Factorio Forums

Why does concrete have so many prerequisites? It's an ancient technology that goes back to Rome at the very least, yet you need Steel Processing, Oil Processing, Automation, Electronics, Advanced Material Processing, Plastics, Advanced Electronics and Advanced Material Processing 2 to research it. Oddly enough to make it all you need are Stone Bricks as aggregate, Iron Ore as a pozzelan and Water. I could see if some actual product of any of those technologies were being used, such as Lubricant to represent the hydraulic fluid used in some modern forms of concrete, Plastic as a superplasticizer and for rheology, or something else but I just don't see where the prerequisites really fit as it stands.

Or is this just one of those artifical constraints to prevent its use before a certain point is reached in the game progress?

Kovarex (lead developer) thinks the same way:

FFF #160 wrote:Finding 3 - the most needed changes

• Concrete shouldn't be blue science (green only)

GMTA of course (hehe)

Yon don't need blue science to make Concrete, or Oil processing research for that matter. You can research it without those, and making it only takes an assem2, some pipes from an offshore pump to said assem for water, and some iron ore and stone bricks.

Oh really?



I see Oil Processing, perhaps your eyes work differently.

This is in a game in-progress right now, on version 0.14.9. Yes, I need to update to 0.14.15, but it's not all that old. Perhaps you have a newer version, though from the FF post it seems a change to the prerequisites for researching concrete is not expected until 0.15, or you are using a mod that changes the prerequisites for concrete?

GlassDeviant wrote:Oh really?



I see Oil Processing, perhaps your eyes work differently.

This is in a game in-progress right now, on version 0.14.9. Yes, I need to update to 0.14.15, but it's not all that old. Perhaps you have a newer version, though from the FF post it seems a change to the prerequisites for researching concrete is not expected until 0.15, or you are using a mod that changes the prerequisites for concrete?

I was remembering the 0.12 days where Electric Furnace research only required Steel Furnace research. I see I was mistaken on the Oil Processing research. It does not, however, actually require you to make any oil processing buildings to research Concrete or produce it (and in some of my saves I've been making Concrete before I even had any oil coming in).

Exactly, so the point is why do you need to research oil for it in the first place? =P