It's the same with research speed research. After a couple of levels, it won't pay off. unless of course you're using lots of mods that add lots of research. then maybe 3 or 4 levels. Lab research speed also decreases the number of labs / beacons / modules required for a given speed of research whe...

My idea to overcome this is have the regular boilers only be able to heat up the water to 99.99 ºC. Not 100. 99.99. This seems trivial because it's intented to be. Hopefully on your first few power plants you'll get to a point where you realise your steam engines are less effective at 80 C than at ...

In the latest FFF Kovarex mentioned, that the circulating water mechanism (which includes of course cooling etc) will not be implemented now , cause the nuclear power itself was complex enough. Indeed! The main reason is that the jump the player needs to do when he wants to switch to the nuclear po...

Linosaurus wrote:On another topic. Let's make some ideas to make closed water cycle an option that fits nicely in but can still be completely ignored.

Here's mine.
...

Referenced your comment here. Good idea!

I love the idea. One question, though - have you considered the numerical values for the power output? That depends on the actual dimensions of the entity, its cost to build, and its consumption rate. Bare minimum would be chemical plant size, but probably larger. At that scale, probably 10-15 MW p...

TL;DR: Instead of a Mk. 2 steam engine (or equivalent "turbine" that simply consumes steam), consider a single combined power generating entity with a base-load turbine and cooling tower unlocked relatively early, with red+green science . It would provide built-in support for steam looping...

And I hope that the heat can transfer between reactors... but even if not there would still be some space to get the heat pipes out from the middle reactor of the 3rd example... if there are underground heatpipes for them as well. Well, actually, there's another argument against meltdowns if heat t...

I also find it sad that they didn't consider my suggestion of making the reactor 6x6 which would allow for much better fractal-like patterns... Each reactor core needs direct fueling/emptying so it can't be completely enclosed like your second example shows. Partial overlap (like beacon coverage ti...

Looking back at the reactor setups, I have a strange feeling that my focus on water efficiency and "liberating steam power" may have been somewhat overblown. The four-reactor example is feeding 12 3x2-tile boilers per offshore pump. https://eu1.factorio.com/assets/img/blog/fff-173-reactor-...

However, I think you're crazy not to do cooling towers -- it's a concave cylinder with a few decorations, how hard can it be compared to the other stuff you guys do all the time? Well, I'm a bit of a 3d ignoramus, so I take my own opinion with a grain of salt :) But it strikes me as a pretty easy w...

Has any research been done to look into making boilers a little better on lag. I know some people use the Solar power system due to the amount of lag steam creates. The change in boilers to support heat pipes and steam conversion included making them larger. More powerful boilers in lower numbers s...

Even with such a simple design, there's a lot of potential for complexity. The input temperature of the cold water supply could impact the rate at which steam would be converted back into water, encouraging designs that aren't long chains but rather make use of the contrast in temperatures to maximi...

Something was still bothering me about the potential confusion that steam turbines would cause. Suddenly, unlike with steam engines, the input was changed when it became output. It was both inflexible and counter-intuitive. How can we make this even simpler and more elegant? Combine steam turbines a...

This discussion inspired some thoughts, to put it mildly. For starters, let's take a look at a 100 steam engine setup in 0.14: http://i.imgur.com/DaDfTpO.jpg It's big, uses up to 600 water per second, and connecting the water input is extremely tedious. Any steam power setup is tied to a coastline, ...

no no no no no NO! Don't you really see how this entire 'heat transfer' idea is bad in this? I don't really know how to put it, so it will be kinda random reasoning but I hope you gonna scrap entire 'heat transfer' idea as it is and just make a searate nuclear boiler that explodes without cooling i...

My question is, what will nuclear power provide me that makes it superior to solar power? Why would I choose to use nuclear power instead of an endless sea of solar panels and accumulators? The reduced footprint makes very little difference in a world without biters. With them enabled, however, nuc...

The Eriksonn wrote:Edit: can you put electric pumps on heat pipes?

Heat pipes will be more like electrical conductors than fluid flows, with similar simplification of the simulation for gameplay and performance reasons.

Some parts of the planned stuff like cooling towers and closed water cycle were dropped. I'm kinda disappointed to see the closed water loop being dropped, was very much looking forward to using that with the old boiler/steam engine setup. Those I still find a pain in the ass to setup since the wat...

The Phoenixian wrote:Good to see that nuclear power is progressing, but I'll admit it's sad to see the close water cycle go.

I hope it's eventually able to make it in in some form.

Agreed. We need to find them another artist...

Slimey wrote:Which part in this chain produce the power?
Reactors? New type of steam engines?

The electricity would come from steam turbines. Reactors and heat pipes simply replace burning inserted fuel as a source of heat for the boilers.