Gas Pump with Input Vents

[USRaider]

I think allowing me to attach input vents to a gas pump would be a good way to have a centralized pump system. Right now I'm fighting an overabundance of Hydrogen, off I know, and previously I've had to fend off Chlorine like I was at the Somme. If I could have a pump fed by multiple gas input vents in rooms elsewhere, it would be more like an actual ventilation system, and save me energy.

[Tseudonym]

If I'm understanding this correctly, you are wanting to connect one gas pump to multiple vents. This is allowed, however gas movement can be finicky so I would recommend looking up some ventilation designs.

[Dirkels]

What the OP wants is to suck in gas through vents connected to a centralized gas pump.

[Nekochan]

There has to be some off setting factor, such as for X amount of power one pump only takes in Y grams per second per vent. so say it allows 2kg per second then 5 vents would only take in 400g per vent. Not completely realistic but don't want to give out freebies.

[Milo de Vries]

Originally posted by Nekochan:

There has to be some off setting factor, such as for X amount of power one pump only takes in Y grams per second per vent. so say it allows 2kg per second then 5 vents would only take in 400g per vent. Not completely realistic but don't want to give out freebies.

Nothing would have to change from the way it currently works.
Gas pumps currently push 500g/s.
OP wants gas pumps to be able to pull 500g/s.

Multiple inputs wouldn't combine from multiple input vents like you are describing, it would work the way current multiple pumps on one output do; it is a packet system, one gets priority and flows. Bridges are used to set priority.

Only change OP is asking for is instead of a pumps input being the tiles surrounding the pump, they would be the tiles surrounding the input vent. Which is a great idea.

[USRaider]

Yes, I am seeking a way to have a pump in a different place than the air its pumping. Like a vacuum pump, so I can move air around without having a million pumps everywhere.

[Yrame IV, a true I of the dragon]

The main issue I can see with this is that it would likely require a complete rebalance of the current gas pipe mechanics. Currently, all inputs to the gas pipe system are active, requiring some sort of power. Pumps pull in liquid, and other devices can produce liquid/gas. But passive inputs/outputs only work within the system, or for removing elements from the system.

On the surface, your desire seems to make sense. You have a large external source, powered, that affects several small passive inputs. In the real world, this would work perfectly.

But currently, as far as I can tell, the gas/liquid pathing seems to essentially take a packet of gas and path from all inputs to all outputs. Your method would most likely find a path from your powered output to all of your inputs, THEN create the packet.

If after creating the packet it was treated normally, then each packet would have to be pathed for at least twice. If the packet followed the already created path, it takes away a lot of the versitility of the current piping system, including the merging of similar gasses.

Some other minor issues include how to decide how much power your output is using. Is it whenever a passive input takes in a packet, or whenever a packet passes through your output? What happens if you have two of the outputs on the same network? How do you decide how much of a gas is taken in from the passive input? Is the power required dependant on how much gas is taken in? If there are multiple inputs, does it take a little from each, a packet from one, or a packet from each?

You would also have to either create a passive input, or allow normal vents to input as well as output. But this causes issues with what can pull from these inputs, is it just the active output pump, or can other things pull too? I can all too easily see it being a low-power game unbalancing workaround for gas if not thought through.

Finally, this would increase the amount of lag caused whenever you add/remove an input/output, which has been a bit of an issue in the past.

I'm not saying it can't be done. In fact, if someone is willing to put the time and effort into it, it would make a great mod. With the amount of rebalancing it would require to the currently mostly working gas network, I just can't see it being a priority for the devs.

[USRaider]

I was thinking of it more as though the gas pump were separated into two pieces. One piece which was the intake vent, the other being the power source. It would still be a single input per pump, but allow a player to duct those inputs away. Now ideally the ability to add different amounts of power to a single pump, increasing its capacity, would be a fun feature.

But I really don't understand the programming aspect of this. I recognize that this is probably more complex than "draw picture. Click save." for the game makers.

Really, I just don't want to have to deal with the fracking spaghetti of wires, ducts, and pipes.