A few posts back I wrote about my adaptation of TotalXclipse’s diluted packaged fuel power plant, including the blueprinted apparatus I came up with based (somewhat) on his design. In the co-op game with my coworkers I built another version of the blueprint with only slight variation. In anticipation of the next diluted packaged fuel power build (in the weekly co-op game with the kids) I figured I’d give it one more try.

I won’t know until after our next session but I think I may have just nailed it.

The first big design change is based on a conversation with Spud about incorporating the Heavy Oil Residue refinery. Why make a whole separate row of those when they’re just going to feed the blueprinted fuel processing rigs anyway? Just underclock the included refinery to match what the Diluted Packaged Fuel refinery needs and you reduce the amount of pipeline running all through your power plant. Introducing the need to process Polymer Resin waste makes it kind of a lateral move but at worst, belts remain easier to deal with than pipes. (And I came up with a solution for that, too.)

My next realization, based on how much of a pain in the neck pipes can be to deal with, is that it makes more sense to run at least one of the three input/output pipelines along the opposite side of this blueprint. The sole downside is that now the “outside” of the double-row of blueprinted rigs will need space for pipes. It’s a small price to pay for avoiding the snarl that running three fluids’ worth of pipes along the center pathway has been in previous iterations.

Finally, after assembling this new layout, the solution to two remaining problems (providing power and preparing the waste removal belt) came to me: Give this thing an underfloor!

So I saved the blueprint, cleared the Designer space, and re-loaded the temporary blueprint on top of some concrete. Then I used my “hidden power pole” blueprint to supply power leads via the underfloor space and placed a conveyor belt floor hole and lift pieces so the Polymer Resin can simply vanish underneath the machinery, never to be seen (until just before it enters the Awesome Sink, probably).

(As an aside: I’m amused that I managed to use different existing blueprints to create a new blueprint.)

I found an additional benefit to adding the underfloor space: All of that foundation tiling means that lining these blueprints up neatly becomes much easier. The game does provide some rudimentary “your placement hologram is kind of lined up with the next blueprint over” guidance but it’s still kind of fiddly. The problem’s made worse by there being no overall boundary box for the existing, placed blueprinted rigs. Instead, each machine component’s box shows up instead. But now? Just make the flooring line up? That’s a breeze.

Sometimes, the unintended consequences work out in your favor.

One last little design touch? I put metallic-finish pipeline support pieces over the unused inputs of the various machines. There’s no practical purpose being served here as the two inputs and sole output pipeline are already routed out and away from their respective machines. But I saw it in one of the online videos and thought, “That’s a neat idea.” So there they are.

So how’s the Phase 3 project coming along? Reasonably well, but it looks like a hot mess at the moment. Hopefully I’ll have a fully operational facility by next week.

Hopefully.