Poll: Should belts use energy (and Offshore Pumps etc...)

[Aeternus]

Belts requiring power... no. Just no. They're at the core of Factorio gameplay, and it would seriously detract from the enjoyment of this game if they'd suddenly require power.
Pumps... I suppose you could do a "burner pump" and "electric pump". Wouldn't be too hard to push the coal belt through to them. What would be the point though?

[vedrit]

Belts requiring power... no. Just no. They're at the core of Factorio gameplay, and it would seriously detract from the enjoyment of this game if they'd suddenly require power.
Pumps... I suppose you could do a "burner pump" and "electric pump". Wouldn't be too hard to push the coal belt through to them. What would be the point though?

To me, that offshore pumps, belts, gun turrets and the like don't require electricity makes them kind of ridiculous in a lot of situations.
Have a miner way off in the distance? Just use belts. Biters will mostly ignore them, no fuel usage, can be upgraded to have massive throughput, and relatively cheap.
Want to set up a nuclear power system, but no water near by? That's fine! Just pipe it in from the other end of the map, it'll be fine!
Want to slowly push up on a massive nest of aliens? Just grab a few gun turrets, a bunch of ammo, and away you go!

Though, to be honest, I am a bit hesitant about making offshores require power, since they're required to start generating electricity in the first place.
What could be done is have powered versions. Powered belts that have higher speeds than their unpowered counterparts (or have the higher tiers of belts require power). Unpowered gun turrets only have a limited firing angle. Powered offshore pumps that will pump higher volumes of water.
This way, you're not penalizing current methods of gameplay, per se (except for gun turret creep), but you're giving players another layer of efficiency/speed if they want to take that route.

[vanatteveldt]

What about this: yellow belts don't need power, but higher level belts do?

Pumps: adding a burner pump makes sense, pumps are one of the few entities without any upgrades. And steam engines were initially invented to pump out water

So, initial play can be burner pump, yellow belts, burner inserters to get electricity up, then upgrade to more powerful setups if you want.

[Quizatzhaderac]

My vote/opinions with full nuance:

Anything that creates new bootstrap complexity should be avoid in regular mode of play. (Hard or custom setting are okay).

Reasonable power draw is fine for all entities otherwise.

From a player's perspective, a belt an entity, not a single square segment of the belt. As such the belt should need to be powered, not each segment.

The necessity and mechanics of turret creep is it's own complex situation. IMHO it's not much fun. I would guess long term plans involve streamlining it or eliminating the need. How power works with turrets will relate to that decision.

[driver]

I'm currently playing with https://mods.factorio.com/mod/belt-overflow and I like it, but I'm not a mainbus-player. Of course, it's mostly about circular belt designs, but it adds some more complexity (circuit-network ...). As long as you keep your belts short, an option to stop your electrified belt would avoid some mess

[mrvn]

If belts need energy then I think they should also conduct energy. So if any belt tile of a belt has power then they all have (and supply it to other power poles).

[Hyenna]

As how energy production currently works i dont see a way to get the steam engine work if you need power to get your first water pump working as the steam engine needs water / steam to start work.

[Koub]

Seriously people ? This poll is 2 years and a half old .
Also, if I may add : viewtopic.php?p=285962#p285962 (caution : violent self-advertising).