In this guide, I will explain the basic principles of fluid dynamics and fluid mechanics in detail at Satisfactory 1.0.
Fluid Dynamics and Fluid Mechanics
I will avoid all these trappings, and provide you with the actual mechanics. How you then take that information and apply it to your fluid networks is up to you – and the edge of Massage 2ABB will be your only limit!
Housekeeping
Satisfactory approaches fluids in a particular way, so particular in fact that it may be helpful to think of it as alien fluid dynamics, or not to even think of it as fluid at all!
I suspect this is where most people get hung up first – they approach the game’s fluid mechanic as having a greater tie-in to real world fluid dynamics. Real fluid dynamics is much harder to understand than Satisfactory fluid dynamics. But because we’ve all had at least some experience with real fluid dynamics, even if we don’t understand it, we naturally attempt to apply what we do know to the game.. At least that’s really what caused my undoing for so long. A true fluid dynamics emulator would likely be it’s own standalone game due to the maths involved.. Satisfactory isn’t an emulator, it’s a simulator. It pretends to represent fluid dynamics; but it’s a mirage, an illusion, a misdirection for the player.
As a result, when considering the fluid mechanic in Satisfactory, some things can seem very counter-intuitive. It’s so simple once it all clicks that you’ll wonder how on earth you had so much trouble with it [a: because you are not on earth].
So, forget what you think you know about real world fluid dynamics.
Rules
TERMINOLOGY
There are but a few simple principles governing the mechanic, boiled down to:
- Volume – this is the amount of fluid in a pipe/buffer, or amount of fluid the pipe/buffer can hold.
- Flow – this is the amount of fluid that moves through or out of the pipe over time.
- Headlift – this is the distance on the z-axis (if your pipe is diagonal, consult Pythagorous [it strictly concerns z-axis]) that the fluid can be moved upwards from the point the headlift is applied.
- Gravity – a downward force on the z-axis applied to fluid. You need never worry about specifics of the force, just that it exists.
The above principals play out the following rules:
- Fluid will always Flow, in either direction, from a pipe segment to an adjacent segment that contains less fluid Volume.
- Fluid pipe and buffers (including the input and output buffers of machines) will accept fluid flowing at the maximum Flow rate of the injecting pipe(s).
- Fluid will always Flow downwards (due to the Gravity force) if it can [i.e., rule 1 is met], coming to rest at the bottom of the network.
- Machines, Pumps, Valves and Buffers all reset Headlift. Valves inject none of their own. The only Headlift a buffer injects is the amount measured from the exit point to the height of the fluid’s level inside the buffer – as the buffer empties, the Headlift will drop. Machines provide 10m Headlift, while pumps have it displayed in their config menus..
- Valves and pumps are directional, and won’t allow fluid to Flow in the opposite direction. Buffers and pipes are bi-directional.
4+5a) Pipes can be considered as mini-buffers that don’t kill Headlift. Conversely, buffers can be considered like big holding pipes that kill Headlift.
4+5b) Valves can be considered like non-powered pumps with a Flow limiting ability. Conversely, Pumps can be considered like valves that are powered, provide Headlift, but can’t be Flow limited.
Reiterating that real world fluid dynamics does not apply:
- There is no such thing as friction, or air, only Volume occupied or not occupied, like the pipe is full of liquid and/or void.
- There is no ‘pressure’, only Flow, Volume, Headlift and Gravity. When understood and used properly the result appears to be ‘pressurised’, but that’s just an illusion we identify because pressure exists in real life. Pumps don’t pump on the x/y axis, they provide Headlift, not pressure – even if powered, on the x/y axis alone they act like valves only.
Basic Application Comments
I was hoping you’d stop reading by this point and go and start building and experimenting… but I guess you need a bit of hand-holding after all. Don’t worry though, I still won’t tell you what to build or even provide examples.
- KISS – the more elaborate your system the more prone to failure it will be.
