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A question that probably won't matter - Does *Net* output or *Gross* output win?

I can also report that I have broken the 730MW barrier so SurprisedPikachu².

coppercoil wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 22, 2020 9:17 am

For some reason my fluid flow calculations did not match effective power. I don't know why. I was too lazy for it

Are we talking a difference of a couple of MW or more than that? With my current prototype, the production/consumption screen reports about 1 MW more than my math shows and I figure that's just because of the way the game truncates/rounds displayed values. A 1 MW error is less than a quarter of a percentage point if you're breaking 700 MW. Considering that this number is derived from hundreds of entities working together, I'm inclined to think that's pretty fair. Or maybe literally unplayable. One of those two things.

coppercoil wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 22, 2020 9:17 am

By the way, there also are traps while generating electricity... You should try it too.

I don't know what you mean by that buddy.

mikehendi wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 22, 2020 8:50 am

I'll then test in in 0.18 and see if there is a difference

coppercoil wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 22, 2020 4:08 pm

Just for the record: 0.18.19 didn't change nuclear performance for me, comparing to 0.17.stable.

I tried my previous prototype in 0.17 after my prior post. It didn't effect power output, but I guess I can't say for certain that it's impossible that every possible design would remain unaffected. The only thing I really noticed is that the water pumps are kind of a pain in the rear since the way those are placed has changed. In the end, you can still cover them with landfill and get exactly the same layout but the steps are a bit different.

My reactor runs slighly different too every time I move/replace something. Also the identical mirrored right side runs different than the left side. It may have something to do with the order things are placed/stacking rounding errors/dividing odd numbers into 2 parts.

Anyway, it not has been a problem yet, all entries so far are apart enough to see a clear order.

(If there will be a MW tiebreak, I'll use the fluid count, if that's varies too much, I'll build the reactors each 3-5 times or so and see if there's a clear winner.)

I calculated flow power again and got right numbers. It seems my calculator app was broken yesterday

ColonelSandersLite wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 23, 2020 7:41 am

coppercoil wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 22, 2020 9:17 am

By the way, there also are traps while generating electricity... You should try it too.

I don't know what you mean by that buddy.

I mean you can set turbines up, and they won't generate that power you have calculated by fluid flow. That's not a math, that's game physics. It's pretty simple when you know it already, but it can be not obvious for the man who just started to design extreme setups.I don't know about your experience.

Also, you can encounter some other unexpected problem when you start building turbines (or any other module). I was not able to get POC power in the final setup because I did miss some points (though still 730+MW).

Man oh man.

Been racking my brain to get a working setup. I tested 6 different setups with various heat exchanger/turbine configurations, none capable of sustaining anything above 230MW. I either get water supply issues to my heat exchangers, or steam flow to turbines being hampered.

3 pipes water in/2 pipes steam out causes the latter, 2 water in/3 steam out makes the back of the line HE's run dry.

Was about to give up this fool's errand, when i read you can place an offshore pump, and landfill around it. This is a game changer for me.

Back to the drawing board!

mikehendi wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 22, 2020 8:49 am

can you tell me how I can display more numbers behind the comma (is it a debug option? or did you calculate this from the more precise fluid count?)

mikehendi wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 23, 2020 8:01 am

If there will be a MW tiebreak, I'll use the fluid count

Edit - See the revised version a couple of posts below. This version is just left here for archival purposes.

In order to help you out, (and really anybody that would find it useful for this challenge) I cobbled together a more precise power display. Edit: Note that it displays power production, not consumption...
It requires 3 mods -
Nixie Tubes
Text Plates
Power Combinator

Here's the print -
Copy blueprint

Just plonk it down in the power network you want to measure and it should just work.


Known issues -
This may not display correctly for power levels over 9000, but everybody knows that's IMPOSSIBLE. More seriously, just add more tubes to the left if you need more numbers and it should work fine.

It will not work correctly while a creative mode active energy source is in the same network but should start working correctly again once the active energy source is removed.

@Zillard:
"then i read you can place an offshore pump, and landfill around it." --> That is exactly NOT what I said, but what I want to prevent!
(This makes it difficult to actually put down the blueprint, especially if you landfill around the pumps and build other stuff where the water supporting the pump used to be). You have to keep the offshore pumps in the water (I can't build offshore pumps directly from blueprints, so i have to place the 3x2 water to accomodate each offshore pump manually, this should be possible WITHOUT deleting/moving other parts of your setup.

