New Power source

[DrOof]

So I got sick off a fever one day and while I was laying in bed I thought of this new kind of power source that could be a different but kind of similar power source to the Supermatter.

It would be a Liquid Electric Generator. Basically a geyser that spews out liquid electricity, making the substance more than just what ethereals have for blood. The generator itself is made of two parts, the basic containment cap that is able to easily convert the electric charge of the geyser into power, and the cooling system, keeping the geyser from erupting and causing massive issues for the station. Fuel for the cooling would be cold Plasma, that has to constantly be monitored to make sure it does not overheat. Other gasses would have an effect on the geysers condition, like plasma would generally make it hotter.

Depending on the gasses inside, the geyser will "pulse" every once in awhile in intervals. The cap of the LEG would take the liquid electricity that hits it, and convert it to power. Said power can be transferred to SMES and so on.
When the geyser gets hot, the rate in which an pulse will occur will increase, and so will the amount of energy able to be extracted by the cap from the liquid electricity. This would reward those who make setups with more power output, but generally be riskier. I haven't thought of all the possible effects other gasses could have on it, but generally cold equals good, hot equals bad, designed to be very simple.

The LEG over the geyser would have an input for cold gasses, and an output for hot gasses. No interior chamber for gasses to react in real space, but it could be thought of as similar to an HFR loop. The gasses would loop around the cap and geyser, making the whole thing colder or hotter. In the event where a geyser and the LEG become too hot, a warning notification would be given out to engi via comms, similar to the SM delam notification. It would alarm them that the cap and LEG is loosing integrity, and too lower temps immediately. The main difference from this "delam" state and the SM would be the LEG would loose integrity much faster than a regular crystal would.

When the LEG looses all of its integrity, and finally reaches 0%, it will melt and explode, uncovering the roaring hot geyser of liquid electricity. There would be a subsequent eruption, causing a massive EMP pulse and arcs of electricity to fly across the station. The difference between this and a regular SM delam would be engi can repair the LEG. After the initial eruption, the geyser would stay intact. The LEG would be very expensive and hazardous to repair, but it is possible.
I thought if the explosion should create a teslaball, considering its so much electricity being released, but I'm not sure. It would kinda take away the repairable and easy to fix nature of it, compared to a crystal

In summary, I wanted to see if I can come up with an idea thats easier for new players to learn comparative to the SM. Also to add some variety to power generation, considering the tesla and singulo are gone for maintenance. Of course there are a lot of holes in this idea, but I'm just spitballing here. Let me know what you think!

[Intercept0r]

We currently have:
SM
Power output: High
Antag potential: High
Complexity: High

Turbine:
Power output: Medium
Antag potential: Medium
Complexity: Medium

Solars:
Power output: Low
Antag potential: None
Complexity: Low

The proposed LEG appears to occupy a spot between SM and the Turbine. Not a good place to be - the Turbine is the most unloved of all power sources. Players gravitate toward either the high-risk/high-reward option or the quickest/easiest option.

Additionally, it requires a liquid electricity geyser, which would limit it to lavaland (where it'd presumably already be setup, don't want mining being gated by engineers), or icebox. That's just one station.

If someone went to the effort of developing this, it might get included, sure, especially if it's quality. Variety is good! But it's not addressing anything the game needs. I'd much rather see tesla/singulo engines reworked and put back in.

[DrOof]

Yeah now that I think more to its practical application rather than just spitballing ideas, it would definitely fall into that category of “we could build it but we don’t need to”.

I do believe though that it would be a good excuse to make the base on lavaland more interesting and practical, having its own unique engine source would hopefully turn it from an antags hideaway to a more legitimate base of operations. Thanks for the feedback!

[Jacquerel]

We're not that interested in adding more power sources until we can make power actually interesting in some way, which currently it isn't.