Add a non destructive way to cool a fluid
Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2026 8:16 pm
Hello.
I've been playing with fluid temperature recently, more specifically with the boiler prototype.
Where we stand:
- We can use "heat-fluid-inside" in a boiler.
- in this mode, the whole pipeline gradually increases it's temperature
Why this is useful :
- Currently, we can make it so an entity able to generate heat and send it through heat pipes stops functionning if it has reached its target heat.
It is cool (pun intended) because it can introduce a mechanic where the player has to manage heat (cool things, move heat, dissipate it).
Basically, similar to Aquilo, but... in reverse. Keep things cool or they don't function.
Yes we can move heat with heat pipes, but they don't carry heat like fluids do, and it's not the same flavour. The heat capacity of fluids, as well as their min and max temperature, can be used to make heat management system with more flavour and more flexibility.
What's the limitation:
- However, we don't have a similar "cool-fluid-inside" option. We can take away heat or any form of energy, using a boiler, to continuously heat up a fluid inside a pipeline, but we cannot do the opposite : continuously cool a fluid inside a pipeline to extract its heat or void it. Meaning a fluid that has been heated is condemned to stay hot unless it is consumed / used.
The goal, here, is not to extract a coherent amount of calories from the fluid based on the energy that was removed from it by lowering its temperature (altough that would be nice, but I'm not confusing fuel_value and heat_capacity), but to obtain a non destructive way to continuously lower a fluid's temperature.
Would it mean that cooling a fluid should have the potential to produce energy ? Maybe, but that's not main goal here.
We could imagine it could cost energy to cool a fluid, but that's an implementation detail to the request.
You might say "just use a crafting machine with a fixed recipe with fixed temperature output". But it wouldn't fill this purpose. The boiler's mode "heat-fluid-inside" is nice because it can take ANY fluid from any authorized temp in that fluid's temp range, and increase it up to its maximum. This means this single entity can be used by the player in several different setups, and the player can use pumps and filters to manager what fluid goes inside the pipeline.
Using a crafitng machine with a fixed recipe outputting a fluid at lower temperature would mean one recipe per fluid intended to carry heat. Not only that, but that would mean that the recipe would only output at a fixed temperature per recipe.
Being able to carry heat with fluids, knowing that fluids can have a temperature and an energy capacity, would open many doors for modding, it would allow to make heat management based mods way more flexible, and not rely as heavily on scripting to simulate this behavior. It seems like the mechanic already exists in one direction, so I'm asking to... have it the other way around. If we can heat it, we can cool it, right ?
As always, whether this receives a yes or a no, thank you for reading, and best regards.
I've been playing with fluid temperature recently, more specifically with the boiler prototype.
Where we stand:
- We can use "heat-fluid-inside" in a boiler.
- in this mode, the whole pipeline gradually increases it's temperature
Why this is useful :
- Currently, we can make it so an entity able to generate heat and send it through heat pipes stops functionning if it has reached its target heat.
It is cool (pun intended) because it can introduce a mechanic where the player has to manage heat (cool things, move heat, dissipate it).
Basically, similar to Aquilo, but... in reverse. Keep things cool or they don't function.
Yes we can move heat with heat pipes, but they don't carry heat like fluids do, and it's not the same flavour. The heat capacity of fluids, as well as their min and max temperature, can be used to make heat management system with more flavour and more flexibility.
What's the limitation:
- However, we don't have a similar "cool-fluid-inside" option. We can take away heat or any form of energy, using a boiler, to continuously heat up a fluid inside a pipeline, but we cannot do the opposite : continuously cool a fluid inside a pipeline to extract its heat or void it. Meaning a fluid that has been heated is condemned to stay hot unless it is consumed / used.
The goal, here, is not to extract a coherent amount of calories from the fluid based on the energy that was removed from it by lowering its temperature (altough that would be nice, but I'm not confusing fuel_value and heat_capacity), but to obtain a non destructive way to continuously lower a fluid's temperature.
Would it mean that cooling a fluid should have the potential to produce energy ? Maybe, but that's not main goal here.
We could imagine it could cost energy to cool a fluid, but that's an implementation detail to the request.
You might say "just use a crafting machine with a fixed recipe with fixed temperature output". But it wouldn't fill this purpose. The boiler's mode "heat-fluid-inside" is nice because it can take ANY fluid from any authorized temp in that fluid's temp range, and increase it up to its maximum. This means this single entity can be used by the player in several different setups, and the player can use pumps and filters to manager what fluid goes inside the pipeline.
Using a crafitng machine with a fixed recipe outputting a fluid at lower temperature would mean one recipe per fluid intended to carry heat. Not only that, but that would mean that the recipe would only output at a fixed temperature per recipe.
Being able to carry heat with fluids, knowing that fluids can have a temperature and an energy capacity, would open many doors for modding, it would allow to make heat management based mods way more flexible, and not rely as heavily on scripting to simulate this behavior. It seems like the mechanic already exists in one direction, so I'm asking to... have it the other way around. If we can heat it, we can cool it, right ?
As always, whether this receives a yes or a no, thank you for reading, and best regards.