Advanced Flow Management
Are you tired of using many bridges to make that damn liquid flow the right way? Do you want a more convenient way to manage where it flows and in what order? Then this mod is for you!
Advanced Flow Management, or AFM for short, gives you the ability to change the flow direction & priority in just one click. It also gives you a better understanding of the network’s state by visualizing the flow directions in the overlay. It works identically for both liquid and gas conduits.
• flow directions visualization in liquid & gas overlays
• ability to switch flow directions
• ability to change flow priorities on junctions
• ability to change flow priorities of buildings’ endpoints
• ability to copy a junction’s flow settings to other junctions
Now in more detail:
Sometimes, a pipeline in the pipe network may have multiple possible flow directions that would work. In this case, the game decides what the flow will be on its own. This mod lets you redirect the flow, with an added possibility to also assign flow priorities to different pipelines. To be clear, all this can be achieved by intelligently placing bridges (if you want to learn how, read this[oxygennotincluded.fandom.com]). This mod however makes this much more convenient and fast, since you don’t have to build bridges.
Flow adjustments in a network are done by interacting with junctions. Changing a junction connection’s flow direction also changes the flow of the whole pipeline leading to some endpoint: another junction, a building intake/output, or a dead end. To change the flow direction, simply click on it in the "Flow Configuration" screen and it will switch immediately.
Some directions, known as Fixed Flow Directions (those appear darker in the Flow Configuration screen), cannot be changed. For example, a pipe that directs water into a building intake can obviously not be redirected to "suck" the water out instead.
Illegal junctions (marked in red) show where the flow directions make no sense, f.e. if the water has no way to leave a junction. The game will attempt to rebuild the network to make those junctions legal by adjusting the flow directions. All networks are rebuilt whenever a conduit is placed or removed anywhere on the map.
Adjusting a junction’s flow priorities determines the order in which contents enter or leave it. The highest-priority direction will be used first. If multiple directions share the same priority, the flow is evenly split between them.
Buildings’ endpoints (intakes and outputs) above junctions can also have their flow priority adjusted. For example, if a pump outputs polluted water into a junction and its flow priority matches the junction’s other input that provides clear water, then the flow will be evenly distributed between all junction inputs. What you get is an alternating flow of clear and polluted water, as shown in the gif below.
For building endpoints to follow flow priorities, the junction requires a "Buffer" – you can see its contents (labeled "Buffer Contents") below the conduit’s contents. You can safely ignore it as it is just a technical detail.
You can copy flow settings of a junction to others only if they have the same connections. Copying transfers both flow directions AND priorities. This is useful when you f.e. want to redirect many consequent junctions from left-to-right to right-to-left, as shown below.
Here are some tips that can help you use the mod correctly.
Do not build loops(= an arrangement of multiple junctions that lets the contents flow in circles). Just because this mod lets you do it doesn’t mean you should. If you do build them, then the flow of nearby conduits might behave strangely and unintended. Use bridges or other intermediate buldings that have intake/output to break the loop.
Switch flow directions while the game is paused. This will ensure that the game will not try to switch any flow directions that you are currently changing to the way they were before (in case you create any illegal junctions in the process).
Switch flow directions only in fully built networks. If you switch a flow direction of a junction that is part of an unfinished network that is still under construction, then that flow direction may get switched back while that network is being built.
This mod influences conduits’ behavior on a pretty low level so it might conflict with other mods that do the same. However, among all the mods I tested (which were a lot), practically none showed any significant compatibility issues.
AFM is fully compatible with High Pressure Applications (RIP Ronivan):
you can configure both flow directions and flow priorities of the modded conduits.
AFM is fully compatible with Pipe Flow Overlay.
AFM is fully compatible with all mods that add new buildings with custom endpoints/new bridges/new valves etc.:
you are fully able to configure the flow priority of any modded building’s endpoints; sometimes some minor visual issues with the endpoints’ icons occur where the icons are not changing their shape properly (from square to round and vice versa).
Big thanks to Peter Han for his PLib!
Special thanks to the ONI discord community[discord.gg] for answering lots of my questions and helping create this mod!
You can find the source code on my GitHub[github.com].
If you encounter any issues/bugs, please start an issue[github.com] with the error message(if present), the Player.log file and a description of how to reproduce the bug.
If you would like to provide a translation to this mod, feel free to send me the translation .po file via an issue or a pull request (on GitHub).
Do you like my mods and want to thank me? I would not mind if you would buy me a coffee[buymeacoffee.com] ;D
