Compacted Coal not worth it

[bstern1973]

So you burn up 15 coal per minute compared to 7.14 compacted coal per minute in a coal generator. To make compacted coal you have to set up a lot of assemblers and use an equivalent amount of sulfur to create it. Assemblers take power to run, so you may be losing more than you gain. I'll never bother with compacted coal again unless the ratios become more favorable. The only time it may be favorable is in a landscape where coal is rare and sulfur is plentiful.

[kimba-rip]

you need compact coal for Turbo fuel....

[XistenZ]

As long as you actually use the coal for power, it's more efficient even with the assemblers. Unless you really try to be inefficient, if you feed 1 coal and sulfur per minute to a line of 10 assemblers, then of course you'll lose power.

Then we have turbo fuel as mentioned, which is very much worth the hassle.

[bstern1973]

Thank you for the replies. It didn't occur to me that I would need it for future fuels. At least I have it set up and running now so I should have plenty available. My coal plants are currently benefiting from burning it.

[Vectorspace]

You can also use it to make black powder via an alt recipe. However the cost of black powder dropped significantly in update 6 so it's no longer worth it.

[bstern1973]

I did set up 10 assemblers, but the great thing about this game is the power button on each machine. I love being able to shut down/power up machines as needed without having to hack down a power pole.

[Wesk Alber]

According to the wiki: 7 Generators per 50 Compacted Coal.
Versus 3.333 for 50 Regular Coal.

Double the power generation at a 2 Assembler Cost. That's 30 MW, which isn't even HALF of the 75MW of a single Generator.

Giving that as "extra power" to the regular coal, it's still 7:4 (rounded up, since we can include the Sulfur Miner's cost)

[kLuns]

Don't forget the extra power demand of the extra water extractors.
7 generators require 315 water while you would only use 150 on normal coal

[Wesk Alber]

Good point. You're still gaining a lot of extra power though. It's all a question of if you have the sulfur, and willing to do the extra work. If you're hoping to make a decent starting grid, it's definitely worth the little extra effort.

For further wiki numbers:
120 Coal vs. 120 Compacted is 600 vs. 1260 MW
That's 540 vs. 1120* MW when adjusting for Water Extractors
That's 540 vs. 1045** MW when adjusting for Assemblers
That's 540 vs. 1040 MW when taking 5 off for a Pure Sulfur miner. Adjust accordingly if needing to overclock or Mk.II

Assuming I missed no other things, that's still nearly double the profits. And I even put Compacted at a disadvantage.

Edit: Ideally you will not need Pumps either, but that's a few nickle or dimes if you do

* - 6.3 Extractors. I round up to 7 for math's sake.
** - 4.8 assemblers, 5 for math's sake

[Mister Fabulous]

When you take into account the power needed for the miners, assemblers, and extractors in a straight coal vs. compacted coal setup, doubling your coal input is roughly the same net power output as converting the base amount of coal into compacted coal.

Compacted coal for coal generators is more work and takes sulfur. Personally I don't use it for that.

[Kackstift]

the minute i unlock fuel generator.. i get rid of all my coal plants.

[bstern1973]

First playthrough and I'm only to coal generators. I see that compacted coal is a stepping stone to better fuels from what people have said. I don't think I'll build up compacted coal in the future for use in coal plants. Too much work for too little payout. Also, I've just started up oil and I'm trying to find a use for all the petroleum coke so I'm feeding it into generators. I'm sure I'll need it for aluminum at some point according to the text on it.

Thanks for all the info! :)

[YetiChow]

A good example of where compacted coal is useful: if you head north-ish from the grassy fields start there's a little outcrop just before the red forest area, which has a pure coal node on top and a sulphur deposit below it (you'll need to clear some boulders, but hey you've got all the stuff nearby for Nobelisk research -- including the iron nodes to set up steel.) Let's imagine this is a first play-through of someone who doesn't know what new techs are coming; so they're gonna put most of that coal into power and divert some for steel production, use the local water source and eventually realise that 1 water extractor is severely limiting and they want to start sending coal down to the nearby larger lake/pond for a bigger power plant.

