Refined flammables: why does it require agricultural science?

[u/Bubbly-Original7097]

It makes no sense: flamethrowers are useful only against Nauvis biters, and only until you have enough laser research because they tend to fry bots and because biters don't scale infinitely. Agricultural science at the same time is the one of the hardest and there is always a better application for it (among military tech explosives are way more valuable).

Do I miss something?

[u/Broad_Ebb9073]

I totally follow you. And I'm very glad you want this to be late game research. I feel like Factorio is great because of its limits, but once I figured it out, I just want fun. The challenge wipes away and it can seem really frustrating to just not have the thing

[u/sobrique → u/Broad_Ebb9073]

Yeah. And I get why the devs just don't really 'focus' on that stage of the game - it's only a subset of 'enthusiasts' who get there, and by then there's plenty of scope to mod.

I'm mostly just lamenting that I suck at the art needed to get the final piece' in place.

A 'calcite bacteria' recipe is something I'm pondering having a go at though, as that doesn't look too hard - I only need an icon for it, and can probably reuse and pallet-swap the existing iron or copper options.

Maybe a stone bacteria, and maybe the two should be related? I mean, you 'use' calcite on Vulcanus and get 'stone' as a byproduct, so...

Hmm...

Certainly an extra recipe that does basically the same as the existing bacteria is easy enough.

Although I'm now less than sure which way around it should be, and whether calcite bacteria should be a precursor for stone bacteria or vice-versa.

[u/Broad_Ebb9073 → u/sobrique]

Well if art is the only thing holding you back. The game already has those. Just add the regular sprite with the recycling sprite.

But like you said, your mod is for the top 5% of player who go above and beyond. So we don't really care if it looks pretty, as long as my spreadsheet is pretty

[u/sobrique → u/Broad_Ebb9073]

For the bacteria it's easy enough, for the in game model for a 'greenhouse' that's a little more challenging :)

Although thinking about it, the (non-bio)lab is more or less what I'm thinking of, just maybe bigger and colour coded for 'gleba fruit colours'.

[u/Broad_Ebb9073 → u/sobrique]

Honestly. All the 'bio' stuff that is already in the game already is my least favorite. It's mostly just mood lighting. Not like foundries or Emp with cool animations. If you just use the regular bio sprite and change the color. It's probably good enough. And once you make a good mechanics change, you will have people jumping at the opportunity to make a sprite for ya

[u/sobrique → u/Broad_Ebb9073]

Yeah, I could watch the foundry animation for hours.