Dont know why pumpjacks arent producing much oil

[Misery]

Okay, so here's the scene:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1648465897

It's a very simple (and messy) thing so far... this is my first run through the game, and I've only got so much use for oil in general right now... mostly just making plastic and the stuff necessary for batteries. Up until now, I'd not run into too many problems. There was one point where production kept going on and off, but that turned out to be a power issue... was an easy fix. Other than that, production had been working properly (though obviously my setup is very small so far) and I'd been getting plenty of the things I need.

Suddenly, the plastic & battery production slows to a crawl, and I go down to the oil field and see that, as far as I can tell, the pumpjacks are barely producing anything. Or at least that's what I think is happening, from looking at the pipes there. But I sure could be wrong. I did check to make sure that the storage units to the left werent filled up. But they've got plenty of room for more.

What I do know is that it just suddenly came to a near halt while I was doing other things, and looking at the refinery, all three keep stopping and starting instead of just continuously going like they used to.

So, what am I missing, then, what silly thing did I somehow screw up?

[Zorz]

1.1 oil in the pipe and all 3 refinerys are working in screenshot.. i can't see a problem..

[Misery]

Regardless, they're still barely functioning compared to what they were doing before. As for the refineries, they turn on and off over and over again, wheras previously, they were just continuously on (judging by that flame). If I open them and look, they'll get some oil, do something with it, and then just sit there for a time before any more oil gets in.

If I were to go look up at where the pipes connect to the plastic-making section, MOST of the time the pipes show nothing flowing through them. The icons for petroleum are outright gone 95% of the time, just flickering into existence very briefly, which is when the machine will fart out one unit of plastic and then go silent again, having nothing to work with. Previously, the connection was always on and the plastic just kept flowing.

I have no bloody clue what the problem is, but one way or another, it aint working, despite having done so before (for quite awhile, too). There's got to be something I'm missing here.

[Misery]

Actually, I have a second screenshot to show here:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1648552782

That pipe section is literally flickering. The graphic that shows the fluid in the pipe, and the measurement display on the right are flashing wildly (as in, that part of the display keeps vanishing and coming back, many times per second). The number is mostly unreadable due to how fast it's changing, but as best I can tell, it's always 0.4 or lower, with the screenshot just happening to show 0.0.

I dunno how else to describe what it's doing here.

[The_Mell]

Originally posted by Misery:

Regardless, they're still barely functioning compared to what they were doing before. As for the refineries, they turn on and off over and over again, wheras previously, they were just continuously on (judging by that flame). If I open them and look, they'll get some oil, do something with it, and then just sit there for a time before any more oil gets in.

Oil deposits decrease their output over time.
While they never reach zero like an ore field, the yield becomes very low.
Hover over an oil pump to see its current % or in map view over oilfield to see its combined %.

You can counter this problem with modules, beacons and ,of course, more oil fields.

*edit*
And you can always check your production and consumption after pressing 'P' to take a look at those graphs.

[Misery]

Well, I've heard of the "expected resources" on these going down to like, 0.1 when oil fields are depleted, but all of these are at least 5.0 right now (just checked to make sure), a couple are as high as 9. If I remove any of the pumpjacks to check the yield of that particular spot, they're all over 50% right now, a couple of them are at about 90%. On the map screen, combined yield is 478%.

Am I looking at the wrong numbers here?

[The_Mell]

Now i just remember how crappy those % numbers were - and how misleading.


7 pumps at 5-9 per second means 35-63/s.
A refinery consumes 100 per 5s or 20/s.
3 refineries = 60/s
They just suck those pipes dry immediately and still don't get enough resources for continued operation.
In long term you need 10 pumps per refinery if you work without any boosters because any pumps minimum is 2/s.

Check out productions graphs with P - it's probably the easiest way to go.
Select crude oil on both sides and set time to hour(s) to get an idea what is happening.


*edit*
Brain, math, % and game ratios:
Pump at 100% generates 10/s therefore 200% needed for 1 refinery.
oil field of 478% would be enough for 2.39 refineries.

I just hope i've got this right...

[Misery]

Okay, that makes a bit more sense now. So, basically, it's pretty dried up at this point? And yeah, those percentages and stuff are bloody confusing.

But, what to do about it? There seems to be barely any oil anywhere on the map (I see one seemingly big group with a combined yield of 874%, and then a tiny one that's like 170%, and that's pretty much it), so I dont exactly have much in the way of options for getting more... I dunno how I'm supposed to actually keep up production of oil-related things when it dries up because I looked at it too hard.

Am I really just supposed to drown these things in speed boosters & beacons to make them stay useful? I'd heard something about that, but it just sounded rather absurd...

[The_Mell]

Advanced oil processing and the better oil recipe using water generates extra products.
Cracking shifts your production from unnecessary heavy oil to light and/or petroleum gas.
Coal liquification is an additional method to create heavy,light&petro.
There's an universal efficiency research for all resource gatherers.
Some speed modules for those pumps are no big deal when you look where else they are used: science&rocket for example.
And so on...

But i must admit that i tend to set oil fields a bit higher/bigger at map creation usually.

[Warlord]

Originally posted by The_Mell:

-Advanced oil processing and the better oil recipe using water generates extra products.
-Cracking shifts your production from unnecessary heavy oil to light and/or petroleum gas.
-Coal liquification is an additional method to create heavy,light&petro.
-There's an universal efficiency research for all resource gatherers.
Some speed modules for those pumps are no big deal when you look where else they are used: science&rocket for example.
And so on...

But i must admit that i tend to set oil fields a bit higher/bigger at map creation usually.

It's one of the one changes I make when I roll a new map. Sometimes oil can spawn really funky-like, and it's one resource that can grind you to a halt. I'd once had a map where the closest deposit was a single spot a 3 minute (literally) train ride away from start. It was really strange that nothing was closer, nor bigger.

Start out by focusing your dribble of oil on Adv. Oil Processing research. Get some speed modules into the wells for now if possible as well. If the next deposits aren't too far away, pipe them in too, or get a train running. Look for more/bigger oil deposits.

Work your way to coal liquifaction. If you get that and are swimming in oil, you can use that exclusively. Use some pumps to ensure most of the heavy oil produced by it is put back into the system to keep it running. Nothing worse than having to re-kickstart liquifaction with regular oil due to a dumb mistake with a heavy oil cracker.

[Coffee Daemon]

Forcing more oil from your depleted oil wells can be done via speed modules. Surrounding them with speed module beacons will allow you to get the most out of them.

Dont use productivity modules, as whilst they give more per cycle they slow each cycle up far more.