Increase pressure cap on Electrolyzers (Occupational Update)

[Zarquan]

Electrolyzers annoy me.  I can never get them to stay on without exploits, which makes me constantly feel like I'm doing something wrong because buildings should work.  The issue (in my mind) is that they release enough gas to overpressurize within a few seconds then they stop working. 

I was thinking that since the electrolyzer is a high tech building that you might consider increasing the max pressure shutoff to something closer to 5 kg, or even 10 kg, rather than the standard 2 kg.  That would likely allow for electrolyzers to function constantly if set up properly.  Then, the player could regulate the pressure in the base, as they could tie the electrolyzer's automation input to a pressure sensor some distance away. 

Please do say something if this is not an issue in the latest patch.

[Supraluminal]

Yeah, as long as gas disperses as fast as cold molasses, buildings/vents overpressuring at 2kg just doesn't work. Electrolyzers overpressure themselves when surrounded by gas pumps working full-tilt in a near vacuum. It's ridiculous.

I'd personally prioritize making gases less viscous over changing the pressure thresholds since that would fix a lot of other intensely annoying behaviors in the game. But of course they could do both.

[Coolthulhu]

Electrolyzers are already the best source of oxygen, no need to buff them further. If the only problem is overpressure, they could just get a big nerf to output, with hydrogen power plant getting a buff to efficiency to compensate (while also making hydrogen geysers actually matter).

At the moment electrolyzers are both more power-efficient and fuel efficient than deoxydizers. Dropping them to 300g/s would change power efficiency, but still keep them better at fuel efficiency.

[Zarquan]

45 minutes ago, Supraluminal said:

Yeah, as long as gas disperses as fast as cold molasses, buildings/vents overpressuring at 2kg just doesn't work. Electrolyzers overpressure themselves when surrounded by gas pumps working full-tilt in a near vacuum. It's ridiculous.

I'd personally prioritize making gases less viscous over changing the pressure thresholds since that would fix a lot of other intensely annoying behaviors in the game. But of course they could do both.

I'm actually OK with the vents because all you have to do is spread out vents.  In real life, people tend to have vents all over the place in buildings and underground structures.  The reasons are different, but it is still done and feels realistic.  I'm even OK with the deoxidizers doing it because it is easy to spread them out.  One deoxidizer isn't going to overpressurize unless your base has decent pressure.  The problem is that electrolyzers is that not only do they put out twice the mass, but they also emit two different types of gas, which seriously hinders gas flow since gases do not mix in this game.

29 minutes ago, Coolthulhu said:

Electrolyzers are already the best source of oxygen, no need to buff them further. If the only problem is overpressure, they could just get a big nerf to output, with hydrogen power plant getting a buff to efficiency to compensate (while also making hydrogen geysers actually matter).

At the moment electrolyzers are both more power-efficient and fuel efficient than deoxydizers. Dropping them to 300g/s would change power efficiency, but still keep them better at fuel efficiency.

The thing is this wouldn't really be a buff.  It would make it easier to use in some ways and harder in others and it wouldn't change the resource efficiency.  If you let them run unchecked in your base, your dupes might get popped eardrums when they go near.  Another option, which you would see in real world electrolyzer setups, is only releasing one of them directly in to the air.  What they would do is release the oxygen in to the air and pipe the hydrogen away.  That would also likely solve the problem.

[BlueLance]

I thought they don't overpressurize if you use two pumps per electrolyzer? or they do but very little.

[Harrold Saxon]

If they just output to a pipe, everything would be fixed. You'd just need to add a filter for the hydrogen, and vents where you want them. IMO, all gass and liquid outputs should require pipes. Would make so much more sence for so many things. Like, you don't see a generator without an exaust pipe in real life.  why have a separate pump right next to it?

[Ambaire]

4 hours ago, Harrold Saxon said:

If they just output to a pipe, everything would be fixed. You'd just need to add a filter for the hydrogen, and vents where you want them. IMO, all gass and liquid outputs should require pipes. Would make so much more sence for so many things. Like, you don't see a generator without an exaust pipe in real life.  why have a separate pump right next to it?

sense, exhaust, sorry. But I agree, they really should have outputs. Fertilizer synths / petro refineries should have ngas outputs, Electrolyzers would be so much easier if they just had separate outputs. There's no real reason why they shouldn't.

