Fractionator vs. Particle Collider

[Regicide]

Hey,

Do I understand correctly that the Particle Collider is faster, but has a ratio of 2: 1, while Fractionator is slower but works with a 1: 1 ratio?

Regards

[Mylon]

Because of the aformationed 1:1 vs 1:2, fractionator makes the particle collider recipe obsolete. Fractionators also benefit from mk3 belts allowing them to work faster. You can also daisy chain the fracionators to make a setup nice and compact for a minor efficiency loss on the ones a few steps down the line.

[Regicide]

Allright, thank you!

Ye, I connectet 40 Fractionators with Mk3 belts to take care of the Hydrogen produced by the Fire Ice conversion factory. And I want to use this Deut for my Deuteron Rods production that will finally feed the Carrier Rocket Factory.

I hope it will work

[pat]

Originally posted by Mylon:

You can also daisy chain the fracionators to make a setup nice and compact for a minor efficiency loss on the ones a few steps down the line.

Is there a "best number" of units in the chain before they get backed up?

I've been waiting for blueprints before using fractionators rather than particle colliders because they're more work.

[Kendov]

Originally posted by pat:

Is there a "best number" of units in the chain before they get backed up?

I've been waiting for blueprints before using fractionators rather than particle colliders because they're more work.

The problem is less about backing up than teh reduced flow of hydrogen to the fractionaters further down the chain. for every deuterium produced, the next fractionator receives less hydrogen, I usually use them in loops of 10 fractionators and the last to receive hydrogen usually has 27-25. The first one I had built around the pole went down to 10-15 with dozens of fractioners.

[Regicide]

Originally posted by Kendov:

Originally posted by pat:

Is there a "best number" of units in the chain before they get backed up?

I've been waiting for blueprints before using fractionators rather than particle colliders because they're more work.

The problem is less about backing up than teh reduced flow of hydrogen to the fractionaters further down the chain. for every deuterium produced, the next fractionator receives less hydrogen, I usually use them in loops of 10 fractionators and the last to receive hydrogen usually has 27-25. The first one I had built around the pole went down to 10-15 with dozens of fractioners.

Ye, can confirm. 40 Fractionators, like on my layout, are too much. The last 10-15 only get half of the Hydrogen they could process :/

So I think I need to split them, 20:20

[Kendov]

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1693900544061126691/8A4072E5C17729418FB3AAEB06F45CC9F1D4C8C1/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit

The setup I use(d),later modified to satellittes only on the outsides (they do reach the inner machines) and tanks for more buffer per tower but that's a personal preference. Can of course be stretched however far you want, but loops of ten are sufficient IMO. As discussed on the other topic, too much in-out traffic can be a curse :) 60 fractioners per tower is a large number already.

[Regicide]

Allright, thank you! :)

[Koro]

Neither, use orbital collectors at least later in the game :P

[pat]

Originally posted by Kendov:

The problem is less about backing up than teh reduced flow of hydrogen to the fractionaters further down the chain.

Ok, it's my memory failing me then. I though I remembered that down the line, the hydrogen was getting backed up, stopping the fractionators.

[Kendov]

Originally posted by pat:

Ok, it's my memory failing me then. I though I remembered that down the line, the hydrogen was getting backed up, stopping the fractionators.

oh, that can happen if you feed the hydrogen back into the storage. the hydrogen storage will of course try to stay capped so if the output hydrogen can't go anywhere, they can clog up, I've seen that before. Causes oversaturation of the belts.

[Regicide]

Originally posted by Koro:

Neither, use orbital collectors at least later in the game :P

I'm using them for the excess Hydrogen from other Production lines, so they don't get blocked by it. Like Grapehen out of Fire Ice.

[josmith7]

Originally posted by Kendov:

Originally posted by pat:

Ok, it's my memory failing me then. I though I remembered that down the line, the hydrogen was getting backed up, stopping the fractionators.

oh, that can happen if you feed the hydrogen back into the storage. the hydrogen storage will of course try to stay capped so if the output hydrogen can't go anywhere, they can clog up, I've seen that before. Causes oversaturation of the belts.

It could also happen if you hook the belts up in such a way that new hydrogen flowing into the loop has higher priority than existing hydrogen flowing around the loop. You want to set things up so existing hydrogen has priority and so the feed of fresh hydrogen is what backs up when there's no room -- that way hydrogen continues to flow through the fractionators and get filtered into deuterium.

[TLHeart]

I build a line of 15 fractionators, feed more hydrogen into the line with either side loading or a splitter with priority set, and then back down through another 15 fractionators, and still get just over 1% production on the last one in the chain... The developers added a nice little display into the building to help one out.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2547976807

Here is the other end of the line, where I add in more hydrogen with a splitter and priority to the loop

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2547980124

[Nekogod]

This was for a discussion I was having on youtube, but is applicable

"I did some testing with 50 fractionators. With a single line running through all 50 I was averaging 10.8-11.5 deut a second. With a second line replenishing the main line at the halfway mark that increase to 12-12.7. With 2 more lines splitting it essentially into 2 banks of 12 and 2 of 13 it went up to 12.5-13 a second."

That was a couple weeks ago and since then the devs have made a tweak or 2 to the fractionaters, I now have 60 split into 4 banks of 15 and I'm getting 17 deut a second.

If it was perfect I should get 18 a second, 60 fractionators * 30 tries a second * 0.01 chance of success. So a new hydrogen line every 15 or so get's you around 95% efficiency.

[Kyrros]

Yeah, I find that clusters of 12-15 fractionators each tend to give the best 'size vs output' ratio for the effort when dealing with Deuterium conversion.