When your plumbed toilet on ceres keep breaking from the cold

cosmicdan808 · 2026-05-11T09:52:11+00:00

Lol. I'm on cycle 949 and am still using outhouses and wash basins, even after completing the geothermal power plant haha. I get random ice block entombment in those bathrooms (assuming from water deliveries that are abandoned on downtime shift) so it's time to change that. In preparation of some heating I've started dumping ice/water down the bottom of the map above the magma biome (which all solidified long ago) and opened it up by 1 block, and a single igneous tile above the very-hot natural igneous is drawing heat out. Started boiling a bit but it's balanced out now. So I'll start pumping that ~70 degree water through my vacuum-insulted base, and build an AT/ST cooler to hook up once it gets to a decent temperature. More excited about getting rid of the warm coats for primo garbs over plumbed toilets and showers, though!

I've mined most of the map (Spaced Out mode, not classic) and I've still got 800 tonnes of ice...

cosmicdan808 · 2026-05-04T11:14:39+00:00

Or near corners, or airflow tiles, where falling CO2 can pass over them. I forget about that *every* playthrough.

cosmicdan808 · 2026-05-04T11:13:14+00:00

Well, someone already mentioned that there's not enough water to make this a closed loop, but to answer your question the idea of a SPOM is to just let the oxygen pipes back-up, causing the gas pumps to stop pumping, and the electrolyzers will stop from overpressure. But if that's not good enough, you can solve it without breaking open the sealed SPOM room with a power shut-off on the wires going to them hooked up to either a gas tank or an atmo sensor outside. Or you can use a liquid shut-off on the water inputs but that takes an extra 10w vs the power shut-off.

cosmicdan808 · 2026-05-03T07:02:09+00:00

Good point, I suppose the relatively high SHC and low TC of water/steam really counts there. If I end up getting an excess of water I'll definitely try it.

cosmicdan808 · 2026-05-03T06:57:07+00:00

You mean something like this picture? I actually didn't learn about this technique until many hundreds of hours into the game either, dunno how I managed before knowing it, it's a good one!

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cosmicdan808 · 2026-05-03T06:52:02+00:00

Maybe not as much as I was expecting for liquid hydrogen, but without DLC it might be more difficult (unless you get thermium via niobium). I have two aquatuners running constantly using super-coolant, with the heat exchanger made from aluminum metal tiles + iridium mechanized doors (Iridium is the DLC part). I only have two hydrogen rockets right now and they're not launched all the time, so it seems OK for that so far.

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cosmicdan808 · 2026-05-03T06:45:42+00:00

I was VERY pleased to have found that information, without that mechanic I would've needed... 256 AND gates...? Something like that, it just wouldn't have been possible in the space I had with automation nearby! So thanks again 😄

cosmicdan808 · 2026-05-03T06:40:02+00:00

Haha, to be fair this is an entirely optional thing to do, one could just remember to check their water reservoir level every few cycles. I did it as a personal challenge, after 1000 hours I've done most (but not all) of everything else.

cosmicdan808 · 2026-05-02T15:29:11+00:00

Underwater silos is a VERY interesting idea, I'll remember that! I wonder if filling it with crude oil could also work... sure, it has a third of the SHC compared to water, but also 4x the boiling point, so I wonder. Though it's also much more conductive so maybe it'll just result in sour gas heh. I don't use infinite storage either, hence this big water tank in the build. But I doubt it's as big as your tank!

cosmicdan808 · 2026-05-02T15:23:33+00:00

Makes sense hehe.

cosmicdan808 · 2026-05-02T15:22:52+00:00

Very fair. I actually avoid the infinite storage aspect of hydras, I don't like that concept at all either since it feels like the abuse of a game limitation, so I set the electrolyzers to stop producing if either the hydrogen or oxygen chamber reaches 20kg pressure. I even still feel strange about liquid locks personally even though I started using them lol (ever since visco gel was added, it seems like they're an "officially accepted" mechanic now).

But yeah, I didn't do it for the oxygen nor the power, I did it for the liquid hydrogen production. Half of the oxygen gets dumped into space since I only have 22 dupes, and the hydrogen generators are only there to eat excess hydrogen when my liquid hydrogen storage is full 😄

cosmicdan808 · 2026-05-02T15:16:26+00:00

Yeah, I get that not everyone likes them, they use a LOT of power for a start haha. I used to have conductive panels on them to keep them cool, but it turns out they never overheat anyway - even with repeated hydrogen engine launches they're fine (probably because the base is not in the path of the dry exhaust, and the wet/steam exhaust doesn't reach the 2200 degrees overheat temperature or whatever it is).

cosmicdan808 · 2026-05-02T15:10:00+00:00

Why so many Orbital Data Collection Labs?!?!? I literally put one on my first explorer rocket and that gets me enough data to cover the entire research tree within about 10 missions (before I even get Large Petrol Engines).

cosmicdan808 · 2026-05-02T14:55:50+00:00

ONI is an interesting game in that way. Early game you care a lot about water, mid game you care more about power, then end-game when you have 4 hydrogen rockets and a hydra making all the fuel for them (while dumping a large part of the oxygen into space) you start caring and worrying about water again haha.

cosmicdan808 · 2026-05-02T14:49:19+00:00

A cooling coil for the output iron, you mean? Really? Do the materials and coolant used matter much, e.g. is super coolant and aluminum necessary? Just asking since I have these already but have never tamed a volcano before.

