Allow a heat source to melt ice
Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2024 8:52 am
There are 2 ways to generate power in factorio: solar and steam-based.
On Aquilo you have plenty of ice but no steam, and the only way to get water from ice to then get steam is to have electricity in a chemical plant. This requires you to build a solar panel, which feels entirely against how Aquilo is meant to work given the 99% reduction.
I think it would be good to have a way to use heat to melt ice. Whether that's a new building that takes heat pipes in, or just the existing heat exchangers being allowed to take ice instead of (or in addition to) water.
A couple ways this could be implemented:
- heat exchangers take one or both of ice and water and always output steam (heat cost is increased if ice is input)
- heat exchangers have two recipes, ice to water or water to steam
This would make starting on Aquilo much easier/faster and more thematic. If also just makes sense for it to be possible.
It may also be useful on space platforms to prevent you getting deadlocked on a nuclear powered platform that runs out of ice temporarily and so runs out of water and therefore power. Restarting this platform is hard because you can't separate the electrical networks to prioritise the ice melting chemical plants and asteroid grabbers. This would allow an emergency fuel-based solution to kick-starting nuclear again.
On Aquilo you have plenty of ice but no steam, and the only way to get water from ice to then get steam is to have electricity in a chemical plant. This requires you to build a solar panel, which feels entirely against how Aquilo is meant to work given the 99% reduction.
I think it would be good to have a way to use heat to melt ice. Whether that's a new building that takes heat pipes in, or just the existing heat exchangers being allowed to take ice instead of (or in addition to) water.
A couple ways this could be implemented:
- heat exchangers take one or both of ice and water and always output steam (heat cost is increased if ice is input)
- heat exchangers have two recipes, ice to water or water to steam
This would make starting on Aquilo much easier/faster and more thematic. If also just makes sense for it to be possible.
It may also be useful on space platforms to prevent you getting deadlocked on a nuclear powered platform that runs out of ice temporarily and so runs out of water and therefore power. Restarting this platform is hard because you can't separate the electrical networks to prioritise the ice melting chemical plants and asteroid grabbers. This would allow an emergency fuel-based solution to kick-starting nuclear again.