Well yes and no :P I fill my machines from then underside like you, but I do do have high(er) placed buffers (water/liquit "Towers") to ensure fullness of the machines. For me the big eye opener is the VIP-junction, have been looking for that thing for a while now. Thx for helping me out 😉
Honestly I learned that the water in this game acts like real water. For some reason I thought is was a simpler system and always wondered why my coal power would shut off even though it is self powered.
@@karls8103 If you have a pump at a lower point then the extractor output it helps to keep the extractor operating. Also putting a mk1 pump every 4 4m foundations high will help the flow upwards. Only every 12 4m foundations if you use the mk2.
I got that feeding from below and my power is costantly fluctuating :'( but how to change that? when I put the pipes higher it's gonna be ugly :'( Would overfilling the system work? I have the numbers balanced so maybe excess water would help?
What's to understand? The spiiiiicy rocks go in the thing and you boop the line into existence. Eaaaaasy. But no, definitely agree, this game has such a good fan base that's always willing to help and share ideas.
This is one of the most complicated things in the entire game to balance and it's absolutely frustrating not being able to figure out where the problem in your piping network lies.
Agreed. Trying to supply 8 coal power plants with 3 water extractors and mk I pipes somehow always ends up with headache for me. Despite those flow indicators on the outside of the pipe it's kinda hard, at least for me, to see what's going on inside the pipes and diagnose the problem.
140 hours into this game and pipes are the bane of my existence. Have never once seen that blue ring to tell me where to place pumps. Thanks for the great guide!
@@timmcgrath8742I don't see the hologram, but it usually snaps to the location. Keep the pipe systems short and simple and it should be fine. Anything I build consuming water I build over a body of water just high enough to fit a water pump under. Then connect each pump to the number of machines it can support (or each machine to the number of pumps it needs). Yes, it can take time to run smoothly when feeding from below, but if the system is small it resolves itself quickly. Then use valves balancing byproducts. Again, it can take more time to smooth things out than other solutions if things go wrong, but not too much for. small systems.
@Hoon Turd Chemical Engineers often work in Chemical Factories, alongside Process Engineers, Equipment Operators, Maintenance Technicians, Factory Engineers, all inside a building designed by Architects specializing in the needs of Industrial Engineering, using large machines designed by Mechanical Engineers, wired up by Electrical Engineers and glorified Plumbers. In Satisfactory, the player takes on all these roles. So, naturally, it follows that people in many of these occupations will have an appreciation of this game. Saying that as someone who was an operator and technician in a factory at one point.
Lol electrical engineers never wire anything up lol. I can't say for the other engineers but I'm pretty sure this game is the realization of your work. An electrician wires things up with instructions from engineers. This game is so appealing to engineers because it takes it right from you to the realization of the work instead of just giving instructions
flashback to the first time i unlocked coal power in satisfactory and created such an unreliable unusable mess of a power grid (because i didnt realize that pipes could only carry so much water) that i had to restart completely from scratch lol
Using the same principles laid out in the manual, you can set up your waste-water aluminum setup much easier than described here. The first solution I figured out was to have the water extractors filling buffers, but the buffers are raised to where they don't have enough headlift to fully fill the tanks. A buffer ~8m above an extractor will NEVER fill. Feed your waste-water back into that line from refineries that are higher than the extractors. This means that the extractors can only fill the buffer half way (or so), but the feedback water has more headlift so will fill the remaining space. Since the extractors can't add water when it's more than 50% full, it will exclusively use the waste-water until it is gone, then use the extractor water. It never backs up, doesn't require precise valves, and is resistant to failure due to cutting a line or something. The second solution is far simpler and it made me very angry that my first "brilliant" solution was basically pointless. Just place a vertical junction on the refinery feed line. Extractors into the top, feedback into the bottom. Since pipes ALWAYS drain from the bottom first, this will never back up (even when the pipes are completely full). No need for sinking or any shenanigans. It just works. You don't even need a buffer.
If you're pressed for space, just adding a powered pump to the recycled water line works. It provides a higher working pressure, which gives it priority over the extractors since even a mk1 pump has twice their headlift. Just be careful if the extractor line also has a pump on it.
easiest way I found was just matching the waste to production. 1 refinery for alumina solution uses exactly 1 water extractor and 0.5 from a scrap refinery, or more realistically, 2 alumina refineries use 1 scrap refinery and 2 water extractors. This setup works perfectly and theres literally 0 reason to have balance issues. if you're having flow issues, you could set it up in multiples of 360 ingots a minute to get exactly 180/min of waste water, which will perfectly feed 1 alumina solution refinery per 360 ingots.
@@james2042 That works but if any part of any of the production lines gets interrupted, the pipes all fill with water and you'll have to flush the lines to start it again (if you aren't using the preferential junction setup I mentioned). If you do the vertical junction, you can delete a belt to re-route something or whatever without worrying about your alumina factory shutting down.
@@psmitty840 it would never completely shut down though is the thing. If you're working on it, then turn it off so stuff doesn't back up, figured that was common sense. Otherwise if you design it right there shouldn't be interruptions.
@@james2042 "If you're working on it, turn it off so it doesn't break" sounds a lot like a worse design. I can disconnect whatever I want for however long I like on my alumina factory and when I plug it back in, it goes back to work, no breakers or cut power lines needed. I mean you can do it however you like, but if someone offered you a factory that would need to be manually messed with every time you move a belt or blow a fuse and one that doesn't... I know which I would choose.
