Pneumatic Tubes

Pneumatic Tubes adds a small number of pipe networks to the pipe system created by Vanilla Framework Expanded. I wanted a mod where I could collapse stacks of stuffable resources like wood and steel into a pipe network like with chemfuel in Vanilla Chemfuel Expanded or nutrient paste in Vanilla Nutrient Paste Expanded… so yeah, here it is.

Okay, stop looking at this mod and pick up Vanilla Chemfuel Expanded and Vanilla Nutrient Paste Expanded right now. Their base mod, Vanilla Framework Expanded, adds this concept of pipe systems into the game where you can create storage vats/tanks that can hold resources, drains which accept resources into the pipe systems, taps that pull the resources out of the pipe systems, and pipes to connect everything up. It also allows you to connect said pipes to buildings that require the resource as "fuel." These are brilliant mods. This current mod, Pneumatic Tubes, just adds more pipe networks.

This is a code based mod that dynamically adds pipe networks for all resources under the following thing categories:

• Raw resources (e.g., wood, steel, gold, plasteel)
• Stone blocks
• Leathers
• Wools
• Uncategorized textiles (e.g., cloth, devilstrand)

The mod contains mod options for enabling other pipe networks; these are disabled by default and a restart is required after enabling them to see them in game. It’s possible to enable a category and then disable individual materials within that category from the mod options; reasons to do this include wanting to instead use a different mod that adds a pipe system for the material, or just plain not wanting to create pipe systems for a material.

(Note: after resuming a save after disabling a material and rebooting, you may see some red errors in the debug log for missing pipe system settings for those materials. Those errors can be ignored)

Note: materials that have the following characteristics won’t have pipe systems available:

• Quality (so no weapons, apparel)
• Ingredients (so no meals, kibble)
• Buildings
• Art (probably not many items with art but no quality, but just in case)
• Stylable
• Neurotrainers (or psycasts)
• Unfinished (so no in-progress crafts)
• CompProperties_Hatcher (so no fertilized eggs. Unfertilized eggs are fine, but no hatching chickens in a pneumatic tube)
• Dissolution (so no toxic waste packs)

Yeah!

• This can be added to existing saves.
• The pipe systems from this mod are locked behind a speedbump research item called "Pneumatic Tubes." The individual categories each have a separate research item in order to have their pipelines unlocked, and then there’s one more research item that adds the two largest storage containers for each materials’ pipeline netowrk.
• This mod is code-based explicitly to ensure that pipe systems will be created for resources introduced by other mods. As long as they are in the above thing categories they’ll get included.
• Yes, this mod allows wood to flow down pipes. Don’t think of this as plumbing, think of this as pneumatic tubes of appropriate sizes: the drain is the entry port, the storage produces the vacuum, and the tap is the destination port. If that still doesn’t really make sense, just say the word "tubes" over and over again until everything starts feeling okay again.
• Pneumatic tubes are more complex than pipes and require a component in addition to a steel cost in order to build them. This makes long networks very costly in settlements before they get established.
• If a building can be refilled by a resource, these pneumatic tubes can be connected to that building. Obvious example is wood for a wood-fired generator or fueled stove, but mods that add (for example) nuclear generators with a uranium refueling requirement should also be covered.
• I was lying in the first section about the small number of pipe networks being added. The pipe systems from this mod are in a new category in the architect menu called "Pneum. tubes" because there’s too freakin’ many pipe systems added in this mod. Each thing category has its own dropdown for each building type.
• Each resource has five levels of storage containers available to it: 1×1 all the way to 5×5. The capacity increases polynomially; the largest is the most storage efficient but may not be the most space efficient if you’re not going to get close to filling it.
• The capacity of the storage containers is based on the size of the stacks for the applicable resource. If you’re using a stack enhancing mod, that new stack size will be used. Note, this is calculated at game load; if you change a stack size via a mod in-game, the change won’t be reflected until the game is next launched.

As noted earlier, anything that has properties like quality or ingredients is beyond the scope of this mod. But yeah, anything else should be picked up whether it’s from a mod or from vanilla. If there’s anything you think should be included but it’s not, let me know in a comment! Let me know the category you’re interested in, the full name of mod that added it, and an example resource within that category. It would help me if you gave a sample hierarchy of where you’d find the resource in a storage zone, like "Manufactured > Textiles > Leathers > Bearskin"

There’s so many good mods around. Some interesting ones too call out:

• Vanilla Chemfuel Expanded because more pipes.
• Vanilla Nutrient Paste Expanded because MORE PIPES.
• Project RimFactory Revived since it’s the president of synergizing with other mods.
• Meat Blend 1.4 if you want to blend all them meats together and send the results to your stove.
• Veggie Mix if you want to salad-ify all your vegetables together and send the results to your stove.

Big thanks to Oskar Potocki and the Vanilla Expanded crew; you make some mighty fine mods.

Please note that not only was the base pipe system logic in this mod are created by these folks, so were the actual graphics for the buildings. In terms of graphics, I took the building graphics from Vanilla Nutrient Paste Expanded and added a color mask; that’s it. All credit to them.