Because there's only the one node though, production is limited; and the nearest other coal nodes are a couple of kilometres away (which is nothing in the late-game, but feels like a long distance to a new player.) Getting that recipe to effectively convert sulphur into coal to feed those generators down (and therefore more power and/or more steel production out of that little area's single coal node) allows them to get a reasonable start on the second phase of project assembly. And that's the perfect moment/push to start exploring further afield. A ping for more nearby coal nodes will reveal another one back near the original spawn (perfect for setting up a second power plant and/or steel plant to increase production), or the new player might be tempted to go further out and find the crater lake. Either way, they're gonna learn a key lesson -- that no matter how much you maximise the output of a particular node/area, expansion is always going to be the long-term plan for improving production rates.

Compacted coal is a great stepping stone in that scenario -- not because the new player will build their whole factory around it, but because it helps them to scale up a little in the early-game and then also helps to show them that even scaling up by min/maxing a single node is only the tip of the iceberg

[kLuns]

Originally posted by Wesk Alber:

Good point. You're still gaining a lot of extra power though. It's all a question of if you have the sulfur, and willing to do the extra work. If you're hoping to make a decent starting grid, it's definitely worth the little extra effort.

For further wiki numbers:
120 Coal vs. 120 Compacted is 600 vs. 1260 MW
That's 540 vs. 1120* MW when adjusting for Water Extractors
That's 540 vs. 1045** MW when adjusting for Assemblers
That's 540 vs. 1040 MW when taking 5 off for a Pure Sulfur miner. Adjust accordingly if needing to overclock or Mk.II

Assuming I missed no other things, that's still nearly double the profits. And I even put Compacted at a disadvantage.

Edit: Ideally you will not need Pumps either, but that's a few nickle or dimes if you do

* - 6.3 Extractors. I round up to 7 for math's sake.
** - 4.8 assemblers, 5 for math's sake

Ok now let's try 240 coal vs 120 compacted coal:

1200 VS 1260
1080 VS 1120
1080 VS 1045! Check mate!
Double the coal input provides more power after all machines using power to make the plant work are counted :) Compacted coal is 'Worth Less' in a coal generator :)
240 coal > 120 coal + 120 sulfur

Ok you can underclock all assemblers to 0,1% and build a 1,8km high tower manifold to make the compacted coal to reduce the power demand.
I'll save the sulfur for a nuclear plant.

[XistenZ]

Originally posted by kLuns:

Originally posted by Wesk Alber:

Good point. You're still gaining a lot of extra power though. It's all a question of if you have the sulfur, and willing to do the extra work. If you're hoping to make a decent starting grid, it's definitely worth the little extra effort.

For further wiki numbers:
120 Coal vs. 120 Compacted is 600 vs. 1260 MW
That's 540 vs. 1120* MW when adjusting for Water Extractors
That's 540 vs. 1045** MW when adjusting for Assemblers
That's 540 vs. 1040 MW when taking 5 off for a Pure Sulfur miner. Adjust accordingly if needing to overclock or Mk.II

Assuming I missed no other things, that's still nearly double the profits. And I even put Compacted at a disadvantage.

Edit: Ideally you will not need Pumps either, but that's a few nickle or dimes if you do

* - 6.3 Extractors. I round up to 7 for math's sake.
** - 4.8 assemblers, 5 for math's sake

Ok now let's try 240 coal vs 120 compacted coal:

1200 VS 1260
1080 VS 1120
1080 VS 1045! Check mate!
Double the coal input provides more power after all machines using power to make the plant work are counted :) Compacted coal is 'Worth Less' in a coal generator :)
240 coal > 120 coal + 120 sulfur

Ok you can underclock all assemblers to 0,1% and build a 1,8km high tower manifold to make the compacted coal to reduce the power demand.
I'll save the sulfur for a nuclear plant.

I believe the point you're trying to make is the amount of raw resources (240 coal vs 120 coal + 120 sulfur) means that compacted coal is worth less per resource. Which is true, that was also proven in the first example. Your example is the exact same, just times 2...

Compacted coal is still worth it, but if you need the sulfur for something else or simply doesn't even need the extra power then of course it's worth less given that scenario.

[SkiRich]

Compacted coal is not needed for coalgens at all. There are enough coal nodes in all the right places where water is, that straight up coal is fine. You'll run out of water (or space for extractors) before coal.
That said Compacted coal excels when turbo fuel is desired and turbo ammo.

Also, compacted coal is superior to regular coal if you are transporting it from a distance to an actual coalgen plant. You get more megajules of power in the small stacks than pure coal and better efficiency in transport.