Factorio Forums

Ah Ha! Not what you likely thought.

A new item like a power pole that has a huge area, but can only be used to power lights. Power poles only supplying lights looks messy I feel, an entity which could power them only would be a lot more pleasing to the eye - I'm thinking train depot stackers or outlying areas of the base, or similar.

Not entirely sure what you meant. Have you tried this one? https://mods.factorio.com/mods/binbinhf ... dOfTheDark

Mooncat wrote:Not entirely sure what you meant. Have you tried this one? https://mods.factorio.com/mods/binbinhf ... dOfTheDark

I sasw one of the youtubers use that mod in a series, did not know the name of it. Will give it a go later tonight, thanks.

As for my original request, think of the power supply area that a power pole currently grants. There are 4 in the game currently;

Small electric pole - Second smallest coverage area, average cable length.
Medium electric pole - Second largest coverage area, average cable length.
Big electric pole - Smallest coverage area, longest cable length.
Substation - Largest coverage area, second longest cable length.

I'm suggesting another type of power pole, that has a very big coverage area, and very long cable length, BUT - it can only be used to power lights, it cant be used to power assemblers or anything else other than lights. Think of roboport coverage, but only for lighting.

Just to tidy up outlying areas of the base, huge ranks of power poles only used for lighting - looks.. Bad.

Ghoulish wrote:I'm suggesting another type of power pole, that has a very big coverage area, and very long cable length, BUT - it can only be used to power lights, it cant be used to power assemblers or anything else other than lights. Think of roboport coverage, but only for lighting.

I think it is not possible. A power pole can only power all of the machines or none of them. Nothing we can do to select which entities to power.

Edit: oh, or by script... provide energy to all lamps near each power pole. It is doable, but in the cost of FPS/UPS. It will be easy to make the game lag.

Well you could have an entirely new pair of entities, a special "lighting only" pole and a special lamp that only accesses a new grid based on these poles; however, the additional load of a whole new logical layer on the map might be prohibitive.

I found a mod which is exactly what the doctor ordered, though how I didnt see it before I have no idea.

https://mods.factorio.com/mods/Murdersq ... ire-lights

It's basically an accumulator, solar panel and light rolled into one. Great for lighting upthe outer reaches of your base.