How do I balance a simple three pipe set up?

[GAMING_Alligator]

Could someone help me understand how I use pumps and valves to simply balance three pipes coming from an oil extractor into three refineries?

I feel like I'm missing something fundamental here, but no matter what I try, it's like the game just does not want to let me have an equal amount flowing three ways and one of the three refineries is always starved of resources.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3335391454

[Frostiken]

Originally posted by Omega420:

Like this:

And the same for the outputs...

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3234846100

lol do you actually play with that stupid worthless crap always on the screen?

[DivineEvil]

Originally posted by GAMING_Alligator:

Could someone help me understand how I use pumps and valves to simply balance three pipes coming from an oil extractor into three refineries?

I feel like I'm missing something fundamental here, but no matter what I try, it's like the game just does not want to let me have an equal amount flowing three ways and one of the three refineries is always starved of resources.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3335391454

If your output from the oil extractor is less than is needed to feed all three refineries, then it doesnt matter what you do - either of them will always starve. Its all the same for conveyors and pipes alike - all that matters is that supply equals demand. All else is irrelevant, as even imbalanced producers will fill up and balance out naturally. Getting more resources out of a share pool doesnt make them produce more - it only makes them produce first.

[Dailao]

Originally posted by GAMING_Alligator:

How do I balance a simple three pipe set up?

I just tried today for a few hours and every time I thought I had it, it got unstable again at some point and stopped pumping, dropping pressure and so on. Pipes are a nightmare in this game and not logical at all.

In the end I just killed one pipe and overclocked the two other providers to compensate. The game seems to be able to handle two pipes going into one in a stable manner at least. Yeah never doing three pipes into one again.

[phadin]

Originally posted by DivineEvil:

Originally posted by GAMING_Alligator:

Could someone help me understand how I use pumps and valves to simply balance three pipes coming from an oil extractor into three refineries?

I feel like I'm missing something fundamental here, but no matter what I try, it's like the game just does not want to let me have an equal amount flowing three ways and one of the three refineries is always starved of resources.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3335391454

If your output from the oil extractor is less than is needed to feed all three refineries, then it doesnt matter what you do - either of them will always starve. Its all the same for conveyors and pipes alike - all that matters is that supply equals demand. All else is irrelevant, as even imbalanced producers will fill up and balance out naturally. Getting more resources out of a share pool doesnt make them produce more - it only makes them produce first.

With fluids, there IS something to be said about trying to prime the system by filling the pipes. Fluid dynamics can make it hard to keep all of the supplied facilities running in pipes that are running under capacity. Once the pipes are full, turn on the machines and as long as production and consumption are equal, you should have no issues.

[shoopy]

It is normal to fill pipes so that there's no air in them. The water pipes in your house work the same way.

Edit:
Well drain pipes are the opposite but there are no actual drain pipes in this game.

[DivineEvil]

Originally posted by phadin:

With fluids, there IS something to be said about trying to prime the system by filling the pipes. Fluid dynamics can make it hard to keep all of the supplied facilities running in pipes that are running under capacity. Once the pipes are full, turn on the machines and as long as production and consumption are equal, you should have no issues.

Fluid dynamics does not have an effect on output of fluids, only on their distribution between pipe segments. If the pipe takes 120 water, that's what it gives on the opposite side. Filling the pipes simply makes the refineries work in parallel and clang-woosh louder.

If input into the pipe is lower than the machines need out of it, it doesnt matter if they all starve a little, or one of them starve more notably, and prefilling them will only delay the inevitable deprivation - the same way starting machines on an empty pipe that has sufficient input would just delay the inevitable 100% workload.

[shoopy]

Yeah eventually pipes will output what is input, but say you have a dip somewhere or a backflow between sections it will seem like fluid is lost somewhere until whatever anomaly is there gets filled up, which can take a while. Prefilling the pipes just forces this to happen quicker.

[The Big Brzezinski]

Originally posted by GAMING_Alligator:

Could someone help me understand how I use pumps and valves to simply balance three pipes coming from an oil extractor into three refineries?

I feel like I'm missing something fundamental here, but no matter what I try, it's like the game just does not want to let me have an equal amount flowing three ways and one of the three refineries is always starved of resources.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3335391454

Headroom. Run the input with the downstream machines turned off until they're each at least half full. This will make plenty of room for each machine (including the input) to work with 100% uptime.

[Bedna]

Originally posted by Dailao:

Originally posted by GAMING_Alligator:

How do I balance a simple three pipe set up?

I just tried today for a few hours and every time I thought I had it, it got unstable again at some point and stopped pumping, dropping pressure and so on. Pipes are a nightmare in this game and not logical at all.

In the end I just killed one pipe and overclocked the two other providers to compensate. The game seems to be able to handle two pipes going into one in a stable manner at least. Yeah never doing three pipes into one again.

Not sure what you are trying to say here.
I have 300 oil output, I am consuming that 300 into different refineries.
Those refineries put out 300 fuel, all on the same line, and I have 15 generators on that fuel line too.
I primed all the generators, then started one after another and they have been running without problems since.

If you were to ignore priming them, yeah, it would take a LONG time before they are all running because the fuel needed to run the last few generators on that pipe, is not being delivered because that fuel is still priming the first generators on the pipe.

The magic is PRIMING the generators first (or wait half an eternity until all but one of the generators become filled with fuel)