Liquid Pipe

Liquid Pipe is the standard plumbing building used to transport liquids between buildings in a pipe network. It connects the liquid inputs and outputs of plumbed buildings, allowing liquid to flow from outputs to inputs when a valid path exists. Each pipe segment holds up to 10 kg of liquid, and the plumbing system advances once per second, so a single continuous pipeline has a maximum throughput of 10 kg/s.

Liquid pipes are placed in the plumbing overlay and belong to the liquid pipe layer, which means they can overlap with ordinary buildings, but not with other liquid pipes. The plumbing overlay highlights all liquid pipes as well as building intakes and outputs, making it easier to trace networks and diagnose bottlenecks.

Pipe contents move independently of gravity. Because of that, liquid pipes are ideal for distributing coolant, transport fluids, and feeding processing chains across vertical shafts or compact base layouts. However, if a liquid changes phase while inside a pipe, the pipe segment is damaged. Keeping the packet size small can reduce this risk, and packets below 1 kg are exempt from the normal phase-change damage rule.

Liquid pipes exchange heat in two steps: the liquid exchanges heat with the pipe segment, and the pipe segment exchanges heat with the tile it occupies. The material of the pipe matters a great deal for thermal transfer, with higher-conductivity materials moving heat more effectively. Granite is among the best common materials for heat exchange, while Ceramic is much worse before more advanced options become available. Individual pipe segments do not exchange heat with adjacent pipe segments, so heat only moves through the liquid, the pipe tile, and the surrounding cell.

A few practical points make Liquid Pipe easier to use effectively:

• A single pipe can safely carry the output of up to ten Carbon Skimmers at once. Eleven or more require parallel lines to avoid backing up the network.
• Building pipes through natural ground blocks will mine those blocks.
• Regular Liquid Pipe has no decor penalty, unlike radiant and insulated pipe variants.
• Because pipe segments do not share heat with neighboring segments directly, long loops and serpentine layouts can behave differently from solid conductive runs.
• For high-temperature fluids, especially liquid steel setups, pipe material and surrounding conditions matter more than the pipe itself; poor choices can cause the liquid to overheat, freeze, or melt the system around it.

In short, Liquid Pipe is the backbone of any liquid logistics system. It is simple to place, easy to inspect through the overlay, and flexible enough to support everything from basic water distribution to advanced heat-transfer machinery.