@Colonel:
That's a nifty tool

@ondrii:
If it sounds to good to be true...

Now I don't want to go offtopic, but I would LOVE seeing the 9 wide ribbon world.
Do you mind sharing the save?

mikehendi wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 24, 2020 9:51 am

You have to keep the offshore pumps in the water (I can't build offshore pumps directly from blueprints, so i have to place the 3x2 water to accomodate each offshore pump manually, this should be possible WITHOUT deleting/moving other parts of your setup.

Yeah i made a blueprint for landfill and pumps. Then once pumps are in place you drop the next blueprint with the remaining landfill and needed bits on top of that. But if this against the rules ill have to pull out of the comp. Might as well as i can only get 717MW sustained.

I was finding that my power plant was pulsing between two numbers, I think because of the nature of the pumps, so I have revised my power meter with an additional averaging feature to make it a bit more convenient to read.

Edit: Rev 1 had a small error. How embarrasing . Fixed now and updated to Rev 2. If you have Rev 1, just grab the new BP.


It requires 3 mods -
Nixie Tubes
Text Plates
Power Combinator

The print -
Copy blueprint


Just plonk it down in the power network you want to measure and it should display power production in real time.

To use the averaging feature - Wait until your power plant's output has stabilized, click on the designated constant combinator and turn it on. It will then start averaging all values between the game tick when you turned it and the present game tick.

To turn the averaging feature off and return to real time display, click on the designated constant combinator and turn it off.

In the event that you think your power output has changed and you want to reset the averaging, turn it off and back on again.


Known issues -
This may not display correctly for power levels over 9000, but everybody knows that's IMPOSSIBLE. More seriously, just add more tubes to the left if you need more numbers and it should work fine.

It will not work correctly while a creative mode active energy source is in the same network but should start working correctly again once the active energy source is removed.

If the averaging feature is left on for very extended periods of time (several hours? days?), it is possible for an integer overflow to occur and it will start spitting out garbage.

mikehendi wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 24, 2020 9:51 am

"then i read you can place an offshore pump, and landfill around it." --> That is exactly NOT what I said, but what I want to prevent!
(This makes it difficult to actually put down the blueprint, especially if you landfill around the pumps and build other stuff where the water supporting the pump used to be). You have to keep the offshore pumps in the water (I can't build offshore pumps directly from blueprints, so i have to place the 3x2 water to accomodate each offshore pump manually, this should be possible WITHOUT deleting/moving other parts of your setup.

You didn't edit that in until a few days after this thing was under way and didn't mention it in a followup until this very quoted post.

I'm in the same boat as zillard in that my power plant is done and basically ready to submit but I was using landfill over pumps. If ease of use is the issue, I could simply give you a multistage easily aligned BP book as a compromise.

Will this do?


But alas, i have landfilled over my pumps. Yet, multistage blueprint book thats easy to follow. Savegame available as well.

Let me know. Still keen to compete in this. It is much fun.

I discovered today that there is also a mod solution as well. Combining Inland Pumps with Waterfill lets you just plonk down blueprints with offshore pumps without having to fiddle with it.

Zillard, you can send the blueprint via pm, it'd be cool to check it out anyway.

I guess in a 'real' world you could landfill over your pumps too, although if you ever accidentally deconstruct one you're screwed, so because of that (and to keep the playing field even with the other submissons) I'm inclined to disallow it for the official results.

Lol, it took me only 5,5 years of forum membership to lose my "burner inserter" status

It's easy to have those mods, and they probably won't mess with any fluid mechanics, though because of the word "probably" I try to keep it to vanilla (so far less than 10 designs have been submitted, so it's still doable)

All good bro. Keen to see the winning design. Will definately see something magical come from it.

Keep up the good fight gents.

I am not interested money fame honor.
EDIT: [Deleted]
This boiler design will grant you 792MW in this scenario. You can't reach further more than this design by scenario rule.

Dude. Why do you want to ruin the competition now for others?

Zillard wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 27, 2020 5:37 pm

Dude. Why do you want to ruin the competition now for others?

It is not allowed? Sorry?

nicefaturan wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 27, 2020 4:27 pm

I am not interested money fame honor.
EDIT: [Deleted]
This boiler design will grant you 792MW in this scenario. You can't reach further more than this design by scenario rule.

Well, I saw that BP. It won't work because it has a flaw. I know it because I had made the same mistake

Now i wish i looked at it to see what the mistake was. lol