105 lines
5.5 KiB
Markdown
105 lines
5.5 KiB
Markdown
# Waste rock and moving liquids
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Built 2026-10-22; the uses for stone and sand were added 2026-10-23.
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- Code:
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- `src/sim/processors.js` (Refiner, Stone cutter, Silo);
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- `src/sim/pipes.js`;
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- `src/sim/conveyors.js` and `src/sim/machine-tick.js` (belts and tubes);
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- `src/sim/economy.js` (prices, builders' orders).
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- Tests: `test/t_pipes.js`, `test/t_stone.js`, `test/t_conveyors.js`.
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## Refiner (machine, 3×3 blocks, $120)
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An open hopper over a grinding floor. Grains that reach the floor are ground at about 30 a
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second and come out of a chute under the machine. If the space under the chute is blocked, it
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stops and says so.
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For each grain ground, it tries for one grain of ore, in the order below. If none turns up, half
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the time a grain of fine sand comes out; otherwise nothing does. So a refiner roughly halves a
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pile of waste.
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| Input | Chances of ore per grain |
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|---|---|
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| Stone rubble | copper ore 2.5%, coal 2%, iron ore 1.5%, tin ore 0.6% |
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| Granite rubble | iron ore 2%, zinc ore 1.2%, copper ore 1%, silver ore 0.2% |
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| Basalt rubble | iron ore 3%, zinc ore 1%, gold ore 0.3% |
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| Gravel | iron ore 3%, copper ore 2%, tin ore 1%, zinc ore 0.3% |
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| Sand | tin ore 1%, iron ore 0.8%, gold ore 0.15% |
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| Dirt | clay lumps 8%, coal 1%, copper ore 0.8%, acorns 0.3% |
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Measured: 400 stone rubble gave 28 grains of ore and 190 of sand. Anything it cannot grind,
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such as ore, coal or liquids, drops straight through.
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**Re-refining sand is allowed** (decided 2026-10-23). The sand a refiner puts out can go
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through another refiner.
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- Each pass gives about 2% ore and returns about 49% as sand.
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- Refining it again and again, as with stacked refiners, eventually turns all the sand into
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about 3.8% more ore per grain of sand. That is roughly 27% more ore from rubble overall.
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- The owner kept it because it pays less than making glass. Players will do it when they need
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ore rather than money.
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## Pipes, pumps and outlets (blocks)
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- **Pipe ($8).**
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- Pipes are thin. Sand, water and anything else loose fall past them, so a run of pipe never
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dams anything.
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- Pipes, pumps and outlets that touch join into one line, which holds 16 grains per block.
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Its contents are kept as a count, not simulated grain by grain.
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- Taking a pipe back spills its share where it stood.
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- **Pump ($70).**
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- Draws liquid in at the tail of its arrow, from up to 3 grains away.
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- Pushes it into the line through its other sides, at about 60 grains a second while there is
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room.
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- Takes only liquids cooler than 500°C (water, molten tin, zinc, brass and bronze), and one
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liquid per line.
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- F turns it on and off. Pumps and outlets are solid blocks.
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- **Outlet ($15).** Pours the line's liquid out of the side its arrow points to, up to 2 grains a
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tick, wherever there is room. F opens and closes it.
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- **Water accounting.** Water in pipes counts in the world's water total, so the weather never
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sends rain to replace it. Pipe contents are saved.
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## Belts and screw tubes
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- A heap on a belt moves as one: the whole stack, up to 96 grains deep, steps along together
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instead of only its bottom layer. The owner reports that big piles still only move at the top
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(see NOTES.md).
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- Screw tubes run at belt pace, moving every other tick.
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- A horizontal tube fed from a full hopper moves about 100–110 grains a second.
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- A belt under its mouth keeps up, carrying a stream 3–5 grains deep at about the same rate.
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- A vertical lift brings up about 40–60 grains a second.
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- `tools/experiments/flow.js` measures these.
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## Uses for stone and sand
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- **Glass bricks.**
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- Sand melts to molten glass in a fan furnace (peak about 2000°C measured).
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- Cast in an Ingot mold, it drops out of the bottom as glass bricks, worth $14 each.
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- Ingot molds empty themselves: bars, junk and mixed scrap drop below; slag is thrown away
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and the grate above is raked. Removing any mold returns its set metal to the bag: whole
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bars as bars, the rest as scrap.
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- Glass bricks build glass wall blocks. Glass is too brittle for a bit mold.
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- **Stone cutter** (machine, 2×2, $90).
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- A saw under a hopper. Every 8 grains of stone rubble become one stone brick, which drops out
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underneath; put a belt under it.
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- Anything else falls straight through.
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- **Cut stone walls.**
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- 2 stone bricks per block. They look like coursed masonry and stand more heat than rough
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stone (they melt at 1450°C).
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- Taking one back returns the bricks.
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- **Silo** (machine, 3×6, $180). It was made to look like a real silo, not a magic black hole.
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- A steel bin on legs, with a roof hatch, a sight-glass gauge, a ladder, and a cone with a
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slide gate.
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- Holds up to 4,000 grains of one loose material; drop grains in through the hatch.
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- F opens the gate, letting about 60 grains a second out underneath; F again shuts it.
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- It cannot be taken down or cut while it holds anything. Its contents are saved.
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- **Builders' orders.**
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- About 30% of new orders come from Builders. They want 400–1,500 rubble, 300–1,000 gravel,
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300–900 sand or 20–80 stone bricks.
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- They pay 4–6 times the market price for loose material, and 3–4 times for bricks.
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- Ordinary buyers never ask for rubble or gravel.
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- **Market prices.** Rubble sells for $0.02 a grain and gravel for $0.03 at the dock; a stone
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brick sells for $0.60. Dirt earns nothing.
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## Other ways to deal with stone
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- The trade dock takes anything that drops through it, so it also works as a dump.
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- Wall blocks store rubble compactly (16 grains each); take them back to get the rubble.
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- The vacuum can blow rubble into old shafts as backfill.
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- Not built yet: concrete.
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