I started a 1.0 save and just spent 10 hours making a 5 gigawatt compacted coal grid at tier 3. Reluctantly, I log manifolded the water input to make the whole thing look better. In turn, the gens at the end of the line were getting basically zero water. The tip in your video about looping the end of the manifold back to the start fixed my problem and put everything back at 100%. Thanks!
ye i was scratching my head with this I was like damn I have like 7 water extractor and 6 coal burner why is 1-2 always tend to struggle with water then it ended up with a spaghetti pipes I just ended up watching a guide lmaoo
Hint: When delivering fluids by train and you want to ensure a constant flow even during loading / unloading you'll need to double buffer on the side of each terminal. (Same principle as for solid goods.) - Make sure to connect each input / output to a small, individual buffer (as there's no buffer with two inputs yet)... - and merge them afterwards. - Don't forget to add a valve right in front of the merging junction to make sure there won't be any backflow to the buffers. - Add those double buffers to ALL stations, be it loading or unloading to avoid any shortages on its way
I try to put a buffer before any major input line. I let that fill up before connecting it to the actual input manifold. The reason? Having a max-flow pipe is a bit finicky, especially the mark 2s. Sometimes they'll drop to 298 or 598 for absolutely no reason for a bit and this will cause whatever is consuming to spin up and down and then causes the water extractor to turn off because it's full and then sloshing starts. Having a buffer (especially one that's elevated) seems to fix this problem. Actually, "dropping" water from a buffer into a manifold line is almost always a good idea.
ohh yes. The reason is that the water extractors need a little bit of time to get started. The second that water is drawn from the pipeline, the water extractors need 1-2 seconds to get started and extract water. Causing there to be only ~598-ish water provided in a mk2 pipeline. I can remember that the nuclear reactors needed 300 water each. perfect for a mk2 pipeline to feed two reactors right? but we needed a buffer as well to make it work, since its only 598-ish water in the pipe.
I spent hours trying to balance the backflow with recycled water. I found a valve to be the most helpful on the extractor side limiting overall supply so that the recycled water takes priority. Just make sure to not supply recycled water to everything in line. Pick one or two items unless you really hate yourself. I didn't realize the game factored head pressure relative to height before. I knew it did a little bit, but didn't realize a water tower would actually work! I'm putting one in ASAP. I used to work in water treatment personally and love all the nerding out you did on this video.
omg you saved me, I spent hours yesterday trying to troubleshoot a fuel power plant that just wouldn’t work right and got so frustrated I almost quit my save. The solution? At 6:40 MAKE IT A LOOP. It works perfectly now.
I had water recycling issues for both my alumina solution and uranium recycling where at less than 100% efficiency the input water would saturate the line and not allow for the recycled water to leave the machine, causing them to halt. The priority merger shown fixed those issues right up since the recycled water on the bottom always has priority over the water to refresh the loss.
Also useful for feedback loops. Take uranium cell production. It requires sulfuric acid and outputs sulfuric acid. You can use a pump on a horizontal pipe to prevent backflow to make sure the output side of the blender is always open and able to flow out.
Coming back to this video after 2 years, because I'm having trouble with flow rate in horizontal pipes.. I'm not sure why it's happening, but it's lacking flow the further down the oil pipe I go. There's a buffer somewhere early in the circuit, but it's quite leveled with the oil extractors as well, so was thinking headlift should never be an issue here. Input of oil is also higher than what it needs, because it made it somewhat stable for a while. Though I still lack flow rate in the pipes further away, on a surfaced level
I spent 2 hours trying to figure out how to load balance my water for my coal power plants just to learn that I do it need to do it. This makes it so much easier
fist time seeing your channel and I feel like I learned more in this 1 video than I have from all my time playing. Definitely going to check out more of your stuff, very interesting.
Been dealing with fluid issues for like 2 weeks with my fuel setup. And it's probably because I'm feeding them from below. It just looks so much nicer. Guess I'll be redoing my piping. You explained the issue very clearly. Thanks!
Honestly I do mine from below as well. I have a Mk1 from the refineries into my storage tanks, then it goes below to the left where there's a Mk2. From there it goes left for 3 generators and loops around into a manifold for all 12 generators. I've had zero problems with it.
you can also use mk1 pumps as a sort of check valve to ensure fluid only flows one way past it. this is one way to cope with buffer backflow. you can also just build the buffers stacked vertically if you want them in-line.
To some extent the game is fun, but to some extent to complete it you need math, learning, knowledge and patience, which is why I have over 100 hours and never get anything really fully built. Im on my 100th restart.
There seems to be some kind of directional priority for pipes as well - they will prefer flow in the direction that they are placed. This can be checked using the default orientation of a valve on the pipe
I noticed this problem once once deleted the pipes and reconnected the other way the problem was solved. Good to know about the check, didn't know that, thanks! Been worried about making the mistake again in a bigger build.
@@anneputseys4441 That's how I came across it too! Had a basic 3 well oil->plastic,rubber,power station, and was running really unreliably. Losing as much as 15% uptime. After trying a bunch of stuff that didn't help, I remembered that someone had found a similar issue in Factorio at some point, reconnected all my pipes in root->stem order instead of just whatever I did initially, and it's 100% solid uptime now.
For "liquid recycling" as you put it , something you don't touch on is pipe LENGTH. The shortest pipes will get cleared first. Great for prioritising the waste output of refineries over the water extractors
That's only if the water extractors pipes aren't full, which is a possibility if not thought about, that's why it's better to use priority pipes like the upside down U bend or priority junctions ☺️
This video has helped a lot. I've been having issues with supplying Coal generators and it's because I've been supplying them from below. Won't be making that mistake again!
You just need valves for manifolds that feed from below. The fluid still balances into the level pipe, but then can't backflow beyond the valve, forcing it into the building.
The most confusing thing i have watched on satisfactory to date, good video none the less as always - but above my pay grade at this point - i would like to see you make a video like "water transfer for Dummies" or perhaps show us in a linear progression style like start with a less complicated set up and progress through the options in terms of complexity. just a suggestion.
You really gotta watch it when you upgrade pipelines too, I personally found you're just better off deleting the existing pipeline entirely and then rebuild it using the mk.2. The problem is when you "upgrade" a pipe from mk.1 to mk. 2 anything underneath existing attachments, like valves, intersections, pumps, etc. doesn't get upgraded, even if you go back after and upgrade the mk 1 pumps to mk 2 pumps, the pipe it's sitting on will remain a mk 1 pipe. So yeah, just delete the whole pipeline and rebuild it, you can leave the support poles and ports to be your guides if you wish, but bare in mind your pumps can be spaced further apart, so you may just want to rebuild it from scratch.
Buffers actually have a real fluid level. That is why full buffers have a higher head lift. But that also means that if your buffer is at the limit of its input head lift, IT WILL NEVER GET FULL, because you need extra pressure to raise its internal fluid level.
