Pollution
A factories pesty biproduct!
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How its made
Most devices will make pollution. Most don't make a lot of pollution however when a lot are in one area they can make a ton of pollution together. Some devices like combustion generators, boilers and refineries produce a lot of pollution, even on their own. So you can actually use this to your advantage, you can place your most polluting devices far away from your main factory or in an area in your factory that you dont mind getting attacked at. (See Biters)
How its removed
Pollution is removed 1 of 2 ways.
It can be absorbed by the super chunk which is a 3x3 collection of chunks. This super chunk has a dissipation rate, this rate is generated when a player is near it to generate it. It's dissipation rate is determined by the biomes on the surface of the world in those chunks. Super Chunks also have a foliage value, this value can be raised by planting flowers, trees and turning the land into a general green area. Doing this would increase dissipation, however as pollution rises the land will begin to deform and plants begin to die off. So this would reduce this dissipation bonus.
It can be absorbed by biter nests. These nests use the pollution for a few things, like spawning another nest, spawning a new biter for the nest or spawning a biter for an attack.
What does it do?
Pollution has a few effects on the world, it currently effects three major things.
Crop growth, the higher the pollution in a chunk the more likely a crop will have stunted growth making it take longer to grow.
Animal breeding, animals will have a chance to fail when mating. When this happens no animal is spawned.
Fish stop spawning in highly polluted areas.
Ecological damage, as the super chunks ecological damage rises, the chunks within it will begin to die, leaves will turn into pale leaves, along with logs, grass, flowers and all other foliage will die and turn into dead grass.
Biter growth, biters grow stronger from pollution. Their nests use pollution to evolve and become stronger. They use it to spawn more biters as well.
Biter nests can spawn in polluted super chunks that are not occupied by a pollution causing device or adjacent to one. This gives you some space from biter nest spawns but will not protect you from their attacks.
How can I see it and fight it?
You can view pollution at anytime use /mt map. This will show you a map that shows all of the polluted chunks. It gives some other useful info like dissipation rate of a chunk, nests in that chunk and the evolution of biters in that chunk. The center of the UI is the super chunk your in and the top of the UI is north. You can also view how much your producing by using a resource monitor.
How can I move it?
You can use a Air Scrubber to extract pollution from the super chunk. Doing so uses water and it produces waste water. A highly polluted liquid, this liquid can be dumped elsewhere using a liquid valve, dumping the liquid into the world will cause a huge spike in pollution to the area your dumping the liquid in. This is a great way to control where the pollution is at, so if you setup a robust system you can control exactly where the pollution is sent, this is useful as you can keep your crops near your factory without worrying about the pollution killing off your crops. But you can expect the location your dumping all of the waste into to turn into a toxic wasteland.
Bio Dome
After researching Environmental Stability, you can place an Atmospheric Controller in an enclosed space, as long as its powered, it will make the area enclosed safe to grow crops regardless of the outside pollution levels.
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