Hadron Collider (shit for engineers to do)

[Luke Cox]

Credit to Wyzack and other people in the "engineers need more shit to do thread" for this. I just felt like it needed its own thread since a ton of ideas are being around. It was well received in the old thread, and a few coders actually expressed interest. We came up with this:

• Multi-part machine (think Particle Accelerator) that requires ungodly amounts of power, which incentivizes solars, turbine, and secondary singularities/Teslas
• Takes in plasma sheets gas mix pumped directly from atmos and makes something useful out of them (perhaps a new mineral required for higher-level R&D items)
• Does really bad shit if sabotaged
• Goes in either the old telescience lab or engineering. I'm in favor of the former personally. Regardless, it's reliant on engineering and they can easily demand shit in return (much like miners and minerals)

[lumipharon]

plasma sheets are for pussies (also miners). Use plasma gas pumped directly out of atmos, with a dedicated penta supermater engine for power and 20 max upgraded smes to hold enough power to turn it on at all.

It needs to be rediculous and big, and require severe autism or large scale teamwork to make, let alone run.
It should not be something done every round, it should be something that if achieved, makes the round exceptional.

[Saegrimr]

So what's the reward here?

Why would anybody spend all round setting up a huge engine for the same thing solars/turbine/singulo/tesla already does?

[lumipharon]

So what's the reward here?

Why would anybody spend all round setting up a huge engine for the same thing solars/turbine/singulo/tesla already does?

It doesn't generate power.

The idea is it would create some other shit you could use in science or whatever to unlock collider exclusive shit (either like anom cores in phazons, or normally not reachable R&D levels), and/or anti matter bombs or some shit.
Basically that's also up for debate, but it's very much not power power production - it's for sucking down utterly rediculously amounts of power fomr some sort of mcguffin.

[Luke Cox]

plasma sheets are for pussies (also miners). Use plasma gas pumped directly out of atmos, with a dedicated penta supermater engine for power and 20 max upgraded smes to hold enough power to turn it on at all.

Gas mix is a great idea, I'm adding it to the OP. I think the multi-supermatter engine thing is just a tad overkill. The machine itself should be in the old telescience lab (we'll make a turbine pipe drop there. We want this thing to get used at least sometimes.), but the whole supply line should come from engineering. Requires 50/50 O2 plasma or something like that, and messing with the gas by adding CO2/N20/N2 creates a massive explosion or something. Parts start off in science, and can be assembled by either scientists or engineers. Engineers are 100% responsible for the upkeep of the supply. Cutting gas or power prematurely without shutting off the machine properly should have different effects.

If everything functions properly, the machine will slowly turn plasma sheets (in addition to the piped in plasma mix) into some new mineral. This new mineral will be retroactively added as a requirement for existing late-game R&D items (implants, xray gun, etc.). Gives engineering shit to do, nerfs autism science, and makes the station feel like an actual plasma research station.

[Topham]

What about adding a new research category, Particle Technology, that this LHC would be the sole supplier of?

[Luke Cox]

That would actually be a really good idea, and probably much easier to implement.