Make pipes less confusing

[Raukgorth]

Hi 

My suggestion:

Please add indicators that will show which way to liquid will want to flow, and add some red markers where it will get confused, get stuck, where opposite flows will met, etc.

[SharraShimada]

Liquid will ALWAYS flow from a green output (of a pump, a sieve) to a white input port of something. No exceptions. 

[Coolthulhu]

3 hours ago, SharraShimada said:

Liquid will ALWAYS flow from a green output (of a pump, a sieve) to a white input port of something. No exceptions. 

Exception: multiple inputs and outputs may cause packets to "wiggle" instead of consistently going in any direction.

Having warnings about badly designed pipe networks sounds reasonable to me. All new players have to go through this and you can see it easily with the regular "why is my pipe blocked" posts on forums.

[SharraShimada]

Thats no exception. The material still flows in the same direction. But due to multiple possible ways it can cause problems. 

[Gwido]

One sure thing is that it's impossible to put an indicator, on the pipe to show the direction, because we can build a gas pipe, a liquid pipe, a wire and an automation wire, all on the same location. So the indicator could'nt be seen in that case.

[Coolthulhu]

3 hours ago, SharraShimada said:

Thats no exception.

It contradicts what you said. In some cases fluid flows away from some input and towards some output.

3 hours ago, Gwido said:

One sure thing is that it's impossible to put an indicator, on the pipe to show the direction, because we can build a gas pipe, a liquid pipe, a wire and an automation wire, all on the same location. So the indicator could'nt be seen in that case.

I'd expect it to only show up in pipe view. Like wires are only colored in relevant views.

[Nightinggale]

3 hours ago, Gwido said:

One sure thing is that it's impossible to put an indicator, on the pipe to show the direction, because we can build a gas pipe, a liquid pipe, a wire and an automation wire, all on the same location. So the indicator could'nt be seen in that case.

5 minutes ago, Coolthulhu said:

I'd expect it to only show up in pipe view. Like wires are only colored in relevant views.

We already have that problem with broken pipes. We just add a StatusItem to display it and if you have multiple layers of pipe, you can switch overlay to filter which pipes you see. Adding a StatusItem for bi-directional flow would be no different.

4 hours ago, Coolthulhu said:

All new players have to go through this and you can see it easily with the regular "why is my pipe blocked" posts on forums.

This is the core of the issue. A bunch of people can't figure it out and it seems the common reaction is "broken or stupid game", not "I haven't figured out the game mechanics". Having a tutorial and warning when it goes wrong would help. Adding flow direction indicators would likely help too.

Experienced players could benefit from StatusItems too because when setting up something complex, accidents can happen.

[Sasza22]

When thinking about pipe systems i came to a conclusion that you should never make branches. Using a bridge is better in most of the scenarios and when it`s not better it`s the same.

[Nightinggale]

12 minutes ago, Sasza22 said:

When thinking about pipe systems i came to a conclusion that you should never make branches.

There are some load balancers, which depends on branches. There is also the case when you have a bit of CO2 from say natural gas generators, which you join with say chlorine, which you need to transport and you want to share a pipe. By joining two pipes, you get CO2, chlorine, CO2, chlorine etc. Other than that I agree with you. Bridges adds the benefit of ensuring a continuous flow and priority, both when splitting and joining pipes.

If you start to use mods, branches are even less useful. High Flow Storage can merge up to 5 gas pipes if needed and flow splitters are better for load balancing as it splits one pipe into 2 with 50% in each as in splitting each dot.

If you start out and try to figure out how to make pipe systems, branches should likely be avoided entirely.

[I_Link_I]

I learned to use  bridges to make oneway pasages,this way you can at least block the liquid/gas from ging back.