Factorio Forums

A liquid tower storage.
It's loaded from the top and have output in the bottom.

- Constant pressure is required to fill it. It won't fill with no pressure on input
- Input pressure is fully independed from contents
- Output pressure is quite big, and only slightly depends on contents,
i.e. output_pressure = constant_height + liquid_contents_height, where constant_height = max_capacity * 10

Why needed: this will help a lot in liquids handling. In real world liquid storages are usually made this way.

Practically speaking, what would the benefits be?

In the current system, it's extremely slow to fill in the last ~400 units or drain the last ~400 units from a tank. There is no pressure to work with or against.

A high tank would allow for quick drain, or to fill a pipe to full capacity without the tank having to be full.

Xeanoa wrote:In the current system, it's extremely slow to fill in the last ~400 units or drain the last ~400 units from a tank. There is no pressure to work with or against.

A high tank would allow for quick drain, or to fill a pipe to full capacity without the tank having to be full.

If you want to quickly empty tank you need to use pump and place it directly next to it.
Filling tank in is best done also with pumps - might need more then one per pipe depending on what you are doing.

orzelek wrote:

Xeanoa wrote:In the current system, it's extremely slow to fill in the last ~400 units or drain the last ~400 units from a tank. There is no pressure to work with or against.

A high tank would allow for quick drain, or to fill a pipe to full capacity without the tank having to be full.

If you want to quickly empty tank you need to use pump and place it directly next to it.
Filling tank in is best done also with pumps - might need more then one per pipe depending on what you are doing.

You'll still notice a slowdown near the extreme ends of the tank's level. It's just unavoidable the way tanks are designed.

Xeanoa already answered why. Thx
To notice the effect try to build a really big storage facility (50 tank for example, don't ask me why - it's another subject to discuss and really have many applications, i.e. hot water accumulator)

I just add something:
In fact real world you won't have THIS much hard physics problems with the fluid tanks, just because high towers are widely used.
What kind of hard physics i'm talking about: pressure in input and in output way is depended on contents. Too much depended. This dependency makes it much harder to control the fluids.
Meanwhile it's harder than real life, which is strange for me since this game is obviously easier (you make an inserter with bare hands, huh?)

About pumps - too much pumps you'll need, they consume too much power and just for storing.
High storage needs only a pump on entrace.

thelordodin wrote:To notice the effect try to build a really big storage facility (50 tank for example, don't ask me why - it's another subject to discuss and really have many applications, i.e. hot water accumulator)

To mangle with words:

Rseding91 wrote:Because everything in the game has to scale. If it's "ok" with [1-2 tanks] and then "complete garbage" when there's [10-50] that's unacceptable.

(Original quote)

Xeanoa wrote:

thelordodin wrote:To notice the effect try to build a really big storage facility (50 tank for example, don't ask me why - it's another subject to discuss and really have many applications, i.e. hot water accumulator)

To mangle with words:

Rseding91 wrote:Because everything in the game has to scale. If it's "ok" with [1-2 tanks] and then "complete garbage" when there's [10-50] that's unacceptable.

(Original quote)

Nice use of that quote
High time fluid mechanics will scale properly for a refinery or an emergency power unit storing 2M of fluids.

I've implemented this idea give it a try if you wish to:
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/ReallyPressureTanks