played around with Railcraft, they'll probably remember some of this.
Coke Ovens
So let's start it off with Coke Ovens. Coke ovens (more specifically Beehive coke ovens should in my opinion be available from the beginning, or with minimal research. They can be made with something like 20 stone bricks and 10 iron plates, and take up a 2x2 space.
They function by inserting coal into a single slot, starting the process of turning it into coal coke. Each cycle should take up to 4 coal and process it for 3 minutes, turning it into an equivalent amount of coal coke.
As a side product of this process it could also produce creosote oil, which I'll get to in a bit.
The coal coke will essentially be a better version of coal in and of itself. It will have something similar to double burn time in furnaces and boilers, but its main use will be to fuel Blast Furnaces.
Pictures:
They function by inserting coal into a single slot, starting the process of turning it into coal coke. Each cycle should take up to 4 coal and process it for 3 minutes, turning it into an equivalent amount of coal coke.
As a side product of this process it could also produce creosote oil, which I'll get to in a bit.
The coal coke will essentially be a better version of coal in and of itself. It will have something similar to double burn time in furnaces and boilers, but its main use will be to fuel Blast Furnaces.
Pictures:
Blast Furnaces
Blast furnaces should become available with the Steel Processing research, and should be made out of something like 40 stone bricks and 20 iron. One idea I had for making the blast furnaces could also be using the Creosote Oil mention earlier in an assembler along with stone bricks could turn it into Blast Furnace bricks, which could of course be used to make the Blast furnace.
Either way, the way the blast furnace would function would be by fueling it with Coal Coke, and inserting some number of iron plates into it. It'll then take something akin to 30 seconds to produce a piece of steel. After that, continue using steel as normal.
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Either way, the way the blast furnace would function would be by fueling it with Coal Coke, and inserting some number of iron plates into it. It'll then take something akin to 30 seconds to produce a piece of steel. After that, continue using steel as normal.
Pictures:
Creosote Oil
The creosote oil will be a side product from the production of Coal Coke, as mentioned earlier. It will be piped out of the coke ovens from some side and into storage or be used for crafting.
A few uses that I would imagine would probably be:
·Blast Furnace bricks (as mentioned earlier)
·Large wooden power poles looking something like the picture linked below, being essentially a large power pole but instead having 15 range instead of 30.
·Treated wood, perhaps used for Large wooden power poles.
·Rail ties, I would imagine it being able to be made from treated wood. This could be used for making tracks, as you might imagine. Due to the extra complexity added, I'd also probably say that each craft would reward the player with 5 track pieces instead of 2.
·Burning it for power.
Pictures:
A few uses that I would imagine would probably be:
·Blast Furnace bricks (as mentioned earlier)
·Large wooden power poles looking something like the picture linked below, being essentially a large power pole but instead having 15 range instead of 30.
·Treated wood, perhaps used for Large wooden power poles.
·Rail ties, I would imagine it being able to be made from treated wood. This could be used for making tracks, as you might imagine. Due to the extra complexity added, I'd also probably say that each craft would reward the player with 5 track pieces instead of 2.
·Burning it for power.
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Late game
As you might imagine, most of this stuff will likely become a bottleneck later game. That is why I propose that with a technology named something like "Advanced Steel Processing", you add industrial variants of coke ovens and blast furnaces.
The Industrial Coke Oven in my mind would be a 3 squares vertical and 6 horizontal, have eight slots for burning coal coke, so it can process eight at a time, and work at twice the speed of the normal coke oven.
Industrial Coke Oven:
The Industrial Blast Furnace, would probably be a 4x4 structure, and would look more or less like todays steelmills. It would be fairly expensive to make, but it runs at something like eight times the normal speed of the normal Blast Furnace. Something you could do to balance it could also be that it requires a constant amount of coal coke to keep the temperature up and having to heat it up to a ceratin temperature before being useable. This mechanic could potentially also work with the normal Blast Furnace, but that might be a bit hard on the early game.
It could also output slag as a side product, which could be used to make perhaps something like asphalt.
It also fits the theme of Factorio in my opinion.
Pictures:
The Industrial Coke Oven in my mind would be a 3 squares vertical and 6 horizontal, have eight slots for burning coal coke, so it can process eight at a time, and work at twice the speed of the normal coke oven.
Industrial Coke Oven:
The Industrial Blast Furnace, would probably be a 4x4 structure, and would look more or less like todays steelmills. It would be fairly expensive to make, but it runs at something like eight times the normal speed of the normal Blast Furnace. Something you could do to balance it could also be that it requires a constant amount of coal coke to keep the temperature up and having to heat it up to a ceratin temperature before being useable. This mechanic could potentially also work with the normal Blast Furnace, but that might be a bit hard on the early game.
It could also output slag as a side product, which could be used to make perhaps something like asphalt.
It also fits the theme of Factorio in my opinion.
Pictures:
TL;DR: Make coke ovens to refine coal to coal coke, use creosote side product from coke oven to produce Blast Furnaces, use coal coke to fuel blast furnaces and make steel.
