Any way to have low-depth exhausts work? (Advanced Vehicles)

[Toklo490]

Trying to make a submarine here, ive tried 3 different setups, and am curious if its possible to get exhausts to work underwater at any reasonably low depth (mine just stop working at -10 depth or so, id assume this is intentional because its consistent and could make sense for game balance.)

YES, I KNOW THAT I CAN USE ELECTRIC MOTORS/GENERATORS. IM JUST CURIOUS AS TO IF ITS POSSIBLE TO GET EXHAUSTS TO WORK AT LOW DEPTHS.

My first try was an engine that stored air and exhaust in tanks to later resurface, fill air, and vent exhaust using various on/off valves and pumps. This worked great, the only problem being that the exhaust filled its tanks really damn quickly, and so id need a very considerable space dedicated to just exhaust storage if i wanted to go down for even ~3 minutes. Considering my submarine is a rather small one, thats really not an option unless EVERYTHING but the engine and cockpit was just a massive exhaust tank.

My second test was seeing if the whole electric setup worked, and just making sure i knew how to set it up. Worked like a charm and had awesome speeds for a sub (~20 units of speed). My only problem with it was that i was running down 0.01 charge in a large battery every half-second or so running off of 2 medium electric engines, and then it would take ~2-4 seconds for me to recharge 0.01 charge with 2 medium generators. Theese large batteries and electric engines/generators are heavy AF for my little sub, so not only did it make managing depths and movement rather unwieldy, id also be able to go for about 3 minutes of rather fast speed before just being left to twiddle my thumbs for a good 8 minutes before i was recharged.

So, i concluded that if i wanted depth and speed, electric was the way to go. But, downsides are its rather unwieldy for smaller subs, takes up alot of valueable space, and takes forever to recharge unless i can fit a crapton of generators and have a big enough engine. Not the case for a small sub build.

But, then i figured i may be able to get exhaust to work underwater. So, i got some air tanks (engines take in air suprisingly slow, so just having air tanks refilled at the surface seems viable) Put just about everything i could to stop water getting in the exhaust port (flow valve, filter, and large pump just before the port). got really excited when i saw it worked underwater, and then realised the moment i went under -10 altitude or so (didint have altimeter, so rough estimate), the exhaust just... stopped. Nothing came out of the pipe, and the engine died id assume due to not being able to vent exhaust. The moment i went back over that altitude, no problem whatsoever.

SO, after that wall of text, my question remains: can i get an exhaust port to work underwater? it seems like its not the case considering i tried just about everything i could to get that exhaust out of the pipe and keep water out, but i figured id ask here and see if i just missed something.

[404_Gordon_Not_Found]

small sub with 2 medium motors? That's quite overkill. To put it into perspective, you can make a +50m ship with 2 medium motors that travels at +15m/s(default speed unit)

your best bet is to make A very small custom tank and connect the exhaust pipes to it. Don't worry about the volume it will never be filled up

[ghettodexter]

Try adding pumps to the exhaust before the air tank... Is allows the tanks to have about 32x the capacity.. the engine should stop once pressure is higher than 1.0 but adding a pump will allow air to flow untill 32psi... That should be a quick fix... Another method is to just remove the tank and pump directly into the sea using multiple pumps in line to overcome the water pressure. Hope this helps!

[Nhalok]

I have a sub on the workshop that can run its engine at >70m depth. Instead of trying to explain it all, look up The Nharwhal. The basic idea is using the large pumps on all engine piping. I too spent a lot of time trying to figure out if it was possible, mostly with in line pump setups but this works as of now.

[Toklo490]

Originally posted by ghettodexter:

Try adding pumps to the exhaust before the air tank... Is allows the tanks to have about 32x the capacity.. the engine should stop once pressure is higher than 1.0 but adding a pump will allow air to flow untill 32psi... That should be a quick fix... Another method is to just remove the tank and pump directly into the sea using multiple pumps in line to overcome the water pressure. Hope this helps!

Hmm. Could you explain the "adding pumps to the exhaust before the air tank" method?
Tried it in various different ways/setups, not making a difference how long i can go before the tanks fill up/engine shuts down reguardless of pressure.


With 19.25 pressure into the fluid input of the tanks, i had a run time of 2 minutes and 29 seconds before the engine shut down.
With that same setup, but less pumps, at 5.75 pressure, i had a run time of 2 minutes and 36 seconds.
With NO pumps, i had a run time of 2 minutes and 55 seconds.
Those tests were all ran while just skimming of the top of the water, times are give or take 5-10 seconds off, but still a clear trend there.
Also, all setups had the engine stopping when the tank content read exactly 1406.25 (using 2 large fluid tanks and an add gate), so the actual physical space being taken up before having the engine die did not change.


Seems to me that in this game with this system, the less pressure the better? im confused.

As far as that second method, yet to try it, but if i was to, how would i tell the ambient water pressure so i could gague when im boutta be screwed by water pressure at my depth?

[Toklo490]

Originally posted by Nhalok:

I have a sub on the workshop that can run its engine at >70m depth. Instead of trying to explain it all, look up The Nharwhal. The basic idea is using the large pumps on all engine piping. I too spent a lot of time trying to figure out if it was possible, mostly with in line pump setups but this works as of now.

Ah! will be looking at it now. Just as i posted my above comment, steam refreshed, and i saw you had posted. Thanks for the help, btw!

[G_Tugg]

Could you not just make an empty room on the sub with a door that opens into the sea. Pump the exhaust into the room and open the door when its full then pump the water out and repeat?

[Toklo490]

Originally posted by G_Tugg:

Could you not just make an empty room on the sub with a door that opens into the sea. Pump the exhaust into the room and open the door when its full then pump the water out and repeat?

Hmm. Possibly. Dont know if the game takes into account the water pressure entering said room, and if it does, then the engine is still screwed while pumping out the water.
Also would be a rather slow drainage rate for the water and exhaust bolth, so id have to have some mad big exhaust tanks for while the water is pumping out, in wich case i may as well just stick with huge exhaust tanks.

[RDML. "Flare"]

Just add a filter to your exhaust going in the room that you want to fill, and set it to exhaust only, this should do the job.
However, becauso of the preshure, you need to re-start or just stop the engines while having water in the exhaust room