Material Oriented Factory Game

I've got a few ideas like this floating around - here's another. Very half baked.

The world consists of a number of randomly generated chemicals. Each chemical has a full set of properties - triple point graph, conductivity, plasticity and more. Each block in the game has a chemical make up. There are a few categories of machines that can be setup to perform different operations. For instance a furnace can either separate materials (rejecting a portion as slag) or mix two blocks (though that will also produce slag). A distillation machine will also separate materials.

The machines are designed from modular components. A furnace requires a crucible, walls and a heat source. But it can be any size (though it needs to be rectangular, maybe square). But if the heat source is hotter than the crucible can handle, it will fail and the materials and the crucible will all end up as slag. If it's hotter than the walls can handle the whole thing will become rubble. The heat source can be combustion or electric. The thermal properties of the walls will define the heat curve.

A drill will have a blade, housing and motor. It will dig to a depth, with better ores found deeper.

The motors can also be modular. A combustion motor will have a block (as in engine block) material. An electric motor will have a housing material and a coil material.

So the basic categories would

• Chemical processing
  • separation
  • combination
• Shaping
  • Foundry
  • Press
  • Mill