Factorio Forums

Solid fuel. You take oil and you turn it into this incredibly unrealistic block of... some black substance instead of burning the oil directly. I propose that, as an alternative to solar, we introduce 3 oil-consuming "turbines", or generators, into the game.

1. The Steam Turbine

Well, we aren't completely getting rid of solid fuel; however, now it can only be made with Light Oil. In addition, there should be a much more powerful steam turbine to generate more power from steam than normal. So this is how you burn Light Oil.

2. The Gas Turbine

This produces a lot of power, slightly more so than the steam turbine, is very fuel efficient, and produces less pollution than steam. The catch? You probably want all that petroleum gas to make plastic or batteries or something.

3. The Wind Turbine

This thing produces no pollution, as it doesn't technically "burn" the fuel. It uses Lubricant. However, it is wildly inconsistent in terms of power, so you will likely need accumulators as well.

What do you guys think?

I think if Factorio was more like Minecraft in the sense of "Oh, I didn't find any gold so I had to make do with something else for half the game" then this would be pretty neat. However as it stands there isn't really much reason for vanilla to contain more early or mid-game power options. We already have cheap (steam) and free (solar), soon will come high-output (nuclear) and what other categories do you need fulfilled?

IMHO this sounds like a good idea for a mod if you want loads of choices for powering your factory, but adds needless complexity to the vanilla game. Developer time is best spent elsewhere.