Great video, thank you! I am enchanted by the difference of the complexity of the fluid dynamics in this game vs the complexity of the electrical principals 😂. Sure you can transmit 90 gigawatts thru a single wire, no problem 🎉 awesome game though, had a blast.
Feeding my coal generators from below is just pure black magic. Some times it works, some times it doesn’t. It’s a complete mystery. Once I accidentally stumbled upon a configuration that worked for no apparent reason, I just never touched it again. Come to think of it, I should probably rebuild all my power stations to get rid of any unpredictability. Just feed the coal from below and water from above.
You're probably using pipe floor holes. These are incredibly finicky and can stop headlift from passing through completely. They will basically only work if you build the pipes into the floor holes in the correct order. If your water comes from below, then you need to build the pipe on the bottom side first and then build the top pipe. You can verify this when placing a pump. If the blue headlift marker stops at the floor hole, rebuild the pipes first.
Thanks for explaining this Total, it was really helpful! Even for experienced players this might be the reason why things are not that good in their factory! I'm glad you did this :)
If anyone finds this, I did some testing, and the answer is weird. Currently, an unpowered pump does reset head lift to the level of the pump. If you put an upside down U bend after an unpowered pump it won’t be able to go past it. But if the unpowered pump is coupled directly with a fluid buffer it behaves in unexpected ways. The buffer at the same elevation will fill up halfway - which actually has head lift (4m in the 8m buffer). So, oddly, if you tee off the same upside down U with a buffer, the other side of the U will magically fill from the magical lift from the buffer. I put down a water extractor to an unpowered pump at the exit level, then put a pipe vertically up about 66m. The pipe wouldn’t fill, as expected, but when I attached it to a fluid buffer up top, the pipe filled (all 66m) and the buffer partially filled a small amount. As soon as I put something on the back side of the buffer, it returns to behaving as expected.
@ 2:14 -- how do you get your pipe junctions and splitters to sit nicely like that? Doing my Coal Generators, I had to stack 3 splitters then delete the bottom 2, because no other arrangement would allow me to place the pipe junction. Is it just a result of the building's input locations snapping it that way?
You can just place the entire pipe first, place all junctions on the pipe, then place splitters beneath them. I often do the same for belts and splitters. Place a straight belt along all machines, then snap splitters or mergers onto the belt directly. Saves a lot of belt connecting and eyeballing. Just hold ctrl and click.
I try not to use that headlift hologram indicator on the pipes as I'm placing pumps. I've had it be wrong before and my water was failing to reach its destination. Now I always go about 5-7 meters below it.
Hi great video, but I have a question, is it possible to create "Tesla valves" to create directional flow in satisfactory without the use of actual valves ? And will it work ?
Around 8:27 you mention working pressure and talk about "a 100 meter pipe" ... now you mixed up meters (which measures a one dimensional line) and the cubic meters (with which you actually measure volume in a 3 dimensional space). But besides that, great video. Wish more people would look such good explanations. Troubles with pipe system and the most frequent reasons, people come to the official discord server and ask for help.
I have always used valves as a rule of thumb. I didnt actually know the game had backwash so I have been accidentally preventing it all this time. Plus i think it looks correct to have them near junctions anyway.
Yeah, but i have a pipe fully pressured and the next pipe segment connected to it (horizontally!) is completely empty. Somehow the fluids just seem to randomly disappear at certain connections.. can someone explain to me wtf is going on there?
A year late to things, and I just realised the "Don't feed from below" is why my blenders are getting starved... but in that case, how *do* you feed something that's higher up? Typically my fuel plants start with making fuel on the bottom floor before going being pumped up to fuel generators on higher floors... if I reverse that, then I still have to pump all my oil/water to the roof then feed down, so it's the same problem isn't it?
Oh... re-watched the video about three times and I think I get it... I can lift the fluid as needed, but then should "Drop" it into the manifold and have the feed points at the level (or below it)
... And just to close the loop, that fixed it, everything is working like clockwork now! Thanks to McGalleon for the guide, and TotalXclipse for highlighting it in this video!
Ok i have strange question i get the speed of water part, but what of pressure ? Is it simple speed = pressure or is it more like real life thing where buffers kills pressure?
Pipes are the hardest thing in the game to build neatly but this information helped a lot! Great video and absolutely beautiful builds/examples within!
What power do you run on while building the coal plant? I can get the steam turbines running but I quickly run out of water. I think it's because my pumps don't have enough power to keep the pipe filled.
So here's the preface: I just unlocked Oil refineries and all that jazz... and here's the dumb question... I know the pipes say they can't be connected to pipes filled with other liquid... But..... Is it actually true? I'm convinced you can use a combo of buffers, junctions, backflow, valves, and pumps to negate this. I just can't comprehend how if it is possible.
The one thing I'm confused about is that I had serious issues using manifolds at machine level in my turbofuel factory/power plant at multiple points. All of these issues were solved when I started feeding from a manifold lower than the machines. If doing it this way is actually problematic, how do you solve for unbalanced flow issues in a machine level manifold setup?
I feel like Manifold setups *can be done* with fluids but should be avoided. In my files they always cause problems and I inevitably change it to load balancing setup.
wow. today I learned you can achieve vertically aligned junctions WITH foundation grid snap using walls. I wish I knew that a looong time ago. Is that the only way to do this, or is there some simpler method I've also overlooked?
That's a nice fluid system you've got there. Be a shame if someone were to stubbornly circumvent it by just packaging everything no matter how inconvenient that is.
Wait so does that mean if I use this water tower and block outflow at the bottom with a valve it still provides headlift for every connected pipe even though no water is flowing out of the tower? So you can set up all you water extractors however you want and make one super tall water tank that just headlifts everything for you without additional pumps?
Make sure everything is built next to each other so any fluid doesn’t have to go far. And do the math on the output if the next refinery only needs 50 units, set the input to 50 units and so forth. And packaging fluids is the only way to move stuff.
