Factorio Forums

Suggestion: introduce a way for the player to create water when necessary, without making it possible to dig impenetrable moats.

A 3x3 power-consuming building which eventually drills into the aquifer water layer (which may reside at varying depths, but generally the farther from the coast, the deeper it is).

When drilling is successful, a single-tile water pond is created in the center of 3x3 area, and the building itself is marked for deconstruction.

This would combine neatly with another suggestion to limit offshore pump output depending on lake size - essentially, player can get water anywhere, but cannot get lots of water anywhere without much heavier investment.

There are already several mods to get water anywhere.

As for moats/canals/landfill... I feel that there should be two depths of water (there are already, but I think it's just visual).

Shallow water: can be filled, can be created by digging, medium & larger biters can cross but at slow speed.
Deep water: cannot be created, crossed or filled in.

Oh, and being able to explore by boat is nice too (there is a steamship mod).