Supression of the size shift of electric furnaces

[Saemj]

Between having to widen the smelting array for electric furnaces and electric ones having the same smelting speed as steel furnaces (why bother?) i have never used a single electric furnace in 400 + hours of playing Factorio.

[vanatteveldt]

The two reasons for using electric surfaces are (1) to make the logistics easier (no coal needed, so no use to have a belt/lane of coal, and especially easier to steel or smallish quantities of e.g. bricks) and (2) to use modules. If you already have coal nearby and no need for modules (yet), there is no compelling reason to switch to electric.

[thereaverofdarkness]

The entire reason for switching to electric is that the steel furnaces haven't been graced with module slots. That's not good game design in my book, that's fake difficulty by way of shoehorning gameplay and reducing player options.

I say the stone and electric furnaces are well-balanced. But steel furnaces are OP in the early game. Nerf them to 1.5x stone furnace output and give them 2 module slots.

[Hannu]

The entire reason for switching to electric is that the steel furnaces haven't been graced with module slots. That's not good game design in my book, that's fake difficulty by way of shoehorning gameplay and reducing player options.

There is clearly 3 tiers with increasing performance. An there is excellent option to not use highest tier if player feels them overpowered or boringly simple.

I say the stone and electric furnaces are well-balanced. But steel furnaces are OP in the early game. Nerf them to 1.5x stone furnace output and give them 2 module slots.

Why? In any case player have to build tens of steel furnaces before construction bots. Furnace columns are simple and boring to build, just laborious. Do you really think that game would be more entertaining if players had to build 50 % longer furnace columns? Factorio is based on rapid growth and increases between tiers are in my opinion more moderate than aggressive, at least before fully beaconed and moduled end game production plants. Doubling is in my opinion very good increase. Replacing stone furnaces with steel ones and yellow belts with red give very nice production doubling without tedious rebuilding of smelting. And those who want to use electric furnaces and modules have construction bots when they come actual.

[Ranger_Aurelien]

When I build my starting factories I allocate 3x3 just add a "spit" belt next to the basic inserter to deliver the iron to the main belt. AS they start with yellow belts, the coal+ore line is enough to run the line.

By the time we get electric furnaces, we're at red belts, possibly blue belts and having personal roboports. Then it's a quick alt-D, and delete the steel furnace, my "spit" belt and the arm. Then I can CTRL-C a new furnace+inserter, paste across to replace the furnaces. In addition, stopping the coal and putting iron on both sides of the belt, the electrics work great. An Upgrade planner makes short work of increasing belt to blue... particularly with speed modules the electric furnaces can keep up with demands and fill the belts.

[Seraphendipity]

My take is that steel furnaces are more efficient than electrics, and perhaps designed that way. If you solve the extra logistical problem of feeding fuel to a line of steel furnaces, you are awarded with a more output (modules taken out of the equation). Additionally, if you have a steam powered base, I remember someone saying that steel furnaces are even more efficient in their coal usage. If that is so, I'm all for that -- I like when there are options, both equally viable and with different pros, instead of "this is X but better". Steel furnaces are "stone furnace but better", but I feel that electric should not be that way, instead being "steel furnaces but different". Thusly, I don't mind the electrics being a size bigger -- it eliminates the logistics of fuel in favor of using the electric lines already placed for inserters as well as giving access to moduls and thus has the tradeoff of space.

[mrvn]

I really think this is a non-issue. There are only 2 reasons for electric furnaces:

1) productivity modules, which also means speed modules in beacons to be efficient.

So you need extra space for the beacons leading to a totally different design. No way to update an array of steel furnaces.

2) solar powered smelting instead of coal for pollution reasons

Never really had that problem. Aliens aren't that hard to kill. By the time you have electric furnaces are the furnaces even that much of a pollution factor? Assembler create pollution too. Or is it just the only entity that you can "upgrade" to a less polluting one?

And I agree with ssilk: Build a new smelter with all the solar cells that setup requires somewhere else. Then deconstruct the old one.