There's a method that I use that works very efficiently and has never created any problems and I'm surprised you don't mention in your video. I take three buffer tanks I stack them one on top of the other. Then I use the pump lift system to fill the top tank and allow gravity to fill the middle tank to the bottom tank thus increasing the pressure and creating a situation where I have no problem running my coal plant efficiently and I have also use this on my fuel generator plants and it works very efficiently as well. However I've had people laugh at me when I post my designs and say it's an efficient when I tell them no it is actually very efficient and they still don't understand it. I love the fact that the DEVS change the flow rate in this game where gravity plays an intricate part to it and it makes the game even more fun to play.
I built a circular tower of refineries to make rubber. The tower has 3 floors. Bottom floor is for the logistics (pipes and belts), 2nd floor has 10 refineries and 3rd floor has 10 refineries. I'm really struggling to keep the crude oil flowing to the 3rd floor. One pipe section would be full but the next section is empty. It's so frustrating.
Is there a bug in pipeline floor holes? I made a fuel generator setup and couldn't work out why it wasn't working. I had pumps in the correct places. The only change I made was to remove the floor hole and connect the pipe directly to the generators and then it started working.
I raelize that this is a 2 year old video so I wonder if Valves were not a thing back then? When you mention "Unpowered Pump" as a way to block liquid from trying to balance between multiple Buffers and instead fill them one by one, is that the same as adding a directional Valve? I just finished a full 133 Fuel Generator factory and I split the Generators over 4 floors. Instead of pumping liquid I instead lift Packaged Dilluted Fuel to each floor and unpack it there to then pipe it to the Generators. It works a charm on three floors but on one the liquid just doesn't flow properly and the Packager buildings can't get rid of the liquid Fiel fast enough and goes Idle. As far as I can tell each floor is identical in layout, and I've added Valves to try to make sure that the liquid doesn't backflow towards the Packagers. the piping basically looks like a bunch of H-H with a column of Generators in the middle, a Feeder pipe on each side and two generators on each side of those Feeders. At the outer edges I have pipes that flow back towards the Packagers to avoid backflow or sloshing but I've added Valves both before the Buffers and after to make sure the Liquid just goes one way. Everything is identical, but one floor out of four somehow breaks the physics of the game..
I'm not sure this is your solution or even the problem at all (I'm not even close to an expert at the game or piping) but I have seen where pipes can stop flowing properly or has loss when you lay a pipe and then put in junctions or pumps or anything along the pipe section. I've started the habit of laying it how I want it but then dismantling pipe sections between the other bits and then reconnecting the pipes so that it is accurately fitting between the junctions or pumps and what not. There's a weird bug where small bits of the pipes that the game thinks are in the middle of the junction or pump are causing loss I think. That's one thing that has helped me recently. Among other things related to what I've had to solve as I learn.
I don't get the tip of 'always fill from above'. Usually my water source is at the lowest point. That's how water sources work. especially in the early game, I often have no choice but to build my coal plants above my water source.
Potentially you could pump the water to the top of your coal factory, then bring it down from there? I don't know if that's just the same but costing power though
Anyone else NOT see the headlift snap points when placing pumps? I see the animated rings going out from where the hologram is where I'm currently aiming at but I do not see any snap points like at 4:33
So like me, have you set up your pipes wrong?
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Well yes and no :P I fill my machines from then underside like you, but I do do have high(er) placed buffers (water/liquit "Towers") to ensure fullness of the machines. For me the big eye opener is the VIP-junction, have been looking for that thing for a while now. Thx for helping me out 😉
Honestly I learned that the water in this game acts like real water. For some reason I thought is was a simpler system and always wondered why my coal power would shut off even though it is self powered.
woosh still dont understand so if pip is straght dont need pump? then y they way i try to setup sucks ?
@@karls8103 If you have a pump at a lower point then the extractor output it helps to keep the extractor operating. Also putting a mk1 pump every 4 4m foundations high will help the flow upwards. Only every 12 4m foundations if you use the mk2.
I got that feeding from below and my power is costantly fluctuating :'( but how to change that? when I put the pipes higher it's gonna be ugly :'( Would overfilling the system work? I have the numbers balanced so maybe excess water would help?
You know a game has a dedicated fan base when manuals are being written for it
No, just noone understands, what Kibitz always talking about)
What's to understand? The spiiiiicy rocks go in the thing and you boop the line into existence. Eaaaaasy. But no, definitely agree, this game has such a good fan base that's always willing to help and share ideas.
It looks very well written to. The figures and explanations look like they'd be at home in a real life instruction manual on fluid mechanics.
@@storytsunami it's like a science paper from actuall physics class 😭
Or the game does a bad job explaining itself.
This is one of the most complicated things in the entire game to balance and it's absolutely frustrating not being able to figure out where the problem in your piping network lies.
@Kailash Diengdoh before that, make sure to get an architectural degree before unlocking base building.
Agreed. Trying to supply 8 coal power plants with 3 water extractors and mk I pipes somehow always ends up with headache for me. Despite those flow indicators on the outside of the pipe it's kinda hard, at least for me, to see what's going on inside the pipes and diagnose the problem.
@@JackFou Did you manage to solve it?
@@filipgasic2642 Kinda. I mean I can make it work, eventually, but it's always a process full of hiccups and trial and error.
@@JackFou if you have discord I can help explain it I was having issues, but rn I have 8 pumps running 14 coal generators steadily
140 hours into this game and pipes are the bane of my existence. Have never once seen that blue ring to tell me where to place pumps. Thanks for the great guide!
Could be because your pipes are in a situation where they don't need a pump?
Honestly using pumps for everything sucks. I always, ALWAYS make a water tower system.
@@timmcgrath8742I don't see the hologram, but it usually snaps to the location.
Keep the pipe systems short and simple and it should be fine.
Anything I build consuming water I build over a body of water just high enough to fit a water pump under. Then connect each pump to the number of machines it can support (or each machine to the number of pumps it needs). Yes, it can take time to run smoothly when feeding from below, but if the system is small it resolves itself quickly.
Then use valves balancing byproducts. Again, it can take more time to smooth things out than other solutions if things go wrong, but not too much for. small systems.
As a chemical engineer, I'm loving this game more and more.
