Electricity for logistic robots and transport belts

[BurnHard]

Hello everyone,

since generators and electricity are available so early in the game (you can build you first steam engines easily without an automated producion of iron, etc), why do conveyor belts not need any kind of power supply? Of course you would not need to connect every tile of the belt with power lines etc. You just would have to connect one tile of the belt with the power system, and every connected belt is powered. With a balanced need for electric energy this would also kind of prevent exessive use of belts instead of long train rails.

The second thing is, that at the moment the logistic robots seem to need no kind of energy to operate, which is quite illogical. I was thinking of a recharge station for the logistic robots, where they need to recharge their internal batteries for eg. one minute to be able to work for another 5 minutes (waiting for a job does not consume energy, just flying and carrying things. They are able to return to the nearest station at low speed when the batteries are (nearly) empty). The recharge station could be 2x2 squares big and have charging bays for 4 robots simultaneously. This would also prevent excessive use of logistic robots instead of using conveyor belts for the basic materials and products. At the moment there is no problem to build thousands of logistic robots thus no more need for intelligent factory design.

[ssilk]

Energy: The same is with the pump or chests....

Some things in Factorio work without energy. Already discussed and the result was, that this is not such a good idea. If wanted I can search for the threads.

(My thought about it is, that there is a need for extreme fast belts, which can have configurable speed and knows also (like a smart chest), how much items lay on it to control output of inserters into a belt. That of course should need energy.)

Bots: It's planned, that they need "energy poles". Currently I assume that this are poles which have a reach and inside this, the bots can operate... but I guess here only.

[BurnHard]

all right, I was just wondering of the inconsequence why some devices need to by powered and some not. This is not logically explaned ingame.

As I understand the main problem is how to get the first water pump started, how to get the first steam engine to work... What do you think of implementing small wind energy generators as the absolute first type of power generators? With this (not reliable and steady) first source of electric energy the first pumps etc can be operated.

[Dakkanor]

pumps work with osmosis, gravity and pressure acting through pip systems(not really)

i find it to be an acceptable break from reality myself.

the idea of windmills is pretty good, but sometimes just our standard start-up is quite complicated without having to add more steps. you could add a coal generator, but it'd be like the burner inserters and miners which become obsolete so fast they're nearly useless.

[BurnHard]

Well with early available wind generators you could possibly remove burner inserters and burner drills completely from the game

[Math3vv]

The idea of windmills is pretty good,

im not 100 % sure about this. since you are on an plannet were (again not 100 % sure) is no air, and or no wind

so windmills.... i don't know if its realy a good idea.

[Psycho0124]

Nahh, there must be air. You wouldn't hear any ambient noises without an atmosphere, plus there is what's presumably water which would boil away in a vaccum.

I agree that there should be some nerf to long-distance belts though. The changes to rail production (cheaper, made in pairs) should help. Maybe make belts a target for biters since they move and would make noise?

[Math3vv]

Maybe make belts a target for biters since they move and would make noise?

they are a target in 0.7.4 and above i beleave.

[ssilk]

The belts aren't target for the natives.
The new balanced tracks push trains a big step forward and are now much more compareable to belts.

[n9103]

Check again, ssilk.
They're not priority targets, but if the enemy isn't trying to beeline for you, your other stuff (within a range I'm unsure of), including belts, are on the menu.

[ssilk]

they destroy everything around pollution-sources. But I'm sure, they destroy adverse stuff first (lasers, research...)

[rk84]

I got railway and power line close to biter spawners. They only attack me when I'm onboard of train.

ps. I enjoy see them getting killed by the train.