Semi-Advanced Tips

[shaingel]

I'm no stranger to the game- I've got the basics down pact, and I typically make it as far as putting Showers and Lavatories into my base, but only recently have I begun to understand the water purification process. I'm very confused about gas piping/ gas venting/ whatever with gas, if anyone would be so kind as to offer tips and advice about buildings related to this. Also automation? What's that for? What are the benefits/ how does it make my dupes' lives easier?

Also, if you have some basic strategies or advice, I'd love to know those, too! I know this is a vague and very wide topic, but basically I'm just asking you to dump any of your favorite strategies/ must haves onto this topic.

[Ζiоqch]

Showers have no actual use yet. All they do is remove surface germs and a status effect that does nothing but make Dupes want to get rid of it.

When you pipe make sure it all flows in one general direction and remember to give buildings enough space for their gas outputs or else they'll keep shutting on and off.
Gases also block each other in the pipes so a single gram of Carbon Dioxide could stop your Gas Filter from pumping if one of its outlets is fulls. If you want to store a lot of gas and have a lot of raw material you could zig-zag the piping but that will cause gases to take longer to travel.

Automation is good for a lot of things. If you want to lock your mess hall at night, make sure everyone washes their hands after using the bathroom, add air conditioning, it can do that.
But you'll most likely want it so you can have your generators and pumps shut off when they aren't needed to conserve power. You can also use it to make a water airlock to seal off different sections of base from your main living area.

[andylaugel]

If it helps, here is an example from my base called "The Charm."
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1270042065
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1270042266
There are two main sets of pipes used--one to carry clean water, and one to carry polluted water. A filter splits the two as it's drawn from my main tank. The clean water pipes are currently full of water--the blue circles. The polluted water pipes are empty, as they've drained their contents into my polluted water tank. There is also a third pipe shown, trying to move water from one area to my main holding tank. (It used to be my clean water tank, but my bathrooms stopped functioning for a cycle and there were accidents.) Oh, and there is a water sieve in the system below the main bathroom, ready to convert polluted water into clean water.

[andylaugel]

Tips

I believe the showers and sinks create exactly as much polluted water as they take clean water. Toilets however generate more polluted water than they require. A closed loop system with a water sieve will become blocked and stop working. You need a way to drain liquid from the system.

The material you build a liquid holding tank out of matters. Soft sandstone or sedimentary rock tiles can fail pretty easily, so keep your tanks shallow if you use them. If you can, sweep your tanks before filling them so your dupes don't get soaked.

You can control your pumps a few ways. One is to put a manual switch on the wire leading to your pump. Another is to "Disable Building" when the pump is selected. Or you could use a Power Shutoff and automation. That Power Shutoff could be connected to a Hydro Sensor, and only deliver power to the water seive and input pump when there is enough fluid to pump.

You can set sinks so your dupes only use then when passing either right or left. You can also limit which way a dupe can pass though a door. So for a bathroom, you can have more than one entrance but should only have one exit with a sink or two right before they leave the room.

[Artur_G]

andy don't you have a problem with germs poluting your water supply? That's what breaking my colony now. I accidentally got germs into my drinking water and now everyone is sick.

[Repconn]

Originally posted by Artur_G:

andy don't you have a problem with germs poluting your water supply? That's what breaking my colony now. I accidentally got germs into my drinking water and now everyone is sick.

Right now I get my drinking water by purifying water from slime biomes with the sieve. The germy polluted water from the toilets is fed to a different sieve and the resulting germy water is used for Oxygen genration and irrigation.

[Artur_G]

Oh. Is there no drawback of using germy water in sinks and oxygen generation? I need to redo my piping to account for my mistake and was wondering if I can just move my main pump from clean water source to germy one. I would thing that washing hands in germy water is counterproductive and I wasn't sure what would happen if I turned germy water into oxygen.

[Repconn]

Originally posted by Artur_G:

Oh. Is there no drawback of using germy water in sinks and oxygen generation? I need to redo my piping to account for my mistake and was wondering if I can just move my main pump from clean water source to germy one. I would thing that washing hands in germy water is counterproductive and I wasn't sure what would happen if I turned germy water into oxygen.