@Hoon Turd Chemical Engineers often work in Chemical Factories, alongside Process Engineers, Equipment Operators, Maintenance Technicians, Factory Engineers, all inside a building designed by Architects specializing in the needs of Industrial Engineering, using large machines designed by Mechanical Engineers, wired up by Electrical Engineers and glorified Plumbers. In Satisfactory, the player takes on all these roles. So, naturally, it follows that people in many of these occupations will have an appreciation of this game. Saying that as someone who was an operator and technician in a factory at one point.
@Hoon Turd same here , what im playing is basically my work lol
Lol electrical engineers never wire anything up lol. I can't say for the other engineers but I'm pretty sure this game is the realization of your work. An electrician wires things up with instructions from engineers. This game is so appealing to engineers because it takes it right from you to the realization of the work instead of just giving instructions
@@Warp9pnt9 Engineers run the world. Its crazy how so many people dont realize this.
Construction Engineering here, don't know much about fluids haha.
Yep, love this game, about 12 hours in and got issues with my flow rates.
Cheers.
flashback to the first time i unlocked coal power in satisfactory and created such an unreliable unusable mess of a power grid (because i didnt realize that pipes could only carry so much water) that i had to restart completely from scratch lol
Using the same principles laid out in the manual, you can set up your waste-water aluminum setup much easier than described here. The first solution I figured out was to have the water extractors filling buffers, but the buffers are raised to where they don't have enough headlift to fully fill the tanks. A buffer ~8m above an extractor will NEVER fill. Feed your waste-water back into that line from refineries that are higher than the extractors. This means that the extractors can only fill the buffer half way (or so), but the feedback water has more headlift so will fill the remaining space. Since the extractors can't add water when it's more than 50% full, it will exclusively use the waste-water until it is gone, then use the extractor water. It never backs up, doesn't require precise valves, and is resistant to failure due to cutting a line or something.
The second solution is far simpler and it made me very angry that my first "brilliant" solution was basically pointless. Just place a vertical junction on the refinery feed line. Extractors into the top, feedback into the bottom. Since pipes ALWAYS drain from the bottom first, this will never back up (even when the pipes are completely full). No need for sinking or any shenanigans. It just works. You don't even need a buffer.
If you're pressed for space, just adding a powered pump to the recycled water line works. It provides a higher working pressure, which gives it priority over the extractors since even a mk1 pump has twice their headlift. Just be careful if the extractor line also has a pump on it.
easiest way I found was just matching the waste to production. 1 refinery for alumina solution uses exactly 1 water extractor and 0.5 from a scrap refinery, or more realistically, 2 alumina refineries use 1 scrap refinery and 2 water extractors. This setup works perfectly and theres literally 0 reason to have balance issues. if you're having flow issues, you could set it up in multiples of 360 ingots a minute to get exactly 180/min of waste water, which will perfectly feed 1 alumina solution refinery per 360 ingots.
@@james2042 That works but if any part of any of the production lines gets interrupted, the pipes all fill with water and you'll have to flush the lines to start it again (if you aren't using the preferential junction setup I mentioned). If you do the vertical junction, you can delete a belt to re-route something or whatever without worrying about your alumina factory shutting down.
@@psmitty840 it would never completely shut down though is the thing. If you're working on it, then turn it off so stuff doesn't back up, figured that was common sense. Otherwise if you design it right there shouldn't be interruptions.
@@james2042 "If you're working on it, turn it off so it doesn't break" sounds a lot like a worse design. I can disconnect whatever I want for however long I like on my alumina factory and when I plug it back in, it goes back to work, no breakers or cut power lines needed.
I mean you can do it however you like, but if someone offered you a factory that would need to be manually messed with every time you move a belt or blow a fuse and one that doesn't... I know which I would choose.
I started a 1.0 save and just spent 10 hours making a 5 gigawatt compacted coal grid at tier 3. Reluctantly, I log manifolded the water input to make the whole thing look better. In turn, the gens at the end of the line were getting basically zero water. The tip in your video about looping the end of the manifold back to the start fixed my problem and put everything back at 100%. Thanks!
Literally started this game maybe a week ago, this video really helps to understand what to do (sorta) with my absurd pipe setups…
ye i was scratching my head with this I was like damn I have like 7 water extractor and 6 coal burner why is 1-2 always tend to struggle with water
then it ended up with a spaghetti pipes
I just ended up watching a guide lmaoo
6:00 you just solved hours of frustration, thank you
Hint:
When delivering fluids by train and you want to ensure a constant flow even during loading / unloading you'll need to double buffer on the side of each terminal. (Same principle as for solid goods.)
- Make sure to connect each input / output to a small, individual buffer (as there's no buffer with two inputs yet)...
- and merge them afterwards.
- Don't forget to add a valve right in front of the merging junction to make sure there won't be any backflow to the buffers.
- Add those double buffers to ALL stations, be it loading or unloading to avoid any shortages on its way
I try to put a buffer before any major input line. I let that fill up before connecting it to the actual input manifold.
The reason? Having a max-flow pipe is a bit finicky, especially the mark 2s. Sometimes they'll drop to 298 or 598 for absolutely no reason for a bit and this will cause whatever is consuming to spin up and down and then causes the water extractor to turn off because it's full and then sloshing starts. Having a buffer (especially one that's elevated) seems to fix this problem. Actually, "dropping" water from a buffer into a manifold line is almost always a good idea.
ohh yes.
The reason is that the water extractors need a little bit of time to get started. The second that water is drawn from the pipeline, the water extractors need 1-2 seconds to get started and extract water. Causing there to be only ~598-ish water provided in a mk2 pipeline.
I can remember that the nuclear reactors needed 300 water each. perfect for a mk2 pipeline to feed two reactors right? but we needed a buffer as well to make it work, since its only 598-ish water in the pipe.
that lowest point filling 1st explains everything. I rage quitted my rubber factory and haven't returned to it for weeks.
I spent hours trying to balance the backflow with recycled water. I found a valve to be the most helpful on the extractor side limiting overall supply so that the recycled water takes priority. Just make sure to not supply recycled water to everything in line. Pick one or two items unless you really hate yourself.
I didn't realize the game factored head pressure relative to height before. I knew it did a little bit, but didn't realize a water tower would actually work! I'm putting one in ASAP.
I used to work in water treatment personally and love all the nerding out you did on this video.
omg you saved me, I spent hours yesterday trying to troubleshoot a fuel power plant that just wouldn’t work right and got so frustrated I almost quit my save. The solution? At 6:40 MAKE IT A LOOP. It works perfectly now.