I have noticed that no building in the game has more than one dedicated output of any sort, or outputs of two different types. I wonder why.

[Oozinator]

Electrolyzers are fine for me and i stay away from all those pumping/cooling combined systems, even when the Perlator mini V2 was the best compact design ever. I let hydro free flow, store O². Could run whole base on hydro, when i don't want the PW from the NG.
All those pumps create heat, use energy. Hydrogen seems to be thought of, to flow free through your base. Airflow has to be setup, that hydro don't get stuck.
If you ask me, nothing should be changed for electros, they work fine (never change running system)..
Dome works very well and watch the temp..

[BlueLance]

I also dont really have a problem with electrolyzers in general, Currently I have 4 and I can run my base off of them, but I let the oxygen spread out on its own, sure they over-pressurise but thats fine, dupes will breath or use my atmo suits, some pumps will scoop that oxygen up which create a deficit, then they pump out more gas etc. If they are over-pressurised then I see it as my entire base has 1.8kg of oxygen. Or my hyrdogen Pipe/Tank has overflowed

[Oozinator]

31 minutes ago, BlueLance said:

 Or my hyrdogen Pipe/Tank has overflowed

What do you use as tank?
 

[BlueLance]

35 minutes ago, Oozinator said:

What do you use as tank?
 

Just a 96 tile room with a vent which is then replaced with a high pressure vent at some point down the line.

[Kasuha]

I think it wouldn't hurt if electrolyzers went over pressure at ~2.5 or 3 kg/tile rather than current 1.8. Higher so the gas has more force to dissipate, but low enough so duplicants don't get popped ears.

Or it could be set at 5 kg/tile like a lot of other producers have it, leaving it up to the player to regulate the pressure if he wants lower.

Of course there's no reason to sweat about electrolyzers going over pressure. Letting them go over pressure is fine, it not waste of anything. If you need more production, build more electrolyzers.

[Oozinator]

42 minutes ago, BlueLance said:

Just a 96 tile room with a vent which is then replaced with a high pressure vent at some point down the line.

Why not so?

[BlueLance]

20 minutes ago, Oozinator said:

Why not so?

Because i find that to be an exploit/unintended mechanic.

The only exploit(Not sure if it can be called that?) I use is the ability to build diagonally. Well to the best of my knowledge.

[Oozinator]

7 minutes ago, BlueLance said:

The only exploit?

I bet that storage overpressure thing is temporary and will be fixed, when they add tanks into the game for storage. When i am wrong about it, i have no problem using it, because it supports gamemechanic to opt things.
That is the same category for me like drip bug.
It works without, but with it, it has more power. Borg cube works without the bug, but much slower. You could store stuff like we described, but there is no special way, game offers to do that thing.
When i want to freeze stuff i need much hydro stored. A 96 tile tank works too, but will impact FPS much more(from my experience).
 

[BlueLance]

Recently my game has actually been really stable, I normally get to about 24FPS on triple speed, but currently I am at the same and getting between 48 and 52. Which is really surprising for me.

[Oozinator]

Just now, BlueLance said:

Which is really surprising for me.

For me not. Map feels a bit smaller (cam locked border pos) and previews are always slower, because of logging
I have stable FPS too, but i do some things, because i know, it helped in the old days. Like pathing - multiple paths and i always lock excess material outside pathing (door permissions) and prevent red icons (suck my nerves) ^^
 

[BlueLance]

Yeah, I have a very basic piping system, using as little as possible, for instance my 4 pumps for hydrogen all connect nicely. then using a bridge I send it to my hydrogen generators. Once that backs up the excess goes to my AETN (If i have one set up) and once that backs up the excess goes into my storage tank, which has its own pump which connects to the hydrogen generators.

Natural Gas is the exact same but obviously doesnt go to the AETN