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Comment by freeone3000 | Hacker News Reader

There's actually not a terrible amount of game - there's a screen with all the bits moving, and some reports with filler info, but it doesn't seem to actually play - only one of the editing controls, make new thing, is selectable, and it doesn't seem to work.

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Yeah, none of the map editing tools work -- they just pop up a "This button is not implemented" error.

I love how it uses the original SimCity helicopter, train, and a lot of the same tiles.

https://donhopkins.com/home/images/SimRefineryHelicopterAndT...

There is more stuff actually implemented or at least sketched out wireframes in the menus. Stuff like Refinery => Operating Plan => Blender Recipes => Gasoline => R32 that pops up a "Blender Recipe" dialog with a lot of numbers and petrolium techno-babel in it.

https://donhopkins.com/home/images/SimRefineryBlenderRecipe....

https://donhopkins.com/home/images/SimRefineryFeedstockAvail...

There's some more interesting stuff in the interlinked windows you get from Windows => Unit => [bunch of different stuff], that brings up dialogs like "Crude Unit" or "Asphalt plant" that shows the graphics and inputs and outputs of the unit, along with some inexplicable tables and diagrams and measurements, and squares that you can click on to link to other windows showing all the different inputs and outputs. And the unit windows all even have "Help" buttons that pop up a blurb describing them.

https://donhopkins.com/home/images/SimRefineryCrudeUnit.png

https://donhopkins.com/home/images/SimRefinerySulferPlantUni...

It implies there's some kind of a data flow model going on, but I guess it's probably mostly just wireframe examples of what it would look like if there was really a simulation going on.

> It implies there's some kind of a data flow model going on, but I guess it's probably mostly just wireframe examples of what it would look like if there was really a simulation going on.

I think some simulation is implemented. I clicked around a bit between all the interconnected parts and clicked all "Buy" buttons for source tanks (those with no input on the left side) and moved all sliders (Like the "Severity (Octane)" on the Catalytic Reformer) to the right. That way the "Sulfur Storage" value slowly increases. On the "Crude Unit" settings page, there's not only the crude slider on the left side, but also various yellow "Cutpoints" sliders on the right.

I was able to place a new Crude Unit on the map on the archive.org version, using the button 3 buttons below the demolition button and finding a empty place on the map, the one shown in this wikipedia screenshot:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/29/Simrefinery_s...

Unfortunately, clicking the new crude unit does not work, unlike existing crude units on the map.

One thing that came up in Phil's livestream last night is that new buildings aren't connected to the pipe network, and of course the pipe tool isn't implemented.

Maybe at some point people will reverse-engineer the save file format enough to edit a pipe in though...

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