[2.0.11] Thruster swapping Fuel and Oxidizer (mixing/fluid) (MR)

[ToxicBanana]

I am having what I think it is a bug, where the fuel and oxidizer are getting get mixed/swapped, eventually stalling the thrusters due to lack of fuel, if I clear the pipes the issue does go away for the duration of the trip (Nauvis to Volcanus)

Before flight

10-26-2024, 09-11-40.png (1.41 MiB) Viewed 5065 times

During flight (after about 10 seconds)

10-26-2024, 09-12-37.png (1.47 MiB) Viewed 5065 times

I have restarted the game, rebuilt all structures and pipes, changed the pipe layout, and cleared out the fluids before the flight.

My solution was to use different inputs on the thrusters and to not let fuel pass through a thruster (layout in screenshot), but I assume I should have been able to build it in the way seen in the video clip.

Layout without issues

Picture of my alternate layout without the issue.

10-26-2024, 09-03-13.png (987.02 KiB) Viewed 5065 times

[boskid]

Without save files there is not much to do, i suspect it may be related to one of the weird behaviors of fluid segments done by raiguard where in case of a fluid mixing, one of the fluids gets stashed on the fluid segment and will get reintroduced when pipes get down to 0 with their content. It could be just an intermediate condition where you accidentaly connected both segments when they both contained their fluids and one of the fluids got stashed on the pipes. Also please make sure there is a game version in the topic.

[dhensen]

I came here looking if this issue was already posted. I have a similar issue with the thrusters. My fuel changes into water halfway the trip to Gleba. I triple checked my pipes. It might be that I had my thrusters hooked up to a water tank before, because the blue oxidizer droplet looked like water, so I hooked it up to a watertank before realising I was wrong.

After fixing everything and clearing the system of water and properly hooking up fuel and oxidizer, it worked, until halfway the trip.
I saved and reloaded the game 3 times, it happened every time consistently, so if I still have that save-game we have a repro. I will look for it later this night and upload it. I was running 2.0.9 on linux, just for reference.

[ToxicBanana]

That is a possibility, I did try to eliminate that by rebuilding the thrusters, even putting in different quality ones. I also emptied the fluid of all pipes after placing down new thrusters.

[heggart]

HI this problem is also happening to me and it is very annoying

here you can check the correct version and build state

10-26-2024, 19-14-06.png (56.23 KiB) Viewed 5043 times

[Mirodin]

I have had the same issue and now I had an issue when making holmium. All my holmium pipes and outputs changed into water (lame factorio jesus).

My setup was pretty spaghetti, so it was a nightmare having to manually change each and every one of them.

There are 2 save files. File where it was still working and file where everything changed to water.

Problem is the "before" is a few hours before, did not have any intermediary save, so something else might have caused the issue in the meantime.

No idea what the cause is, but it is royally annoying.

[Mirodin]

It keeps happening. Now I managed to snag a save where it happens in a minute or less. I think it happens when I am switching between planets, but might not be so. So keep switching between gleba and fulgora and you should have the pipes in the fulmium labs change to water.

Okay I tried it again. Just keep hovering on the pipes and in less then a minute it swaps. I think it happens when the liquid hits 0, then it changes to water for some reason.

[Tharmund]

I had the exactly same issue with a ship and I think it swaps when the liquid hits zero too.

I made a small vid of it.

[Mirodin]

This is absurd. I even tried destroying each and every pipe on my platform and then pasting it with a blueprinted platform. That includes all factories pertaining to fluid creation. All of it scrapped and then pasted via blueprint.

Still wrong all fuel in my oxidizer.

I do think it happens when liquid hits 0. Please fix this.

EDIT: at least with the holmium issue, I solved it by circuiting and making sure no factories were running below a certain point in tanks. But as I found out, you cannot wire thrusters, so I cant really use that same thing to circumvent the bug here.

EDIT2: so I decided to scrap EVERYTHING and after pasting back, it seems back to working. Last time I forgot to scrap the thrusters themselves, so I think the issue might have been in them.

[ToxicBanana]

If you clear the pipes your ship may start to travel again, while not ideal it is a temporary workaround. I also scrapped the thrusters and the problem continued for me.

[Bodzio]

I am having exactly the same problem. It started when I was reworking piping by the engines. I have accidentially connected fuel and oxidizer between the tanks. After that fluids were acting extremely wiredly.
To reproduce the issue:
1. Load attached save file
2. Switch to platform named Explorer
3. This is a valid state of fluids:

10-28-2024, 22-26-24.png (914.91 KiB) Viewed 4630 times

4. "accidentially" connect bottom pipe to the right oxidizer engine output

10-28-2024, 22-26-54.png (621.98 KiB) Viewed 4630 times

5. All of fuel has converted to oxidizer

I cannot reproduce this issue now but I had it earlier so that even reconnecting left fuel plant to engine would fill it with oxidizer even after clearing all pipe segments. I think it might be some oxidizer stuck in the engine fuel port that made that happen.

[dhensen]

This is the save game that consistently messed up.