Game: “pumps have a max fluid lift of 10m”
Also game: *doesn’t have a ruler, forcing you to guess *
walls are 1m high. do with that what you will.
@@Akomarongg
I good idea but walls can’t take slope into account.
@@slimeinabox Slope doesn't matter? 10 meters headlift is 10 meters headlift regardless.
@@TobiasHJohansen yeah, i just dont like guess work.
@@Akomarongg walls are 4m
Pipes are too complicated for me xD
Massive respect for anyone who can create 100% efficient pipe networks
im a plumber.... and i cant figure the pipes out in this game.....
I had water recycling issues for both my alumina solution and uranium recycling where at less than 100% efficiency the input water would saturate the line and not allow for the recycled water to leave the machine, causing them to halt. The priority merger shown fixed those issues right up since the recycled water on the bottom always has priority over the water to refresh the loss.
4:45 pumps can also be used on horizontal pipe, if you want to make sure that a section of that pipe will be filled with priority.
Also useful for feedback loops. Take uranium cell production. It requires sulfuric acid and outputs sulfuric acid. You can use a pump on a horizontal pipe to prevent backflow to make sure the output side of the blender is always open and able to flow out.
time to destroy my 50 hour oil setup....
best game ever!
That feeling you get after watching this video and using valves to get everything to perfect efficiency. 🤩
I love the fluid implementation in this game. As a civil plumber by trade, it feels very intuitive.
the concept of that loop on your manifold is called a re-circulation line, or a recirc for short. common in commercial plumbing.
Max Headlift is my favorite 80's commercial mascot.
Coming back to this video after 2 years, because I'm having trouble with flow rate in horizontal pipes.. I'm not sure why it's happening, but it's lacking flow the further down the oil pipe I go. There's a buffer somewhere early in the circuit, but it's quite leveled with the oil extractors as well, so was thinking headlift should never be an issue here. Input of oil is also higher than what it needs, because it made it somewhat stable for a while. Though I still lack flow rate in the pipes further away, on a surfaced level
I spent 2 hours trying to figure out how to load balance my water for my coal power plants just to learn that I do it need to do it. This makes it so much easier
You are a lifesaver! Thanks for the explanation and references. I'm still struggling with my fuel production and generators.
fist time seeing your channel and I feel like I learned more in this 1 video than I have from all my time playing. Definitely going to check out more of your stuff, very interesting.
Been dealing with fluid issues for like 2 weeks with my fuel setup. And it's probably because I'm feeding them from below. It just looks so much nicer. Guess I'll be redoing my piping. You explained the issue very clearly. Thanks!
Honestly I do mine from below as well. I have a Mk1 from the refineries into my storage tanks, then it goes below to the left where there's a Mk2. From there it goes left for 3 generators and loops around into a manifold for all 12 generators. I've had zero problems with it.
@@Stratus41298 yeah, with 12 I probably wouldent have a problem either. But I've got 55 I believe and about 15 of them get almost no fuel.
Doing it from below actually SOLVED my issues at machine level. Not entirely sure why, since I had fluid buffers elevated far abouve the entire system
you can also use mk1 pumps as a sort of check valve to ensure fluid only flows one way past it. this is one way to cope with buffer backflow. you can also just build the buffers stacked vertically if you want them in-line.
This is a beautiful work of art, not only the content but the video production itself is stellar. Great job, we love your content.
This comment alone is worth the 3 days it took to produce :D
Thank you.
To some extent the game is fun, but to some extent to complete it you need math, learning, knowledge and patience, which is why I have over 100 hours and never get anything really fully built. Im on my 100th restart.
This was helpfully to explain why my last two coal generators weren't getting water. Thanks for this helpful vid.
Had to come back to this one because I ran into issues again, got some ideas for troubleshooting again 😊
1st Commandment of Plumbing: Feed from above, not below.
Me: But I really need to feed from below...
There seems to be some kind of directional priority for pipes as well - they will prefer flow in the direction that they are placed. This can be checked using the default orientation of a valve on the pipe
I noticed this problem once once deleted the pipes and reconnected the other way the problem was solved. Good to know about the check, didn't know that, thanks! Been worried about making the mistake again in a bigger build.
@@anneputseys4441 That's how I came across it too! Had a basic 3 well oil->plastic,rubber,power station, and was running really unreliably. Losing as much as 15% uptime.
After trying a bunch of stuff that didn't help, I remembered that someone had found a similar issue in Factorio at some point, reconnected all my pipes in root->stem order instead of just whatever I did initially, and it's 100% solid uptime now.
For "liquid recycling" as you put it , something you don't touch on is pipe LENGTH. The shortest pipes will get cleared first.
Great for prioritising the waste output of refineries over the water extractors
That's only if the water extractors pipes aren't full, which is a possibility if not thought about, that's why it's better to use priority pipes like the upside down U bend or priority junctions ☺️
Still new at the game, fluids were a tad puzzling, this video helped to clarify a lot. Thanks!
This video has helped a lot. I've been having issues with supplying Coal generators and it's because I've been supplying them from below. Won't be making that mistake again!
Wooo wooo Thats total, I just practiced running Four oil pipes side by side up a 100 plus meter wall,,, valves Matter!!!
You just need valves for manifolds that feed from below. The fluid still balances into the level pipe, but then can't backflow beyond the valve, forcing it into the building.
Pumps work too, don’t they? (As an alternative to valves due to them being unlocked later in the game)
The most confusing thing i have watched on satisfactory to date, good video none the less as always - but above my pay grade at this point - i would like to see you make a video like "water transfer for Dummies" or perhaps show us in a linear progression style like start with a less complicated set up and progress through the options in terms of complexity.
just a suggestion.
Thanks - just what I needed. My pipes were almost literally killing me 🤣
You really gotta watch it when you upgrade pipelines too, I personally found you're just better off deleting the existing pipeline entirely and then rebuild it using the mk.2. The problem is when you "upgrade" a pipe from mk.1 to mk. 2 anything underneath existing attachments, like valves, intersections, pumps, etc. doesn't get upgraded, even if you go back after and upgrade the mk 1 pumps to mk 2 pumps, the pipe it's sitting on will remain a mk 1 pipe.
