Real life thermal inaccuracy

[Big_Boy_Slav13]

In game aluminium has a thermal conductivity of 205DTUs and copper has a conductivity of 60DTUs so aluminium is 3 times as conductive but irl copper is 60% more conductive as stated here :  Copper is more conductive than aluminium. In fact, aluminium only has 60% of the thermal conductivity that copper does. am i missing something or is this just an inaccuracy?

[TripLykely]

It isn’t trying to be accurate to real life; simply a video game universe with its own physics and elements that happen to be similar, and in some cases match, real life.

Try not to get caught up on what’s inaccurate to real life; there’s lots of examples. Unlike real life the physics in ONI is all but defined and the solutions to the problems presented are simpler than real life. While a true to life physics and engineering sim would be fun, that isn’t what ONI is or was meant to be.

 

edit: I think with copper the discrepancy to real life is a game balancing issue as copper is the starting metal on the starting biome on the starter planet, but I could be wrong

[SharraShimada]

Its not real life. Its a game. End of facts. :P

[babba]

Once Klei implements the long awaited "Fluid-Wood", the game philosophy can get more clear.

Cu all at the reactor-bee-hive ! bzzzzzzzz bzzzzzzz

ONi - Rise of the Machines DLC

 

37 minutes ago, TripLykely said:

It isn’t trying to be accurate to real life; simply a video game universe with its own physics and elements that happen to be similar, and in some cases match, real life.

...

 

[Rinkusan]

I think these are just fun little deviations from reality for possibly artistic and gameplay reasons. For example, none of the typical real-life diatomic gases are diatomic in this game, but if they were, you wouldn't be able to make a quick and easy carbon pit to store your food. Even the carbon pit strat as portrayed in the game wouldn't work irl since, as helpful as CO2 can be for preserving food, it can't prevent anaerobic bacteria from growing on food. And if intermolecular forces were accurately portrayed in this game, you wouldn't be able to make a liquid-locked vacuum room because the liquid would just evaporate as you pump air out of the room. 

The game probably wouldn't be as digestable if it was true to reality rather than based on reality.

[babba]

Every idea or issue can be discussed...A common balancing issue in games is - The more game components, the longer a game is in development and stuff is added, the more things players can and will compare. I want my fire engine in the game...It could use realistic foam, but for me its greater if fire gets extinguished with ( dupe produced ) marshmallow creme from Ghostbusters. At least I can already construct a sewage.

@nakomaru Perhaps nakomaru has a view on the specific material conductivity comparison

1 hour ago, Big_Boy_Slav13 said:

In game aluminium has a thermal conductivity of 205DTUs and copper has a conductivity of 60DTUs so aluminium is 3 times as conductive but irl copper is 60% more conductive as stated here :  Copper is more conductive than aluminium. In fact, aluminium only has 60% of the thermal conductivity that copper does. am i missing something or is this just an inaccuracy?

 

[qda]

In theory pure copper has almost twice the thermal conductivity than aluminum.

However, copper is a metal for which impurities (grains of whatever else in its structure) heavily degrade its thermal and electrical conductivity, much more than aluminum, or most metals to some extend. So practically, should you buy two cheap, low-grade wires of copper and aluminum and measure their TC, you wouldn't see much difference between them, and it wouldn't be unreasonable for the aluminum to be more conductive (not by that much though).

And also, as many said, specific universe, specific physics !

[Sasza22]

21 hours ago, TripLykely said:

I think with copper the discrepancy to real life is a game balancing issue as copper is the starting metal on the starting biome on the starter planet, but I could be wrong

It might have something to do with it but the starting biome has copper ore. They could easily keep it`s high thermal coductivity while lowering it for the ore to keep the balance.

It looks more like they used reduced values for most metals to keep conducitvity in check in the early phases of development when we had very limited tools to control heat transfer. Then after we got most of the current stuff (around release) they added aluminium with the new starting biome and it was ok with condutivity closer to real life values. They just didn`t update the older metals so aluminium became the best condutor before thermium.