I'm currently building a smelting and crafting setup on the ocean of Aquilo, and the wire buoys are frankly rather disappointing. It currently has stats appropriate for a 1x1 structure that can easily be weaseled in somewhere, but with its 2x2 footprint, it really fits nowhere and often doesn't even have the reach to connect to where you'd want to place the next buoy. Initially I tried using them and it only led to frustrations of lack of coverage and lack of wire reach, whereas the 1 tile of ice platform for a medium power pole never got in the way of the floating thermal heaters - the only downside to going that route.

I'd like to advocate for some considerable buffs, whether reducing its footprint to 1x1 or increasing its coverage and wire reach significantly, or doing both by introducing a second type of wire buoy.

They deliberately create something of a space imposition versus regular poles, but bumping their area at least some seems reasonable given they have to compete with landfilled or platformed medium poles. +1 to supply range (supply area from 8x8 to 10x10) and +3 to maximum wire reach is my current thought.

Opting for that immediately - feels very right. Further increases are still under consideration, but I'm less certain of them.

E: Change has been pushed. I expect some medium power poles will still need to be mixed in, but the circumstances in which that's necessary should be substantially fewer, since 4 range covers a band of machine > inserter > belt > heater. Gonna start with that.

That was fast! I'll play with this for a while and see what it's like.

I see thread should have gone in base Dredgeworks, my bad there.