Dust storms and networks?

[WhamyKaBlamy]

Hey all, I just started a new playthrough with Europe and in an area that has a lot of dust storms / dust devils and I was curious about exactly what you can split into a separate network to mitigate the dust storm effects, as well as what doubling up cables/pipes does?

I know that I can put a pipe out to some storages on a dome and it will count as a separate network and I won't lose those if there's a loss on the main network (I think?), but putting batteries next to domes seemed to count it all as a single power network still.

I actually got really lucky early on with both the pipes and the cables breakthrough that makes them not break down, so I didn't really get to test it. What I had started out doing was doubling up my cables because going for lots of vaporators or water deposits didn't seem viable on the low mula, but I'm curious to whether that actually mitigates against damage?

If I go for something like this:

-----\--x---/---
------\----/----

If i get a break at x will I still lose electricity / water / oxygen, or would the system just route around it? Or would I need valves at junctions to be able to stop the loss of resources?

If neither of them work, does that mean it's best to put power and batteries on every dome? That seemed like there were a lot more points of failure for a single dome to be in a pretty bad situation during a dust storm because a single battery going down would mean a lot more stored power being lost.

Anyway, I'm babbling, any thoughts would be appreciated :D

[Sabaithal]

Valves would stop life support loss, as would demolishing an intact section of pipe on either side of the the leak, though that should be considered a more drastic solution. Same with power grid, demolish a section on either end of the leak will effectively disconnect the leak from the network.

And doubling up pipes/power cables is something to do to ensure a centralized power grid doesn't suddenly get disconnected from an entire critical section by one stray meteor impact. Especially if a dome is on the other end.

It should be noted, batteries, while capable of storing a large amount of power have a fixed OUTPUT regardless of their overall charge. Meaning, if the amount of power lost exceeds that output, some building will go down regardless as if they were not receiving sufficient power without batteries involved.

I haven't actually dealt with dust storms that much, so I can't advise much. Just close stirling generators obviously.

[cap-boulanger]

You can use valves/cable cutoffs to isolate leaks.

If you have a battery (or more than one) located very close to each dome, that is enough to power that dome for more than 1 sol, and same for water and oxygen storages... and put valves/cutoffs on ALL pipes and/or cables connecting that cluster to the rest of your network... you can then isolate that dome in order to protect it from any leaks elsewhere. (Just remember to re-activate the valves before the storages run dry, because you are effectively creating a temporary mini-network for that dome only.)

The actual generation buildings do not need to be close to your domes.

The other alternative would be to simply over-engineer your network as a whole so that you can ride out leaks with the oversupply. (I usually do this with power, but not with water/oxygen.) A dome, fuel refinery, etc... will remain supplied as long as it has ONE valid path from a supply point, unless the network it is on does not have enough to supply all needs. The worry here would be that the leaks might deplete your reserves.

Note that even during the dust storm, your drones will try to fix leaks UNLESS you are playing as Japan.

[Bayta]

I wish there were a way to turn off the power / life support feed through of the passages. If you connect a bunch of domes with passages, it all becomes one big network with no control over it. That makes it hard to isolate damage.

[Ericus1]

Yet another of an innumerable list of why you shouldn't use passages from a management/efficiency standpoint.

[vindicar]

Just delete your leaks. Really.

It costs about the same or even less, rebuilding deleted segment is a lot faster than repairing it, and you aren't bleeding resources the entire time. The whole repair mechanic is supposed to save your attention, but really, it's a total waste of resources and time. You just don't get leaks that often for it to matter.

The only border case is when leak isolates a dome that doesn't have reserves. But even then - no life support in one dome for a couple hours is much, much better than no life support until the rest of the dust storm in your entire colony!

That's why it also makes sense to build a separate power/water/oxygen storage next to each dome. That way each dome can survive the repairs with no time lost, and it's more robust. Lightning strikes can disable centralized storage for several hours.

[WhamyKaBlamy]

Thanks for all the answers guys. If I understand it right then the point of doubling up is purely to ensure that a network isn't completely cut off but you'll still lose resources from leaks.

I think in the future if I have a centralized grid I'll put valves on the entry point to the domes so I can ctrl+click turn off all valves in a dust storm as I have been keeping the storage connected to domes anyway. I'll just have to make sure I keep batteries connected to the domes themselves as well.

[cap-boulanger]

Originally posted by WhamyKaBlamy:

Thanks for all the answers guys. If I understand it right then the point of doubling up is purely to ensure that a network isn't completely cut off but you'll still lose resources from leaks.

I think in the future if I have a centralized grid I'll put valves on the entry point to the domes so I can ctrl+click turn off all valves in a dust storm as I have been keeping the storage connected to domes anyway. I'll just have to make sure I keep batteries connected to the domes themselves as well.

Just to note.... pipes carry water and oxygen... cables carry power. So the cutoffs are separate. You could cut off the pipes but not the cables (if needs be).