Thermal

[Gravity_Wolf]

So I got the thermal upgrade and tried a couple times to get all the oil out and encircle the gas so it expands, but I find myself without enough time. Both times it hits December and I drill into the gas and start selling as fast as I can, but I'm not able to sell all my oil before the end of the month. Last game I still had a FULL Mega Oil Container that was just a waste.

Is the key to have a seperate oil rig just to encompass gas and/or to have LOTS of horses all upgradded fully to get your moneys worth in time?

[Gamious]

The key is to set up a little bit quicker than in Area 3. So your skills are put to test. Make sure you have enough Wagons and that they are upgraded.
Also, if you need a few more weeks, you can use 1 Diamond to get some extra playing time in a level.

[Stabbin' Hobo]

Run pipes off your oil pipes to near the gas, all your underground pipes should connect in some way so its just one network and make a circle with 4 sections of pipe, close all the joints and then run a tap from one joint into the gas. Do this early so it can expand, way before its close to the end of the year. Have your supply pipe routed to left and right already so when its time to do it you close the rigs down and open the valves on the gas.


I went to run a game and take a screen shot but I guess you can't take screen shots in this game for some reason.

[Gamious]

Those tips sound about right, Actionball. Thanks.

About the screenshots: we're not sure why this happens. We hope to get it fixed.

[Gravity_Wolf]

Thanks guys. My last game I circled the gas as soon as I could and was able to get all the oil out and then tapped the gas and sold like crazy.

So I did a lot better. I tried taking a screen shot, but sound like it's not working right now.

Anyway I did run into another problem. I don't know if it was by design or not. I circled two gas pockets at the same time and closed the joints, the pipe turned red, but there was no thermal radiation icons. So I ended up running another pipe in between them (they we right next to each other) and once it was connected the radiation icons started working.

Is this supposed to happen? You can't do 2 pockets at the same time if they're circled with the same pipe?

[Stabbin' Hobo]

Dunno if thats a supposed to happen thing but you are right it wont work if you wrap 2 at a time right now which can make some gas placements tricky.

Look at the gas and decide if its even worth it as its going to cost, at a minimum, $1300 to surround, expand, tap and release any pocket of gas. Ask yourself if you think the crappy pockets are going to give you a ROI on that.

I skip thermal now in campaign and ignore gas completely in level 4. That little change in my strategy keeps my pre-island totals in the $600-700k range. When I was trying to make thermal pay I would only do about $500k so I think I was losing a lot of money between the technology purchase and wasted money on extracting the gas.

[Gamious]

@Gravity_Wolf, yes this is by design (you can't grow two gas pockets with one encirclement). We're currently working on a Mayor's Tips section in which we explain things like this better.

@Actionball, it's a pity you can't get decent profits out of the Thermal upgrade yet. But enabling the upgrade on two or three gas pockets, and giving them enough time to grow (half a year), can really make a difference of tens of thousands.

[Stabbin' Hobo]

Do they continue to grow? I see mine grow pretty fast for about half a month and then nothing. But the thing that needs changed is that small pockets need to grow a LOT more to make it worth it, right now the only ones worth growing were already worth tapping before expansion.

If you double a pinprick gas pocket its still worthless.

[Gamious]

@Actionball, they grow until they hit the surrounding pipelines. They might seem to grow faster in the beginning, but that's probably an optical illusion, as they should grow on gradually and steadily. And even small pockets can become very sizable. But it's good that you mention it, we'll check it out just to be sure. :-)

[Stabbin' Hobo]

The blue gas portion will grow to the pipes or the rock surrounding it or both? I thought the blue gas part grew at the expense of the rock surround but was limited to only growing as far as there was the light brown to replace, thats what it seems to do for me.

I have been running pipes as close to the rock as possible just to save on plumbing costs, its possible that I have been screwing myself. I guess Ill try thermal with bigger surrounds this time.

[Gravity_Wolf]

The part surrounding the gas will expand and once that touches the pipe it stops. At least I think that is how it works. So yes, you don't want to build pipes close to the gas...you want the thermal pipes to be as far as possible so it can expand to max.

[Gamious]

Yes, the orange 'shell' around the gas pocket grows along with it. Now it's understandable why you hardly saw any benefit in the Thermal upgrade, Actionball. :-)

[erikleppen]

Also, the thermal effect works through rocks (the gray stuff) without loss. So you can siply drill through rock (using the drill upgrade) if a gas pocket is near rocks.

Also, when you build your thermal encirclement *too large*, it will work slower. So it requires some experience to find the best size for good growth, without hitting the pipes too early, but without having a huge loop.

Also, the fewer joints you use to build your loop, the fewer valves you have to close :)

[Gravity_Wolf]

Okay, I didn't realize the larger the loop the slower it grew.

[Stabbin' Hobo]

Ran a round with thermal to try big loops and it does grow fairly large, but only if you have the time so lower level pockets are still a waste. All said and done though I had 515k before starting round 4 and finished at 635k. I would have done much better than that not spending the money on thermal and chasing big paydays.

[Gamious]

For people that haven't seen it yet, but are reading this thread. This is a video with Tips on Thermal: https://youtu.be/hMjXkO8oGNM