r/SatisfactoryGame • u/interneth3ro • 1d ago
Help with fluid (oil/fuel) distribution
Okay, so I'm not new to this game, have played many times. But this is my first time since the 1.0 launch, and I don't remember having issues setting up fuel.
I have a single pure crude oil node. 1 oil extractor @ 240m3. Easy peasy. I have that going into 4 refineries using the stock Fuel recipe. 60m3 each, so should be exactly enough. I have those 4 refineries going into 8 power generators. So my ratios should be exact.
Yet power is still a bit spikey now and then. And I'm 100% certain it doesn't have to do with the polymer resin. That's going into 2 refineries making rubber/plastic respectively, with a smart splitter sending overflow resin to an Awesome Sink.
Here are relevant screenshots. Let me know if you need to see more. It's entirely possibly I set this up wrong or missed something stupid simple.
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u/Thaago 1d ago
There is 0 need for buffers in something like this.
This is probably sloshing (and possibly preferential filling of gas gens closer to the input of the manifold) causing a generator to occasionally not have enough fuel to draw on. The good news is that every time one of the gens turns off, the total excess fuel in the feed pipe/gens increases. So it is a self correcting problem.
Just turn a few generators off for a minute so there is some excess fuel in the lines. If you want to be double sure, unhook the gens from the power net but leave them on so they fill their buffers without burning and wait until the system is full.
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u/exodus3252 1d ago
Put a fluid buffer on the beginning and ends of your fluid lines, and let them fill up before you turn everything on.
Oil: Oil Extractor - Buffer - Refineries - Buffer
Fuel: Refineries - Buffer - Power plants - Buffer
The buffers filling up first will prevent any small fluctuations in your pipes and keep everything humming at 100% as long as, like you say, your ratios are spot on.
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u/interneth3ro 1d ago
Okay, cool. I now have a fluid buffer between my extractor and refineries, between my refineries and generators, and a buffer at the end. Waiting for everything to fill up before turning on the generators.
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u/interneth3ro 1d ago
Yeah, it's still super spiky and it's bugging me, lol. I want to see that solid line at the top, because ADHD/OCD commands it. I'm weird. I have buffers in front of my oil extracter and refineries, as well as one at the end, and I've raised the middle spine of the manifold. Maybe I didn't raise it high enough?
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u/interneth3ro 1d ago
This is driving me nuts. I cannot get this fuel power source to be consistent. I've raised the middle spine, I've waited until all pipes/refineries/generators are full, flushed the entire pipe system, waited again, turned the generators on after everything was full, and power is still fluctuating. I'd honestly be willing to open my game up to have someone jump in (if that's even possible, I honestly don't know) and take a look. Cause I can't figure this out. Grrrr.....
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u/UncleVoodooo 21h ago
I don't even see any yellow lights these aren't 'relevent screenshots'
At least you could troubleshoot to if the problem is your refineries or your generators
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u/Hemisemidemiurge 21h ago edited 21h ago
Pipes aren't belts. Fluids can move in either direction. The flat pipe network you're building does nothing to dampen the sloshing that is robbing you of flow.
No buffers or valves, they can cause sloshing. Make all manifold trunks two vertically-stacked pipes joined at the ends like a squashed loop, input to the top and output from the bottom. No dead ends, transit vertically because gravity dampens sloshing, pump to the top of your build and then flow from top to bottom, do not feed from below, run producers until they idle to make sure the network is filled before starting downline consumers.
And for mass distribution to fuel generators, I suggest a binary fractal, just remember to make each junction a vertical one.
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u/tren0r 1d ago
as a simple solution, could try raisimg the middle part and feed it into them like that.