"Steam Turbines still suck" I totally agree with this guy.

[mar3usmc]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkdwZcUbGNw

Unless you are doing some very gimmicky/exploitative things with the mechanics, I still think steam turbines are not worth the effort.

I like this guys solution at around the 46 min mark. Have them like REAL steam turbines, an INLET and an OUTLET. Only way I have gotten the steam turbine to work currently involves makes water drip down the sides using cooling at the top.

[Meat Man (Alfons)]

The turbine really is in a weird spot at the moment, even so with the new Thermium Aquatuners where you can *delete* heat with incredible efficiency. Which entirely scraps its power generation purpose.

My take would be to make it need less Steam, so you wont need all too many pumps to 'cycle' it around, without using weird door exploits to move it around. Also nerfs its heat deletion shenanigans.

[гном(крупнокалиберный)]

Originally posted by Mean Man (Alfons):

without using weird door exploits to move it around

Is a piston pump in real life a exploit too?

[Meat Man (Alfons)]

Originally posted by o_o:

Originally posted by Mean Man (Alfons):

without using weird door exploits to move it around

Is a piston pump in real life a exploit too?

Not really, but doors don't need any electricity which makes it feel cheesy to me.

[mar3usmc]

Originally posted by Mean Man (Alfons):

Originally posted by o_o:

Is a piston pump in real life a exploit too?

Not really, but doors don't need any electricity which makes it feel cheesy to me.

Completely Agree with this statement. I say no power, no automation.

That said, I still agree with the guy in the video. Just have an input and an output.

Additionally, the game needs PASSIVE vents for transfering liquids from places of high to low locations, and gas from high to low pressure. It is something that really irritates me that I feel the game really needs. I shouldn't need a pump to move a liquid from a point higher up to a point below, just a pipe and a drain.

[Waggy]

Building complicated space-occupying big machinery from smaller parts is more fun than a ready-made box with I/O ports, though the premise is the big machine works well.

Maybe the desire for I/O ports comes from frustration due to lack of parts and relatively unsatisfactory results.

[mar3usmc]

Yes, that is probably the most likely thing. If we had pressure vents, and gravity assisted drains, it would go a looooooong way.

[Zefnoly]

Yeah I have had my own fair deal of testing with this... "renewable energy" Unless you have a volcano erupting enough to have atleast 300-400c constantly running it is not renewable at all... I tried just for fun to make this tripple setup. It solidified the mantle in a couple of 10-20 cycles... I had to automate it so it doesnt run unless needed or I litterally waste heat. When there is no more heat to gain energy from I will likely dismantle this and build a petrol powerplant or something and then maybe make 2 steam turbines that will run on heat from my volcano whenever it has heat for it...
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1557607076https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1557607076

Also door doesnt work well without electricity. So they arent "cheaty pumps" anymore... If I dont run power through them they will open and close slowly. I would have to build a massive pump to gain enough pressure over time VS the pressure these turbines produce..

However... Even after this much time (with the mantle solidified but stil hot) on nearly cycle 600 or 500 the pump stil provides energy... More energy than my natural gas powerplant. So it has shown to be an expensive but effecient way to get energy at bottom of map. But the price and time it takes to build such a machine isnt worth it unless cooling.


I would love if the devs would make a way to just put pipes directly into it. And maybe make a specialized "exposure" tile at bottom of map so you cant cool down the mantle... It shouldnt be this easy to cool down something down there... Or atleast replace the neutronium down there so you can dig down and possibly even make a cooling loop of pipes that can transfer all the heat up to a geothermal powerplant. Where the steam turbines use pipes to connect them.


What would be awesome would be if they where made like in Factorio. As said use pipes transfering hot steam and colder on the other side... Maybe make them make less energy but also be less expensive to build. Since pipes cant contain enough steam for what they are built for. And decrease the cooling effect. So you build more in a line until the steam coming out doesnt have enough heat anymore.... Maybe 50c less heat = 500 or 1000W.

Also what would be really neat in addition to this would be uranium... I dont see why this game shouldnt have nuclear energy. Which you even could find on certain asteroids. Maybe even add radiation danger to the game and radiation sickness... Own overlay like the germs. And it adding more functions to the game. A nuclear reactor that inputs cold steam/water and outputs hotter steam that you send to your steamturbines.

[mar3usmc]

Additionally, I want pipes that don't take damage from liquid to gas or gas to liquid phase. That is stupid. Even simple copper pipe can handle that sort of transition; taking in water from one end, heating and blowing steam out the other. That is very very simple, and I would expect it.