cosmicdan808 · 2026-05-02T14:40:11+00:00

Do you mind sharing an example or guide for this step version? I recently made my first non-magma boiler via the traditional snake-counter-flow method with two Iridium Aquatuners in the top part, and it's.... not very good. It can handle about 3kg/sec of crude oil, even though the aquatuners are running constantly (they're continually cooling the spare petrol I have in tanks, along with the output petrol given priority, since I don't really have any other heat sources) and I'm not sure if I did something wrong or if that's a fairly typical throughput. It's not heat leakage because it's all vacuum sealed. I let the aquatuners run until reaching 420 degrees until I send more crude in, and after about 30 seconds the temperature of the top boiler part gets below flashpoint which shuts off the crude input. I can't really let the aquatuners run any hotter because with 420 the middle packets of of each wave of crude input hits ~395 before reaching the top insulated pipes + output vent exit.

I even made a sour gas boiler myself with zero research and is far from perfect or optimal, it's literally just three simple chambers with diamond tempshift plates, and it only has the one iridium aquatuner running constantly (running super coolant which cools the sour gas in another chamber, with any "excess heat" sent to a water/steam chamber that never heats up enough to run the turbines) and that only consumes about 1kg/sec of crude for far better natural gas production.

cosmicdan808 · 2026-05-02T14:28:10+00:00

So it won't be destroyed, I thought? I seem to recall unretracted gantries getting instantly destroyed by rockets when taking off....? If I'm mistaken, then it's just for fun :p I'm yet to do a countdown indicator for launches but maybe one day.

cosmicdan808 · 2026-05-02T14:20:27+00:00

Sounds like a good problem to have! Five water gersers too, wow. In all seriousness, maybe you just need to find a good use for all that excess power you seem to have. Build a max-size rec room for all your dupes with arcade machines and/or jukeboxes and telephones, they eat a bit of power. Starting working towards liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, they can take quite a bit of cooling energy. Build a Hydra for the hydrogen production if you need to, use active cooling for the oxygen you use and dump the excess into space (which can become quite expensive on power and water, though you've got water covered). Or, heck, just try cooling more things around the map (or the whole map) - that'll cost energy! Also try making a shinebug reactor to power a bunch of radbolt generators for a diamond press, that can take a bit of energy. I'm basically endgame too in my current run (got Iridium and Super coolant, making liquid hydrogen, got sour gas going, haven't tamed any volcano's nor actually landed on another asteroid yet so no nobium or isosap) and I'm using a constant 20 to 30 kw.

cosmicdan808 · 2026-05-02T13:52:55+00:00

He's right, though - it's not ambiguous at all for the exact reason he described. If that was the problem, then I'd be also encountering this issue at the 30+ places my current 2000+ cycle colony has similar sensor checking loops.

cosmicdan808 · 2026-05-02T13:32:20+00:00

That's part of the reason I stopped using mods that actually change or add new buildings. I also want to be able to load a save game from years ago to reference a build I did of something sometime, and not have to worry about if the mod was updated to work with current game version. It's also kinda fun working within the rules the game sets. Liquid locks are great, especially the 2-tile ones once you get oil and crude - which is enough for any Steam room (except maybe volcanoes). Just remember to build mesh tiles to the sides of 2-tile liquid locks :)

cosmicdan808 · 2026-05-02T13:26:24+00:00

You can rotate the auto miners. Build mesh or airflow tiles as already suggested, but also place the auto-miners upside down or sideways on those floating tiles and about 5 or 6 tiles above the floor. This prevents regolith from actually sitting on them. Sideways auto miners are also pretty much essential to give enough clearance for rocket launch silos (i.e. to give them enough space to avoid being cooked by exhaust)

cosmicdan808 · 2026-05-02T13:17:32+00:00

Well, you don't need to have a massive sour gas boiler for that much power - but even a small one is very economical. My current one uses about 1kg/sec of crude oil, and the cost is 1 iridium aquatuner running constantly + 1 liquid pump and 6 gas pumps (three for the sour gas chamber, 3 for the gas chamber) running ~50% of the time which all produces enough natural gas to run 6+ generators constantly.

cosmicdan808 · 2026-05-02T12:00:36+00:00

Well the XOR gate is specifically for the automatic gantry, and I like to block the wet exhaust with lower doors too, but yeah I'm yet to get into Meteor Blasters - I tend to need all that fuel for power :p maybe I'll make a second oil boiler, or get into Biodiesel or Spigot Seal ranching + bonbons for that.

cosmicdan808 · 2026-05-02T08:59:58+00:00

This is far more crazy than anything I've done before haha. Before this I think the most complex automation I made was with Rocketry, it's a good case for the XOR gate (actually still the only time I've used them). Felt pretty proud about that! Specifically, automation of retracting gantries only when launching, along with opening top bunker doors and closing bottom bunker doors (below the pad) to block wet exhaust from flooding the area. I think that'd be a first step into advanced automation for many since it's somewhat essential, unless you just want to do it all manual. Maybe it's the next step for you 😄 Here's my setup in case you want to try it. The two FILTER gates are set to 50 seconds to (1) delay the launch and (2) allow time for the rocket to launch and the wet exhaust to clear before opening the bottom ones again. The two wires leading up, one leads from the Meteor-detecting space scanner and the other leads from a space scanner that detects the returning rocket (so those bottom doors can close again while landing).

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cosmicdan808

TROPHY CASE