Algae Terrarium should create Algae

[Grallen350]

(Not consume it)

Algae turn the carbon dioxide into oxygen by removing the carbon and building more algae out of it (well storing the sugar to prepare to divide).

Algae + Carbon Dioxide + Water + Light = More Algae + Oxygen

I would be fun to be farming more algae in a smaller lossy cycle early on.

Also, the terrarium should require light.

[CrutchPunk]

Yes! This... it would be perfect. The addition of light being required (instead of the current state, where is just boosts oxygen production) would be a smart addition to increase the difficulty of the terrariums. It would need to be more difficult, or the player could become too overpowered too early. Additionally, they could make the terrariums similar to the Planter Pots.. a certain amount of algae/oxygen is produced before it runs out and has to be restocked.

[ibew_sparky]

Algae bloom!  it could create more algae depending on how much carbon dioxide it uses...

 

[Zezarict]

This is indeed the common opinion of the community.

[Screendog]

in my first game i was expecting algae terrariums to produce more algae, i was surprised when i saw dupes delivering more.

logic dictates that plants grow over time so really algae terrariums should be a harvest-able resource like mealwood plants and with the light bonus they should grow faster as well. the only time a terrarium should need more algae is if the algae is dying due to overheating or lack of water for x amount of time. its a plant after all. 

[SilverSkeejee]

I do kinda see the balance that they are going for - otherwise it would be far too easy to get a closed system very early on in the game and that's not really a challenge. However it's a tad too far the other way at the moment, in that I have to go algae spelunking otherwise my colony starts to collapse under CO2. 

So what I think it needs is some progression that naturally ramps up in requirements/sustainability. Something maybe like this:

Tier 1 - as is currently, needs constant restocks of water/algae.
Tier 2 - Algae is only needed for construction, is then sustained by water only and also requires light to sustain.
Tier 3 - Algae is actively grown and harvested, fresh water must now be pumped in, requires a medium to create and light for food. 

Tier 3 would then need further branching support to make algae a useful resource outside of CO2 conversion e.g. used in food or decorations.

[ibew_sparky]

another option is to remove the algae blocks, have it harvested from plants that you find a couple of at the beginning of the game.  Then produce more algae from the terrarium.  On a side note all plants could produce gasses of some form

[yukajii]

They sure should request some Algae while being built, but then, if there are perfect conditions like light source and enough CO2, the terrarium should produce algae instead of consuming. But not too much so as not to render slime distillers useless. 

[Masterpintsman]

I see it this way:
Algae Terrariums should require algae to construct and then grow algae from water, fertilizer and CO2 - light speeds them up and maybe gives a little additional O2.
Algae deoxidiser should produce some residue, could be some kind of filtration material (dried algae sponges) or something to burn (like coal).
Microbe Musher should get an option to make bars from algae (or the sponges, using more water).

 

[Beercules]

They should remove the algae production from slime and just let it produce contaminated water, allowing the Algae terrariums to produce a small amount of algae per with the requirement of carbon dioxide + water with bonus when under light or they die and require more algae to replant. CO2 scrubbers wastes sand which is being used for air scrubbers. if you change slim and algae as i suggested above the CO2 scubber becomes obsolete and it resolves the issue of not enough sand. 

 But i guess you want the game to be impossibly hard eh?

[A.Pix]

Oh God, yes please!!

I was actually hoping that was what that thing would do, and was mad when I realized it NEEDED algae and did not produce it. So far, this whole oxygen issue and running out of algae has been my only real problem...and it really frustrates me! I want to get into the game and I can't because my people keep suffocating. Its the name of the game, so I understand the premise, but I think it needs a little tweaking to make it more manageable.

[The_Fez_Guy]

I know algae is what gets me every time oh 2 more cycles and iv achieved 100% sustainability (i made a post on it search infinite oxygen) with no bad side affects iv achieved it once but before it could really get going cause i needed to grab more slime to make more algae all the co2 killed my guys just before it was complete ugh. anyways make algae terrariums easier to use like with plants will give off algae and then it requires light that'd be nice ad make it a bit more fun to play instead of making a world going k no were enough algae and restarting after spamming the shuffle button half an hour for the right dupes.

[MiraKHall]

This is a must; it would make a lot of sense to have this feature, albeit slowly.

[BreadProduct]

A lot of things about algae just doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I think the problem is either calling it algae when it's not or that it's not behaving like algae. Algae isn't mined from the ground! They are aquatic! And since algae reproduces the fact that terrariums are using it like fuel makes no sense.

I understand that preventing perfect sustainable oxygen from the get go is important but it should at least make sense. I think algae should be more rare. Like muckroot instead of a digging block. Nutrients for the algae to keep it alive. Another use for fertilizer. Can be sustained with water and fertilizer but will make more with a light source. And perhaps to add stakes it can die if it is starved for too long.

[theonlycheshire]

Indeed, one of my biggest complaints is that so far you can't sustain your own base.  While that adds to difficulty in a rogue-like way, I'd prefer that the algae be sustainable.  Ideally it should generate algae with bright light, and lose algae in darkness.

It should still consume it, as algae has a lifecycle.  Also I believe (dependent on how far the devs want to take this game) that certain plants should have a minor effect on oxygen production as well.  My thought is that these plants should exist within certain biomes that produce oxygen.  It would ask the questions of which plants do I want for decoration, and do I really want to reject these dupes?  There's a lot of nerdy sciencey stuff I won't get into here

These should be minimal effects though, it would force the player to think about how many dupes they can have (hmmm, do I want to reject these dupes?), while keeping in with the whole idea of resource management.

[ChemistryGeek02]

Seriously, everyone here is right! We need a way to grow algae, and algae terrariums sound perfect. What I've also noticed is the lack of production on bio distillers. I hate to change the subject like that, but everyone here can agree there's no way to get enough algae past around cycle 35. I think that if both are implemented, the effects would be a game that you could play on the same save-state for a while. Great ideas, I hope the Devs see this!

[ProfNox]

It's a kind of way to create a biosphere.

Terrarium are supposed to make grow a plant, not to consume it. There is no sense. Moreover, we can breath thanks to the alguae in the real life. Since million years before humans, oceans are the Earth's lung. Just imagine if they begin to consume his flora...

Another important way is the fact it consumme so many water, as it "disappears" inside them. We're well placed in this game to said that "Nothing is lost, everything is transformed". But this water isn't. Most of water consumers engine should release the water they are used into water gaz in the air. Without this, no biosphere should be ever created, and they're all intended to die.

The same problem occurs into foods, sanitizers, which consum dirt and sand... etc. etc. The elements disapear, transformed into nothing.

[yungmew]

What if we could have some sort of fictional plant that spews oxygen by inhaling carbon dioxide, but takes up a planter box and requires harvesting and replanting to keep up?

[SpaceKing]

The algae farms aren't really supposed to be realistic; they're a slow way of converting waste CO2 into breathable O2. Its a functional game aspect, not a sensible one. Deoxidizer is early game O2 generation (when you exhaust oxylite), whereas terrariums are your early CO2 removal (before scrubbers). I do agree it's silly but give the devs some credit, they probably weren't aiming to make it realistic.

That said, I would vastly prefer algae getting re-tooled because its not worth the water you waste on it. So much of the stuff that uses water is pointless (looking at you, liceloaf). Do hope the devs embrace conservation of mass in the future, but thats up to them. Hard to balance in a game sense, after all.