In the latest mod update, the new recipe added to the Electrolyzer results in an efficiency of over 100%. 134.7% to be exact. While the intentions were good, this completely breaks the core gameplay mechanics.
Even though it is highly unrealistic for real-world setups, aiming for a gameplay target of 70–80% Electrolyzer efficiency makes the most sense. To achieve this, the power consumption multiplier should be increased to 7.5 instead of the current 4.5. However, it is probably better to just reduce the batch sizes per cycle; otherwise, this will become the single most power-hungry building in the entire game.
Alternative Balancing Proposal:
- Change the recipe throughput to output 16 Hydrogen and 8 Oxygen per 60 seconds.
- Set the energy consumption multiplier to x4.
This approach keeps it close to vanilla behavior but correctly reduces the oxygen output ratio. In real-world industry, oxygen is extracted directly from the air using air separators precisely because water electrolysis is far too energy-intensive and produces very little oxygen by comparison.
