Network strategy discussion: Centralized vs Localized

[Alblaka]

After 20ish hours, and trying out the varying strategys that had been roughly outlined by devs in the diary posts/videos, I figured it can't hurt to start a proper discussion on the matter to gather all we've learned in the few days past.

Networks refer to both Cable and Pipe setups, and therefore to the ressources Energy, Water and Oxygen.
These networks all share that the attributes of being non-physical (nothing that remains or can be picked up by drones), only exist within their respective system or in their storage containers.
A big ressource expenditure on networks are breaches/leaks which cause the network to lose a part of it's throughput. A game hint implies that larger networks lose more ressources to a breach/leak, albeit I'm, so far, not sure how significant the scaling on that is.

In any case, there's three broad approaches to networking:

• Single, 'centralized' network
  Basically, your entire colony runs (exceptions may exist) of a single main grid (or rather, two, one for cables, one for pipes, albeit they might overlap anyways). All generators feed into the grid, and all consumers draw from the same grid.
  
  Advantages:
  - You can easily scale the grid up or down (add/remove generators) and/or replace generators with more advanced versions (i.e. Turbines with Fusion Generators).
  - You generally don't run into space issues (since your generators can be anywhere).
  - Easy to plan and to maintain (i.e. you can have drone hubs dedicated to mainting clusters of generators, making maintenance ressource transport easier).
  - Resilent to damage, as losing a small number of generators from several dozen can be compensated by the storage's in the network.
  - Easy to combine with storage's, which tend to be expensive in maintenance if spammed.
  
  Disadvantages:
  - You need to maintain a large network of cables and pipes (or expensive tunnels) to connect all remote domes.
  - Breaches/leaks potentially drain far larger amount of ressources than smaller networks.
  - Unless you have redundant lines, a single well-placed meteorite could shut down a large part of your domes by cutting the link between generators and consumers.
  
  
• Localized Networks
  Instead of having a single large grid, your colony runs on several seperate, but still centralized grids. I.e. a single array of generators feeding a few nearby domes, but entirely independent from other domes.
  
  Advantages:
  - Generally avoids insanely long cable/pipe lines.
  - More resistant to breaches/leaks due to having less quantity in the network, and less cables/pipes overall.
  - Cheaper to set-up over a wide-spread colony (no need for tunnels/drone hub chains).
  
  Disadvantages:
  - Since the network is smaller, a group of damaged generators could potentially lead to a shortage easier than a centralized network.
  - Requires a section of free space whereever you want to setup a new grid, therefore increasing space and planning costs.
  
  
• Individual/Decentralized Networks
  Minimize the use of any connectors (cables/pipes) and attach each consumer to the exact amount of generators it needs. I.e. single building to single generators, or domes to a small cluster of generators.
  
  Advantages:
  - You have basically no cable/pipe maintenance whatsoever.
  - Outside of calculating how much power/water total a more complex consumer such as a dome will need, there is zero planning involved.
  - There is very little clustering, and therefore any meteor-based damage will be minimized.
  
  Disadvantages:
  - You cannot set up storage units for each 'network' (aka building) due to costs, leaving those singular buildings excessively vulnerable to breaches/leaks, lack of maintenance or dust storms (aka, if your producer exactly matches the consumer's demand, any kind of negative impact on the producer will basically shut down the consumer.
  - Very difficult to scale without switching to localized networks, since very few consumers need more then a few generators in first place (aka, Fusion Generators are overkill to power single buildings).
  - Maintenance supply can be a very drone/shuttle-taxing task, since ressources such as Machine Parts will need to be distributed to every single corner of your colony that has turbines (etc).

What are your findings for the systems mentioned?
Are there any mechanics or interactions I missed?
Which one do you prefer to use (for what)?
Are there variants/combinations not listed here you can recommend?

Looking forward to the discussion!

 

[Moonk]

Game gives almost no info. It is so casual, so all u need , is just build more generators if some buildings doesn't work. On early game i made google sheets with all consumers / generators to plan efficient network with day/night cycle.
But then, i just build more and more Wind Turbines on some high ground.
I only use localized Networks for real small and far extractors.

 

[EEE_boy]

Unless you have the two breakthrough techs that give free maintenance of cable and pipe, should not connect remote colonies to the centralized network. My current game has those two techs unlocked, so I can link everthing together. My previous game did not and I tried to link remote domes together, which didn’t not work well and got killed by leaks and faults plus metal deficiency.

Localized network works the best in terms of resilience, which is also true in the real world in infrastructure planning. For the game, depending on the type of natural disasters: cold wave, should have a hexagon grid (small dome size) to host all water tanks, polymer factory and a sub space heater; dust storm, should have your wind farm clustered next to your machine parts factory dome and metal extractor; otherwise host your solar farm closer to metal extractor and battery farm next to polymer factory.

For early game I tend to go 5 small domes clustered around this hexagon grid. Each dome is specialized: food, machine/polymer, electronics, education, and senior. Once it reaches stability and can sustain the local community by itself, expand to other resource rich part of the map by tunnels. This old community may need constant metal/concrete shipment from your new expansions to keep the maintenance going, but other than that, the new expansions should replicate the same strategy, and bulld resources locally with larger domes and better techs.

 

[Taran14]

Redundant localised networks are resilient and effective. I don't think a better strategy is possible. That said, there is a case to be made for the flexibility, ease and space-efficiency of a big central network.

 

[Chaon]

A centralised network where you have all your nodes connected through tunnels has a big advantage that by building another tunnel, you instantly have access to water and electricity at the tunnels end when it is connected to the network.

This makes leap frogging outwards a lot easier and expansion faster.

But as you mentioned, malfunctions in th cables and pipes will cause the network to lose greater amounts as the network grows larger in capacity.

 

[krasnovian7]

What I've been doing is creating a large centralized station for producing grid resources, and decentralize the storage. So each dome has its own little package of power accumulators, water towers, and oxygen tanks that are valved off as soon as they are filled. The central production area is also valved off so that if there is a leak/malfunction in the main line I can cut off power or piping so I don't lose resources. If there is a disaster or if I'm going to be without my producers for a while for some reason, I valve off the affected area and open my local storage facilities.

 

[MagicMagor]

I've been running individual networks in my current game. For my second dome i also decided to split water/oxygen-generation and the general dome-power into two networks, so if i add another water producer this does not lead to a energy-blackout if i forget to add extra power (did happen with my first dome).
I think this approach saves me a lot on maintaince cost in comparison to my first game where i used a single network with wind turbines.
One advantage of the individual approach is that you have more control over which consumers draws from which producer without having to rely on the priority feature. My rare metal extractor for example runs purely on solar, because nobody is working in it during the night so i have no need to power it at that time. The same goes for the polymer factory and its suppling fuel refinery.