Pipe splitters and fluid distribution from one long pipe

[redictor]

I've only done one playthrough during update 8 and so I don't have the most experience, but whenever I look at a factory in videos and see a fuel generator setup using only one long pipe to distribute the crude oil, I just think "There's no way that last refinery is getting enough oil without turning off constantly or that the previous refineries are clogged to hell!"

I don't really get how this work, if I'm right, if I'm wrong, what I should do when I start an oil pump up, and I'm not quite sure how to word the question to look for it in guides.

As for why I'm so concerned about this, I'm someone who absolutely detest clogging my machines and will stubbornly go out of my way to set up a conveyor spaghetti that goes halfway across the map than to intentionally clog a building up. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3460670417 (^ screenshot above for an example where i TRIED to eliminate a clog with conveyor spaghetti) but since I plan on using the pure crude oil in the southwest island for my first 1.0 fuel generators and want to use all 600m3 from it and that I also don't know how to evenly divide the oil into 20 refineries, I have a feeling I will need to use the one-pipe method and want to know how exactly it works.

In my update 8 playthrough I never committed to the full oil output and just set up the fuel generators at 8/16 oil processing refineries...

[Migz - DH]

Before doing anything else, I suggest rethinking the plan to use 600 of any fluid in one line. The mark 2 pipes (600/min) seem to not work correctly. Using the mark 1 pipes (300/min) seem to be easier to keep from running out of fluid when they shouldn't.

[redictor]

Originally posted by Migz - DH:

Before doing anything else, I suggest rethinking the plan to use 600 of any fluid in one line. The mark 2 pipes (600/min) seem to not work correctly. Using the mark 1 pipes (300/min) seem to be easier to keep from running out of fluid when they shouldn't.

Yeah I should've mentioned I planned on dividing it by 2 into mk1 pipes at the start at the very least regardless. Still, I also don't know how to properly divide into 10 without clogging for the same reason

[Kage Goomba]

Originally posted by Migz - DH:

Before doing anything else, I suggest rethinking the plan to use 600 of any fluid in one line. The mark 2 pipes (600/min) seem to not work correctly. Using the mark 1 pipes (300/min) seem to be easier to keep from running out of fluid when they shouldn't.

They work fine.

20 Nuclear Power Plants eating 600/min each - sulfuric acid refineries - uranium fuel processing.

That's just to name a few 600/min pipes I've used.

The problem is people complicate things.

The only issue I've seen is when Water Extractors are inconsistent in their up-time and start playing tug-o-war and I lose decimal points in timing.

Likely due to overwhelmed game engine or other weirdness - or just me being me.

Fact remains - the pipe will do its job - provided you don't over complicate the setup.

[redictor]

Originally posted by Kage Goomba:

The problem is people complicate things.

The only issue I've seen is when Water Extractors are inconsistent in their up-time and start playing tug-o-war and I lose decimal points in timing.

Likely due to overwhelmed game engine or other weirdness - or just me being me.

Fact remains - the pipe will do its job - provided you don't over complicate the setup.

The way I had planned this out by the time of making the thread is:

>One 600m3 pure oil extractor -> divide by 2 -> split those into 10 refineries each. (where as in the thread question was how exactly this works with the last refinery getting enough oil to not constantly turn off)
>Each side of refineries either make rubber for max fuel residue or 5 rubber and 5 plastic depending on the next step.
>Either combine and split the 400 m3/min heavy oil residue from pure rubber into 10 and 2/3rd refineries plus 160 compact coal to make alt turbofuel OR combine 300 heavy residue (however still keep both sides separate into 150 on each side) into 8 refineries (4 on each side for fewer pipe splitters) and 120 compact coal/min
>If I go with the latter, that makes 240 turbofuel/min which gets distributed into 16 fuel generators overclocked at 200%

Is this an overly complicated setup, would you say?

[Kage Goomba]

Originally posted by redictor:

Originally posted by Kage Goomba:

The problem is people complicate things.

The only issue I've seen is when Water Extractors are inconsistent in their up-time and start playing tug-o-war and I lose decimal points in timing.

Likely due to overwhelmed game engine or other weirdness - or just me being me.

Fact remains - the pipe will do its job - provided you don't over complicate the setup.

