hey there, i know this game isn't supposed to be 100% ultra realistic, however one thing which has bugged me a little - and has prevented various builds is the way oxygen works

for demonstration of this, create a cloud of oxygen, place a fire near it and the whole cloud erupts into flames - when in reality fuel would just burn much faster- oxygen doesn't burn by itself

so as such, i have a chamber with "clone" walls, pumping out oxygen, and another the same pumping out "gas" - both feeding into a reaction chamber, i light it and the fire shoots back through filling BOTH chambers with fire - when in reality only the gas (depending on "ambient" oxygen in the chamber itself) would burn - the oxygen would not

this may seem a bit picky but there is whole studies around this effect,

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoichiometry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermodynamics

boils down to how you can put a fire out by tossing a whole bucket of diesel onto it whereas if you spray that disel into a mist, it would burn dramatically faster as there's more oxygen present within the diesel as diesel requires more oxidiser to burn - and why petrol, with a vapor point lower than room temperature, is more volatile leading to a dramatic inferno as the vapors catch fire, heating the liquid further to create even more vapor in an escalating chain reaction

also why if you open the valve on a butane gas canister and light the end - it would not shoot back into the tank and explode, but rather burn at the end of the hose where the flame has time to mix with some oxygen to burn - and if you turn the gas too high it would actually extinguish the flame as the butane is pushing too fast/far away before mixing to sufficient oxygen levels, to maintain the heat required to keep a fire going

vice versa fuel with oxidant mixed in - e.g gun powder can burn - or rather explode in a sealed environment like a bullet as the oxygen required for burning is contained in the chemicals of the gunpowder itself - though getting gunpowder wet slows things down as it takes too long to evaporate the water away first which aborbs thermal energy (heat) causing the fire to extinguish once again

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_triangle

all of this can be achieved by a little tweak to how oxygen works - requiring fire to have oxygen present, oxygen not burning by itself, and explosives to work regardless (As oxidiser is mixed in already)

regardless of it allowing the construction of hybrid rocket engines and such - it would at least allow some basic demonstration/education/toying around with the effects of stoichiometry and thermodynamics which would be pretty cool :) 

perhaps if the dev is very busy, maybe there are some modders out there who would look into this? :D <3

and ofcourse, i am a first time poster here so i do apologise if i've broken any forum rules :) 

Jacob and i had a conversation which may detail a bit more about the possibilities of this 

[05:19:34] <+jacob1> and looks like you are suggesting what I thought you were
[05:19:35] <+jacob1> which we can't do
[05:20:09] <Bugz000> "Empty space is supposed to represent air which includes oxygen"
[05:20:30] <Bugz000> would be fine if it weren't for the pressure readings as "vacuum"
[05:20:44] <Bugz000> space is space (with gravity :p)
[05:21:27] <+jacob1> pretend it makes sense!
[05:21:35] <Bugz000> LOL!
[05:21:37] <+jacob1> nobody knows how the pressure scale works
[05:21:43] <+jacob1> it's just arbitrary numbers
[05:22:06] <+jacob1> brb 5 minutes
[05:23:18] <Bugz000> i made a pulsejet engine in a different sand game and it worked great, try a pulsejet engine in powder toy and it just perpetually blows exhaust out of both the inlet and outlet cause there's no vacuum created by cooling once the flame extinguishes for the oxygen to re-circulate before the next ignition
[05:23:54] <Bugz000> it's just a little thing - i figure it's more a job for a modder, it's quite a specific thing haha
[05:25:25] <Bugz000> i also figure he's got it set up the way it is so people can just jump right in and start blowing stuff up without having to put oxygen everywhere - and likewise not have oxygen gas dots flying everywhere on startup (which would be another symptom of a solution) - or have to put a vaccuum down everywhere to remove this oxygen to do other reactions without oxygen interference
[05:25:41] <Bugz000> it's default setup is designed for ease of use rather than reality :p
[05:25:53] <+jacob1> yes, definitely
[05:26:01] <+jacob1> particles lag the game
[05:26:10] <+jacob1> you don't want random gas all over
[05:26:24] <+jacob1> most particles also only react with a radius of 2 particles around them
[05:26:44] <Bugz000> perhaps a mode is viable though, like turning gravity on/off - have an alternative oxygen mechanic that people could use
[05:27:13] <+jacob1> well I don't think it would work even then
[05:27:15] <+jacob1> for code reasons
[05:27:23] <+jacob1> the oxygen would literally have to be within 2 particles
[05:27:31] <+jacob1> and then does it get eaten?
[05:27:43] <+jacob1> it would be difficult to keep a constant supply of it

[05:27:45] <Bugz000> as is real life - they need to be well mixed before it burns
[05:27:51] <+jacob1> also the oxygen would get int he way of other particles moving
[05:27:57] <+jacob1> oh, well gases in tpt don't mix well
[05:28:24] <+jacob1> if you fill a container with two gases, they won't move at all since there is no empty space
[05:28:47] <Bugz000> depends on gas density but i notice water will flow through oil to get to the bottom
[05:28:54] <Bugz000> so that's in place
[05:28:57] <+jacob1> yes, there is density
[05:29:10] <+jacob1> the gas thing could easily be changed
[05:30:10] <Bugz000> what if just the oxygen burning alone was changed?
[05:30:35] <Bugz000> rather than overhauling the whole fire mechanic requiring oxygen to burn etc
[05:30:42] <Bugz000> count it as "extra" oxygen
[05:31:04] <Bugz000> if that makes sense - i'm speculating on how the game actually calculates reactions haha

fire -> oxygen = nothing

fire -> fuel = burn

fuel -> onfire -> is there oxygen nearby? no? = burn normal rate

fuel -> onfire -> is there oxygen nearby? yes? = burn fast/bright