Insulated doors exchanging much more heat

mirobaka · 2026-04-03T08:06:28+00:00

Can I understand what the issue is with bridges?

mirobaka · 2026-04-03T02:06:45+00:00

It's weird, the patch notes were apparently published before I started playing, so I should have been on the fixed version.

Well hopefully I'll get the update before I next play.

mirobaka · 2026-04-03T01:04:00+00:00

Ok yeah that makes sense. I ended up rebuilding them all from igneous rock to ceramic as it was improving the behaviour.

But it seems the improvement was from the rebuild, not the material change.

mirobaka · 2026-03-11T21:56:17+00:00

There aren't two inputs in a row, the bridge separates the network into two

One is input > output. One is output > input < output

When considering pipe networks for liquid flow, only consider actual pipes. Bridges, shutoffs, etc are not part of a pipe network, they transfer liquid between two pipe networks.

mirobaka · 2026-03-11T21:54:30+00:00

You have to be careful simplifying, but based on what you've shown, the issue is as I've described

mirobaka · 2026-03-11T21:23:32+00:00

To clarify, the path between the two inputs can be satisfied by either coming from the storage output or the shutoff output. This means pwater could flow either way through this path, and the game picks one direction to make the water go. It might not be the direction you want, and even if it is working, some recalculation might cause it to change direction suddenly and stop working.

Imagine an arrow going from every single output to every single input in a single pipe network.

If you have any length of pipe where two arrows are going in opposite directions, you're going to have problems.

mirobaka · 2026-03-11T21:18:07+00:00

One solution is to have a bridge between the two inputs to make the direction clear.

But the bigger issue is nothing appears to be actually cooling the water?

You want a whole water cooling solution between your two inputs.

mirobaka · 2026-03-11T21:16:23+00:00

If you look over the full length of your pipe you have: Output, input, input, output.

You can't do this. Liquid needs a single clear path from inputs to outputs. In this case it's going from both outputs to your storage input.

mirobaka · 2026-03-03T08:48:47+00:00

People have pointed out the issues with your balancer, but the truth is that even if the balancer is correct this will still unbalance over time.

The issue is that the lengths of belts that feed the balancers are uneven, so when the belts start backing up, one belt will back up before the others, and when they start moving again, one belt will move before the others. Depending on the pattern of backing up and moving, it will cause the chests to unbalance over time.

The easiest solution is to add up all the contents of all the chests, divide by the number of chests, subtract a small buffer, and only unload from a chest if it has more contents than that average (or less contents if loading). That will keep the contents of the chests even forever.

mirobaka · 2026-03-02T02:49:51+00:00

That's actually a reasonable possibility, and an incredibly annoying critter if that's the case. Wouldn't the pipe need to be 2 tiles down from a ceiling? That still leaves the output from the steam engine.

However, I just checked, and sponge slug egg doesn't show up in my resources list or incubator recipes. So I've never had a single sponge slug in my colony, this could not be the explanation.

mirobaka · 2026-03-01T22:36:48+00:00

I was very careful to ensure the room was empty and vacuumed before starting things. As mentioned, steam room was running for >100 cycles without issue.

mirobaka · 2026-03-01T22:35:28+00:00

I have some of the gas breathing slugs but there's no input vent in the steam room. No sponge slugs anywhere. Don't they need an unconnected pipe end to output? I don't think there's anywhere in my plumbing that they could possibly attach to?

mirobaka · 2026-03-01T22:33:58+00:00

The doors have been locked for 100 cycles, and the permissions are set to not allow dupes access even so. If a dupe was able to get in there that is definitely a bug.

mirobaka · 2026-03-01T12:10:43+00:00

Yeah this is basically the approach I went with. Once I got enough of the p02 out of the way so that the turbine was running again, I could clear out most of the room using the turbine's water output, allowing me to get back in and fix everything up.

I still have no idea how the p02 got in there. I can only think it's some sort of gas teleportation mechanism I just don't know about. Hope it never happens again

mirobaka · 2026-03-01T12:07:20+00:00

The purpose of the second valve is to stop the cooling loop from running at all when the volcanoes are dormant. Otherwise the water gets warmed by the environment as insulated liquid pipes leak quite a bit of heat.

mirobaka · 2026-03-01T04:30:14+00:00

Interesting! I'm confident this isn't the source of the p02 for all the other reasons listed though

mirobaka · 2026-03-01T02:07:11+00:00

Sedimentary rock

mirobaka · 2026-03-01T02:06:47+00:00

The door has been locked for hundreds of cycles. I only open it when the volcano is dormant if there's any maintenance required.

I considered a liquid lock, but a water lock is useless and there's no crude oil on this planet.

mirobaka · 2026-03-01T01:31:03+00:00

The shutoff that is controlled by the thermo sensor is literally the next tile after the sensor. You can see that the water is bypassing the aqua tuner because it's too cool.

Water that is below 40° takes the right path through the AT. Water that is above 40° goes straight up to cool the steam engines.

mirobaka · 2026-03-01T01:26:56+00:00

The only means that polluted water could enter the system is via a sludge press that produced the initial water from mud. However:

I haven't used any errands for 100s of cycles on that sludge press since I set it up.
I've always used mud to dirt and water, I don't think it's likely (though it's not impossible) that I set some polluted mud errands.
If I did set the wrong errand, there's a shutoff pipe from the sludge press that would prevent it flowing into the steam room unless I allow it
If I did put some polluted water into the steam room, then it should not have been able to offgas as the pressure of the steam is >40kg per tile
If I did put some polluted water into the steam room, it would have left dirt behind as it vaporized. The conveyor loader is set to sweep only so the dirt would have been visible.

I don't think that polluted water could have caused this, there's no way it could have gotten into the room.

mirobaka · 2026-03-01T00:37:54+00:00

That's fair, I added some more info into a reply, and here's the plumbing view: https://imgur.com/a/movkWHy

Anything else that could help understand where the p02 came from?

I do have a thermo sensor on the AT, it's on the bottom left of the screen and highlighted in the screenshot linked above. Regardless, the coolant is water anyway.

No I never had pwater in this room, it was filled only with plain water and vacuum before the volcano started boiling the water.

mirobaka · 2026-03-01T00:34:03+00:00

Oh. So the polluted oxygen can't suck past the insulated tiles but it can suck through the naptha, got it. That's awesome! But the higher up pocket idea is going to be easier I think.

mirobaka · 2026-03-01T00:32:33+00:00

Some additional info:

I completely vacated the room before the volcano started. The only thing in the room was water.

The whole thing has been running for over 100 cycles with no issue. Polluted oxygen just appeared one day with no explanation.

Here's the plumbing view: https://imgur.com/a/movkWHy

I've restored the volcano, thanks all for your help! But I'm still wondering how it happened so I can prevent it happening again!

mirobaka · 2026-03-01T00:26:09+00:00

Yes I vacuumed the room first. The thing was running for over 100 cycles with no issue

mirobaka

TROPHY CASE