Baxter's Guide to Atmospherics - V2

[TullyBBurnalot]

 

Alright, seeing as the previous guide is both outdated and broken, say hello to James Baxter’s Atmospherics Guide V2.

 

Now, before we get to the actual piping system, here’s a crash course on the basics of Atmosia (protip: that’s what proper Atmos Techs call Atmos. Do NOT title yourself a Life Support Specialist). Read through this, and you’ll be ready to tinker with the system to your liking.

 

1) Default, livable pressure stands between 90 and 120 kPa (kilo Pascal). Anything more or less starts doing Brute Damage over time, increasing the lower or higher you go. Extremely low pressure also runs the risk of rupturing your lungs (never tested with high pressure). Pressure starts at 0 kPa and can go into the tens of thousands;

 

2) Thanks to the fancy schmancy new Atmos system we have on the station (LINDA), atmospheric calculations are now done on a tile by tile basis. What this means is that now you have more than 3 seconds before a single broken window depressurizes a room to 10 kPa and everyone’s blown out the airlock (it takes several minutes, and that’s if the vents are off). In addition, open holes to space also drastically reduce temperature, so if the lack of oxygen doesn’t kill you, the cold will. Lastly, this also means that repressurizing an area takes slightly longer, and isn’t uniform;

 

3) Gas temperature and gas pressure scale together positively. In other words, the hotter the gas, the more pressure it exerts on the pipe. Thanks to that nifty bit of physics, pressure pumps become useless unless you want to have controlled amounts of gas being pumped. As such, volume pumps should be used, as they don’t check for pressure, but for volume instead. Assuming the pipes’ volume remains the same (it does), that translates into more gas being pumped. This is good, because a single room’s worth of gas can easily become as pressurized as the whole station combined if it’s put through a raging enough fire;

 

4) There are five distinct types of gases, in addition to the Air Mix:

 

 

1. Nitrogen (N2): 80% of the Air Mix. Vox can only breathe this. Is invisible;

2. Oxygen (O2): 20% of the Air Mix. Major component of fires. Is invisible;

Air Mix: The breathable air for most species (except Vox and Plasmamen). The system, by default, provides more than enough, so ensure the structural integrity of the Distro Loop (see below). Is invisible;

Carbon Dioxide (CO2): Byproduct of breathing. If present in enough concentrations, kills off anyone breathing it. Is invisible;

Nitrous Oxide (N2O): In small quantities, also known as “laughing gas”. In large quantities, can pretty much knock out anyone as long as it’s in their respiratory system. Looks like snowflakes;

Plasma/Phoron/Whatever: Plasmamen can only breathe this. Highly combustible, highly damaging, HIGHLY DANGEROUS. The slightest spark can set it off. Keep filtered AT ALL COSTS. Looks like a purple mist

 

 

The Burnalot Killy Gas Scale

 

5) There are five different “loops”, or piping systems:

 

1. Waste Loop (Red Pipes): Collects all the filtered air from the station (CO2, N2O, Plasma, excess N2 or O2) and brings it to Atmospherics. The waste loop is then filtered by the various tanks present in Atmosia (see below) and kept in storage. Fed by Scrubbers;

2. Distro Loop (Blue Pipes): Short for Distribution Loop, this is the piping system that takes the Air Mix from the Air Mix Tank and sends it to all the vents present in the station. Useful for repressurizing rooms, killing Vox and Plasmamen with their internals off, and keeping everyone else alive. Feeds Vents;

Mix Loop (Yellow Pipes): Useless. You’re not Toxins. Quit fucking around with gas mixes;

Air Mix Loop (Teal Pipes): Mixes Nitrogen/Oxygen in an 80%/20% ratio. ENSURE THAT IT REMAINS INTACT AT ALL COSTS;

Filtering Loop (Green Pipes): Receives waste air from the Waste Loop and then filters it to the various tanks. In order to maximize efficiency, max out the pressure in the various filters. It only goes up to 4500 kPa, but it’ll have to do

 

 

6) You have two major dispensers, one for Atmos pipes, another for Disposals pipes. No clue why you get Disposals, but you’ll be expected to repair that system as well. As for the Pipe Dispenser, here’s what ya need to know:

