ask questions Ask and ye shall receive

[Czeraphine]

If you have a question, remember to tag me @Czeraphine

67 hours into this game, and I feel like I know sufficiently enough about this game's mechanics in its current state that I can answer almost any question. So, for the sake of starting a budding Alpha FAQ thread, ask me/the community and questions about the game and hopefully get a satisfying answer back! I will be updating the OP as questions pop up. Remember, there are no stupid questions, only stupid dupes.

*Also, bonus points for coming up with a snazzy title for the thread (am very bad at naming things).

Question:  have you used gas / liquid valves much? What instances do you find them most useful

Spoiler

Yes, I've used them heavily to an extent. I use the gas valves when piping input into my hydrogen generator. Usually, it would go in large waves of 250g-500g when pumped in from the top of a hydrogen chamber. Using the gas valve to limit it down to 100g/s ensures that the hydrogen generator will always be performing at peak capacity. This is caused by a current bug that the hydrogen generator can only operate during the moment an input is placed on the hydrogen generator. It will not use up hydrogen stored unless there is some gas being piped into it. This is the cause of many hydrogen generators filling up with hydrogen.

As for the liquid valves, I use them to limit the input piped into my electrolyzer. Currently, the liquid pump, pumps at approximately 10kg/pipe section. With the liquid valve, I can limit this down to 1kg/s to 2kg/s, the optimal water consumption of the electrolyzer. I've gone up to cycle 300 using only pure water (no converted contaminated water) using this method, and only a single electrolyzer.

Question: I can understand a bug with he hydrogen generator, but why is it that the Electrolyzer  lacks a lot of efficiency there? Is it a bug? Is there any way to know this optimal amount in-game?

Spoiler

The Electrolyzer lacks a certain efficiency since with 10kg/s of water being pumped into it, and the electrolyzer only using 1kg of water per second, a large chunk of water can just randomly disappear, leading to your water supply dwindling rather rapidly. This is where valves come in useful. Additionally, the optimal amount in-game is just a little bit more than the amount of water used by the Electrolyzer (essentially just keeping it topped off while minimizing water lost to where ever things enjoy disappearing to).

Question:  That's what I mean, is the water supply "disappearing into the void" a bug? Because if not, that's a bit weird...where does it go ._.

Spoiler

water "disappearing into the void" is pretty much a bug -the game is in Alpha after all c: It's analogous to airtight doors destroying the gas between them when they're closed, and a tile destroying any gas or liquid it is built over.

Question: Conserved? What do you mena in this context? To me it seems like perhaps machines always input the same, constant about of fluid/gas, regardless of how quickly it uses it. Is that what you mean?

Spoiler

Well, I'll just give a few examples here as I think it's the best way to approach this question. Lets say you have a pump and a thermo cooler. If you pump gas from within a closed system, through the thermo cooler, back into the closed system, the output gas density is less than what was input into the system. Sometimes, water mysteriously vanishes without being converted when going through the Electrolyzer. The conversion rate of contaminated water to pure water when using the water purifier is nowhere near 100%.

When digging undug tiles, you only recieve back half of that tile's mass. And, the list continues.

Question: What is the resulting gas temperature change from a single thermo cooler?

Spoiler

The resulting gas temperature change a single pass through the thermo is approximately 10 degrees, with a linear change down to below absolute zero. Be warned though, reaching below absolute zero causes the game to crash. Additionally, you can find all of the detailed specs for the devices by looking at the info for when you're building said device.

Question: About pipe line system, what the best between set one pump and one pipe for all machine. Or each pump and each pipe separate for each machine?

Spoiler

The answer here is somewhat subjective. However, generally, a single pump for all of your machines is enough, as long as you manage water/air flow well enough by using valves. Using too many pumps leads to too much power usage. Valves cost no additional energy.

Question: How does gas flow? It seems like carbon dioxide floats to the bottom, but contaminated oxygen just seems to float around. It doesn't seem very efficient to have to put gas pumps through my whole facility to send it to that monster thing.

Spoiler

Gas, currently, flows in this order, from top to bottom: Hydrogen, Chlorine, Contaminated Oxygen, Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide. Contaminated Oxygen, however, is relatively close to Oxygen, so it seems like it just floats there all the time. An easy way to manage this would be to place air de-oxidizers in the source of the contaminated oxygen. Or, to pump it outside of your base via air filters.

Question: Does Chlorine gas have any consequences? It seems similar to CO2 in that Dups can't breathe it, but they can hold their breath in it for short amounts of time without any ill effects. Does Chlorine gas act as a poison or cause any health effects to Dups, like it would in real life? Does Chlorine gas kill plants or corrode machines, or anything like that?

