📢 Condenser Vacuum System Overhaul!

🛠️ In previous versions of the game, the condenser was… well, a bit easier to manage. The vacuum pump worked like magic — no need for motive steam — and condensation happened instantly. Convenient? Sure. Realistic? Not really 😅

With this update, things get a lot more interesting (and a bit more challenging!):

🔄 New Vacuum System: Ejector + Vacuum Pump

Vacuum is now generated more like in a real nuclear reactor:

• The Ejector requires motive steam to work. It can’t create vacuum on its own.

• The Vacuum Pump helps, but it depends on how the gases are flowing.

• Condensation is no longer instantaneous — it's calculated realistically (yes, actual physics involved! 💡).

This means keeping the condenser in balance now takes some attention. But don’t worry — to help you understand what’s going on, we’ve added two new indicators:

📊 How to Read the New Indicators

Condensate Flow Rate

Shows how much steam is being condensed into water each second.

• 🔼 High values: Lots of steam is entering the condenser, and condensation is working well.

• 🔽 Low values: Might mean there’s little steam left, or that condensation efficiency is dropping.

This tells you if the system is actively turning steam into water — and how well it’s doing it.

Extraction Flow

Indicates how much condensed water (feedwater) is being pumped back to the steam generators.

• If this value is higher than the condensate flow, you're extracting more water than you're producing — the condenser will eventually run dry.

• If it's lower, water is building up — and the condenser could eventually overflow.

🎯 What’s the Goal?

Balance! You want the incoming steam, the condensed water, and the extraction rate to stay in harmony.

But don’t worry — it’s not about keeping everything perfectly stable all the time. When you're ramping up power, shutting down the reactor, or adjusting valves, temporary imbalance is expected.

PATCH NOTES:

• Fixed the steam visual effect on the cooling towers even without water circulation. - Fixed the bug causing high oil consumption when the circulation pumps were turned on. - Fixed visual bug in the green light for accessing the core. - Fixed the bug accessing the stairs in Loop 2 inside the containment building. - Fixed the bug in the initial objective to find the generator set. - Fixed bug in primary circuit speed indicator when pump speed is set to 0 (zero). - Fixed bug with pressurizer heater wear not showing up in maintenance report. - Fixed bug that prevented AO from properly accessing your charger. - Fixed bug that allowed reactor hatches to be opened when thermal control was active. - Fixed an issue where the water in the external vessel could be seen from the core's interior surveillance camera. - Fixed color coding in the maintenance report (KerballOne). - Fixed labels on alarm lights that sometimes appeared with the text cut off at the last letter. - Fixed bug with erratic sun movement. - Fixed flickering of some transparent elements and icons in the interface. - Added condenser vacuum circuit in control room: diagram, valve panel and controls. - Added 3D model of condenser vacuum pump. - Added 3D model of air ejector. - Added new gauges to monitor the liquid and vapor balance within the evaporators. - Added new gauge to monitor the liquid and vapor balance within the condenser. - Added a control in game settings for the maximum number of days of stats to save. - Added an option in the game settings to adjust the zoom smoothing level. - Added an option in the game settings to adjust the level of player movement smoothing. - Adjusted evaporation and condensation calculations within the condenser [2].

More info at https://nuclearesgame.blogspot.com/2025/05/condenser.html

• Modified autosave to always overwrite the same file (optional in game settings). - Improved zoom system to make it smoother and ensure proper functionality on setups with high resolutions and refresh rates. - Improved player control to make movements and camera rotation smoother. - Improved avatar hand movement and positioning on objects to make it smoother. - Improved Service Compliance Demand chart vertical scale on first hour of the day (KerballOne). - Improved the refresh rate of the number panels. - Redesigned the evaporator control panel. - Removed the Stats in Memory option from the game settings, as disabling it to save memory renders the game unplayable on almost any setup. - Removed the limit on the number of products per order. - Made several refactorings to the game core to improve performance and memory usage. WBSERVER - Fix autostart of webserver (KerballOne). - Fix STEAM_GEN variables for not-installed steam generators (GHXX). - Add STEAM_GEN_X_RETURN_FLOW_PLUS_CONDENSED variable (GHXX). - Add WEBSERVER_BATCH_GET for getting multiple variables at once (GHXX). - Webserver fixed error handling in some Set endpoints - Webserver renamed switch Variables to indicate if they are from a switch - Webserver added pipe volume/capacity and pump state data to VALVE_PANEL_JSON The key is: You now have real tools to understand what’s going on inside the condenser — and to manage it like a true reactor operator.

Welcome to the new era of the condenser in Nucleares!