"Vanilla oil reworked" as an alternative to 0.17.60
Posted: Sat Aug 03, 2019 8:10 pm
Really dislike the outcome of FF304/FF305, and I assume I am not alone to feel that way. Few mods reverting the changes were made almost instantly, but the thing is, the oil processing hasn't been good either before or after. So the reasoning behind the 0.17.60 changes is perfectly right. It's just the Wube's implementation seem to have too many flaws. So I suggest to make a collaborated attempt from the modding community and together develop a mod that can compete with 0.17.60 patch in regards to oil processing changes.
So here are my suggestions for "Vanilla oil reworked":
1) Each crude oil resource patch must have a single Petroleum Gas extraction site among the Crude Oil spots. It is pretty realistic that natural gas is extracted at the same location as crude oil, and on a level of game simplifications it would be pretty much believable to do "Natural gas"="Petroleum gas" and allow to mine it directly just like crude oil.
{ Note that I am not suggesting to change the source of PG completely - it is still one of the products of a refinery, but as you will see later, the refining of crude oil will become available after the extraction of gas. }
2) The first oil-related tech - the "Oil processing" should be renamed to "Petroleum gas extraction". It should not unlock either refinery or the "Basic oil processing" recipe (that recipe is a goner). The "Flamethrower" tech should get locked behind the blue science as well. All this together means that the crude oil will have no use before the blue science, since it is based on PG only.
{ Note that in this particular case the new 0.17.60 version of the blue flask recipe (with red chips and sulfur) is assumed. }
3) The Petroleum gas, Light oil, Heavy oil and Crude oil itself - all should get a fuel value property. The "Petroleum gas extraction" tech should also unlock the "Turbine generator" - an electric generator driven by a turbine accepting any burnable fluid (PG/LO/HO/CO) as an input and producing electricity. For a sake of simplicity, a vanilla's Steam turbine model can be reused. This will help with establishing a first independent self-powered far outpost the player is assumed to make when facing an oil stage, since oil deposit may not have a source of water nearby to get the outpost powered by conventional boilers.
4) The Advanced oil processing tech should be renamed to "Crude oil processing". That is the point where crude oil becomes available for extraction and processing, so refineries get unlocked here. The "Advanced oil processing" recipe should be changed to "Crude oil refining" and it should replace both BOP and AOP as a single recipe dealing with crude oil. The output products should be rebalanced to provide less PG and more LO/HO since PG can be extracted separately now.
5) The pumpjack model should get an alternate version ("Wellhead") in case of using it over the PG deposit (similar to mining drill changing it's appearance over the uranium). Placing it over the crude oil extraction spot should be forbidden before the actual "Crude oil processing" get unlocked.
6) The Pumpjack/Wellhead, Chemical plant, Turbine generator and Refinery should all get a Pump included in their crafting recipes to stimulate the player to setup Engine unit production line before going into oil. The "Fluid wagon" tech should become a mandatory prerequisite for Petroleum gas extraction. Those changes target hinting the player to get acquainted with trains to transport petroleum from the far oil outpost.
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The major advantage this system has over the 0.17.60 solution is that the refineries setup does not have to be rebuilt as when AOP comes to replace BOP. The player can practice fluid-handling by setting up PG-based production line with no need to rebuild it once crude oil processing comes online after the blue science. So when the time comes for crude oil with it's head-spinning balancing puzzle, the player will already have collected a bag of knowledge (fluid handling, chem plants, recipes) that will help him to tame the crude oil and cracking. Plus the PG-based production lines that will be established by this point will not suddenly stop by blockage being somewhat independent from the refineries' products for some time.
Who is in? ^.^
So here are my suggestions for "Vanilla oil reworked":
1) Each crude oil resource patch must have a single Petroleum Gas extraction site among the Crude Oil spots. It is pretty realistic that natural gas is extracted at the same location as crude oil, and on a level of game simplifications it would be pretty much believable to do "Natural gas"="Petroleum gas" and allow to mine it directly just like crude oil.
{ Note that I am not suggesting to change the source of PG completely - it is still one of the products of a refinery, but as you will see later, the refining of crude oil will become available after the extraction of gas. }
2) The first oil-related tech - the "Oil processing" should be renamed to "Petroleum gas extraction". It should not unlock either refinery or the "Basic oil processing" recipe (that recipe is a goner). The "Flamethrower" tech should get locked behind the blue science as well. All this together means that the crude oil will have no use before the blue science, since it is based on PG only.
{ Note that in this particular case the new 0.17.60 version of the blue flask recipe (with red chips and sulfur) is assumed. }
3) The Petroleum gas, Light oil, Heavy oil and Crude oil itself - all should get a fuel value property. The "Petroleum gas extraction" tech should also unlock the "Turbine generator" - an electric generator driven by a turbine accepting any burnable fluid (PG/LO/HO/CO) as an input and producing electricity. For a sake of simplicity, a vanilla's Steam turbine model can be reused. This will help with establishing a first independent self-powered far outpost the player is assumed to make when facing an oil stage, since oil deposit may not have a source of water nearby to get the outpost powered by conventional boilers.
4) The Advanced oil processing tech should be renamed to "Crude oil processing". That is the point where crude oil becomes available for extraction and processing, so refineries get unlocked here. The "Advanced oil processing" recipe should be changed to "Crude oil refining" and it should replace both BOP and AOP as a single recipe dealing with crude oil. The output products should be rebalanced to provide less PG and more LO/HO since PG can be extracted separately now.
5) The pumpjack model should get an alternate version ("Wellhead") in case of using it over the PG deposit (similar to mining drill changing it's appearance over the uranium). Placing it over the crude oil extraction spot should be forbidden before the actual "Crude oil processing" get unlocked.
6) The Pumpjack/Wellhead, Chemical plant, Turbine generator and Refinery should all get a Pump included in their crafting recipes to stimulate the player to setup Engine unit production line before going into oil. The "Fluid wagon" tech should become a mandatory prerequisite for Petroleum gas extraction. Those changes target hinting the player to get acquainted with trains to transport petroleum from the far oil outpost.
---
The major advantage this system has over the 0.17.60 solution is that the refineries setup does not have to be rebuilt as when AOP comes to replace BOP. The player can practice fluid-handling by setting up PG-based production line with no need to rebuild it once crude oil processing comes online after the blue science. So when the time comes for crude oil with it's head-spinning balancing puzzle, the player will already have collected a bag of knowledge (fluid handling, chem plants, recipes) that will help him to tame the crude oil and cracking. Plus the PG-based production lines that will be established by this point will not suddenly stop by blockage being somewhat independent from the refineries' products for some time.
Who is in? ^.^
