🛠️ 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!