Algea pumps

[Bargeral]

Algae should be a liquid, pump-able and pipe-able. All the sci-fi and even real science has taught me that algae comes in giant tanks and tubes and is being pumped hither and yon. It's science!

 

So Algae the object, gets collected to seed an Algae Vat. Add light, water, time and fertilizer (the odd Dupe corpse), and you get more algae. Plumb some pipes (green flow dots, of course) and feed your Algae Deoxydizer or Algae Terrarium and output (maybe polluted?) water back.  Add a new Algae Farm building that turns algae the liquid into more Algae the object for food protection. Adding a dead dupe to the Vat in lieu of fertilizer would be a real thing, it's very in keeping with the theme of the game - waste not want not - and could have an effect on mood, positive or negative depending on the level of distopia . "We come from the vat and we go to the vat, as it written, ah-ah-gain."

[Kasuha]

On 13. 7. 2017 at 2:05 AM, Bargeral said:

Algae should be a liquid, pump-able and pipe-able. All the sci-fi and even real science has taught me that algae comes in giant tanks and tubes and is being pumped hither and yon. It's science!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algae

[Bargeral]

2 hours ago, Kasuha said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algae

 

I"m not sure what your point is.

 

I was thinking more https://www.our-energy.com/biofuel_production_from_algae.html A real life example of algae growing in vats and tubes and being pumped around as needed. Sci-fi is rife with examples of algae tanks and vats.

 

Also add, I forgot to mention bio fuel as an output as well.

[Kasuha]

6 hours ago, Bargeral said:

I"m not sure what your point is.

My point is that algae is plant mass, essentially solid matter. Water suspension is not its natural form, it is industrial application.

[Bargeral]

Oh, well OK, sure that's true but I think it's rather beside the point. I don't think anyone (myself included) was unclear on what algae is ... I'll amend my statement to say 'Algae should be suspended in liquid, pump-able and pipe-able' rather than explicitly claiming it as a liquid.   .. it doesn't really change the suggestion at hand.

[Sevio]

I think the suggestion could be an interesting way of expanding the use of algae, but right now it doesn't really fit with the game's handling of one and only one element per tile. Maybe if they enable gases and fluids to have concentrations of certain other things in them, but I think there would need to be more things that make use of it than just algae, like pollution in water...

[AlexRou]

15 minutes ago, Sevio said:

I think the suggestion could be an interesting way of expanding the use of algae, but right now it doesn't really fit with the game's handling of one and only one element per tile. Maybe if they enable gases and fluids to have concentrations of certain other things in them, but I think there would need to be more things that make use of it than just algae, like pollution in water...

There's a simple solution to that, just do what they did for polluted water, make it a new liquid only element. Then you have a building to "separate" it and outputs polluted water (cuz why would the water be clean) and solid algae.

[Sevio]

It needlessly introduces another fluid with the same properties of water but that will create a separate layer either on top or under water/polluted water in even small amounts, which looks bad. What useful interactions with the environment would you want this new fluid to have that aren't covered by simply having buildings that take algae and water and do something with it? (Like the Algae Terrarium which needs a better niche)

[BlueLance]

So what happens to the algae in the pipes when you reach a normal output pipe? Or have it intersect with other pipes.

You would then have algae "Water" in your polluted or clean water, It would have to be added into your water filter. 

I don't understand how this would be useful unfortunately as I use algae for about 3-4 cycles if i'm unucky with oxygen and then its obsolete for me as the big bad boy electolyzer does its job.

Plus if you had to feed it etc then its just even more work, and the time spent building a system to use it would just be better used to build your base.

[AlexRou]

3 hours ago, Sevio said:

It needlessly introduces another fluid with the same properties of water but that will create a separate layer either on top or under water/polluted water in even small amounts, which looks bad. What useful interactions with the environment would you want this new fluid to have that aren't covered by simply having buildings that take algae and water and do something with it? (Like the Algae Terrarium which needs a better niche)

It is a much less invasive change than adding suspended solids in liquids, with a new liquid you can have a building that takes in water, solid algae and have a light sensor to grow more algae and output that as liquid algae. Also you can pipe liquid algae around instead of asking dupes to bring it everywhere. It could even just be a new liquid for prototyping to figure out if it is fun and then decide if it is worth the effort to add suspended solids or leave it as a new liquid.

2 hours ago, BlueLance said:

So what happens to the algae in the pipes when you reach a normal output pipe? Or have it intersect with other pipes.

Not quite sure, maybe just have it act as any other liquid does. Maybe even make it decay after a while into polluted water. 

2 hours ago, BlueLance said:

You would then have algae "Water" in your polluted or clean water, It would have to be added into your water filter. 

Not really a big deal is it? Just a extra option in the filter list.

2 hours ago, BlueLance said:

Plus if you had to feed it etc then its just even more work, and the time spent building a system to use it would just be better used to build your base.

Algae feeds on sunlight soo ... but maybe it should accept fertilizer like other plants to grow faster. As algae is, yeah maybe it's not that useful. But having liquid algae might open the door to having more uses for algae.

 Just putting out ideas on how it could work or be implemented.