Inconsistencies in the Game

[Bloc97]

After playing many hours of Oxygen not included, I've noticed some inconsistencies in how the game handles "correct" science.

Don't get me wrong, I've only loved this game since its alpha release, but I still want to express my opinions.

At first, the game appears to be trying to apply correct scientifical theories, such as

• Distinction between Power, Energy and Work
• Heat transfer
• Atmospheric pressure
• "Some" Chemical processes

But I couldn't just overlook some inconsistencies because they make the game feel unrealistic, not in the sense where some materials are fictitious, but feels like the game is trying to be realistic in some places but is not so much on others.

• Hydrogen generator does not use Oxygen (or some other oxidizer), nor a catalyst metal (platinum etc.)
  • If oxygen shouldn't be used, there are some other alternatives such as DMFC cells.
  • But hydrogen can't just disappear and "create" energy out of nowhere.
• Coal generator does not use Oxygen
  • You can't burn coal without Oxygen
• Contaminated oxygen feels too "cheap"
  • What is it actually? Bacteria? Methane? Currently feels like a generic "bad gas" filler.
  • If it is Methane, you can actually produce electricity or produce other stuff.
• Same can be said for contaminated water
  • Ammonia can be used instead, as it is what pollutes water (mostly).
• Small confusion between density, mass, volume and pressure.
  • The game only displays everything in grams (mass), but 1g of CO2 does not exert the same pressure than 1g of O2
  • The correct unit to use would be mols

The rest is just me nitpicking, and I believe it is fine for them to exist for gameplay purposes

• Gas and water flow in pipes
  • As explained earlier, mass does not equal pressure, and the pipe flow is very unrealistic.
  • It would be nice to be able to treat the pipes as a continuous object where gas/liquid can flow, and not a conveyor that moves them around.
    • Though this can be very hard to implement, so I understand the devs' choice.
• Speaking of conveyors, they would be an great addition to the game!

To repeat myself, I'm not saying the game is bad, the choices the devs made are clearly working for most players, but I like to provide some feedback.