Hydro. Thrusters not firing at max power

[wolfinabox]

I just finished off the first version of my new small gunship, and I'm noticing that it's having a problem with it's hydrogen thrusters.
It can hover on planets (it has more than enough upward thrust), but if I move it in any other direction, the upward thrust decreases and it no longer hovers. Same thing in space, firing another thruster group decreases the thrust of other groups.
Video (may still be processing): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWLPxKbXc7w&feature=youtu.be
Anyone know why this could be? I have 7 hydrogen tanks, so I would think that'd be enough. Is there a limit to how much conveyors can tramsport? Or the tanks can output?

[Thalyn]

Survival mode, right?

Looks like you're simply emptying the tanks and don't have enough generators to fully supply the number and type of thrusters you're using. As a result they [the thrusters] burn proportional to the amount of hydrogen you are producing relative to the amount they can use at most.

For example, let's say you're producing 10,000L/s of hydrogen. You're trying to use, however, thrusters capable fo consuming 20,000L/s. When the tanks are empty, those thrusters will now only burn at 50% because they're being starved for fuel.

Each tank holds 2.5ML of gas. Each generator produces roughly 501L/s of hydrogen. Large thrusters will consume around 6,426.7L/s and small ones 1,092.5L/s. From those numbers you can work out how long your tanks will last with given directions in use, and how much overall usage will be available once the tanks are empty.

[wolfinabox]

Creative, actually. I've got quite a few oxygen generators too, as well as 4 large reactors.

[Thalyn]

Creaive? Now that is interesting. It still looks all the world like insufficient generation to maintain full burn, but that shouldn't (I would have thought, anyway) apply to Creative mode.

There's no mention of a maximum flow rate for tanks in the data files, but that definitely looks to be what you're seeing. It's possible it's been added with a fixed value to make them [tanks] similar to reactors or batteries, in that they'll provide an unlimited duration of power in Creative but still have the capacity to be overloaded.

If you can, try testing something: add more tanks (just external, not part of the base design). If it lessens or eliminates the issue it would suggest that there is indeed a maximum per-tank flow (albeit fixed and undocumented). My own testing suggests hydrogen isn't consumed in Creative so I wouldn't think it's actually the tanks running out.

[wolfinabox]

Alrighty, I'll add more tanks (I have a bit of spare space inside anyway, so I should be able to add a few permanently if necessary)

[wolfinabox]

Aha! I found the problem! Before completing the ship, I did a very dumb move and removed part of the bottom of the ship to get to the internals again, and i caused some gyros to go ballistic. I repaired what i thought was everything, but I accidentally forgot to replace some pipes. This caused some of the thruster groups to only get one or two tanks supplying them. I fixed this, and now everything fires properly!

[Thalyn]

So that would go on to suggest there is an undocumented maximum flow-rate for the tanks. Adding more tanks to the same circuit (either by adding more tanks or by just plumbing more existing ones in) would increase the overall maximum flow rate, even though they probably have to flow through each other (it's the tanks which have the limit, not the conveyor system).

Unfortunately, because it's undocumented we've got no way of knowing whether it's deliberate or not. It could just be a performance band-aid until the entire conveyor system gets reworked, after all.