#Please balance plastic and fix the distillation tower bug

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

scenic junco
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Plastic is the most utilized material in the game but acquisition is slowed by the following issues.

  1. Distillation towers will not produce plastic if player is more than a dozen meters from the distillation tower. (diesel and petrol keep going, just plastic stops)
  2. Plastic production rate is too slow to be useful.

Why do you say the production rate is too slow?
Great question! The following numbers are as exact as I can get them from experimenting. You process 20,000 liters of oil producing 36,000 liters of diesel and 3,600 liters of petrol. That requires 20 storage tanks (18 diesel, 2 petrol) for which you will need 120 plastic to build them. The 20,000 liters of oil you just processed produced 100 plastic, meaning you have a net loss of 20 plastic.

Oil is infinite. I'll just let the diesel and petrol drop on the ground.
Cool. Enjoy standing around at the oil platform for hours to get your plastic. If you think shipping it with you is the solution, you need a whole tank (2000 liters) of oil for enough plastic to build a single fortihold.

My suggestions:

  1. Fix the distillation tower so plastic is produced at all times when the tower is active.
  2. Increase plastic production relative to processed oil by a factor of 5. (ie, keep the drop rate but drop a brick of 5 instead of singles).
low edge
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Huh. I've actually been annoyed that they produce plastic (creating a demand for me to clean up after them) more than I've wished they'd make more. Plastic's not something I typically run short on.

I think -- though this seems like a distinct problem -- every resource has a similar problem, where it stops when you leave the site, and needing to continue while you're absent is definitely something that every production line needs to address eventually.

There are a lot of clever solutions that just don't work, and you don't know they don't work until you've already tried to rely on them and have to figure out why it's not working.

restive spoke
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Seriously you have plastic issues? You need to sharpen the blade on your dismantler….

scenic junco
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@low edge All resources unload when you move far enough away, but that is 500-600 meters. As I indicated in my post, plastic stops when the player is outside a minuscule radius from the distillation tower. Diesel and petrol are still being produced so plastic should be as well.

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@restive spoke Your reading comprehension needs some improvement. The issue is not gross quantity of plastic but the rate of acquisition relative to other materials and frequency of use for crafting.

low edge
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That's what it meant when I said it was a problem distinct from what I was describing.

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But I feel like it's fair for some sources to be only supplementary, in the way that biomass alone can't really fully supply diesel if you want to keep it on all the time.

restive spoke
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I read just fine hoss

scenic junco
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@low edge On that point I don't feel that the mechanic of plastic as a byproduct of oil processing is adequately supplementing global plastic supply. The low rate of production does make it more of an annoyance than a benefit. I've scrapped everything in the map and have 3 times more iron than plastic. Considering they just added more iron to the game in the form of mineral deposits this discrepancy has only increased.

restive spoke
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Solving the resource balancing in games is a frequent mechanic. Sorry if you don’t like it…. 🤷‍♂️

low edge
# scenic junco <@463341777412292609> On that point I don't feel that the mechanic of plastic as...

Supplementary supply is not an adequate supply by definition.

As for it being an annoyance, I again refer back to my first post, where I explained that I am more often annoyed that I have to clean up after it, than wish that it made more.

I'm not sure that the amount comparative to iron is telling of an imbalance. They are often used together, but also often used apart, and for different things. If you're always running out of it and can't find a solid source of it, that might be. But it is pretty abundant. (And I'm the guy that builds a power network on every POI.)

oak compass
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I partially solved the plastic problem. I set up the distillation tower so that the plastic drops down to where the oil pump is.

low edge
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Well, solves the cleanup, but doesn't solve the issue that it stops producing if you stand ~12 meters out.

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I heard someone say there is some random chance involved with plastic production (rather than being timed, there's a chance to drop some each cycle), which is different from most production, and might be why it's behaving differently.

oak compass
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To be honest, at the stage of the game where we reach the black vein, there's an abundance of plastic. This might sound harsh, but this particular issue isn't high on the priority list for fixing. I've put a lot of hours into Satisfactory and fully understand the desire, even the need, to optimize all possible processes.

low edge
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It sounds to me like they're more upset that it's an in-between thing. Too much to keep your factory floor clear, too little to be good for anything.

I've heard suggestions that they should get their own built-in storage. I've suggested before that distillers (and fabs and recyclers) should be able to have a fortihold bolted on as a hopper to collect output.

oak compass
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i would love it. and after a few more updates, the conveyor belts 🙂

low edge
long mulch