[Zefnoly]

Originally posted by mar3usmc:

Additionally, I want pipes that don't take damage from liquid to gas or gas to liquid phase. That is stupid. Even simple copper pipe can handle that sort of transition; taking in water from one end, heating and blowing steam out the other. That is very very simple, and I would expect it.

Ive been annoyed by this as well. I had to periodically repair the fuel gas pipe transfering steam the short distance between the hot leaky oil fissure I used to make steam nearby and my rocket. And despite using insulted gas pipes it cooled down way to quickly...

[MARTFONGER]

Turbines require you to treat heat as a resource which I haven't myself tried yet.

Lots of people just delete heat from their water coolers by using a sieve, but it would be vastly more efficient to use that heat for a steam turbine instead, if one is a wise enough engineer.

[Lifepath [CdE]]

it only works with extreme heat though over 260°C

[Zefnoly]

Originally posted by UNDERHILL:

Turbines require you to treat heat as a resource which I haven't myself tried yet.

Lots of people just delete heat from their water coolers by using a sieve, but it would be vastly more efficient to use that heat for a steam turbine instead, if one is a wise enough engineer.

Well you need heat that causes steam... Im in cycle 700 and the hottest my water gets is nowhere near boiling point. And the steamturbines I made for geothermal power stopped working when it cooled down the mantle bellow to bellow 200c. You cant even run them off cool steam vents... You need the type of heat a volcano would usually erupt. Which I also have and plant to reposition my geothermal powerplant above.

And yeah its a resource. That is easily consumed. It didnt take me long at all to solifify 1/3 of the magma at the bottom of the map exposed above the neutronium. Several veins are totally solidified into rock. Its stil hot but its harder and harder to transfer that remaining heat to my turbines... Your best shot is to use them to cool down super hot geysers. Like a volcano as I mentioned. I have one that reaches 1000c over time. I possibly will use one or 2 steam turbines above it for some additional renewable power so I can save more natural gas and petrolium...

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1557607076
All the magma here exposed in any way to the surface is litterally either gone or compressed into frozen rock... So the description in the game claiming its renewable is as renewable as the other types of fuel... Actually everything in the game is renwable. I produces infinite coal. I have geysers producing infinite natural gas over periods. And the same goes for the heat needed for a steam turbine... You need a source of immense heat. Like a volcano. And they are usually more dormant than natural gas geysers. My most active geyser is a freekin Oil fissure. And it produces both oil and heat for steam.

[kingjames488]

it's worth it if you don't over-complicate it...
just put a steam turbine on top of a hot geyser and set up some thermo sensors to drip in water when it's over 299.9c and open doors below the turbine to open when a battery bank is low and the temp below is over about 230c. then let the steam pour out into a big room to condense into water.

adding more automation can make it better, but if you don't try to make it super consistant it's easy. can even feed the left over steam into a rocket if it's in a good spot.

[Lifepath [CdE]]

With no intended disrespect for your design zefnoly, it is one that abuses the "blocked entrances" for the steam thus reducing the steam needed to make it run. So you can asume the mantle would have gone cold even faster with the intended use of the turbine wich makes it even worse than what you played with !! I think it needs a buff in a way or another

[Zefnoly]

Originally posted by Lifepath:

With no intended disrespect for your design zefnoly, it is one that abuses the "blocked entrances" for the steam thus reducing the steam needed to make it run. So you can asume the mantle would have gone cold even faster with the intended use of the turbine wich makes it even worse than what you played with !! I think it needs a buff in a way or another

Blame the devs... They should rather make a steamturbine using gas tubes... It would make more sense than the current system. You just need to provide hot steam on one side. And it leaves colder on the other. Using tubes for this would make it far more intriguing to build. Because then you could play more around with storage tanks storing hot steam for excess power and radiator loops. Which you may do right now in the game but this would make it more effecient.

Originally posted by king(strange)james488:

it's worth it if you don't over-complicate it...
just put a steam turbine on top of a hot geyser and set up some thermo sensors to drip in water when it's over 299.9c and open doors below the turbine to open when a battery bank is low and the temp below is over about 230c. then let the steam pour out into a big room to condense into water.

adding more automation can make it better, but if you don't try to make it super consistant it's easy. can even feed the left over steam into a rocket if it's in a good spot.

I guess you dont need a big room if you just make a radiator loop with flowing liquid or hydrogen to remove the heat quicker, aka making it condense almost instantly... But I get what you are saying. I might build such system above a volcano I got. And rebuild my geothermal powerplant above the mantle. As its stil lots of heat. Just not enough to power my system and the doors tend to bug out and delete steam. Which means I often have to refil the entire thing...