 

6.1) Default Pipes: these are the ones you’ll use in Atmosia proper. They are grey:

 

1. Pipe, Bent Pipe, Manifold, 4-way Manifold: single line pipe, corner pipe, three-way pipe, four-way pipe, respectively. Your baseline;

2. Manual Valve: single line valve that allows/stops air flow, depending on whether it’s open (green indicator) or closed (red indicator);

Manual T-Valve: Like the manual valve, but you get to choose between one of two exits, therefore closing off air flow in one direction;

Digital Valve: Like the Manual T-Valve, but looks more moderny

 

 

6.2) Supply Pipes: these are the only ones that connect to the various Distribution pipes in the rest of the station. Default piping will NOT attach to it, so unless you want to rebuild the whole piping in the Z-Level, all repairs to the Distro Loop have to be done with these;

 

6.3) Scrubbers Pipes: Like the supply pipes, but for the Waste Loop;

 

6.4) Devices: useful shit like:

 

1. Unary Vent: for air. Connect to supply pipes and enjoy the air;

2. Scrubber: for filtering. Connect to waste pipes and enjoy the filtering;

Meter: attach to a pipe and inspect it. You now know the pressure and temperature of that pipe;

Volume Pump: pumps air based on volume of gas. Useful for maximizing transportation;

Pressure Pump: pumps air based on pressure, to a maximum of 4500 kPa. Useful for specific pressure transportations (whatever the hell you need those for)

 

 

7) Your biggest ally is the wrench. Use for it removing/placing pipes and the various dispensers. Keep it on your pocket at all times for easy access;

 

8) You get a nifty hardsuit. Keep it on at all times, you never know when you might need it;

 

9) Atmosia is kind enough to provide you metal and glass. Use it wisely;

 

10) Pipe freezers are interesting devices. If pressure is too high in a particular pipe, you won’t be able to simply wrench it off. This can either be due to high amounts of the gas (“natural” pressure) or the gas’ temperature (“heat” pressure). By freezing the pipe, you have a timeframe in which to remove the pipe safely. And by safely, I mean you get hit in the face by whatever was in the pipe. So beware of plasma fires;

 

11) You get two major computers: the Alarm computer, and the Central Control computer. The Alarm computer will show you where your attention is needed, with a Green-Yellow-Red circle in its display. Green means everything is ok (never happens), Yellow means at least one alarm is reporting a minor problem and Red means at least one alarm is reporting a major problem. The Central Control computer will show you a map of the station with various Green-Yellow-Red triangles. As long as the situation is serious enough (Red/most Yellow), you will have direct access to all options in the Air Alarm:

 

 

1. Vent Control: controls the pressure limits for vents and toggles them on/off;

2. Scrubber Control: controls the pressure limits for scrubbers, toggles them on/off and allows you to select what’s getting filtered;

Mode: allows you to pick vent/scrubber functionality, with Filtering (regular), Cycle (removes all air, then repressurizes), Panic (removes all air), Replace (removes all air while repressurizing) and Off. You can also select Human/Vox/Coldroom conditions (regular Air Mix/nothing but Nitrogen/Supercooled Nitrogen respectively)

 

 

12) You get THE AXE. This beautiful thing can be wielded and can destroy windows and grilles in a single hit! It can decapitate people in under five hits! It can two-shot spess carp! And if you walk around with it in your hands, YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT. Anyone can literally walk up to you, click on you with Disarm intent, and run off with the axe. It is a VERY sensitive item that can do a LOT of damage in the wrong hands. If you HAVE to use it (mostly to get into places to fix them or fight space carp), keep it on your back slot, and keep the backpack/duffelbag in your hand. Most greytiders don’t want a backpack full of glass (they’re too dumb to know how to use it);

 

13) You start with four freezers and a heater. You will not need the heater, so what you need to do is deconstruct it (screwdriver --- crowbar), screwdriver the heater board (turning it into a freezer board), rebuild it, and readjust the piping (screwdriver --- wrench until it links properly). The freezers can (and should) be used to cool gases in your waste loop, and can be upgraded by Science materials to cool gas down to near absolute zero in a fraction of a second. This helps relieve pressure which, if you’ve been paying attention, you will know makes the Filtering Loop’s job a lot easier, since it works by pressure, not volume;

 

Well, that a doozy, wasn’t it? Armed with this knowledge, you should be able to tinker away with the piping to your heart’s content! But, for the sake of an example, here’s my particular setup:

 

Step 1: Cutting Edges

 

Here's how Atmospherics looks like by default:

 

AVE ATMOSIA!

