Conveyor Sorters works strange with Gases from Tanks
I've made a couple of test systems - mostly Large Grids stationary ships in the space with rather simple Conveyors network, and I've found out one family of strange behaviours related to Gases.
I've shared on the Steam Workshop two hopefully helpfully builds:
* https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2754844807 - a test environment (based on an empty world), where I've found these weird behaviours with Gases and Sorters
* https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2767737754 - a test bed grid to easily check these odd behaviours with Conveyors network described here below
Nonetheless, in your some recent YouTube stream, you give a hint, that your next big upgrade will be kind of focused on "Quality of Life" changes and fixes. I don't know if whatever I've described here could be an easy fix or requiring a whole Conveyor Network redesign and a new implementation. However, if Sorters (or even Connectors) could have a toggle to just exclude/include them from passing H2 and/or O2 Gases, I believe I could easily ignore these strange behaviours - as my goal was to design some kind of separated "life-support" system, without using Ejectors and Collectors to pass Ice and Bottles ;)
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In most cases I've tried, fortunately, the Conveyor Sorter behaves expectedly in regard to transferring O2 and/or H2 Gases - where I'm expecting that they will pass Gases through according to their direction.
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One unexpected acting is that when a Conveyor Sorter is in Toggled Off block state, it still is passing Gases into sinks and Consumers from sources - it is very possible, that it is rather conventional idea, but it was at least a kind of small surprise for me. Thus, I'm not sure about that case.
The biggest unforeseen (for me) bizarre ways of doing things with Conveyor Sorters and Gases are cases when the source is a Tank(s):
1)
With intuitively "Passing"-through Sorter, one can put another Tank of same type after it, then suck up a desired Gas in that sink with enabled Stockpile. However, once on the same Conveyor network side (after the Sorter) is also connected some gas "self-consuming" block, nothing which use that type of consumed gas will work there - by "self-consuming" I mean: Cryo Chamber, Cockpits, Hydrogen Engine, and H. Thrusters.
Thus, with connected Engines or Thrusters, one cannot Stockpile H2, or use beforehand mentioned Thrusters and Engines. Similarly, with connected Life Support blocks, nothing gas related works, as they provide both Gases to the character when one is inside, and (I believe) cache some of them when one is outside.
Moreover, even without Stockpiling Tanks at all, any gas Consumer will not work in that setup once "self-consumer" is connected, so also Medical Room or Air Vent. On the other side, a Medical Room does not prevent Stockpiling, but does not provide gases to the user - thus maybe, it still prevents Stockpiling while it is being used, by I cannot test that easily. Furthermore, somehow an Air Vent works as output as expected, as long as there isn't any other kind of gas Consumer on that Conveyor network side.
2)
Counterintuitively, when one is using "Blocking" Conveyor Sorter with Tanks as Gas Sources, most Consumers works - which feels unexpected as Sorter looks as it should not pass anything throughout at that side. Moreover, Air Vents and Stockpiling does not work, unless there is a matching Consumer connected also.
I have the same bug
There is conflicting information. Some says sorters should by design not affect gas flow at all, some says sorters block all gasses (including the "official" wiki, but you know, anyone can edit a wiki), some says hydrogen sometimes passes sorters either due to a circumstantial bug or a specifically coded exception (or specifically omitted denial, or whatever).
If you really are interested in reporting your findings, I suggest you cover each oddity in a separate report instead of a single wall of text trying to cover everything, each with a description of what you expect, what you got, how to reproduce what you got, and ideally documentation such as screenshots, blueprints, and new and vanilla test world saves.
There is conflicting information. Some says sorters should by design not affect gas flow at all, some says sorters block all gasses (including the "official" wiki, but you know, anyone can edit a wiki), some says hydrogen sometimes passes sorters either due to a circumstantial bug or a specifically coded exception (or specifically omitted denial, or whatever).
If you really are interested in reporting your findings, I suggest you cover each oddity in a separate report instead of a single wall of text trying to cover everything, each with a description of what you expect, what you got, how to reproduce what you got, and ideally documentation such as screenshots, blueprints, and new and vanilla test world saves.