So yeah, just delete the whole pipeline and rebuild it, you can leave the support poles and ports to be your guides if you wish, but bare in mind your pumps can be spaced further apart, so you may just want to rebuild it from scratch.
Appreciate this video a lot, so thank you! Dealing with fluids is my least favorite part of the game and this video helps!
Buffers actually have a real fluid level. That is why full buffers have a higher head lift. But that also means that if your buffer is at the limit of its input head lift, IT WILL NEVER GET FULL, because you need extra pressure to raise its internal fluid level.
Beautiful demonstration and explanation
so if u run a pipeline that is for eg. 400 meters long, but its on the same high from start to end, then u dont need any pumps?
Thank you this helped me fix my fuel generator set up!!
Great video, thank you! I am enchanted by the difference of the complexity of the fluid dynamics in this game vs the complexity of the electrical principals 😂. Sure you can transmit 90 gigawatts thru a single wire, no problem 🎉 awesome game though, had a blast.
Feeding my coal generators from below is just pure black magic. Some times it works, some times it doesn’t. It’s a complete mystery. Once I accidentally stumbled upon a configuration that worked for no apparent reason, I just never touched it again. Come to think of it, I should probably rebuild all my power stations to get rid of any unpredictability. Just feed the coal from below and water from above.
I recall having issues with my coal plants as well. I just waited until I could make some Fuel Generators instead and upgraded.
You're probably using pipe floor holes. These are incredibly finicky and can stop headlift from passing through completely.
They will basically only work if you build the pipes into the floor holes in the correct order. If your water comes from below, then you need to build the pipe on the bottom side first and then build the top pipe.
You can verify this when placing a pump. If the blue headlift marker stops at the floor hole, rebuild the pipes first.
Thanks for explaining this Total, it was really helpful! Even for experienced players this might be the reason why things are not that good in their factory! I'm glad you did this :)
Point of video: Just read the awesome guide from Mcgalleon.
Anyway, nice visual addition to his guide. Gives good introduction for it.
I never really had problems with backflow but it's interesting to see all these weird contraptions
7:25 How does an unpowered pump fill a buffer? Doesn’t an unpowered pump reset head lift? Can you fill buffer without head lift?
If anyone finds this, I did some testing, and the answer is weird. Currently, an unpowered pump does reset head lift to the level of the pump. If you put an upside down U bend after an unpowered pump it won’t be able to go past it. But if the unpowered pump is coupled directly with a fluid buffer it behaves in unexpected ways. The buffer at the same elevation will fill up halfway - which actually has head lift (4m in the 8m buffer). So, oddly, if you tee off the same upside down U with a buffer, the other side of the U will magically fill from the magical lift from the buffer.
I put down a water extractor to an unpowered pump at the exit level, then put a pipe vertically up about 66m. The pipe wouldn’t fill, as expected, but when I attached it to a fluid buffer up top, the pipe filled (all 66m) and the buffer partially filled a small amount. As soon as I put something on the back side of the buffer, it returns to behaving as expected.
Thanks for sharing the info, maybe I would have built my 12 floor power station a little differently lol but I enjoyed myself anyway.
@ 2:14 -- how do you get your pipe junctions and splitters to sit nicely like that? Doing my Coal Generators, I had to stack 3 splitters then delete the bottom 2, because no other arrangement would allow me to place the pipe junction. Is it just a result of the building's input locations snapping it that way?
You can just place the entire pipe first, place all junctions on the pipe, then place splitters beneath them.
I often do the same for belts and splitters. Place a straight belt along all machines, then snap splitters or mergers onto the belt directly. Saves a lot of belt connecting and eyeballing. Just hold ctrl and click.
Thx for the new music!
I try not to use that headlift hologram indicator on the pipes as I'm placing pumps. I've had it be wrong before and my water was failing to reach its destination. Now I always go about 5-7 meters below it.
i have no idea what you say but it fire 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Had trouble with my Coal power plants. Rebuilt them yesterday. Still issues. Now I know why.
Valves can also except numeric input to change limit, for more exact input than slider.
Hi great video, but I have a question, is it possible to create "Tesla valves" to create directional flow in satisfactory without the use of actual valves ? And will it work ?
Around 8:27 you mention working pressure and talk about "a 100 meter pipe" ... now you mixed up meters (which measures a one dimensional line) and the cubic meters (with which you actually measure volume in a 3 dimensional space). But besides that, great video. Wish more people would look such good explanations. Troubles with pipe system and the most frequent reasons, people come to the official discord server and ask for help.
I have always used valves as a rule of thumb. I didnt actually know the game had backwash so I have been accidentally preventing it all this time.
Plus i think it looks correct to have them near junctions anyway.
Yeah, but i have a pipe fully pressured and the next pipe segment connected to it (horizontally!) is completely empty. Somehow the fluids just seem to randomly disappear at certain connections.. can someone explain to me wtf is going on there?
I need this manual. Thanks for letting me know about it. I've been making blood sacrifices to the pipe gods
A year late to things, and I just realised the "Don't feed from below" is why my blenders are getting starved... but in that case, how *do* you feed something that's higher up? Typically my fuel plants start with making fuel on the bottom floor before going being pumped up to fuel generators on higher floors... if I reverse that, then I still have to pump all my oil/water to the roof then feed down, so it's the same problem isn't it?
Oh... re-watched the video about three times and I think I get it... I can lift the fluid as needed, but then should "Drop" it into the manifold and have the feed points at the level (or below it)
... And just to close the loop, that fixed it, everything is working like clockwork now! Thanks to McGalleon for the guide, and TotalXclipse for highlighting it in this video!
Probably the only part of Satisfactory that wasn't self evident, which is a fantastic design result for Coffee Stain!
Ok i have strange question i get the speed of water part, but what of pressure ? Is it simple speed = pressure or is it more like real life thing where buffers kills pressure?
Pipes are the hardest thing in the game to build neatly but this information helped a lot! Great video and absolutely beautiful builds/examples within!
