Real Industrial Chains 1.1

Real Industrial Chains 1.1

Vanilla industrial chains overhaul
Original chains have always seemed a bit simple and unrealistic, like plastic factories in 1850 and metal-looking tools made from planks.
So my goal was to make gameplay more interesting, challenging, and having some realism aesthetics; all while not changing the game too much.

No plastic before 1910, industries are dynamically upgraded to use plastic
Intricate cargo chains
Large, heavy industries need fuel to function
The entire chain graph is calculated so that last step industries produce 1200 items each
High compatibility with other mods
(hopefully) Well-balanced and optimized
Open for suggestions and fixes, see below for details

Initially started as a fix for a non-working cargo injector in Col0Korn’s Industry Restored – Livestock and Slag (1943798417), but eventually grew to a full-scale industries overhaul.

Updated industries:
Oil well and oil refinery (2x capacity)
Chemical plant

1910:
1 Oil -> 1 Plastic
Steel mill
2 Iron + 2 Coal -> 1 Steel + 1 Slag
Machines factory
2 Steel + 1 Planks + 1 Lubricants + 1 Industrial tools + 1 Fuel -> 3 Machines

1935:
2 Steel + 1 Plastic + 1 Planks + 1 Lubricants + 1 Industrial tools + 1 Fuel -> 3 Machines
2 Steel + 1 Bioplastic + 1 Planks + 1 Lubricants + 1 Industrial tools + 1 Fuel -> 3 Machines
Construction materials plant
2 Stone + 2 Slag + 2 Planks + 1 Fuel -> 3 Construction materials
Tools factory
1 Steel + 1 Planks + 1 Lubricants + 1 Fuel -> 6 Tools
Goods factory
1 Steel + 2 Planks + 2 Packaging materials + 1 Industrial tools + 1 Fuel -> 2 Goods

1915:
1 Steel + 2 Plastic + 2 Planks + 2 Packaging materials + 1 Industrial tools + 1 Fuel -> 3 Goods
Food processing plant
2 Grain + 1 Livestock + 2 Packaging materials -> 3 Food

New industries:
Advanced farm
1 Slag -> 2 Grain
Livestock farm
2 Grain -> 1 Livestock
Bioplastic chemical plant

1930:
2 Grain -> 1 Bioplastic
Packaging materials factory
2 Logs -> 2 Packaging materials

1946:
1 Logs + 1 Plastic -> 2 Packaging materials
1 Logs + 1 Bioplastic -> 2 Packaging materials
Lubricants refinery
1 Oil -> 1 Lubricants
Industrial tools factory
1 Steel + 1 Planks + 1 Lubricants + 1 Fuel -> 4 Industrial tools

New cargo
Livestock
Slag
Bioplastic
Packaging materials
Lubricants
Industrial tools

Hints
This mod can be used with both new and existing maps
all modified vanilla industries are going to be slowly updated in-place after load
on existing maps, enable dynamic industries, prepare as many lines as possible or stop all cargo lines, and wait for new industries to spawn
make sure you are not losing money during this process, as you are only able to make money on passenger lines

It is best to be played on larger maps with low to medium industry density
Industries are updated across the entire map, the update cycle is several minutes long, depending on the number of constructions on the map, so you won’t see changes immediately after load or milestone year reach
It might look like plastic and bioplastic are both required at the same time, but only one of them is actually needed
Start from simpler chains, and focus on a limited set of cargo types first
Prepare lines in advance before milestone years
Plastic industries roll out gradually, starting from a chemical plant in 1910
Establish partial chains before you can supply all the necessary cargo, this way you can still earn from transportation
Use cargo hubs for easier distribution
Use real-like mixed cargo trains to deliver cargo all at once from hubs to large multi-input industries
The chain graph was only made for balancing calculation, you don’t have to follow it
Enjoy the game and the views!

Compatibility
This mod was designed with compatibility in mind
No files replaced
vanilla industries are updated by scripts
this mod completely overwrites cargo recipes (includes industry capacity), the rest is updated in-place or untouched
this allows for re-modeling of the industries and maybe something else
some industries sounds have been replaced with more logical or pleasant ones
Added support for more than 5 cargo inputs
Cargo injector for all new cargo, any mod vehicles are supported
All non-vanilla resources (mainly taken from missions) are packed with the mod, in case they are ever removed from game files
Mod has a very low performance impact, main loop is distributed over a significant amount of time
Dynamic industries are supported, as well as non-dynamic industries
year-dependent industries are going to work properly in any case

Adding the mod is safe, the only issue you are going to have is a stall of your network due to all the changes in chains
Removing this mod is not recommended, as it will revert all the vanilla industries to their original state, and all the custom industries will be lost
Do not save the game if you accidentally removed this mod! It will irreversibly break non-vanilla industries

Supported mods load order
You can use any of them or none, but you must preserve the order
Industry Expanded (1950013035)
I made an integration using my industry updater script
Full cargo balance graph is NOT calculated, but I roughly estimated it, so it at least shouldn’t break the immersion of using both mods
A list of modified industries can be found in the readme at the GitLab repo
Real Industrial Chains (this)
More Industry Levels (1984839944)

Known issues and limitations
If you have 4x sim speed and 4x calendar speed, your industries might not have time to upgrade production levels between year switches
I found no way to detect when a new industry is generated by dynamic industries, so this mod scans through all the constructions on the map, searching for industries with outdated year assigned to them
The scan is really slow, so you would only drop one frame at 500FPS. However, this is still a workaround.
If you know a better way to get and update newly created industries without the need to scan the entire map, please contact me in Steam, Telegram, or GitLab (below)
If you know how to better fit large recipes in the industry window, or how to enable field generation around advanced farms, please contact me as well!