Repro:
- Use factorio space age 2.0.9
- Load my save
- Go to space platform Nubretoria
- Launch the platform to go to Gleba
- Keep your eye on the south-east storage tank (filled with thruster fuel)
- (don't mind noob stuff in my save, my small kids play on it)

Halfway the trip you should see it turn into water. When that happens I'm screwed. If I flush pipeline system I might recover.
Now on 2.0.11 it does not happen anymore. (i've only tried 2 times, but on 2.0.9 it happend 100% 4 out of 4 times)

[Loewchen]

Ref.: 116684

[SamsaraRazor]

Also experiencing this issue in 2.0.13, makes it impossible for me to finally play space age after spending a lot of time shoring up defences...

Reproduce:
Use space thruster blueprint in hotbar to paste over the approriate section in the "Space debris 2" platform.

The pipes will instanly mix. I've tried complete deconstruction many times, eventually they will mix either fuel or oxidiser depending on what hits 0 first.
I've noticed that if the thruster has any type of liquid in it and you connect an empty pipe to the opposite output, whatever liquid is in there will instantly claim the pipe, even though it is the opposite liquid.

Using my reproduction, there is no possible unintended cross contamination because:
1. The system worked as intended as long as both sets of pipes were "pressurised"
2. Putting down the blueprint as is does not connect it to the rest of the space platform fluid system, meaning that when the oxidiser flows into the fuel pipe from the thrusters, it is due to a bug.

[Zaflis]

This is absurd. I even tried destroying each and every pipe on my platform and then pasting it with a blueprinted platform. That includes all factories pertaining to fluid creation. All of it scrapped and then pasted via blueprint.

There is a "new" feature that came in Factorio 1.1 (or earlier?) that if you click a pipe it opens up a small window for fluid network stats. There is a red trashcan button you can click to flush out all fluids you don't want in that pipeline.

The way factorio fluids work is that when you remove 1 pipe, all the fluid in it will flow outward to all other pipes that still remain built. So if you just keep removing they will withdraw and withdraw even up inside the engine itself. You would have to destroy absolutely every fluid containing entity including engine and chem plant. But why do so much work when you can flush the pipeline with 1 click.

[GodGMN]

This just happened to me too, I made 1000% sure all pipes were connected properly, redid them twice and this was still happening.

I even set up a delete filter to remove just pipes (both, regular and underground) and then rebuild them all with Ctrl+Z, but the issue persisted.

At some point, I deleted everything but a single thruster, I put a single pipe in the **blue output** (not connected to anything else) and it automatically got filled with **red fuel**, which makes me think the issue is that blue fuel inputs are accepting red fuel too, but it doesn't display in the GUI.

It fixed itself once I **deleted ALL the thrusters** and rebuilt them with Ctrl+Z, so seems like the issue is on the thrusters.

I don't know how does the fluid system work exactly so this may be all wrong but I have a feeling that the fluids are consumed sequentially, so if you input let's say 50 of red fuel in the blue input, then connect the blue fuel and put in 1000 fuel, once those 1000 get spent, the red fuel takes the place and clogs the system by changing the liquid in the pipes and not letting more blue liquid in.

I added a save file, the autosave before going to a different planet, seconds before the issue happens.

[Root_0]

[2.0.14] Friend was faced with this bug while messing around in editor. Very small amount of fluid was getting through.

https://imgur.com/a/t2pop88

[SamsaraRazor]

Once again I am faced with this bug. Attached save file. Place a pipe to carry electrolyte between the two machines, it will fill with holmium solution...
Could we get some info on this subject? Are we all crazy people who can't see something or is this something that is being looked into?

Edit: Also tried replacing everything, both machines, pipes, etc, etc...
This setup worked before todays update, it would supply electrolyte to both machines, and they were placed next to the electrolyte machine without issue. When I changed the recipe from electro science to the lightning collector it stopped working. When I tried to move it down so I could add a tank, the pipe fills with holmium solution...

Edit 2: You can even take the attached save, flip the supercapacitor plant above the electrolyte plant (so that it is not connected to any other fluid) and place a pipe on the electrolyte output/input. It will fill with holmium solution. This machine has nothing to do with holmium at all.

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20241108132833_1.jpg (450.52 KiB) Viewed 2464 times

[The_Sane]

Once again I am faced with this bug.

Check 119600 to see if it could be the same issue. Currently caused when the game updates and I've seen a few new fluid mixing reports posted since 2.0.15 released. (edit: one of which was you , didn't read the names to see i was replying to the same person in different threads)

[SamsaraRazor]

Once again I am faced with this bug.

Check 119600 to see if it could be the same issue. Currently caused when the game updates and I've seen a few new fluid mixing reports posted since 2.0.15 released. (edit: one of which was you , didn't read the names to see i was replying to the same person in different threads)

I think we're seeing the effects of a few different bugs/unfortunate omissions (hidden machine buffers) and not thought out behaviour. But I just wished I could get an explaination if I'm doing something wrong or if they are looking into this.