Camphene, kerosene, dung, garbage fuels

[karlthepagan]

Fuel types in the game now

• Torch - stone age portable lighting / tar on a stick
• Burnable Fuel - solid fossil coal or biomass wood
• Fat - pre-industrial tallow & candles
• Liquid Fuel - refined petroleum and biofuel products

Historically camphene & kerosene were important sources of energy in the early industrial period. Additionally dung and garbage are modern subsistence fuels.

At minimum to allow mods to take advantage of more complex fuel & pollution cycles I propose the following fuel type addition: Kerosene.

• "Kerosene" the item would be an early craftable oil derivative which provides the Kerosene tag. This tag should power all mid-tier tallow products (not tallow candle) as well as the mechanical and electric generators, steam truck, and skid steer.
  • Because Kerosene fuel items would have relatively low Joules per stack this would not be an efficient use of player time, but would add thematic intrigue as well as allow players to limp their vehicles along in some situations.
  • Steam generators powered by animal fats or alcohol would allow food makers to have a fuel source competition early in the game.
• "Camphene" might be an alcohol product for alcohol themed mods, it would provide the kerosene tag as well as optionally the liquid fuel tag. This way players could have a corn ethanol or other alcohol product which powers all vehicles and generators.
• "Burnable Fuel" as it stands is a great category. I want to play with the idea of animals or animal husbandry producing some amount of dung which is either able to become compost or is directly burnable.
  • Even in modern times dung is a cooking fuel source for subsistence communities. The availability of dung from items like the Latrine and the conversion of fuel from wood to dung would be a hilarious consequence of deforestation which can occur on high population servers.
  • If recent experiments to require the mining skill to make Coal into a burnable fuel are introduced into the mainline game then human/animal dung as a cooking fuel is a low efficiency relief valve for a dearth of miners at any point in the game.
• Garbage or a garbage product as a burnable fuel is one possibly interesting mod which might inspire fun gameplay. I recommend transition steps like Dung -> Compost -> Burnable Compost and Garbage -> Burnable Garbage. These transitions allow for additional emissions based on that transition rather than requiring a refactor to represent the emissions created by the energy output.

[SatsukiShizuka]

As I suggested previously that biofuel/oil farming should be a major cash crop income for farmers in the future, the idea that the farmer would become a crucial role to convert agricultural byproducts (ranging from hay and farm waste to livestock output) to energy.

As for kerosene, I second the motion to have this while also revamping the process of petroleum refinement to generate all products at the same time (perhaps with different skill levels, allowing different ratios of products produced). Kerosene should be used as the "super oil" used in tallow lamps (should be kerosene lamps by now) that allows for more burn time and brightness (room score) prior to the advent of electric lighting.

As it is right now, burning wood and coal for lighting is WAY too easy, and oil is too hard - when it should be made more viable or prevalent.