How you solve problem of accumulation of inperfect solutions and grow interdependency of your systems?

[Mutineer]

I am sort of new, played in betta. So I started base in arboria and did not have any cold water. Uncover 2 95C geysers, and 95C salt water geyser. Used rust biome for some temporal cooling, got some steel. Got present a slickter egg early on. create stable for them at bottom of base. They eat all excess of CO2. Bread glossy Drecous for plastic.

created cooling, In mean time power consumption grow, so my power system start to overheat everywhere. Eventually cool down some water and run cooling try power system.

Now I am at cycle 400, I have a lots of resources. The only middle game resource I still limited is steel. But when I look on my base, it is a horror. Water pipes create such mesh I really do not know which pipe does what. Every solution was not complete, system become interdependent.

I need to move from Coal base power I used, as I used almost all coal on map. In mean time, I have forest of like 40 wild trees planted, so I can run a lot of etanol. I have a lot of slickers that currently semi starve so I can absorb a lot of CO2. I need way more steel, so I think a good idea to use polluted dirt to farm lime.

So, no problem in resources, but my power system interlinked with cooling and power used for everything. It seems if I touch it I will need to touch almost everything I build in my base.

It feel fragile. A lot can go wrong. Heat, pressure, Oxygen, food, recreation...

How you solve that, where you start?

[TheMule]

Rebuild stuff elsewhere I'd say. Start from scratch. New industrial brick. Maybe new living quarters. New power block. Make them apart.

 

I tend to build a tier-2 base kinda center up. With firepoles, the bottom of the map is not far away, and with tubes dups can go up fast (there's not need for dups to use tubes to go down).

I also rebuild stuff to improve efficiency. Some cooling loops I might have designed from the start for coolant to be easily replaced. Some I haven't, so it's better just rebuild them elsewhere.

[TripLykely]

ONI has different points along its learning curve and I think you highlight one of them. You seem to have a good grasp on production chains and knowing what you need to produce for what you want to build utilizing critters and plants as well. In your next run you now know what problems you will encounter and can tweak your playstyle to avoid those issues. 

Assuming you want to keep this run going, its hard to give specific advice without any visual idea but from what you describe I think TheMule has the right idea and what I'd do. At 400 cycles its safe to assume you have some space somewhere on the map to design the ideal base. As you replace your old systems you can deconstruct the old base. 

Take your time sketching it out and plan your pipes/wires to avoid spaghetti. If you come up with a system (say main liquid line runs vertical with a bridge at every other floor) and use a general design pattern it's just takes a little planning to prevent a messy base. Very difficult to fix after the fact other than building a new base elsewhere and then deconstructing the old one.

Spoiler

(here is my most pre-planned base, coincidentally around cycle 400, using the mini-base mod, if you want a visual of what I'm saying - it took a lot of time to make this but everything was well planned out).

 

Spoiler

 

[Mutineer]

Well, it happened.

I look at start I still had 66T of coal, so I went to prepare rooms for new power plant. Then I look and I have 8 dupes idle. I run out of coal and everything shot down, including sutes dock. So dupes can not go and dig a bits of coal still around.

 

My guess I am moving on dupes power, shutting down all unessential and hope I make it. I might as well completely rebuild power rooms.

[Fyrel]

19 hours ago, TheMule said:

Rebuild stuff elsewhere I'd say. Start from scratch. New industrial brick. Maybe new living quarters. New power block. Make them apart.

 

I tend to build a tier-2 base kinda center up. With firepoles, the bottom of the map is not far away, and with tubes dups can go up fast (there's not need for dups to use tubes to go down).

I also rebuild stuff to improve efficiency. Some cooling loops I might have designed from the start for coolant to be easily replaced. Some I haven't, so it's better just rebuild them elsewhere.

This is the way I go.

Build my starting base any old manner until the colony is stable.

I then clear out large areas of the map to build permanent consolidated areas for future need.

Power block, living area (decor bombed), automated farms etc.

Once each area gets finished I will delete the corresponding area in the original base.

 

It's far too much effort to rebuild your starting base without breaking something while your still using it.

[ZombieDupe]

Make space for a new, mostly self-contained base location. Then deconstruct everything else carefully by stopping pumps, power, plumbing out pipes and rails, moving food and critters to a new area and so forth. Liquid might be the most difficult to move in large quantities, but doable in time. Once everything is emptied in the old area, build a new, more expansive setup. I also suggest an industrial sauna at some point for most things with heat output.