Algae Terrarium is kinda pointless?

[lancejen]

I just came to realize the oxygen generation vs water consumption efficiency of the electrolyzer is like 7x better than Algae Terrarium.. with a right setup you can effortlessly secure the oxygen required for hundreds of days. No wonder I was always struggling to maintain oxygen generation with Algae based method.
I think they really need to change how Algae based oxygen generation works to allow for more game play variety.. as of now I will always rush to researches required for electrolyzer setup and from that moment on Algae becomes an useless resource.

[Zorlond]

Currently there are a lot of inefficiencies in the game, straight up losses of material that aren't really logical. Watering a terrarium effectively destroys water, with no way of getting it back. Electrolyzing water into O2 and H2 is effective, but also destroys water, as you cannot get it back by simply burning H2 in a generator as you would in reality.

But it's still early in development. Expect eventual additions and changes that throw the current balance of play out the window.

[Poulzie]

Agreed, there is a lot of useless buildings like the Terrarium imo: the microbe-musher, the cooking station, the refrigerator, the air deodorizer, the hydrofan, the shower and most medecine furniture.

The hydrogen generator in-game is pretty kickass actually as it does not require O2 like traditional generator . Real generator are on earth surrounded by oxygen and make combustion between hydrogen and oxygen wich output water and energy (2H2+O2=2H2O+e). The electrolyser is the reverse of that.

[Cryten]

I would like to note that creating hydrogen currently (in real life) takes more energy then the hydrogen generates to remove the hydrogen from water and store it in a medium that is usable. Also when hydrogen fuel is burned you get less water then you started with because, naturally, you are releasing gases and heat which remove mass from the whole system). I mean thats no reason why we cant have a magical lossless hydrogen system but its not an argument to say that you should get it all back again.

Even when viewed from a oxygen point of view from current space technology you do loose water. You burn power to ensure that you save as much as possible of course in space.

The discussion should probably center on how you would balance the system if you implemented these changes you want, and how you would maintain challange.

[Zorlond]

Well, no, I wouldn't expect to get all the water back from burning H2. But right now, we get no water back, at all. That's not realistic either.

[Cryten]

Yes. I hope I didnt come over as douchey, you certainly should get some water back.

[Darth Biomech]

Electrolyzer is better by efficiency, but you can't really use it before you research hydrogen generator, because it then floods your base with unbreathable hydrogen.

[Thunderbird]

i use it anyway sometimes, but you need a fairly large separator tank without it

ideal case for electrolysis is having the whole main separator tank/buffer tank/filters frickin everywhere kind of setup, and that takes time... just try to use the algae deoxydiser before you get there and have a couple algae terrariums to scrub the absolute worst of CO2

also, is that just my impression, or do the terrariums completely bug out when in lots of CO2 and consume like 3kg/s of it?

[Poulzie]

My whole point was that you should get water back if the hydrogen generator consumed O2 aswell but it doesnt.

[Apop85]

I made a sepperate sealed room for my coal generators and added a terrarium there. As the generators add CO2 while they run i have a additional source of oxygen. The clean oxygen gets to the top and get pumped out while looping the co2 back with a filter. By cooking a small amount of contaminated water in my battery rooms i just got enough of fresh water to run them. And if you continue digging trough the level you'll have enough slime to run this single terrarium. Additionaly you can pump the CO2 of your base into this room as well so no other terrarium is needed. .But i just let it sink down to the bottom of the map.
I don't like the CO2 washer as they just remove CO2 and water to give you contaminated water which is a bad deal imo.

[SakuraKoi]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Apop85:

I don't like the CO2 washer as they just remove CO2 and water to give you contaminated water which is a bad deal imo.

While it just removed CO2 it just does that and ultimately with the water purifier, it just costs sand. No water at all but more importantly... large bodies of contaminated water produce contaminated oxygen, at which I rate? Beats me but one either has to choose between highly inefficient Terrariums (high water cost) or flooding yer mealwood proudction with that.

But well, with the upcoming update (wednesday, voluntary test week, next wednesday, anticipated "release") water might not be a problem anymore. Technically I suppose my gas cloud which gave me 6.000kg of liquid propane could get me other actually useful gas (steam) but to see that I have to survice maybe a tad longer.

[therealjohnconnor]

D100+ and slime-mining. Still happy with my terreriums; stats suggest they process 3x more CO2 than scrubbers and you get O2 back, not drop in air pressure. Water-hungry, but swamp biome has too much anyway, esp. if you regulate purifier intakes so you don't use 10x what's necessary.
I'll switch to catalysers/scrubbers when I'm out of slime, not before.

[Nellvan]

Diposting pertama kali oleh therealjohnconnor:

stats suggest they process 3x more CO2 than scrubbers

The terrarium says "mg", which suggests the scrubber is processing 300x as much. (0.3333 g vs. 100 g)

The scrubber does not consume water, it only needs water purification. Which either delegates the limiting factor to sand; or removes it if you got a distillery going.

A terrarium gives you 0.1333 O2 per H2O, an electrolyzer 0.88. That's not really "giving back" anything, it's just wasting water.

Diposting pertama kali oleh therealjohnconnor:

I'll switch to catalysers/scrubbers when I'm out of slime, not before.

You better have everything set up and working in advance then. That's basically the one longterm use for algae based stuff, as a quick, easy and temporary backup.

[lancejen]

just restarted a new game and as a matter of fact, I am runing out of CO2 to feed my mealwood, now burning coals for CO2 not electricity...
guess eventually I'll have to rewire the pipes to cool oxygen for plant food instead -_-
or just wait for next patch's rebalance xD

[Cryten]

Plants dont eat co2 in this game.

[Dave]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Darth Biomech:

Electrolyzer is better by efficiency, but you can't really use it before you research hydrogen generator, because it then floods your base with unbreathable hydrogen.

yea I just learn that the hard way in my first play through.