Modular Engine optionally involving other departments.
Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2015 1:29 pm
The singularity engine is pretty much "set up and forget" and only really checked when tator tots pay a visit. This means that engineers have little to do besides wait for things to explode or start a project. New engineers may also take this time to learn engineering better.
I suggest a more complicated engine that involves optional maintenance, upgrades, monitoring, and output useful for other departments (besides energy). Optional because I think there should be a basic power output after initial setup requiring little to no maintenance. If this is idea well received, I plan to code it myself.
The drive behind the idea is to give engineers something to do that involves using resources from other departments as well as returning unique resources back to those departments. The engine would have comprise groups of machines each requiring different resources to run. I envision it as a network of machines which output items for other machines either directly or by requiring an engineer to transfer it manually. Some of these can be dangerous and require special handling. This will create a branching chain of processes culminating in generated power and byproducts other departments will want. For instance a sludge that chemistry can refine into useful chemicals, or items with research value. These chains can in part be passive and others require occasional or constant attention. The more work is put in, the more power and useful byproducts are generated.
As RnD upgrades the machines, new options become available, such as upgrading a particle accelerator to generate different beams, unlocking a new intermediate stage, byproducts, more and different ways of getting to generated power. The same with new minerals and chemicals.
Certain modules or byproducts will bring new dangers, so you might hear over comms, "Chief, the plasma containment field is losing integrity! We need more coolant in the graviton generator or it's gonna fail!".
As outputted power overtakes the station's requirements, "Energy banks" or some such item can be created and sent off to cargo for points.
It'll create more important relationships between engineering and other departments, give engineers a useful activity that is always available, modules with group activities for engineers, and feature hard science fiction (hopefully) which is super duper cool.
I'm at work. Please excuse the quality of my writing.
I suggest a more complicated engine that involves optional maintenance, upgrades, monitoring, and output useful for other departments (besides energy). Optional because I think there should be a basic power output after initial setup requiring little to no maintenance. If this is idea well received, I plan to code it myself.
The drive behind the idea is to give engineers something to do that involves using resources from other departments as well as returning unique resources back to those departments. The engine would have comprise groups of machines each requiring different resources to run. I envision it as a network of machines which output items for other machines either directly or by requiring an engineer to transfer it manually. Some of these can be dangerous and require special handling. This will create a branching chain of processes culminating in generated power and byproducts other departments will want. For instance a sludge that chemistry can refine into useful chemicals, or items with research value. These chains can in part be passive and others require occasional or constant attention. The more work is put in, the more power and useful byproducts are generated.
As RnD upgrades the machines, new options become available, such as upgrading a particle accelerator to generate different beams, unlocking a new intermediate stage, byproducts, more and different ways of getting to generated power. The same with new minerals and chemicals.
Certain modules or byproducts will bring new dangers, so you might hear over comms, "Chief, the plasma containment field is losing integrity! We need more coolant in the graviton generator or it's gonna fail!".
As outputted power overtakes the station's requirements, "Energy banks" or some such item can be created and sent off to cargo for points.
It'll create more important relationships between engineering and other departments, give engineers a useful activity that is always available, modules with group activities for engineers, and feature hard science fiction (hopefully) which is super duper cool.
I'm at work. Please excuse the quality of my writing.