Anyone use barrels?

[Frost]

I'm probably going to create a oil factory to process and create all the oils needed and ship them off by train to the base, but why even bother with barrels if you can simply transport the oil via trains and load into tanks at the destination, no barrels required?

Has anyone found cases where barrels are a better choice than fluid train cars?

[KatherineOfSky]

They can be usable if you transport fluids by bot, but that's usually only done in conversion modpacks in specfic situations.

Barrels are the way things were done before the liquid train cars were added.

[Frost]

That would explain why there are barrels in the game (because there used to not be fluid wagons). I was wondering about that.

So does anyone have any cases where they use barrels anyway (and everything else that goes along with it) instead of avoiding them?

just curious. The only one I can think of is cutting down how many pipes you use, as if that's something that needs to be avoided (power with pumps to keep up pressure being cut down).

[Joman]

No, I don't use them since the liquid wagon has been introduced.

[Fel]

The only times I use barrels are when I only need a small amount (kickstarting the coal liquefaction process for example) or in mods where a specific liquid is very "rare" so that I can dispatch it more easily between the places that need it.

[Iodized Salt]

I use barrels of light oil to supply distant outposts using flame turrets, since the turrets don't use an insane amount of oil. I just reserve one row in a storage car for barrels instead of using the fluid car.

[Hedning]

Barrels can solve pipe spaghetti if that is an issue for you, by letting you use requester chests and fly them directly from production to consumption.

A fully saturated blue belt carries 2250/s. To achieve that throughput with pipes you need a pump every 3 tiles, though it is a bit unfair comparison because you need a return belt for the empty barrels.

Also both belts and bots can carry several fluid types at once while a pipe can only have one fluid type. Maybe best if you have a 1 wagon train delivering several different things, so you can mix different fluids but also fluids with solids in that one wagon.

It could be simpler in some cases maybe. Some bot fanatic probably love them. I only use them for coal liquefaction.

[Sevrun]

I've used them for filling storage tanks that fuel flame turrets along my walls, since it's not really far enough for me to justify a rail line. Transported by either belt or bot, depending on where I am in the tech tree, but that's just because I don't want my defenses linked to my active industrial reserves.

I remember something about fluid loss over distance being spoken of rather heatedly at one point. That's the only reason I bother.

[Songbird]

I have a blueprint for a garrison that I just stamp down repeatedly at substation power pole length rather than using a continuous wall. To supply the flamer turret, I just request a couple of barrels of light oil, then send the empty barrels back in an active provider chest. You use light oil in such ridiculously small quantities for turrets that a whole pipeline isn't worth maintaining.

Barrels are also a good way to provide the initial heavy oil used to start up coal liquefaction, since it's self-sustaining once you get that initial production going.

[knighttemplar1960]

I keep a couple of barrels of heavy oil on my building supplies train to jump start coal liquefaction outposts. I let the cycle run once, refill the barrels and put them back on the train, and mostly forget about them until I set up the next coal liquefaction outpost. It saves the hassle of having a fluid wagon just for that.

[robert225]

Just for starting up Coal Liquefaction, and if I'm playing with biters on for taking light oil out to the flamethrower turrets at the perimeter.

[Overeagerdragon]

I use barrels to transport nutrient pulp to my aquariums seeing as they only take 20 per 600s and you don't need that much fish

[Joman]

Originally posted by Iodized Salt:

I use barrels of light oil to supply distant outposts using flame turrets, since the turrets don't use an insane amount of oil. I just reserve one row in a storage car for barrels instead of using the fluid car.

Aha, good point.

[RiO]

Originally posted by Iodized Salt:

I use barrels of light oil to supply distant outposts using flame turrets, since the turrets don't use an insane amount of oil. I just reserve one row in a storage car for barrels instead of using the fluid car.

Sort of the same here, except I use bots to send it out to my wall fortifications.
The fact that flame turrets consume kind of slow makes it a very workable solution.

[a-bullet]

i designed my current refinery to work with barrels, as these are easier to balance and store
here's a screenshot of it in the map (no idea how to make a large screenshot and it's way too large for a single picture)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2295822707

[rainbow unicorn(armorpower)]

never used barrels however if you use item wagons on a train and fill it will barrels it would end the end per wagon hold a insane amount more then a fluid wagon. fluid would be 25k where as the item wagon if full would be 200k with the cost of having to unload the fluid from the barrels and re using them so im sure there is a way to use that just as effective as normal wagons but the normal ones just seem much easier to use.