 

Now, this works. You can happily leave this be and it'll do it's job. Not as efficient as anything you can come up with, but it gets the job done.

 

However, in order for this setup to work, let's get rid of all the unnecessary clutter. That includes the vertical row of windows! Let's take a look at the final product:

 

AVE FREE SPACE! Also the windows aren't there.

 

Wonderful! We can get to work.

 

Step 2: Maximizing Efficiency

 

Now, all the gases in Atmosia are kept inside sealed tanks right outside your department, in space. These have reinforced walls with grilles on top, so nothing short of a direct meteor impact or a highly powerful bomb will breach them. In addition, they have enough gas in them to probably last you several IRL days, so don't worry about running out (unless, of course, the Air Mix/Oxygen/Nitrogen tanks get busted).

 

The way filtering works is that the waste air, after going through the whole system, will enter the Filtering Loop, where the various filters will then remove the specific gases they're programmed to check for and send them to their respective tank:

 

Red: The filters. Default gases are the right ones.

 

The only thing you need to change here is the default pressure, since it starts at just over 100 kPa. Leave it be, and you'll never get any filtering done properly. This can be especially problematic when you have a large volume of gas incoming and you need to get rid of it before it clogs the system.

 

Red: Default pressure / Green: New "Target" pressure

 

The picture above tells you all you need to know. Change all the filters to 4500 kPa, and you got yourself an efficient Filtering Loop. Onwards!

 

Step 3: The Cluster

 

Default Atmos works based on a "unary" system, which is to say it's a long string of single pumps. This particular setup works based on a "trinary" system, where instead of single volume pumps, you have clusters of three volume pumps. This setup is also commonly known as "parallel pumps", as the next picture demonstrates.

 

Red: The first cluster, pumping the waste into Atmosia / Green: No fun for the AI

 

The image above needs some explanation. Go back to the first picture, the one that shows Atmos in its default state. Notice how the Mix Loop is both connected to the tanks full of harmful gases (CO2, N2O, Plasma) and the Distribution Loop, and the only reason they're not mixing together is because the pumps are off.

 

Malfunctioning AIs can easily turn on pumps. Do the math.

 

As such, one of the first things you should do is clear that top area. JUST IN CASE.

 

As for the cluster, it's basically there to further increase the amount of gas being pumped. This allows you to more quickly filter out the bad stuff whenever a disaster happens.

 

Step 4: Looping to Loop

 

Alright, get ready for another doozy.

 

Red: Regular air flow / Yellow: Cooling Loop

 

The system looks a lot more complex than it is. In essence, it only really has four components. Think of all the clusters as a single, giant volume pump:

 

 

1. The top cluster is connected to the first one shown above. It takes all the waste air and pumps it towards the freezers;

2. The bottom cluster takes the cooled air and pumps it towards one of two possible destinations, thanks to...

The T- Valve. Notice the way it's set. With this setup, you can either allow the bottom cluster to send all the cooled air directly to the Filtering Loop, or you can send it back up to the...

