Hi ZarSasha, really like the mod and find this version the best out of the alternatives. Enjoy the simplicity and this is much more balanced.

Question: how is the heat glow achieved that you hinted at? I tried getting 3 large panels to over 500 degrees Celsius using Cheese's Solar Power Tower, but didn't see the glow. Would love to see a gradual heat glow effect, especially if the red color from the original thermal solar could be shown at lower heat levels (200-300).

Nice work and thanks!

Hi Sirrace. Thank you for your kind words!

Admittedly, the heat glow is a vestige of an earlier version of the mod, where you could more easily reach the maximum temperature and thus potentially see the full glow effect. Currently, however, you may only reach 435°C at constant daylight at default settings, which barely makes the panels glow, since they only begin to do so at 350°C like the heat pipes, reactors and heat exchangers. It is still faint at 500°C.

There are a few issues with changing the heat glow range, pertaining to realism and consistency: I am pretty sure that the heat glow of an object is completely tied to its temperature, no matter the material. So it makes no sense for the panels to glow at temperatures where other objects don't. And I don't want to adapt all other heat-carrying entities to match the panels, due to mod compat risks.

There are also code limitations that concern me: I can't change the glow range without changing the temperature limit of the panels, and I am not sure I want to do that. There have been serious save crash+corruption issues with that, and I am not entirely confident that has been fully resolved in newer versions of Factorio, despite testing. It still feels risky, but maybe that's just me. Not an expert at all.

I don't know, I'll have to think about it, whether I want to change things. It is kind of sad that the graphics assets for the glow effect normally don't see any meaningful use, after all.

Ah that makes sense! No worries, I get it. Thought I'd ask as while I like that the graphic of the solar thermal panel stands out from the solar panel, it's almost as if it could use a slightly greater degree in distinction. These look more like solar thermal evacuated tubes, so you're right, getting red wouldn't make sense. But it's factorio and that aspect of abstraction always charms me :)

Either way, love that we can create 165 degree steam without burning through any fuel and it doesn't feel like we're cheesing. Hope to see more mods/forks from you!

Thanks, I am happy you like the mod!

Actually, when I use the thermal solar panels, I greatly prefer to create complete modules of thermal panels, heat exchangers, steam engines etc. (like in the screenshot on the main page), because that kind of arrangement really helps distinguish the thermal solar panels from the electric ones. (I also think it just looks neat, when you can see the start and finish of a factory within a single screenshot.)

On their own, the panels do look kind of similar, especially at a distance, so maybe I will tweak the graphics in the future. As for changes to the heat glow, still undecided. Anyway, thanks for your feedback!