What if Lubricant was needed for the big mining drill?

[Shadowlords]

TL;DR

Adding lubricate as a required input for all mining operations to the expansions big mining drill

What ?

Was wondering if it would be an interesting mechanic to add lubricant as a required fluid for the big mining drill to work. Right now it seems like it's just a straight upgrade from the old mining drill, better in every way, what if it required an extra logistical challenge to get up and running by needing something else other than power to be able to mine resources? a steady flow of lubricate to keep high-efficiency mining going.

With how big the mining area is for the drill snaking pipes between them should be easy enough, and uranium needing 2 fluids should even still be easy to achieve. It would give another use to lubricant as a consumable resource with real-life analog, many quarry machines need a steady flow of lube /grease to keep working. I feel lube is slightly underutilized for what it is, having it needed for big machines to keep running is basically what its real-world use is, not just some ingredient to make the machine. I thought the AAI loaders mod needing it was a bit much but the concept is on target, this might be a good place to implement it if anything was going to.

it would also still give old miners a use in areas you don't have lubricant being produced yet, so if and when you want to start using the better drills you would first need to set up a lubricant-making area, but in the meantime, you would use the regular mining drills to get by, with the goal of getting to the better drills in the future.

Why ?

I think it might add an extra logistics challenge to the better mining, granted without having played the expansion this is all just theory. but wanted to get others' thoughts on it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comme ... ig_mining/

[FuryoftheStars]

I could get behind this. +1

[Murklak]

Alternately flipping drills to keep their connections lined up would be a pain. A blueprint would have to have an even number of drills to be tileable.

[Shadowlords]

Alternately flipping drills to keep their connections lined up would be a pain. A blueprint would have to have an even number of drills to be tileable.

one of the last FFF revealed that they have fixed flipping and mirroring fluid inputs and outputs so I think that it would be fine in that regard

[Murklak]

Alternately flipping drills to keep their connections lined up would be a pain. A blueprint would have to have an even number of drills to be tileable.

one of the last FFF revealed that they have fixed flipping and mirroring fluid inputs and outputs so I think that it would be fine in that regard

I took that into account in my comment.

[Shadowlords]

Alternately flipping drills to keep their connections lined up would be a pain. A blueprint would have to have an even number of drills to be tileable.

one of the last FFF revealed that they have fixed flipping and mirroring fluid inputs and outputs so I think that it would be fine in that regard

I took that into account in my comment.

oh I misunderstood, I see now, that the side inputs line up only when there is an even number

[Stringweasel]

+1 Yeah this sounds fun to me too. I love the idea of having a little lubricant train that needs service all the mining outposts.

[mcmase]

+1

Haven't seen the cost of the new mining drills yet though, so I also trust that the devs have been messing around with balance on all the new unlocks and recipes.

[ChefOfRamen]

I really like this idea. Lubricant (and heavy oil in general) is kind of underused in the current state of balance, and this would be a decent "catch" to the big mining drill.

There's plenty of space on the sprite for extra fluid inputs.

[mrudat]

I'd suggest 'cutting fluid', mostly a mix of lubricant and water; the lubricant sticks to the ore, and the water boils off.

A quick search suggests stone cutting just uses water.

Perhaps as an upgrade, have supplying lubricant/water improve speed/power/pollution but result in dirtier ore?

Actually, you can't do either of those (easily) as the fluid requirement and mining result are part of the ore definition, not the drill.

[Illiander42]

Can the big drill run two fluid inputs?

[mmmPI]

I think it might add an extra logistics challenge to the better mining, granted without having played the expansion this is all just theory. but wanted to get others' thoughts on it.

I like idea but maybe it is "restrictive" as adding complexity, maybe it could improve the drill if you bring additionnal lubricant but it would still work without it. Just theory too, the expansion maybe makes it "hard" enough of a challenge to get the drills in the first place.

There are some mining drills that require "mining fluid" with lubricant and solid fuel as part of the ingredient in the mod Exotic Industries. To me it felt like early uranium mining, where you have to setup logistic for fluid with trains ealier than one would have for uranium but the outcome is easily used for plate in 1 or 2 steps, unlike uranium "mining" which by itself gives very little , one need to setup the centrifuges and power plant or assembly.

The extra logistic challenge was to my taste when playing with them.

[GGray]

I like idea but maybe it is "restrictive" as adding complexity, maybe it could improve the drill if you bring additionnal lubricant but it would still work without it. Just theory too, the expansion maybe makes it "hard" enough of a challenge to get the drills in the first place.

I think that the team could have the new mining drills give a bonus as is and then have an option to add fluids for even higher productivity or speed bonuses. That way it is more of an optimization instead of a requirement.

[Nemoricus]

Can the big drill run two fluid inputs?

"Can mining drills use more than one fluid?" really is the big question here. Also, how would pass through be handled for situations where multiple fluids are needed? Uranium ore requires sulfuric acid, after all, and if you're using big mining drills, do you also need to supply lubricant?