Is having your Main Water Source 700m away from Base far?

[Lektronize]

Will that be something that could hinder me in Tier 3 but is probably easily manageable later on, or will that now already not pose much of a Problem? I want to make the switch to Coal Power, but sadly the only Water Source I found is 700m away from my Base. I have not yet tried building the Pipelines or even a Truck Network.

Im thinking whether I should continue looking the other side of my base for something nearer, move my base nearer to the watersource (albeit tedious) or simply use this water source. Maybe Pipelines and Trucks make this Distance easily manageable. I dont know yet, I thought I would ask and get some quick advice

Thanks in advance!

[Suzaku]

700m isn't really that far in this game, but I find keeping your fluid transport distances as short and flat as possible is the best plan. Too many people end up coming to complain their pipe networks don't work because the headlift messes with everything. It's better to just move the solid items to/from your fluid sources as belts and vehicles are far less likely to give you issues.

[Lektronize]

Am I reading it right that you think I should build my Water Production there, and transport the processed water per Belt or Truck? Sounds good, I think Im gonna give that a Try

[Suzaku]

No, you should bring whatever you need the water for to the water. Like if you're setting up coal generators, then transport the coal to where the water is and build the generators there.

Same thing later on once you get into oil. Transport whatever you need to the oil and refine it on site. If you make fuel, send it to fuel generators built in that area. If you turn it into plastic/rubber, then you can move that where you want since it's easier to transport solids.

[Tenebris]

Originally posted by Suzaku:

700m isn't really that far in this game, but I find keeping your fluid transport distances as short and flat as possible is the best plan. Too many people end up coming to complain their pipe networks don't work because the headlift messes with everything. It's better to just move the solid items to/from your fluid sources as belts and vehicles are far less likely to give you issues.

The whole problem is simply that people don't understand how headlift works. On my first playthrough, I piped oil from the golden coast all the way to the grassy plains. It wasn't that bad since it was mostly flat along the beach, but there was a big hill I needed a few pumps for.

[Tenebris]

Originally posted by Suzaku:

No, you should bring whatever you need the water for to the water. Like if you're setting up coal generators, then transport the coal to where the water is and build the generators there.

Same thing later on once you get into oil. Transport whatever you need to the oil and refine it on site. If you make fuel, send it to fuel generators built in that area. If you turn it into plastic/rubber, then you can move that where you want since it's easier to transport solids.

As for this, a lot of coal in the game is right next to big sources of water, basically begging you to just make a coal power plant on-site

[Bobucles]

As the base grows, water demands grow. A base may start off needing 2 pipes of water, but can easily swell to 10 pipes or more.

Building near the water is best. It makes pipe elevation easy to track and easy to solve. Long distance piping gets very difficult when the elevation is hard to track. A common big factory setup is to bring resources to the water by train, do all the water industry there, and ship the finished products elsewhere.

[umop-apisdn]

Originally posted by Tenebris:

The whole problem is simply that people don't understand how headlift works.

I've been watching these forums for a while, and headlift is usually not an unsolvable problem. Once someone is aware that they'll need to provide "pressure" for the liquids to move uphill, and aware of the existence of pumps, the solution becomes obvious.

The mechanic I most often see causing "unsolvable" issues is the "sloshing". It's an interesting but ultimately infuriating mechanic, and makes liquids extremely tedious to deal with.

After a few dozen meters, the quantities are extremely unstable in pipes that are not completely full, "sloshing" back and forth and causing all manner of problems in generators and refineries. If the pipes are completely full, there are apparently invisible "leaks" that cause you to lose a few percent of the product (this is most visible using Mk 2 Pipes, because 5% is much more noticeable in twice the volume of fluid)... now that I think about it, this might actually be related to the "sloshing" mechanic, as well; if there's nowhere for it to slosh to, perhaps it just sloshes right out of the pipe.

Getting back to the fluid transport issues, it is my opinion that it is best to either only transport liquids very short distances, or take the "Dyson Sphere Program" approach and turn liquids into solids by packaging them before transport. Making this decision even easier is the fact that a freight car can carry 1600 cubic meters of liquid or 32 stacks of solid... Packaged fluids stack to 100, meaning that (paradoxically) packaging the fluids allows you to carry twice as much on a given freight car.

Throw the empty packages into a sink at the destination for a steady supply of coupons, and stop worrying about it. Unless you're building some ridiculously huge megafactory, you'll never miss the tiny amount of resources/power being siphoned off to make the packages, package the products, then remove them again at the destination.