I use clean water for the sinks. Germy water for irrigation does nothing and the heat from oxygen generation kills most germs.

[Artur_G]

But in the screenshots you've posted it's the same water that goes out of the toilets, into a sieve and into the sinks.

[Clonefarmer]

Germ water can also be kept seperate and fed to thimble reeds or pincha peppers. Three thimble reeds is enough to consume the water created by 14 dupes with 6 lavatory/sinks and 1 shower.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1270433598

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1270433669

As for automation. Most of the time I just use it to maintain liquid levels or to turn pumps off when gas pressure is too low.

Best tip I can give is one that helped me. Plant mealwood in a co2 pool and store food there. This will prevent your food from rotting. Co2 pools in the lower right corner. If you build the mealwood farm in the lower right corner it will fill will co2 and preserve your food.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1268531861

Hope this helps.

[God's Drunkest Soldier]

Originally posted by Anemical:

Showers have no actual use yet. All they do is remove surface germs and a status effect that does nothing but make Dupes want to get rid of it.

When you pipe make sure it all flows in one general direction and remember to give buildings enough space for their gas outputs or else they'll keep shutting on and off.
Gases also block each other in the pipes so a single gram of Carbon Dioxide could stop your Gas Filter from pumping if one of its outlets is fulls. If you want to store a lot of gas and have a lot of raw material you could zig-zag the piping but that will cause gases to take longer to travel.

Automation is good for a lot of things. If you want to lock your mess hall at night, make sure everyone washes their hands after using the bathroom, add air conditioning, it can do that.
But you'll most likely want it so you can have your generators and pumps shut off when they aren't needed to conserve power. You can also use it to make a water airlock to seal off different sections of base from your main living area.

Ummmm.... Showers help with stress

[Poulzie]

Showers can help a little with stress but unless you want to transform clean water into hot polluted water you should not use them. I do not advise them to new player as there are some more simple solution to stress, i do not use them and my duplicant are all grimy with 0% stress anyway.

For automation i use a lot of clock sensor as dimmer switch. Since i have a hydrogen reservoir that i mainly use to power the Anti Entropy Thermo-Nullifier, the clock sensor let me throttle my hydrogen generators as needed so i can burn my excess of hydrogen(or it stop my electrolyser system) without emptying my reserves.

[God's Drunkest Soldier]

Originally posted by Poulzie:

Showers can help a little with stress but unless you want to transform clean water into hot polluted water you should not use them. I do not advise them to new player as there are some more simple solution to stress, i do not use them and my duplicant are all grimy with 0% stress anyway.

For automation i use a lot of clock sensor as dimmer switch. Since i have a hydrogen reservoir that i mainly use to power the Anti Entropy Thermo-Nullifier, the clock sensor let me throttle my hydrogen generators as needed so i can burn my excess of hydrogen(or it stop my electrolyser system) without emptying my reserves.

Using freezing cold water or Burning Hot Water Makes No Difference

[󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡Atlas]

-dont use showers
-dont use pharma beds
-dont use slime processing
-dont use algae terrarium
-dont use any food aside from raw meal worms
-dont make individual rooms for your filthy dupes
-try not to use carbon skimmer for too long, switch over to feeding CO2 to slicksters ASAP
-make your base more 'vertical' than horizontal and install fire poles ASAP
-set up coal generators with caged hatch farm ASAP

-BIGGEST TIP: do not take on Dupes too quickly! There is no difficulty doomsday timer in this game, day 5 is the same difficulty as day 666. The difficulty comes from adding more mouths to feed/breath/heat. take yourself to 4-6 dupes and wait till you have everything built perfectly before you add more--and stay ahead of your needs for oxygen/water/food/cooling instead of *reacting* to them

-isolate all your biggest heat producing machines in the bottom of your base using Abyssal insulated walls, then as soon as you can install cooling solution using wheezeworts and liquid pipe or air vent cooling system

watch Brothgar on youtube, his videos will give you ideas for base layouts and early game build orders -- plus he is very entertaining.
https://www.youtube.com/user/Brothgar/videos

[Lamkin]

Originally posted by shaingel:

I'm no stranger to the game- I've got the basics down pact....

down *pat