Simplified description of bug I found:
Create a grid with Conveyors Network composed of: Gas Sources, Conveyor Sorter, and some Gas Consumers.
a) Put a O2/H2 Generator full of Ice on one side, then Cryo Chamber and Hydrogen Thruster on the other end of Conveyor Network - everything works as expected:
b) Have full of Gases an Oxygen and Hydrogen Tanks, then on the other side place consumers as Cyro and Thruster - I believe this is the bug described here:
c) Regardless of Conveyor Sorter configuration, when Gases are passed, they are being keep passed even when the Sorter is Toggled Off.
Here is published Steam Workshop saved world examples depicted above:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2769939715
Simplified description of bug I found:
Create a grid with Conveyors Network composed of: Gas Sources, Conveyor Sorter, and some Gas Consumers.
a) Put a O2/H2 Generator full of Ice on one side, then Cryo Chamber and Hydrogen Thruster on the other end of Conveyor Network - everything works as expected:
b) Have full of Gases an Oxygen and Hydrogen Tanks, then on the other side place consumers as Cyro and Thruster - I believe this is the bug described here:
c) Regardless of Conveyor Sorter configuration, when Gases are passed, they are being keep passed even when the Sorter is Toggled Off.
Here is published Steam Workshop saved world examples depicted above:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2769939715
Confirmed.
When the sorter points to sources
Hydrogen flows against the sorter from tanks against sorter direction, but ONLY when the gas generators are NOT connected to the conveyor network, and regardless whether they're toggled on or off.
When the sorter points to consumers
The opposite happens: Hydrogen flows from tanks to thruster, but ONLY when the gas generators are connected and even when those are off:
And just for completeness:
When the tanks are disconnected, supply from generators follows their behaviour. Hydrogen flows with the sorter but not against it.
Also, oxygen is completely unaffected by those oddities. It ALWAYS flows to the consumer (cryo pod here), regardless of connection to either source (but at least one, of course) and sorter direction.
Confirmed.
When the sorter points to sources
Hydrogen flows against the sorter from tanks against sorter direction, but ONLY when the gas generators are NOT connected to the conveyor network, and regardless whether they're toggled on or off.
When the sorter points to consumers
The opposite happens: Hydrogen flows from tanks to thruster, but ONLY when the gas generators are connected and even when those are off:
And just for completeness:
When the tanks are disconnected, supply from generators follows their behaviour. Hydrogen flows with the sorter but not against it.
Also, oxygen is completely unaffected by those oddities. It ALWAYS flows to the consumer (cryo pod here), regardless of connection to either source (but at least one, of course) and sorter direction.
I'm also very confused by this inconsistent behaviour. How can we get to the bottom of this? Is there a test setup we can create for Keep Support to reproduce it?
Is it official that sorters are treated as conveyors for gases (no matter if they are on or off)?
my test set up: battery - tank - cargo - sorter (I tried either way) - cargo - tank (the cargo is for me to have a handy port to attach generators and stuff to, and to access the terminal).
And so on. I've been going back and forth like this for a while and it's really annoying to get it working consistently.
Is this an extreme glitch or can anybody reproduce this?
I'm also very confused by this inconsistent behaviour. How can we get to the bottom of this? Is there a test setup we can create for Keep Support to reproduce it?
Is it official that sorters are treated as conveyors for gases (no matter if they are on or off)?
my test set up: battery - tank - cargo - sorter (I tried either way) - cargo - tank (the cargo is for me to have a handy port to attach generators and stuff to, and to access the terminal).
And so on. I've been going back and forth like this for a while and it's really annoying to get it working consistently.
Is this an extreme glitch or can anybody reproduce this?
Hello, Engineers!
Thanks for letting us know about this issue!
Thanks for all your information, steps and images, this issue was indeed successfully reproduced and added into our internal system.
Kind Regards
Keen Software House: QA Department
Hello, Engineers!
Thanks for letting us know about this issue!
Thanks for all your information, steps and images, this issue was indeed successfully reproduced and added into our internal system.
Kind Regards
Keen Software House: QA Department
Retested this in 1.201.013 with fresh test grid.
Still happening.
Retested this in 1.201.013 with fresh test grid.
Still happening.
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