Spoiler

Chlorine, in its current state, does not act any more differently than CO2 or Hydrogen. It's just another gas you can't breath in. With that said, it does not cause much ill effect to your dupes, plants, or machines.

Question: What do you think the best order of research is?

Spoiler

Farming Tech: food is really important.

Gas Piping > Pressure Management: in order to isolate your base's oxygen atmosphere and prevent oxygen from running thin

Power Regulation > Combustion: Preparing for the electrolyzer

Liquid piping > percolation > Advanced filtration: you need all of these in order to run an efficient hydrogen generator and decent oxygen generation.

fine dining: need to keep that food fresh.

Decor - at this point, increasing decor is good as your dupes will have higher decor expectations

Temperature modulation - maybe you messed up and need to keep your plants cool

insulation: this is useless.

Sanitation and medbay.. pretty useless as well. Sanitation may be good only for the deoxidizer and manual air lock

 

 

[chromiumboy]

Hrmm, have you used gas / liquid valves much? What instances do you find them most useful?

[Tribal1511]

i have a question every now and then my vents or over pressurized or whatever that red notice is on them and i do have valves and the room is under max pressure if i save and reload though it goes away is this a known bug or am i doing something wrong with my set ups

[Czeraphine]

17 minutes ago, chromiumboy said:

Hrmm, have you used gas / liquid valves much? What instances do you find them most useful?

Yes, I've used them heavily to an extent. I use the gas valves when piping input into my hydrogen generator. Usually, it would go in large waves of 250g-500g when pumped in from the top of a hydrogen chamber. Using the gas valve to limit it down to 100g/s ensures that the hydrogen generator will always be performing at peak capacity. This is caused by a current bug that the hydrogen generator can only operate during the moment an input is placed on the hydrogen generator. It will not use up hydrogen stored unless there is some gas being piped into it. This is the cause of many hydrogen generators filling up with hydrogen.

As for the liquid valves, I use them to limit the input piped into my electrolyzer. Currently, the liquid pump, pumps at approximately 10kg/pipe section. With the liquid valve, I can limit this down to 1kg/s to 2kg/s, the optimal water consumption of the electrolyzer. I've gone up to cycle 300 using only pure water (no converted contaminated water) using this method, and only a single electrolyzer.

[Zezarict]

I can understand a bug with he hydrogen generator, but why is it that the Electrolyzer  lacks a lot of efficiency there? Is it a bug? Is there any way to know this optimal amount in-game?

[Czeraphine]

5 minutes ago, Zezarict said:

I can understand a bug with he hydrogen generator, but why is it that the Electrolyzer  lacks a lot of efficiency there? Is it a bug? Is there any way to know this optimal amount in-game?

The Electrolyzer lacks a certain efficiency since with 10kg/s of water being pumped into it, and the electrolyzer only using 1kg of water per second, a large chunk of water can just randomly disappear, leading to your water supply dwindling rather rapidly. This is where valves come in useful. Additionally, the optimal amount in-game is just a little bit more than the amount of water used by the Electrolyzer (essentially just keeping it topped off while minimizing water lost to where ever things enjoy disappearing to).

[Zezarict]

That's what I mean, is the water supply "disappearing into the void" a bug? Because if not, that's a bit weird...where does it go ._.

[Czeraphine]

Just now, Zezarict said:

That's what I mean, is the water supply "disappearing into the void" a bug? Because if not, that's a bit weird...where does it go ._.

water "disappearing into the void" is pretty much a bug -the game is in Alpha after all c: It's analogous to airtight doors destroying the gas between them when they're closed, and a tile destroying any gas or liquid it is built over.

[Zezarict]

Yeah, I understand bugs happen,a dn that is an understandable bug. I was jsut asking to make sure that it wasn't an intentional feature.

 

EDIT: Maybe make a "PSA" with that known bug. Optimal values that won't bug out things that you pipe gas/water into.

[Czeraphine]

@Zezarict Unfortunately, almost nothing is conserved in the game so far :c

 

[Zezarict]

Conserved? What do you mena in this context?

To me it seems like perhaps machines always input the same, constant about of fluid/gas, regardless of how quickly it uses it. Is that what you mean?

[Czeraphine]

Just now, Zezarict said:

Conserved? What do you mena in this context?

To me it seems like perhaps machines always input the same, constant about of fluid/gas, regardless of how quickly it uses it. Is that what you mean?

Well, I'll just give a few examples here as I think it's the best way to approach this question. Lets say you have a pump and a thermo cooler. If you pump gas from within a closed system, through the thermo cooler, back into the closed system, the output gas density is less than what was input into the system. Sometimes, water mysteriously vanishes without being converted when going through the Electrolyzer. The conversion rate of contaminated water to pure water when using the water purifier is nowhere near 100%.