Thank you! This video has been so helpful for me.
hi, thank you for fluid' tips ;)
im confused
so like if i make a water tower thats the tallest thing in my factory that means everything else connected to it doesnt need pumps?
What power do you run on while building the coal plant? I can get the steam turbines running but I quickly run out of water. I think it's because my pumps don't have enough power to keep the pipe filled.
Does head height 'reset'? So if I put a pump at the bottom of a 50m water tower will it then only pump 10m?
every time i've lifted water from below it's worked perfect for some reason
So here's the preface: I just unlocked Oil refineries and all that jazz... and here's the dumb question...
I know the pipes say they can't be connected to pipes filled with other liquid... But..... Is it actually true?
I'm convinced you can use a combo of buffers, junctions, backflow, valves, and pumps to negate this. I just can't comprehend how if it is possible.
The one thing I'm confused about is that I had serious issues using manifolds at machine level in my turbofuel factory/power plant at multiple points. All of these issues were solved when I started feeding from a manifold lower than the machines.
If doing it this way is actually problematic, how do you solve for unbalanced flow issues in a machine level manifold setup?
I feel like Manifold setups *can be done* with fluids but should be avoided. In my files they always cause problems and I inevitably change it to load balancing setup.
Lecturer : Why are you taking a degree in Engineering ?
Me : I'm trying to play Satisfactory
wow. today I learned you can achieve vertically aligned junctions WITH foundation grid snap using walls. I wish I knew that a looong time ago. Is that the only way to do this, or is there some simpler method I've also overlooked?
That's a nice fluid system you've got there. Be a shame if someone were to stubbornly circumvent it by just packaging everything no matter how inconvenient that is.
Wait so does that mean if I use this water tower and block outflow at the bottom with a valve it still provides headlift for every connected pipe even though no water is flowing out of the tower? So you can set up all you water extractors however you want and make one super tall water tank that just headlifts everything for you without additional pumps?
9:58 If I build a fluid tower can I now feed machines from below?
You can always feed from below. The issue is just that the fluid will naturally favour filling the pipe rather than the receptacles.
Make sure everything is built next to each other so any fluid doesn’t have to go far.
And do the math on the output if the next refinery only needs 50 units, set the input to 50 units and so forth.
And packaging fluids is the only way to move stuff.
On my oil factory I am having issues with heavy oil not going through the pipes. Using the "pipeline floor hole" to go under the refinery.
So much information! this is great. Thanks for taking the time to make this video!
There's a method that I use that works very efficiently and has never created any problems and I'm surprised you don't mention in your video.
I take three buffer tanks I stack them one on top of the other. Then I use the pump lift system to fill the top tank and allow gravity to fill the middle tank to the bottom tank thus increasing the pressure and creating a situation where I have no problem running my coal plant efficiently and I have also use this on my fuel generator plants and it works very efficiently as well.
However I've had people laugh at me when I post my designs and say it's an efficient when I tell them no it is actually very efficient and they still don't understand it.
I love the fact that the DEVS change the flow rate in this game where gravity plays an intricate part to it and it makes the game even more fun to play.
I don't get how is your design different than just having the pump deal with the headlift
I built a circular tower of refineries to make rubber. The tower has 3 floors. Bottom floor is for the logistics (pipes and belts), 2nd floor has 10 refineries and 3rd floor has 10 refineries.
I'm really struggling to keep the crude oil flowing to the 3rd floor. One pipe section would be full but the next section is empty. It's so frustrating.
I have the problem that the pressure drops in a perfectly horizontal line. How does it come to this?
not enough supply maybe vs demand maybe?
How do you maintain max flow rate?
Where can I find the manual?
Is there a bug in pipeline floor holes? I made a fuel generator setup and couldn't work out why it wasn't working. I had pumps in the correct places. The only change I made was to remove the floor hole and connect the pipe directly to the generators and then it started working.
Seriously your builds are so well made, have you done a tour yet?
Im nodding along like I’m learning while continuing all the bad habits mentioned in the video 🤣
I raelize that this is a 2 year old video so I wonder if Valves were not a thing back then?
When you mention "Unpowered Pump" as a way to block liquid from trying to balance between multiple Buffers and instead fill them one by one, is that the same as adding a directional Valve?
I just finished a full 133 Fuel Generator factory and I split the Generators over 4 floors. Instead of pumping liquid I instead lift Packaged Dilluted Fuel to each floor and unpack it there to then pipe it to the Generators. It works a charm on three floors but on one the liquid just doesn't flow properly and the Packager buildings can't get rid of the liquid Fiel fast enough and goes Idle. As far as I can tell each floor is identical in layout, and I've added Valves to try to make sure that the liquid doesn't backflow towards the Packagers. the piping basically looks like a bunch of H-H with a column of Generators in the middle, a Feeder pipe on each side and two generators on each side of those Feeders. At the outer edges I have pipes that flow back towards the Packagers to avoid backflow or sloshing but I've added Valves both before the Buffers and after to make sure the Liquid just goes one way.
Everything is identical, but one floor out of four somehow breaks the physics of the game..
I'm not sure this is your solution or even the problem at all (I'm not even close to an expert at the game or piping) but I have seen where pipes can stop flowing properly or has loss when you lay a pipe and then put in junctions or pumps or anything along the pipe section. I've started the habit of laying it how I want it but then dismantling pipe sections between the other bits and then reconnecting the pipes so that it is accurately fitting between the junctions or pumps and what not. There's a weird bug where small bits of the pipes that the game thinks are in the middle of the junction or pump are causing loss I think. That's one thing that has helped me recently. Among other things related to what I've had to solve as I learn.
I don't get the tip of 'always fill from above'.
Usually my water source is at the lowest point. That's how water sources work. especially in the early game, I often have no choice but to build my coal plants above my water source.
Potentially you could pump the water to the top of your coal factory, then bring it down from there? I don't know if that's just the same but costing power though
This is pure gold.
Anyone else NOT see the headlift snap points when placing pumps? I see the animated rings going out from where the hologram is where I'm currently aiming at but I do not see any snap points like at 4:33
I believe that means you don't need a pump then. Your issue will instead be flow, not pressure/head.
It's funny cause some of this I learned on my own from just experimenting in the game, though I also learned a bit from this so thanks for the video