Chapter 6 ‐ Fluid handling part 1 ‐ Fluid behavior and pipes

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Fluid

Factorio has various fluids, such as water, steam, oil, and sulfuric acid. Each fluid type has a precise temperature that does not change by itself over time for the sake of simplicity. Fluids can be held and transported mainly using pipes. Later in the game, other fluid handling options are unlocked, such as large storage tanks, steel barrels or fluid wagons on trains.

A network of pipes and other pieces that all connect to each other is called a fluid system. In a fluid system with no pumps, the fluid will gradually spread out by itself to get equally distributed across the entire network in terms of fullness percentage.

Fluids are not supposed to mix with each other and so many actions that would lead to this are automatically denied with a warning sound. For example, a pipe unit cannot be placed directly between two pipe units that contain different fluids.

Pipe

Regular pipe units are 1 by 1 tiles and are placed on the surface. They automatically connect with adjacent pipe units or pipe interfaces in up to four directions at the same time. There is no way to make adjacent regular pipes not connect up, which means they you need to space apart pipelines that contain different fluids.

Checking a pipe with the cursor will announce any fluids inside. You can open the pipe menu to find other fluids and their counts, although there should normally just be one type.

As of version 0.4, you are able to walk on pipes, which is a game feature used by some popular mods. However, nothing can be built over a pipe on the ground. You need to move pipe sections underground for that.

Pipe to ground / underground pipe

Pipe to ground units are 1 by 1 pipe sections that curve into the ground. They have front sides, which are the only faces where other pipes can connect, and they have back sides that disappear into the ground. These pipes to ground allow you to build underground pipe segments. The underground segments must be straight and they are defined when the back faces of two pipes to ground are facing each other. Underground pipe segments are built instantly and for free and they can be up to 10 tiles long, and they can cross over each other without mixing fluids. The engineer is able to walk and place other things over underground pipe segments. The underground segments can also pass under cliffs, ore patches, and water bodies without a problem.

Tips for setting up pipes

• Using cursor mode is a very practical here.
• It helps to hold the pipe in hand while the cursor is used to find the appropriate fluid input or output tile of a building. Afterwards, the pipe can be placed just outside this output. In version 0.4, we added a preview system when building pipe units to read out what it would connect to on its four sides, so you no longer have to directly hover over a building part.
• When the cursor reads a pipe, its connection directions are stated, and you can continue extending a pipe by using this information.
• If you want to transport multiple different fluids in parallel, it is best to leave two or three tiles of space in between the parallel pipes
• Many buildings can be connected directly side by side using their pipe interfaces instead of laying out pipes in between. The best example of this is attaching a pair of steam engines in a row, directly to the steam output of a boiler.

Offshore pump

This water supply pump requires no fuel or electricity to operate. Its size is 2x1 and it can only be placed next to water tiles, with a fussy placement that requires a straight shore line. The pump has pipes that disappear into the water and it outputs 1200 units of water per second out of its back side, which faces away from the waterfront, through a pipe interface. Multiple offshore pumps cannot be placed directly side by side.

Tips for setting up an offshore pump

• The offshore pump placing assistant activates when trying place an offshore pump near water. It presents a list of options for valid placements, with the top of the list being the closest valid placement. After making a placement, the resulting location of the offshore pump can be found via the scanner.
• It helps to find a straight shore line. Cursor Mode can help with the search.
• A suitable location will have a 3 by 2 rectangle of water tiles with a 3 by 2 rectangle of land tiles next to it, with the broad sides of the rectangles touching. The pump would be placed in the middle of the land tile rectangle, on the waterfront. The first pipe unit would be placed on the middle of the land tile rectangle, behind the pump.
• When a pipe is filling up with water, a brief sound of rushing water is heard, but it ends quickly when the pipe becomes full and the pump stops.

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