Why use concrete?

[AileTheAlien]

I don't understand the point of concrete in this game. Its only purpose seems to be the speed increase. (Plus the aesthetic if you prefer how conrete looks compared to the other types of terrain in the game.) However, the speed boost seems to be not very useful, since it takes a lot of effort to pave over large areas in the game (even using the 10x10 paintbrush everywhere), and cars, trains, and exoskeletons are much easier to build. Concrete also doesn't absorb polution, so you'll be spending more resources on turrets, or other methods of killing aliens.

Anyone care to share their thoughts on concrete?

[Tekky]

I normally don't pave my entire base with concrete, but I do find it useful to make paths of concrete about 4 or 5 tiles wide.

Concrete also provided bonuses when using cars and exoskeletons, so it is not a question of whether cars and exoskeletons are better than using concrete or not. Cars can drive faster on concrete than on normal terrain. And running using exoskeletons is also faster on concrete than normal terrain.

Also, if you don't pave your entire base with concrete, but only pave a few paths, then the decrease in pollution absorbtion is not as bad.

[Frightning]

^ Yep, the movespeed bonuses stack, so the concrete is useful to further increase speed in high traffic areas. The Hazard concrete is a nice way to make rails stand out (I've used it for that in my kilobase).

[Xeorm]

Hazard is quite nice for making terrain stand out more, and the run speed boost from concrete in general is really nice. Don't underestimate a 40% speed boost. Paths are always useful, and personally I enjoy the look of a bases that's made into concrete. It's not too bad to setup either once you've unlocked construction bots and have a surplus of them. Put down concrete and create a large blue print to speed things up and you're set.

[Betep3akata]

I'll just place it here:

[AileTheAlien]

Dune had the buildings take damage if not on concrete; Factorio has no such mechanic.

[Drury]

Same as trains or non-laser turrets.

If efficiency is all you care about you might as well ignore those things. For the rest of us they add flavor to the experience.

[iceman_1212]

Same as trains or non-laser turrets.

If efficiency is all you care about you might as well ignore those things. For the rest of us they add flavor to the experience.

i don't follow this analogy. trains are often the most efficient choice. most folks doing non-laser are also doing steam, which makes gun turrets arguably a more efficient choice. i think a better comparison is with lamps.

imo, the value of the speed bonus is partly related to your armor loadout. if armor has 3 reactors like i see a lot of people use, then concrete prob more useful for speed bonus. if you use batteries and leverage the additional space for more exos, it doesn't make much of a difference.

[stm]

What else do you do with all that stone? You propably can build more landfill than there is Water to cover, and Walls are only usefull around your base. At least Concrete has the benefit of speeding you up inside your base, looks better and gives better contrast for items etc.
Certainly nothing which is necessary, but at least it is available.
Stm

[Hannu]

I use grey and hazard concrete to make my production plants structured. I have walking paths, production cells, bus lines, train platforms etc. It is mostly aesthetic, of course, but I like that my end game high tech factory looks like high tech factory and not some low tech assemblers put on ground.

[malecord]

It allows you to pollute more efficiently.

[Escadin]

I use grey and hazard concrete to make my production plants structured. I have walking paths, production cells, bus lines, train platforms etc. It is mostly aesthetic, of course, but I like that my end game high tech factory looks like high tech factory and not some low tech assemblers put on ground.

This.

The purpose of concrete is to have nice things and maybe even a little functionality on top. I like nice things. Don't you?

[arcturus_88]

The effort to brush large areas in the game with concrete I feel is balanced out due to how you can get tons of concrete really fast (you get ten concrete every time a assembling crafts once).

[Peacoq]

Apart from increasing movement speed, it makes the game nicer. There are several mods, which give all kind of different concrete, enabling you to make your base even nicer.

Time it takes to put concrete is irrelevant. Assuming you have a large enough base covered by robo-ports, you can simply create a large blueprint, then let the robots do the job. (And as a bonus it is pretty funny to watch swarms of robots paving thousands of tiles).

As a side note, can not agree more with Betep3akata.