If we were to make Factorio more realistic...

[deepdriller]

(Yes, this wasn't posted in suggestions. I only want to discuss it.)
We've all seen these suggestions: "Make the offshore pump require power!" "The diesel engine should need water!" "Everything produces junk!" "How about damaged machines jamming up?"
But what if we were to take this all the way?
Make fuel more realistic.
The way fuel works in this game is by providing the energy directly. If Factorio were more realistic, all machines would be more like the boilers: The fuel is used to raise the internal temperature to the required minimum and then keep it there. The "required minimum", in this case, is dependent on the task. Also, different furnaces would have different rates of heat loss.
Water makes everything more efficient
I've read elsewhere that all "burner" machines work like stirling engines where the energy comes from temperature differences in the air. This is extremely lossy, so supplying any burner machine with water would greatly increase their efficiency. But since in-game this would only really be relevant for trains, there's another option: Research called "Water jet cutters", that would make certain recipes take less time provided the machine doing it is supplied with water. (to make this easier, assemblers could be able to pass water from one to another.) Note that this water would NOT be part of the recipe itself, but rather appear in its own slot. There was a similar suggestion in the past, except with lubricant, but I can't find it right now.
Pre-processing ressources to increase yield!
In real-life, you don't just put iron ore in a furnace and expect ingots to plop out. You crush it, you clean it, you press it, and only then do you put it in the oven. In Factorio, making this a requirement would break the game, however it could be implemented that pre-processing ore gives more bang for your buck, as it were. A new building, a processing plant, would do this.

Again, I'm not suggesting this, I just want a discussion. Do you like these ideas as such? Is there a way you know that would increase realism (regardless whether it'd improve the game)?

[Xeorm]

So, thoughts. The first is functionally identical to what happens now, assuming you have no heat loss. If you did, then you'd want to worry about whether the burner was on or not and how quickly it could turn on. Aka, way more effort than is required. Though, realistic and would make burners even more useless. Poor burners.

The second is a neat idea. Had to go look that up. A quick look though, and it doesn't seem like it makes things all that more efficient. It seems to work more as a precision tool. If the assembly machines can already get things working without water jet cutters, then it seems likely there'd be little benefit to changing things up. Effectively it lacks realism. As well the issue with water usage in most recipes for Factorio comes from what a pain fluids are. Water loss from burners or water jet cutters is minimal assuming no leaks, which would feel awful.

Third I headcannon as being done in the miner in the first place. Realism achieved without worrying without any additional effort. Woohoo!

[quinor]

Actually, the third one would be a real nice addition to the game - an excuse to optionally lenghten the production chains in order to get more from the ores

[Syrchalis]

Actually, the third one would be a real nice addition to the game - an excuse to optionally lenghten the production chains in order to get more from the ores

Yeah I would find that interesting as well.

[zytukin]

If factorio was to be 'realistic', then don't forget about adding consumable food and water

[Syrchalis]

If factorio was to be 'realistic', then don't forget about adding consumable food and water

If it was realistic, think about carrying around 200 batteries, 1000 metal plates, a car, ten diesel locomotives and a freaking tank - and that's just 14 inventory slots.

[Furan]

I would start by correcting some obvious flaws "deviations". See my Realism mod.

Trees should have a bigger yield so that the factory could run on wood only for a limited period of time (using drones to chop them down).
Turning charcoal or coal into coke (preferably by a single recipe) for metallurgy and chemistry usage.
I would like to have belts requiring energy, so that railway truly makes sense.

[Daid]

There are a few mods doing the more advanced for higher yield smelting routes. Angels mod is one of them. https://mods.factorio.com/mods/Arch666A ... lsrefining

It's fun, but I don't feel like it belongs in the main game.

[uliks]

First sorry for my english. Only one thing that bothers me so much in this game because it is so irritating, it is damn combinators all over the damn field to make something fun to work, look this, if you can make suit that hold solar panels, battery's, etc... Why the HELL not make circuits that can hold combinators or personal computers where I can store all that maze of stuff in there, do you know how hardware works?? WHY DO I NEED A MACHINE WITH SIZE OF SMALL ROOM TO SEND ME A ONE SIGNAL?? THIS NEVER HAPPENED IN HISTORY OF HUMANITY!!

Just for info : In ww2 they used wireless phone of size of backpack to communicate to multiple signals, toki-voki was first hand cellophane with only one signal but only on limited range from you of hundred meters. And we dont have wireless at all here.
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[deepdriller]

'I certainly agree with that. In my opinion, combinators should be replaced with an entity that can be programmed the same way as the platforms in Glitchspace. Gigantic computation fields make no sense, and are quite honestly a discouragement for me to use them at all.