So, devs, will you bring back my favorite law of indestructibility of matter?

[Chervsaper]

Hello, devs and players! I do like games like ONI very much, and already spend hours on…  youtube - watching gameplay. Surely I will buy this game, but only when devs become law-abiding. Game already has some laws of physics, because there is gravity, light, warmth, electricity. But as it is now, matter in game keeps vanishing nowhere and sometimes comes from nowhere...

To details:

Plants (algae is surely a plant) cannot consume water irretrievably, most plants use it as a solvent and then vaporize it to air (humidity?). Plants (algae again) cannot consume carbon dioxide and not to increase mass - algae mass should grow in terrariums, not diminish. Why terrariums consume algae, when it should grow and prosper on consumed carbon dioxide?! Even decomposed algae cannot produce only oxygen, where goes carbon and hydrogen?

Plants (food source) cannot grow (increase mass) without consuming this mass from surrounding world (carbon dioxide, fertilizer, dirt, any or all).

Cooking uses water and other matter - not destructing it, as well as eating. Thirst and peeing not implemented, so be it, but outhouse and compost anyway should produce water – possible in form of vapors (humidity!), not only dry hard waste and toxic fumes. Volume of dirty water from lavatory should be more than of pumped pure water. Mass of consumed food should be equal to mass of poo - 27% of mass of produced carbon dioxide.

Contaminated oxygen and water – by what, some unnamed toxins? OK, but deodorizer and filter cannot annihilate it, as well as sand, it should produce any material waste.

Hydrogen generator should produce water (or water vapors) not just annihilate hydrogen and oxygen.

That is about indestructibility of matter. I do not ask to implement in game sustainable isolated environment, but game should be honest and balanced.

Also there is something that I don’t like (as an educated engineer).

Creating algae from slime by distillation? Funny. Any boiling will kill living plants. Plants can be created only by plants, by reproduction, you know… If there is some extraction of algae from slime, it should be extractor, maybe rotating, maybe using few water and sand, but not distiller anyway.

Seeing hydrogen contacting chlorine and not exploding? Not surprising, because there is no hydrochloric (or any) acid in game, so I can live with it. But acid + copper – battery power?

Some RL experiments shows, that simple isolated life cycle possible if there is a supply of energy from outside. So, we are on a planet, and it’s are big enough– just look at gravity, and already are life supporting, so why it can’t have hot core, steam veins (and clay volcanoes)). Let’s get geothermal (thermocouples are cheap). And maybe unlimited water from steam vents – but I’m not sure - it may break game balance…

[EmielRegis]

More realism sounds good on paper but there is point at which its damaging gameplay. However deletion of magical matter adding/removal would be nice, thats without doubt. Lets hope its just limitations of alpha.

[Vincie]

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Contaminated oxygen and water – by what, some unnamed toxins? OK, but deodorizer and filter cannot annihilate it, as well as sand, it should produce any material waste.

Deodorizers create some clay, water puryifyers sadly produce nothing... It should be changed.

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Seeing hydrogen contacting chlorine and not exploding? Not surprising, because there is no hydrochloric (or any) acid in game, so I can live with it. But acid + copper – battery power?

Acid generators, producing... Producing what?

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Hydrogen generator should produce water (or water vapors) not just annihilate hydrogen and oxygen.

Plox make it fuse with abyssalite for reasonable energy and lots of heat.

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Cooking uses water and other matter - not destructing it, as well as eating. Thirst and peeing not implemented, so be it, but outhouse and compost anyway should produce water – possible in form of vapors (humidity!), not only dry hard waste and toxic fumes. Volume of dirty water from lavatory should be more than of pumped pure water. Mass of consumed food should be equal to mass of poo - 27% of mass of produced carbon dioxide.

True. Or dups should be massive poop generators. But in my opinion microbe mushers should produce contaminated water as well.

[anachamd]

you dont need to compare all those detail IRL.. at simple example.. just create a manual generator.. you cant make those just using copper, you need melting it, smith design other component. well normaly you almost cant make it IRL.. moreover underground, even tony stark make those iron machine in prison very doubtful.

but I agree with the poo.. should add more output contamination water..

[Hudston]

There is a point at which you can get too realistic, either from the standpoint of engaging game play or just processing power. I definitely agree about diminishing algae, though. I lost my first colony because I didn't even consider that providing water and CO2 to algae would use it up rather than cause it to grow. I just find it really counter intuitive to have to seek out and mine algae to "burn" as if it were just another type of mineral.