I said 45 science per minute, not 45 per second. That is just 5 blue assemblers for red science.
As for time acceleration, I don't think it is necessary for most of the game, and I don't think it will work well in practice for non-trivial bases. (Are you really able to get 2400 ups on a non-trivial base? I know my computer will struggle with even x2 for any sort of reasonably sized base. I also don't think it would work well in practice in multiplayer games, but lets forget that and just consider single-player).
A large part of Factorio's core gameplay is extending your base/increasing production through most of the game. Once you stop doing that then you basically stop playing the game. That might happen towards the end of a playthrough when you are just waiting for a research to finish/a rocket to be built, or when your base starts running into issues that you can't be bothered trying to fix. But unless you have hit the limit performance-wise (in which case time acceleration won't really help) this should be only for a relatively short period at the end of any playthrough. At that point you aren't really playing the game anymore, but you want to finish some goal before you quit. (At this point timewarp could be useful, except that I'm probably already performance limited. Time-warp won't help significantly if your computer performance is already approaching its limit).
For most of any playthrough there is always something useful you can and should be building/improving whilst research is running. I consider this expanding of your base/production a core part of the game design. Allowing players to timewarp will mean that players with a small base that make a few flasks/minute can skip much of the intended gameplay. (The suggestion of using time acceleration to make moving long distances less tedious is a valid use case, but I'm not sure that is worth the risk to vanilla gameplay).
You really shouldn't run into any 1 hr researches apart from the infinite researches unless you have turned research costs up, or your base is very small/resource starved (or you have a mod that adds something that is very expensive, but I'm talking about vanilla here. Even Korarex enrichment is less than 1 hr if you have 90 science/minute. And if you don't have that much science production, then you probably should consider expanding your science production by that stage of the game).
But anyway it's not up to me. It's up to the devs if they want to add this.
Original rambling post in the spoiler below
I'm not talking about building a huge base, or expanding indefinitely, just using the "downtime" whilst something is researching to build something else you know you need. eg whilst you are researching fluid handling + oil processing you can get steel setup and running and/or expand your base perimeter to include room for your refineries/clear biters way from your oil patch/build your red circuit setup ready for when you have plastic etc. I know that even in a base that is only making 45 science per minute that research finishes before I run out of things to build. Whilst the missile silo is researching, I might be setting up concrete production + solar panels + accumulators (for the satellite, even if I'm not going to use solar power on this map) + low density structures + rocket control units + rocket fuel.
I'm not arguing that the devs shouldn't add time acceleration if they think it should be part of the game. I know that when I last played the Space Expansion mod I left some of the big researches (250,000 science each) running whilst I went to bed. I was already down to 45 ups, and didn't feel like rebuilding the base to get better performance. From memory those 250000 science researches were going to take about 6 hrs. I'm just saying that for normal play without mods I don't see the need. I see the constant need for increased production through the early and middle part of the game to be an essential part of the game design. You are meant to be constantly expanding production. When you stop trying to increase production/improve your factory you essentially stop playing the game, and might as well leave it running whilst you watch videos/go to bed. I admit that in this phase of the game time acceleration would be useful, but I basically only reach this phase when I've already reached the limits of my computers performance. Time acceleration won't help if I'm already getting less than 60 ups.
I'm just saying that for normal play without mods I don't see the use. For a normal base there is always something else I could do with that time. I don't see the [quote]Even if you follow the ratios 100%, of the time as exactly as possible you still have to wait for at least 1-3 hours for research[/quote] happening on a regular basis, unless you have a very small base (less than 45 science per minute), or you are getting into infinite researches, or have tech costs turned up (or are running a mod like SpaceX, in which case you could easily run another mod that lets you control game speed without disabling achievements).
The sole exception is if you have finished building stuff for whatever reason, and don't want to build bigger for whatever reason (eg you are already running into performance problems), but still have some researches you want to complete. (The argument for being able to use it to shorten the time long journeys take is also sort of compelling, except that my computer would probably not be able to cope with even x2 time acceleration. Besides if I'm on foot I already spend too much of my time dodging trees, and if I'm in a train I can use that time to get up and get a drink/snack/etc).
I'm surprised your computer could handle x40 time acceleration with a non-trivial base. I know my computer couldn't cope with that. Are you sure you are getting 2400 updates/second with a non-trivial base ?
I'm not arguing that the devs shouldn't add time acceleration if they think it should be part of the game. I know that when I last played the Space Expansion mod I left some of the big researches (250,000 science each) running whilst I went to bed. I was already down to 45 ups, and didn't feel like rebuilding the base to get better performance. From memory those 250000 science researches were going to take about 6 hrs. I'm just saying that for normal play without mods I don't see the need. I see the constant need for increased production through the early and middle part of the game to be an essential part of the game design. You are meant to be constantly expanding production. When you stop trying to increase production/improve your factory you essentially stop playing the game, and might as well leave it running whilst you watch videos/go to bed. I admit that in this phase of the game time acceleration would be useful, but I basically only reach this phase when I've already reached the limits of my computers performance. Time acceleration won't help if I'm already getting less than 60 ups.
I'm just saying that for normal play without mods I don't see the use. For a normal base there is always something else I could do with that time. I don't see the [quote]Even if you follow the ratios 100%, of the time as exactly as possible you still have to wait for at least 1-3 hours for research[/quote] happening on a regular basis, unless you have a very small base (less than 45 science per minute), or you are getting into infinite researches, or have tech costs turned up (or are running a mod like SpaceX, in which case you could easily run another mod that lets you control game speed without disabling achievements).
The sole exception is if you have finished building stuff for whatever reason, and don't want to build bigger for whatever reason (eg you are already running into performance problems), but still have some researches you want to complete. (The argument for being able to use it to shorten the time long journeys take is also sort of compelling, except that my computer would probably not be able to cope with even x2 time acceleration. Besides if I'm on foot I already spend too much of my time dodging trees, and if I'm in a train I can use that time to get up and get a drink/snack/etc).
I'm surprised your computer could handle x40 time acceleration with a non-trivial base. I know my computer couldn't cope with that. Are you sure you are getting 2400 updates/second with a non-trivial base ?