Middle Cluster. This is here purely to keep the air flowing in a loop, in and out of the freezers, so long as the T-Valve points towards it. Normally, you can let the gas flow directly to the Filtering Loop, but if it's particularly hot (and therefore, at really high pressure), keep the gas on a loop until it's cool enough not to clog Filtering

 

 

As for the arrows, here's a quick low-down:

 

 

1. Red Arrows: Default air flow with this system. Waste ---» Freezers ---» Filtering;

2. Yellow Arrows: Cooling Loop. Waste ---» Freezers ---» T-Valve ---» Freezers (ad infinitum). You can stop the cycle at any time by switching the T-Valve back towards the Filtering Loop

 

 

Step 5: Cool as the lack of any particle motion

 

The final step will be for you to set the freezers (turning the Heater into a Freezer is explained above) and then activate all the volume pumps. The freezers themselves can be upgraded with Science materials, and take 2 Matter Bins and 2 Micro-Lasers. With the best possible iteration of these items, you can cool gases down to near absolute zero in a fraction of a second. It almost feels like cheating.

 

But, for the default ones...

 

Red: Current pressure and temperature / Green: New "Target" temperature

 

Simply click on the minuses until you reach the lowest you can go, activate all the freezers and have fun. Simple as that.

 

Final Note

 

Thanks for reading this guide. Once again, I'm open to discussion and critique. To all the newbies, make sure to ask Fj45 (pretty sure he'll be here eventually) or myself any questions you might have.

 

In addition, here are a couple of names that you'll want to see working in Atmos:

 

 

1. David Buck ---» Fj45;

2. Ryder Holderman --» False Incarnate (thanks for that Citined!);

James Baxter ---» TullyBBurnalot (myself)

 

 

Edited July 3, 2015 by Guest

[TullyBBurnalot]

 

For the record, this fucking thing was made during a shift where I:

 

1st) Got a PDA message from a traitor asking me to steal the blueprints;

 

2nd) Bullshat them, then called the HoS and handed over the traitor on a silver platter;

 

3rd) The traitor apparently told the HoS that I was a Syndicate agent. HoS literally took it at face value, despite all evidence to the contrary (such as me turning the guy in, and the fact that A CONFIRMED SYNDICATE AGENT WAS SAYING THIS);

 

4th) HoS decides to tase me wordlessly, cuffs me, ransacks Atmos, then PULLS OUT EVERY LAST FLOOR TILE WITH A CROWBAR because apparently the other agent had a stash. All the while, refusing to tell me why I'm being arrested. Not a sec officer doing this. THE HOS;

 

5th) With the Security Borg and IAA telling the HoS that he was being stupid (thanks to me quite happily describing what he was doing, which was self-evidently idiotic), he brings me to the Brig, STRIPS ME WORDLESSLY, then drops me in the permabrig. I am not fucking kidding about this. No words. No evidence. Tase, ravage Atmos, leave it a mess, brig, strip to underoos, permabrig;

 

6th) I actually got an admin to stare dumbfounded at a player's stupidity. Victory is me;

 

7th) Captain respectfully told the HoS to let me go and I basically yell at the Warden that if he dares cuff me on the way out I'm biting his shins off (ok, not the shins);

 

8th) I grab my shit, Captain apologizes, HoS decides to commit suicide by mouth-to-gun

 

All in all, my blood pressure shot up to very close to David Buck levels. It was not nice.

 

[Citinited]

 

Nice guide. Few things:

 

 

• Livable pressure is dependent on the partial pressure of oxygen and the total pressure. In my experience, you can live happily in 80kPa of room-temperature air (20% O2/80% N2), or in 21kPa of pure oxygen as a human. You only start taking pressure damage below around 21kPa. Damage at high pressures seems to start around 650kPa.

• Manual valves and manual t-valves prevent borgs and the AI from being able to turn them off and on, unless of course they unwrench it, whereas the digital valves allow borgs to do this.

Ryder's OOC handle is False Incarnate.

I'd also add something about multiools being able to hook injectors and whatnot up to monitoring computers.

 

 

[TullyBBurnalot]

 

I was referring to the "Green" livable conditions as a general rule.

 

Also, I never once had to repair injectors, since they're in places that regularly remain intact.

 

Except Toxins, but fuck Toxins.

 

Edit: I'm pretty sure you start taking brute damage at higher pressures than 21 kPa. Unless LINDA was being weird and I stepped from a 70 kPa tile to a 20 kPa tile.

 

[Citinited]

Ah, right.

[Fj45]

 

This is bloody amazing. Thank you so much for doing what I failed to do and properly writing out this guide.

