How do you handle these logistics?

[Dkong]

Power Generation: I seem to struggle to keep up with power. It feels like half my work force is stuck running on the hamster wheels all day. Coal is nice, but gets burned up fast, at best it seems like a temporary supplement. Hydrogen would be ideal, but the amount oxidizers produce seems to barely be enough to power the oxidizer itself. At best hydrogen generators seem to only exist as a way to burn off hydrogen. So I feel like I'm perpetually stuck with early game tech to power my base. 

Air Flow: My general plan every time I make a new base is to have a constant airflow through the entire base. I usually in vision a low pressure region at the bottom of my base that pulls all gas down into it, and an air pump sends fresh oxygen back up along the sides and top. This seems to work ok, but my execution seems poor. My current base was running into low pressure problems because of the carbon scrubber, so I put another oxidizer next to it, but this sort of ruined the whole air flow of my base. My airflow seems to always end up just being a matter of exploiting the different density of gasses, which is slow and prone to troubling build ups, even though my plan is to have something more mechanical.

Construction and Work Force Efficiency: As my base expands, it seems harder and harder to get things done. Construction projects start become much larger in scale and delivery routes become much longer. Something that seems simple in early game suddenly becomes a huge chore. Build a tunnel with an airlock and oxygen source. Early game I can get this sort of project done in a fraction of a cycle, but once I start having to stretch into other biomes. This sort of project seems to take multiple cycles just to complete. I've tried dumping a storage bin with the materials I needed prior to starting construction, but this didn't seem to help much, but maybe my execution was bad. The real killer seems to be the extremely long delivery routes. I find one of the best ways to get out of a work force rut is to just use the priority tool and reset everything on the map to priority 5. It works good for me, but seems extremely sloppy. Of course this could all just be an illusion of scale, perhaps I'm getting a lot more done than I used to, but it feels extremely slow compared to when the base is small.

So how do you tackle these problems?

[Moggles]

For hamster wheels I like to try and find a balance of wheels, batteries and consumers on a single circuit to aim for all batteries being fully charged before a quarter of a cycle after they wake up. I set the battery thresholds on a low percentage like 5%. I don't see any need for them to return at 50%. If you set the threshold lower and you have enough battery charge to run everything until the next morning then after their morning exercise routine they will be free to do other tasks.

A coal generator can fill 8-10 large batteries up with one full load of coal. You can set up the batteries and generator separated from the rest of the circuit using a switch. Allow one load of coal to fill up the batteries then disable the coal generator. Now you have a store of power available any time you need it. If you want to free up your dupes time for a a cycle or two flick the switch to connect the circuit. You can probably expand on this with more batteries and stuff.

For air flow I don't have much suggestion. Seal off your base. Keep the insides nice and tight and pressurised with gas vents evenly spread out. Gas tiles to allow CO2 to drop and an air scrubber in the bottom right is all I aim for.

I feel your pain on construction time. Recently I've been trying to utilise mechanical airlocks to create dupe outposts. You can technically create a small remote living area. Beds, food, sanitary services all in there. With some careful airlock permission settings you can keep a group of workers out in a remote spot for your construction projects, drastically cutting out some travel time.

I'm not great at the game but I like trying to micromanage the colony. Dupe time can be overlooked resource.

[Kasuha]

On 14. 4. 2017 at 4:52 PM, Dkong said:

Power Generation: I seem to struggle to keep up with power. It feels like half my work force is stuck running on the hamster wheels all day.

I try to use power efficient solutions. If it doesn't need to run continuously (most things don't) it doesn't run continuously. For example, I have two CO2 collection areas in my base. In each there is gas pump that's typically switched off. When I notice there's enough CO2, I switch the pump on. The pump runs into a filter that filters out oxygen, and that oxygen goes to another filter which is switched off. When the pump starts pumping oxygen, it clogs and stops. Then I switch the pump off and clean up the pipe by switching the third filter on, then off. Similar system is in the hydrogen collection area. And there is separate room with air scrubber where any collected CO2 is deployed and I only switch it on when the room is full of CO2.

Almost nothing is running continuously in my base. Up to recently, there were three fertilizer makers running. But I stopped them too since I now have fertilizer for a hundred of cycles already.

Oh and of course, anything that needs cooling is cooled with wheezeworts. Or with closed hydrogen pipe loops. I don't see them as cheating if we can achieve essentially the same with wheezeworts.

On 14. 4. 2017 at 4:52 PM, Dkong said:

Air Flow:

Gas permeable tile everywhere in the base. CO2 collection area(s) at the bottom, hydrogen collection area at the top. Clean oxygen everywhere else. Electrolyzers near the top so they don't disturb dupes with hydrogen bubbles. 

On 14. 4. 2017 at 4:52 PM, Dkong said:

Construction and Work Force Efficiency: 

I use patience for that. A few times I used the access feature of mechanized airlock (dupes are more dilligent at digging tunels if nobody can steal the next tile they need to dig) but I did not stick to it.

[Falcahtas]

Coal is no problem if you can trap a bunch of hatches somewhere.

[Kermack]

what sucks right now is there's no way to transform electricity so we are stuck with having to keep systems relatively close so the wires to overload and break constantly

 

hopefully they will institute some sort of substations/bridges

[Kermack]

On 4/14/2017 at 10:52 AM, Dkong said:

The real killer seems to be the extremely long delivery routes.

You'll need to compartmentalize your people,  you could do this by setting up living quarters and foods sources farther from the start point.

I think there will be transport items/buildings in later updates.

[tehMugwump]

As mentioned, hatches for coal to run the generators.  I've been finding hatches all over the place, so it's not much of a problem to pen them in somewhere with a storage unit that's kept full of dirt you empty once in awhile for them to eat. (or whatever lesser mineral you have more of)

[AlexRou]

1 hour ago, tehMugwump said:

As mentioned, hatches for coal to run the generators.  I've been finding hatches all over the place, so it's not much of a problem to pen them in somewhere with a storage unit that's kept full of dirt you empty once in awhile for them to eat. (or whatever lesser mineral you have more of)

morbs + pufts + hatches = inf coal

Or if you have too much ph2o, fertilizer maker. Less risk of killing them off and easier than using ice. Trying it out to see if its self sustaining. Takes only 2 wheels to run 5 fertilizer makers and all the pumps.

[AlexRou]

So after some testing, found that 3 hatches need 8 fertilizer makers to keep the hatches eating almost all the time and have some extra fertilizer for blossoms.

3 hatches fed this way is just enough to fuel one coal generator.

But you kinda put more energy in to keep the hatches full than you get from one coal generator sooo .... lol