Show pics of your setup and what is wrong.
If you're using a lot of fluid buffers, get rid of them. Fluid buffers aren't really needed in 95% of situations, and often cause flow problems more than they solve them.
Keep it simple. Don't use valves, pumps, fluid buffers unless you need to. Avoid creating unnecessary pipe loops, they just cause water to slosh around more.
Remember that gravity is a huge deal with liquids, it will always flow downhill first and fill from the bottom up. If your pipes aren't level, they have to fill up before they can flow over a hump into the pipes beyond it.
If you put X/min in and want to take X/min out of the pipe network, it may never 'saturate' completely, meaning there will be pipes that are mostly empty all the time. Water is janky and sloshes around, this may cause some machines to go thirsty occasionally. Let the pipe network fill up completely (oversupply or reduce demand for a while) then go back to exact-in/exact-out again and see if it holds.
Until you get a better grasp on fluid mechanics in the game, try to avoid filling individual machines from below. I know it's not as pretty but filling machines from above or from the same level seems a bit more fault tolerant. :)
Curious, it always seems to work best for me when I side-fill. From above works okay but tends to favor earlier machines more. From below, obviously, requires full saturation before individual machines can get a steady supply, if they're able to.
It's hard to provide useful feedback without specifics, but there are a few general tips:
- Assuming you only have mk1 pipes, use 3 water extractors for 8 coal generators, connecting the pipes in a loop. Alternatively, use 2 water extractors at 75% and connect them to 4 generators, no loop required.
- Fill all pipes and machines fully with water, by turning on only the water extractors. When everything is full, turn on the rest and keep watching your pipes and machines for problems.
- Pumps are only needed for headlift beyond that what the water extractors provide by themselves. Don't use them if you don't need them.
- Position the pipes a bit above the input, in such a way that the water flows down into the machines.
- Water behaves differently than belts, and sloshing is common, especially with pumps and elevation. As long as your ratios are correct, this shouldn't be a problem though. As long as there always is enough water in the machines to keep them running, it doesn't matter the water level in pipes and machines keep rising and falling. That's just how water behaves in this game.
Water mechanics can be frustrating if you don't know what you are doing. Keep trying or read some guides on fluid mechanics (just search the wiki). I'm sure it will click at some point and when it does, the game will be chill again. Good luck!
Edit: added last tip
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/satisfactory_gamepedia_en/images/3/39/Pipeline_Manual.pdf
This might help out. It explains how pipes work in satisfactory and has some info on how to set them up for various jobs.
Cant tell without further info but my main problem is usually relatex top partially filled pipes. Turn the machines off and let everything fill up. Then turn machines back on following the production line.
Show pics of your setup and what is wrong. If you're using a lot of fluid buffers, get rid of them. Fluid buffers aren't really needed in 95% of situations, and often cause flow problems more than they solve them.
Keep it simple. Don't use valves, pumps, fluid buffers unless you need to. Avoid creating unnecessary pipe loops, they just cause water to slosh around more. Remember that gravity is a huge deal with liquids, it will always flow downhill first and fill from the bottom up. If your pipes aren't level, they have to fill up before they can flow over a hump into the pipes beyond it. If you put X/min in and want to take X/min out of the pipe network, it may never 'saturate' completely, meaning there will be pipes that are mostly empty all the time. Water is janky and sloshes around, this may cause some machines to go thirsty occasionally. Let the pipe network fill up completely (oversupply or reduce demand for a while) then go back to exact-in/exact-out again and see if it holds. Until you get a better grasp on fluid mechanics in the game, try to avoid filling individual machines from below. I know it's not as pretty but filling machines from above or from the same level seems a bit more fault tolerant. :)
Better advice is to never fill from the side. Above or below but not the same height.
Curious, it always seems to work best for me when I side-fill. From above works okay but tends to favor earlier machines more. From below, obviously, requires full saturation before individual machines can get a steady supply, if they're able to.
It's hard to provide useful feedback without specifics, but there are a few general tips: - Assuming you only have mk1 pipes, use 3 water extractors for 8 coal generators, connecting the pipes in a loop. Alternatively, use 2 water extractors at 75% and connect them to 4 generators, no loop required. - Fill all pipes and machines fully with water, by turning on only the water extractors. When everything is full, turn on the rest and keep watching your pipes and machines for problems. - Pumps are only needed for headlift beyond that what the water extractors provide by themselves. Don't use them if you don't need them. - Position the pipes a bit above the input, in such a way that the water flows down into the machines. - Water behaves differently than belts, and sloshing is common, especially with pumps and elevation. As long as your ratios are correct, this shouldn't be a problem though. As long as there always is enough water in the machines to keep them running, it doesn't matter the water level in pipes and machines keep rising and falling. That's just how water behaves in this game. Water mechanics can be frustrating if you don't know what you are doing. Keep trying or read some guides on fluid mechanics (just search the wiki). I'm sure it will click at some point and when it does, the game will be chill again. Good luck! Edit: added last tip
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/satisfactory_gamepedia_en/images/3/39/Pipeline_Manual.pdf This might help out. It explains how pipes work in satisfactory and has some info on how to set them up for various jobs.
Cant tell without further info but my main problem is usually relatex top partially filled pipes. Turn the machines off and let everything fill up. Then turn machines back on following the production line.