 

Everything here seems to be great.

 

You could always completely tear out the non-airmix gas lines, would make things even simpler and you then have more room to work with.

It might be worth showing another setup, showing the simplest possible setup that will do the job. (So just a single line sending waste past the coolers) Maybe even another one using the mixing tank as a relief system and the space loop. (As it works now.

 

 

And bloody hell that HoS. One day I'll send up just plain beating one to death, I swear.

 

 

Also yes, if anyone has any questions I am here!

 

[TullyBBurnalot]

 

This is bloody amazing. Thank you so much for doing what I failed to do and properly writing out this guide.

 

Everything here seems to be great.

 

You could always completely tear out the non-airmix gas lines, would make things even simpler and you then have more room to work with.

It might be worth showing another setup, showing the simplest possible setup that will do the job. (So just a single line sending waste past the coolers) Maybe even another one using the mixing tank as a relief system and the space loop. (As it works now.

 

 

And bloody hell that HoS. One day I'll send up just plain beating one to death, I swear.

 

 

Also yes, if anyone has any questions I am here!

 

Praise from Buck.

 

*tears*

 

[Fj45]

Just wish I could play with you sometime. Get on the IRC and maybe we can organize it.

[TullyBBurnalot]

I'm afraid that if we ever play together, our characters' combined blood pressure might just make Atmosia explode.

[TullyBBurnalot]

 

the space loop. (As it works now)

 

I was LITERALLY just made aware of this yesterday. I completely forgot to think about whether LINDA made it finally work or not, and after seeing Dreadweaver use it, I decided to take it for a spin.

 

Ended up cooling 9300 kPa of Plasma from room temperature to 22 Kelvin in under 20 seconds.

 

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

 

[dreadweaver]

I know a bit of atmos, too, so if you see R. Giskard Reventlov/Taitsu Briefs in atmos, feel free to ask them as well. (or just ahelp if I'm on :3)

[Fj45]

It will be good to one day play with you.

[Mrs Dobbins]

I pretty much play nothing but atmos. I'd say I'm vaguely skilled, so if you see me, run like hell.

[Citinited]

 

< is one of those rare CEs who knows atmospherics

 

We should totally make a Rube Goldberg machine sometime, and confuse everybody on the station.

 

[TullyBBurnalot]

An atmos system that loops around Security then back to Atmos, and vents into Toxins.

[Fj45]

I have seen idiots setup Atmos-Goldberg machines. I am not sure I want to revisit those times.

[Spaceship2212]

.

Edited August 4, 2016 by Guest

[Fj45]

 

It isn't a dangerous, horrible, mysterious beast.

 

Sit down and try to learn it. Experiment. Test things. Try whatever setups you know.

 

[Spacemanspark]

 

Can I experiment by putting Phoron into the distribution? :^)

[spoiler2]At least, I think distribution is what causes it to go around the station, right?[/spoiler2]

 

[Fj45]

REMOVE POHRON remove phorun! you are worst gas. you are the gaseous idiot you are not into burning. return to hell. to our porhoru cousins you may come our station. you may live in the derelict….ahahahaha, phorbrhurnrrhrgharah rascal FUck but fuck asshole phorhn no burn..pohorunr venting best day of my life. take a bath of PLASMA..ahahahahahPHORHRN WE WILL GET YOU!! do not forget SS19. Phorhrorn return to your precious bay….hahahahaha idiot phhrron burn so bad..wow it not warm. REMOVE PHORHROURHNRHMR FROM THE PREMISES.

[Spaceship2212]

.

Edited August 4, 2016 by Guest

[Fj45]

Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahah, no.

[TullyBBurnalot]

 

It isn't a dangerous, horrible, mysterious beast.

 

Here's where you're wrong.

 

It LOOKS like one.

 

But it ain't.

 

[Garoon]

 

Atmosia's all bark and no bite

 

Except for David Buck and James Baxter

 

 

[TullyBBurnalot]

 

Atmosia's all bark and no bite

 

Except for David Buck and James Baxter

 

 

James is actually a nice guy if you don't touch anything at all and leave everything as it is.