When digging undug tiles, you only recieve back half of that tile's mass. And, the list continues.

[rexthegamer2000]

What machines produce C02? For some reason, C02 keeps appearing even when i have loads of oxygen the previous cycle.

[Zezarict]

8 minutes ago, rexthegamer2000 said:

What machines produce C02? For some reason, C02 keeps appearing even when i have loads of oxygen the previous cycle.

I'm just asking to make sure. You know that Dupes produce CO2 from breathing, correct?

[rexthegamer2000]

41 minutes ago, Zezarict said:

I'm just asking to make sure. You know that Dupes produce CO2 from breathing, correct?

Yeah but i don't think that they should produce enough CO2 to completely fill my bases? Unless something else is producing C02, does compost/toilets produce C02?

[Zezarict]

22 minutes ago, rexthegamer2000 said:

Yeah but i don't think that they should produce enough CO2 to completely fill my bases? Unless something else is producing C02, does compost/toilets produce C02?

Compost/toilets produce contaminated oxygen. Dupes just produce an unrealistic amount of CO2 for gameplay purposes. If everything was 100% realistic, the game's mechanics wouldn't even be able to exist.

[PaulV]

@rexthegamer2000: Are you sure you actually have loads of oxygen? Because usually it's the amount of oxygen in the air that keeps the CO2 volume down (by compressing it), but then if there's very little oxygen the CO2 decompresses and fills the entire base very quickly, even though there's not actually that much more CO2, just more spread out.

[jigggy2000]

3 hours ago, rexthegamer2000 said:

Yeah but i don't think that they should produce enough CO2 to completely fill my bases? Unless something else is producing C02, does compost/toilets produce C02?

I believe coal generators produce CO2. Only other one that i know of. 

[Travin]

What is the resulting gas temperature change from a single thermo cooler?

For context, I see a number of threads with people making elaborate cooling systems, and I want to experiment,  but looking at detail panels for this device provides only info about temp of device and power consumption. And a side note, where do you find all of these detailed specs for all devices? I suspect they'll be available in-game at some later date but it sure help my game play to find this on my own rather than ask and search here each time. 

Thx!  =0)

[Mitsuru]

About pipe line system, what the best between set one pump and one pipe for all machine. Or each pump and each pipe separate for each machine?

[fishtree]

How does gas flow? It seems like carbon dioxide floats to the bottom, but contaminated oxygen just seems to float around. It doesn't seem very efficient to have to put gas pumps through my whole facility to send it to that monster thing.

[Interloper]

Does Chlorine gas have any consequences? It seems similar to CO2 in that Dups can't breathe it, but they can hold their breath in it for short amounts of time without any ill effects. Does Chlorine gas act as a poison or cause any health effects to Dups, like it would in real life? Does Chlorine gas kill plants or corrode machines, or anything like that?

[Czeraphine]

7 hours ago, Travin said:

What is the resulting gas temperature change from a single thermo cooler?

For context, I see a number of threads with people making elaborate cooling systems, and I want to experiment,  but looking at detail panels for this device provides only info about temp of device and power consumption. And a side note, where do you find all of these detailed specs for all devices? I suspect they'll be available in-game at some later date but it sure help my game play to find this on my own rather than ask and search here each time. 

Thx!  =0)

The resulting gas temperature change a single pass through the thermo is approximately 10 degrees, with a linear change down to below absolute zero. Be warned though, reaching below absolute zero causes the game to crash. Additionally, you can find all of the detailed specs for the devices by looking at the info for when you're building said device.

[Czeraphine]

7 hours ago, Mitsuru said:

About pipe line system, what the best between set one pump and one pipe for all machine. Or each pump and each pipe separate for each machine?

The answer here is somewhat subjective. However, generally, a single pump for all of your machines is enough, as long as you manage water/air flow well enough by using valves. Using too many pumps leads to too much power usage. Valves cost no additional energy.

[Czeraphine]

5 hours ago, fishtree said:

How does gas flow? It seems like carbon dioxide floats to the bottom, but contaminated oxygen just seems to float around. It doesn't seem very efficient to have to put gas pumps through my whole facility to send it to that monster thing.

Gas, currently, flows in this order, from top to bottom: Hydrogen, Contaminated Oxygen, Oxygen, Chlorine, Carbon Dioxide. Contaminated Oxygen, however, is relatively close to Oxygen, so it seems like it just floats there all the time. An easy way to manage this would be to place air de-oxidizers in the source of the contaminated oxygen. Or, to pump it outside of your base via air filters.