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.

[bstern1973]

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.

OK, now I'm excited to unlock nuclear. I ran across some radioactive ore on the map that I can't get near right now. Must be uranium.

[bstern1973]

Almost immediately after setting up coal I found oil and now am burning enough petroleum coke to power 5 coal plants. I had to turn off some of the coal plants running on compacted coal because I have such an excess of power. It just seems to me I'm going to get to fuel generators before I'll ever get to use all the coal generators I built. Could have had them all running on coal and still been able to create steel so the setup seems like a waste of time. I do like the ability to power on/off generators as needed. Works really well with the power storage units as I can maximize power usage without over producing.

[kLuns]

Originally posted by bstern1973:

OK, now I'm excited to unlock nuclear. I ran across some radioactive ore on the map that I can't get near right now. Must be uranium.

Don't go nuclear unless you have particle enrichment unlocked. That provides the possibility to deal with uranium waste in an automated way. No need to store radioactive stuff.

[Kage Goomba]

Originally posted by kLuns:

Originally posted by bstern1973:

OK, now I'm excited to unlock nuclear. I ran across some radioactive ore on the map that I can't get near right now. Must be uranium.

Don't go nuclear unless you have particle enrichment unlocked. That provides the possibility to deal with uranium waste in an automated way. No need to store radioactive stuff.

Or at least have the ability to make fuel rods to toss in the "big muncher" (ticket creating machine)

At least that's what I've read so far.

[bstern1973]

Thanks for the advice on nuclear. Probably would have been stuck with radioactive waste without the warning. :)

[Wesk Alber]

Originally posted by kLuns:

Double the coal

Yes. Double the coal. Which means 120 less Steel. You won't be at nuclear for several dozens of hours if not more. Meanwhile the sulfur is sitting there doing nothing. I highly doubt you're needing that much black powder at this point.

At the point you get Coal unlocked, you can make use of Compacted Coal. You can't make use of Nuclear til the endgame. And before that you might even make a turbofuel factory, which is an expansion on Compacted Coal as a base... which means you have to use the Sulfur anyway.

Per resource doesn't matter if those other resources aren't going anywhere. And when you need steel, you're going to be making a lot of it.

[kLuns]

Originally posted by Wesk Alber:

Originally posted by kLuns:

Double the coal

Yes. Double the coal. Which means 120 less Steel. You won't be at nuclear for several dozens of hours if not more. Meanwhile the sulfur is sitting there doing nothing. I highly doubt you're needing that much black powder at this point.

There are too much coal nodes on the map. There is no need to balance them out or sacrifice power on sulfur. And you can also make turbofuel with just sulfur.
There is also alternative recipes which allow to compensate the 120 steel.
I can't imagine how this is a loss.
You can use compacted coal in a foundry or petroleum coke. Both ways there is so much coal available and so much opportunity that I can't imagine not using double the coal for power.

[The Big Brzezinski]

It's a valid path, if you want to take it. Coal power plants are extremely simple to setup. Compacted coal is a reasonable way of putting in a little more work to get a greater result.

[larsgren.kristensen]

dont see why you dislike compacted that much. personally i use it when starting a new save.
great way to get double the power without having to source coal from another node.
and since you only use coal power until you get fuel generators its a great way to bump up the power supply. i run 32 coal plants from 1 node and overflow slowly make steel pipes. gunpowder and pipebombs so i can resupply when in the area.
2400 MW is a good boost early on for production.

[DivineEvil]

As far as I've seen, Compacted Coal is simply a way to make use of scaled Sulfur mining before it becomes necessary for other purposes later on.