The way I had planned this out by the time of making the thread is:

>One 600m3 pure oil extractor -> divide by 2 -> split those into 10 refineries each. (where as in the thread question was how exactly this works with the last refinery getting enough oil to not constantly turn off)
>Each side of refineries either make rubber for max fuel residue or 5 rubber and 5 plastic depending on the next step.
>Either combine and split the 400 m3/min heavy oil residue from pure rubber into 10 and 2/3rd refineries plus 160 compact coal to make alt turbofuel OR combine 300 heavy residue (however still keep both sides separate into 150 on each side) into 8 refineries (4 on each side for fewer pipe splitters) and 120 compact coal/min
>If I go with the latter, that makes 240 turbofuel/min which gets distributed into 16 fuel generators overclocked at 200%

Is this an overly complicated setup, would you say?

You sound like you have the makings of a decent loop.

Half starts at the front end - the other half at the back end and meet in the middle.

The tricky thing is watching out for backflow and other things.
All I can say is - try to keep it simple as possible.

I've got a number of layouts and combinations your welcome to look at some point from various oil refineries to others.

I have seen some "Weird ♥♥♥♥" - but it all seems to stem from layouts that are not in balance or pumps being weird.

I'm hopeful 1.1 will ship with improved game engine for smoothing out "stray decimal points"

[Oceanstorm]

It's not really about whether it is simple or complicated.
What is complicated for one person will be simple for someone else.
What is important is that you have a set up that works for you that you are happy with🙂
As far as the last machine having enough resources....best way is to turn on each each machine in the chain one at a time, let them fill up with inbound resources and then turn on the next one and so on.....
If you turn on everything at once, the machines at the end of the line will always struggle to get resources if they get any at all....especially if you have a 600 pipe being fully utilised.

[redictor]

Originally posted by Kage Goomba:

You sound like you have the makings of a decent loop.

Half starts at the front end - the other half at the back end and meet in the middle.

The tricky thing is watching out for backflow and other things.
All I can say is - try to keep it simple as possible.

I've got a number of layouts and combinations your welcome to look at some point from various oil refineries to others.

I have seen some "Weird ♥♥♥♥" - but it all seems to stem from layouts that are not in balance or pumps being weird.

I'm hopeful 1.1 will ship with improved game engine for smoothing out "stray decimal points"

Thank you

You know, after giving it some thought, is this hypothesis true or somewhere in the right area to answer my thread question?
'A single pipe with multiple splitters will evenly distribute the fluid into each of the splitters from how much is in the pipe'

[Kage Goomba]

Originally posted by Oceanstorm:

It's not really about whether it is simple or complicated.
What is complicated for one person will be simple for someone else.
What is important is that you have a set up that works for you that you are happy with🙂
As far as the last machine having enough resources....best way is to turn on each each machine in the chain one at a time, let them fill up with inbound resources and then turn on the next one and so on.....
If you turn on everything at once, the machines at the end of the line will always struggle to get resources if they get any at all....especially if you have a 600 pipe being fully utilised.

It's more of a don't over complicate it by adding bits and pieces and other unnecessary things.

But yeah.

[Migz - DH]

Originally posted by Kage Goomba:

Originally posted by Migz - DH:

Before doing anything else, I suggest rethinking the plan to use 600 of any fluid in one line. The mark 2 pipes (600/min) seem to not work correctly. Using the mark 1 pipes (300/min) seem to be easier to keep from running out of fluid when they shouldn't.

They work fine.

20 Nuclear Power Plants eating 600/min each - sulfuric acid refineries - uranium fuel processing.

That's just to name a few 600/min pipes I've used.

The problem is people complicate things.

The only issue I've seen is when Water Extractors are inconsistent in their up-time and start playing tug-o-war and I lose decimal points in timing.

Likely due to overwhelmed game engine or other weirdness - or just me being me.

Fact remains - the pipe will do its job - provided you don't over complicate the setup.

I am glad that you find them to work. :-)

For me, even with simple setups, 600 pipes tend to fail.

Change them to 300 pipes, and no probs.

[Kage Goomba]

Originally posted by redictor:

Originally posted by Kage Goomba:

You sound like you have the makings of a decent loop.

Half starts at the front end - the other half at the back end and meet in the middle.

The tricky thing is watching out for backflow and other things.
All I can say is - try to keep it simple as possible.

I've got a number of layouts and combinations your welcome to look at some point from various oil refineries to others.

I have seen some "Weird ♥♥♥♥" - but it all seems to stem from layouts that are not in balance or pumps being weird.

