Posted January 19, 2021
2 minutes ago, yoakenashi said:
Just so I understand, are you talking about the “algae from algae distiller, slime from puft farm” route? Or have I been overlooking another way to make algae?
The longterm sustainable source is PWater/PDirt -> PO2 -> Slime (via Puft) -> Algae. It's a good system for generating calories (via Pacus & Pufts), and a good source of Oxygen. However it is not power positive (unless you are converting Calories to power via Mousewheels, or somehow integrating the system with Sage Hatches), and a SPOM (which uses Hydrolysis to produce Oxygen & Hydrogen, with the ratio of power consumed to Hydrogen produced meaning the system is overall power positive) being a superior system in basically every way.
Theoretically the progression would be
- Algae & Sublimation in the early game. This requires minimal amounts of metal & plenty of dupe time. These systems are efficient in terms of the amount of O2 produced, but inefficient in terms of dupe time and they are not power positive.
- Rust in the early mid game. Rust represents an upgrade over Algae & early game Sublimation because of its secondary outputs (especially Iron Ore) and because of it's low dupe time compared to O2 output.
- SPOM is the best first project once reaching the midgame (the mid game starting once you have your first 200kg of Refined Metal and the capacity to produce more). A SPOM is an excellent source of power which can easily be isolated from the rest of the grid requiring only a single highly-sustainable input, Water. Indeed, SPOMs are so good at producing Oxygen that it's often advisable to transition to additional Oxygen consumers to increase the ratio of Hydrogen to Oxygen being produced (such as Longhair Slicksters or Dense Pufts). This makes a double-SPOM (one for Oxygen, one for Hydrogen) a great mid game source of sustainable power which can be left alone for the rest of the playthrough. The minimum amount of Refined Metal is extremely low (the Gas Pumps need atmo sensors to provide power efficiency), and no special dupe skills are needed to set up the system.
- An upgraded Sublimation plant is an option at this point in the game. Sublimation represents an improvement over a SPOM in terms of raw O2 output compared to Water input, but it is dramatically more expensive to build as it requires substantial Refined Metals and a Mechatronics Engineers to be comparable in terms of automation. Additionally, while a SPOM is a net power provider, a Sublimation plant is a net power draw. This in turn makes it effectively more expensive to operate per kg of O2. An argument can be made for Sublimation plants on the Swampy start built using the Solar power available from the POI Glass, but in such a situation you are unable to use that power for other things and you are still spending dramatically more resources overall to build the fully automated system. PDirt can become a limiting factor without a good source, again requiring more Mechatronics & Refined Metal compared to a SPOM. Sublimation can serve as an upgrade route to a SPOM, as a SPOM which relies on a baseline of PWater will produce PDirt when using Sieves. It is usually more efficient however to boil the PWater and send 95C Water into your SPOM to delete some heat and further improve the power characteristics of the SPOM.
- The final option for Oxygen is to go back to using Algae, this time via the PWater -> Puft route. This system is something of a hybrid of the SPOM & Sublimation plant in practice, since the O2 yield per unit Water is improved compared to a SPOM, but the power & dupe time costs are poor like Sublimation. The expense is offset by this system also serving as a great source of Calories, which can be in turn converted into power via Mousewheels. The main advantage of this system is how it can be scaled to dupe population with extreme precision, and that Puft ranching is a very good source of Oxylite for rocketry. The main disadvantage is the complexity and again, the build cost.
In summary, Electrolysis in the form of SPOMs serve as the premier long term source of Oxygen in the game. Water becomes a superb source of both Power & Oxygen once a SPOM is built, all using a minimal amount of Refined Metal. Sublimation is in a slightly awkward place at the moment because of the lack of power positivity. The best argument for making Sublimation Stations consume additional resources besides PDirt is to open up the machine for uses other than pure Oxygen production. CO2 from rock or coal for example, Chlorine from Bleachstone, ideally some way to generate NatGas. This would allow Sublimation-based builds to have more than one purpose and to represent a true competitor to the superior SPOM.
