Infinity water

[British_Petroleum]

i like the idea of water tiles having an "amount" which is gradually refilled, and it can turn into a land tile if it reaches zero. This actually makes water a valuable resource, so as your factory gets bigger you'll need to explore and find more water as you do with other resources

[greep]

lol the main character have train in the pocket

You're telling me you don't carry a train in your pocket on the normal?

Is that a train in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

erm, anyways, on topic, This sounds like it just wouldn't be worth it. Early game you guzzle water like crazy in steam engines, so they'd have to guarantee a largish body of water in the start area, late game you're going to run into gigantic oceans that make the whole "water as resource" pointless. Not to mention I'm not sure how easy it would be to implement at all. They'd have to have a concept of gigantic oceans, and since they're just making water with perlin noise, means they'd have to do a lot of large calculations every time you uncover a chunk with water on an edge. Not to mention increasing save size since every water tile would need to know what lake it's a part of. I'm sure the wizards could do it optimally, but why bother for something that doesn't add much >.>

[vedrit]

lol the main character have train in the pocket

You're telling me you don't carry a train in your pocket on the normal?

Is that a train in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

erm, anyways, on topic, This sounds like it just wouldn't be worth it. Early game you guzzle water like crazy in steam engines, so they'd have to guarantee a largish body of water in the start area, late game you're going to run into gigantic oceans that make the whole "water as resource" pointless. Not to mention I'm not sure how easy it would be to implement at all. They'd have to have a concept of gigantic oceans, and since they're just making water with perlin noise, means they'd have to do a lot of large calculations every time you uncover a chunk with water on an edge. Not to mention increasing save size since every water tile would need to know what lake it's a part of. I'm sure the wizards could do it optimally, but why bother for something that doesn't add much >.>

Just to note, late-game nuclear reactor setups drink water like fish.
Many, large fish.

[Patashu]

If vanilla Factorio added the ability to drain bodies of water, it would also make sense to add an ability to have a closed water circuit - condense steam back into water, etc. For the cost of a more complex setup, you can require a smaller (or even 0?) input of new water.

[Deadly-Bagel]

2x2 water tile can provide a big base

Provide a big base with what? If you mean concrete and oil, yes that's true. If you mean nuclear power, you're very, very wrong.

[HurkWurk]

there are mods that add water sources the same as oil, so that you have to pump it out and it gradually goes down on how much is available until you get 10% or so. simply load a game with that mod and set overworld water to either very small patches or simply off.

[Jap2.0]

Additionally, turning water into land would have a whole heap of problems in breaking automation, and this is a game about automation.