I'm hopeful 1.1 will ship with improved game engine for smoothing out "stray decimal points"

Thank you

You know, after giving it some thought, is this hypothesis true or somewhere in the right area to answer my thread question?
'A single pipe with multiple splitters will evenly distribute the fluid into each of the splitters from how much is in the pipe'

The only way I can answer this and not risk blowing it off the rails is this.

If you have 300 coming in.
And each refinery eats 25.
Then each splitter is "-25"

If that makes sense.

Don't treat it like a conveyor manifold.
Things will hopefully start to make sense.

Course beware of backflow - excess fluid tends to come back and cause issues.
Better off eating every bit of fluid in that pipe and leaving nothing left over.

Only way to know is to try - and if it doesn't work - screenshots and ask for help.
Or do what I did - keep trying until it works. (different layouts/combos etc)

[Kage Goomba]

Originally posted by Migz - DH:

Originally posted by Kage Goomba:

They work fine.

20 Nuclear Power Plants eating 600/min each - sulfuric acid refineries - uranium fuel processing.

That's just to name a few 600/min pipes I've used.

The problem is people complicate things.

The only issue I've seen is when Water Extractors are inconsistent in their up-time and start playing tug-o-war and I lose decimal points in timing.

Likely due to overwhelmed game engine or other weirdness - or just me being me.

Fact remains - the pipe will do its job - provided you don't over complicate the setup.

I am glad that you find them to work. :-)

For me, even with simple setups, 600 pipes tend to fail.

Change them to 300 pipes, and no probs. :BL3Shrug:

The only issue I had is currently in my nuclear power setup - I have to "Reboot" about 25% of my nuclear generators - stand by then wait for water tank to fill then power it back up.

And then it will run endlessly without issue. (12 hours +)

Until I load the save again.

No one can answer why - and they give me the most stupid answers possible (blaming pumps or pipes)

If it was pumps or pipes - it wouldn't work regardless of a reboot.
Sometimes people are just dense.

[Triggerhappy]

It will function much like a series setup with belts, where machines won't work at nominal efficiency/capacity until every machine's internal inventory is completely full. In the case of fuel generators, you have to pre-fill the pipe until it's full, then, as you alluded to, turn on the gens at the end of the line first, wait for their internal inventories to fill up, then turn on the next gen and wait for it to fill, and so on until they're all running.

Alternatively, you can split the pipes as you would with belts to do an even distribution from the start and not have to worry about pre-loading inventories, but that takes extra space (or if you attempt to build the split vertically, extra complexity).

[redictor]

Originally posted by Triggerhappy:

It will function much like a series setup with belts, where machines won't work at nominal efficiency/capacity until every machine's internal inventory is completely full. In the case of fuel generators, you have to pre-fill the pipe until it's full, then, as you alluded to, turn on the gens at the end of the line first, wait for their internal inventories to fill up, then turn on the next gen and wait for it to fill, and so on until they're all running.

Alternatively, you can split the pipes as you would with belts to do an even distribution from the start and not have to worry about pre-loading inventories, but that takes extra space (or if you attempt to build the split vertically, extra complexity).

Gotcha, good to know. Not something I LIKE, but it's good to know at least. Everything after the crude oil into the20 refineries however is split like conveyorbelts at 2/4/8

[>< V ><]

Long piping works fine.

600 m^3 piping works fine.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3333566178

The longer the pipe and the more flow it can handle, the greater the chance of getting sloshing, where the water bounces back and forth. When it bounces back to the water pump (or whatever your liquid source is) this causes the source to shutoff, since it "thinks" it's full, reducing overall flow.

One way to stop sloshing is to shutoff the last couple machines in a manifold and let the entire system equalize. Then turn on the remaining machines.

[Kage Goomba]

Originally posted by >< V ><:

Long piping works fine.

600 m^3 piping works fine.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3333566178

The longer the pipe and the more flow it can handle, the greater the chance of getting sloshing, where the water bounces back and forth. When it bounces back to the water pump (or whatever your liquid source is) this causes the source to shutoff, since it "thinks" it's full, reducing overall flow.

One way to stop sloshing is to shutoff the last couple machines in a manifold and let the entire system equalize. Then turn on the remaining machines.

Very long pipes in my save - scary long.
Although I would suggest you keep the pipe's level/flat as much as you can - makes life easier when dealing with the question of lift.