Don’t use buffers, limiters or pumps unless you need to. Until you have a grasp on these fundamental principles and you’ve set up a few basic systems with just straight machines into pipes into junctions into pipes into machines, don’t even play around with them! Incorrect use of buffers and valves in particular cause more problems than you’re trying to solve by using them. The only reason to use them is if they are necessary (rare circumstances indeed).*
- Always inject the same Volume into the system as is being extracted. I.e., Keep the inputs and outputs balanced. Yes, just like with belts. This might seem obvious, but you’d be surprised.. If a machine is trying to inject into a full pipe it will stall once it’s output buffer is full. If a machine is trying to have a drink from an empty pipe, and its input buffer is empty, it will stall. Get your rudimentary arithmetic in order before starting your build.*
2a. When planning the layout and getting your math in shape, consider pipe Flow. Again, just like belts (again, you’d be surprised).. E.g., An MK1 pipe won’t expell the full output of 3x water extractors that are sucking up 120m3/m each, because the pipe can only accommodate a maximum Flow of 300m3/m. - At a certain point, usually when pipes’ Volume and/or Flow is low, Gravity will override Headlift. You must maintain upward Flow for the pump to work at full capacity (a simple flush can achieve this in a properly tuned system).
- In more advanced systems you want the injection pipe as free as possible (enough to accept the fluid injection) and pipes attached to guzzlers (and the buffers of the guzzlers themselves) want to be full before flicking the switch. This is another use of the flush mechanic when looking at the pipes – after the switch as been flicked but the injecting machine can’t empty.
- If fluid flows to the end of a pipe network, and can’t escape, a wave will form. Fluid will build up in that last section, and then start flowing back (‘backflow’, ‘sloshing’, ‘hammering’) as that end pipe segment is now holding more Volume than the earlier adjacent pipe. The larger the pipe network, the greater the wave or sloshing effect becomes, the longer the wave takes to move through the system. When the wave makes it all the way back to the injection point, machines will stall because there is no free pipe to empty into. Generally, the easiest way to resolve this is to not turn on the machines consuming the fluid from the pipes until the network is primed – i.e., all machine’s input buffers and all pipes are full. When the pipes are full, there is no void in which a wave can form or sloshing can occur.
- When dealing with wastewater recycling back into the system, you must prioritise the wastewater line, else sloshing will occur and eventually the machines will splutter, before finally stalling.
That sloshing occurs due to the machines’ output not being consistent (they want to dispatch large volumes of liquid in short bursts; intermittent or variable Flow, not a continual Flow – eventually the imbalance between the two machines (one guzzling, the other outputting) causes a back up to occur as their input and output requirements have intentionally been made different to ensure this occurs. Therefore wastewater output must be prioritised. Personally, I like to deal with this by appropriate application of the opposing forces Headlift and Gravity.
- Once this all sinks in you can start experimenting with unbalanced systems, buffers and valves and these guidelines can be broken, but you won’t have a chance if you don’t understand the underlying principles.
BONUS COMMENTS
There really is very little need for buffers and valves. Consider buffers like you do Storage Containers when used as an in-line buffer – when do you need these in your automated belted system? There are genuine applications, but I’m not going to hand everything to you on a platter.
When thinking about adding a valve, ask yourself why you are doing this? Can your goal be achieved in another way? Most often there is a more appropriate solution. When considering putting one in, think about how it will actually function in relation to the Flow and Volume. Valves limit Flow, kill Headlift and prevent backflow from the forward facing direction. They can easily create backflow prior to the valve if used inappropriately. Again, there are genuine applications, but they are generally in rare circumstances in complex networks. Speaking of – this is also why some people experience sloshing in a network that uses a mixture of MKI and MKII pipes – suddenly the Flow is halved from one pipe segment to the next. There’s nothing wrong with mixing MKI and MKII pipes in a considered manner.
Stingers and Hatcher flies in Mah Pipes
Highly unlikely. Pipe network problems tend to be a result of Pioneer error more than not. That said there are a few bugs:
- Currently (1.0.2) there are some occasional connection issues. If you find a segment empty adjacent to a full segment, dismantle and rebuild the empty segment. Recheck the segment to see if the problem’s resolved, if not repeat on the full segment. If still not, flush the pipe and if that doesn’t work try flushing the network. If it’s still malfunctioning (extremely rare) you may want to try rebuilding the whole area around the dodgy connection.
- Just as a splitter/merger slices the belt, junctions/valves and pumps slice the pipe. Just like with belts (but worse), repeated slicing and splicing a segment will cause the segment to malfunction. Rather than dismantling the junction/valve/pump and rebuilding it, dismantle the pipe segments with it and rebuild both.