Oil and pump jacks

[Nahz]

So yea just got to this part, made all the stuff...put the pumping jack on the oil..it doesnt go for long till it stops. Ok, so i put the pipes on the pumping jack and lead it into an Oil Refinery, where it seems to process a bit then stops, so I thought I needed fluid control or whatever from the tech tree to make barrels for it, so i got that. Still nothing. Can anyone give me some direction on oil and the ins and outs?

Thanks guys this is like the best game since Stardew Valley, i love it lol

[AlexMBrennan]

put the pumping jack on the oil..it doesnt go for long till it stops. Ok, so i put the pipes on it and lead it into an Oil Refiner

You are seeing that pumpjacks only produce oil when there is somewhere for the oil to go - in this case, pipes which have capacity 10 and are initially empty. Once the pipes are full, the pumpjack stops.

Ok, so i put the pipes on it and lead it into an Oil Refinery, where it seems to preocess a bit then stops,

Same problem - you did not build any storage for the outputs, so the heavy oil/light oil/petroleum has nowhere to go but the small refinery output buffer. If any one of the outputs (heavy oil, light oil or petroleum) is full then production stops.

Note that assemblers and furnances work the exact same way - they will stop when you don't collect the outputs.

[Nahz]

Alright so I can just set a box outside the refinery? I tried this with a barrel thinking "I wouldnt store oil in a box lol" so is it that simple I just need any container?

[Nailfoot]

Originally posted by Nahz:

Alright so I can just set a box outside the refinery? I tried this with a barrel thinking "I wouldnt store oil in a box lol" so is it that simple I just need any container?

You need the big storage tanks, which are a research item. I usually lay 3 tanks per output initially.

[Eddab]

You'll need the storage tanks for fluids, I forget their exact name.
They are a 3*3 structure with 4 in/out points.

[Stealth]

Originally posted by Nahz:

Alright so I can just set a box outside the refinery? I tried this with a barrel thinking "I wouldnt store oil in a box lol" so is it that simple I just need any container?

it should look like http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/308866715006471764/603EC19FB567C6F33A02A6BCC6D9EF7333AA1052/

sooner or later at least, each product need its own storage

[a Orc]

Storage tanks have to be researched. Before that, you can turn your heavy and light oil into solid fuel, which can be used in furnaces and boilers (or stored in boxes). Petroleum is used for many manufacturing purposes so that should not hold you back.

[Mansen]

To summarize.

Buildings with fluids will only run if the products can go somewhere - If your light oil silos are all full, your refineries will stall and not produce anything at all, not even gas or heavy oil. Either build more silos for light, or consume it somehow (converting it into gas usually works well)

Oil fields will never run out completely unlike minerals - But it will be VERY slow by the end.

You CANNOT mix fluids - Be really, really REALLY careful when you build pipes or swap around buildings. You can potentially lose all of your storage if you accidentally merge two lines.

[Gregorovitch]

Couple of tips for oil:

1) Barrels are more hassle than they are worth for transporting oil from well to refinary complex. I just lay lomg underground pipes. Much easier.

2) Always pipe oil to crude oil storage tanks before piping from there into a refinary. You can make a group of four storage tanks link into one clover leaf shaped unit which gives you a nice big buffer of crude oil. When you see it start to empty you know you need to hook up a few more wells and have got time to do so.

[Mansen]

Pipes can be bitten - Drums cannot. They are quite easy to handle once you have a station for it.

[Gregorovitch]

Originally posted by Mansen:

Pipes can be bitten - Drums cannot. They are quite easy to handle once you have a station for it.

Well I haven't played for a few months now so things may have changed, but when I was playing a lot I never had any trouble with pipes being bitten. Ever.

On the other hand I found transporting barrels by train to be a major PITA becasue the wells dry up so you have to constantly set up new barrlel loading systems near new oil wells and re-adjust oil train schedules and manage empty barrel returns etc.

If this has changed recently and underground pipes are now targeted by biters, please correct me.