brainstorm on making power matter

[PKPenguin321]

the RUS-T thread got ultra cucked so let's talk about this here instead

ideas so far:

Spoiler:

We need to improve the current power system here's a small idea that would help a lot

Console in the SMES room that displays current power draw from the power grid so you know how much power you need to be outputting, the amount of power outputting, the peak power draw for the shift, and the average power draw for the shift

Then make a bunch of machines like cryo tubes and microwaves and auto/protolathes and cloners and botanys gene machine take more significant amounts power when used so if engineering is outputting bare minimum power to meet the average and then somebody turns on a microwave while somebody is being cloned then bam brief short range power outage

Make it happen gamers

This seems like the best approach to me. It seems a little silly that they're about as significant as lightbulbs in terms of how much power they require. Medical and Science especially should be gigantic power sinks, which could serve as a pretty major nerf to science too. Perhaps engineering could have a console that allows them to cut off power to individual departments until they can meet the demand, which could also make for some fun traitoring.

- make certain machines take a significant amount of power drain from the APC (cloning, microwaves, protolathe, autolathe, cryo tubes, botany's dna machine, chem dispensers/bar drink dispensers, maybe heaters/coolers, etc)

- give engineering a console that shows power drawn by station, power output by engineering, average power drawn, peak power drawn

- maybe also give a console that lets them remotely depower certain areas

[D&B]

Make broken lights spit out sparks and consume more energy

[ShadowDimentio]

Give them something to use all the energy for like a giant laser that mines/destroys stuff/sells power.

Port Goon overpowering mechanics where pumping shitloads of power into the system makes very bad thing happen, like APCs shooting out lightning, and doors/equipment fucking exploding when you use it to incentivize rogue engineers not just always releasing the engine.

Rehaul the engines to require more active maintenance if you're churning out power as hard as you can by replacing parts that burn out in equipment, refueling collectors, monitoring power surges/power failures and solving them.

Really we have all the tools (ba dum tss) to make engineering more involved and fun.

[TribeOfBeavers]

Maybe let engineering overclock machines (through hacking?) to draw a lot more power and become more dangerous to use in exchange for some extra features and speed?

It'd give engineering the goal of producing enough power to overclock everything important (or just everything on the station) and add a little bit of crew interaction.

You could even have multiple levels, with things becoming less stable as you run more power into them. So like at the highest setting the cloner could shoot out clones in 5 seconds, but you need insulated gloves so you don't die while operating it. Kinda adds to the whole "complete lack of workplace safety" theme the game has.

[CPTANT]

I think one of the first steps would be having actual control over where power goes, that way choices can be made which areas to power in case of shortages.

And in general the engine and solars need to produce way less power.

[Shaps-cloud]

Remove the engines other than SM and balance all power requirements around that

[ShadowDimentio]

>Remove the singu

Remove this man's admin rights he's clearly insane

[onleavedontatme]

You need to standardize power drain across all maps (your plan already failed at this step, nobody is going to fo the math to make sure their machines and lights play nice)

You need a single engine per map

You need to let engineering direct power flow remotely

You need to let people unplug/flip off machines in their departments

You need to make all machine upgrade consumption scale along with engine upgrades

You need people to find it fun when engineering turns off their job because it isnt important enough

Finally you need to argue bitterly on github for the next few years making sure nobody fucks up your formulas

I dont think it will happen given we dont have a single sane resource system in our codebase, and maintaining one would require maintainers to be far more restrictive than we are

[Luke Cox]

Things like cloning pods, cryo tubes, protolathes, etc. should use a large amount of power. Engineering should have a power control console that lets them shut off high voltage items per department until they can meet the demand.

[IcePacks]

the big issue with any of these things is that engineers would be even more of a required job

[Luke Cox]

It's pretty rare for all of engineering and the AI to go unstaffed

[Cik]

engineering should be a required job

not that others can't do it, it's not like there's a skilltree that's necessary, just a skillset. assistants can fill in if they're not totally concerned with doing useless garbage elsewhere

i mean it's already required unless you want to be in a powerless nonworking station in 20 minutes but w/e

[Luke Cox]

Solars are a viable contingency in case engineers are unavailable/too incompetent to maintain the engine.

[IcePacks]

the biggie here is that a nonexistent or inactive engineering team fucks with the whole round enough as-is

[kevinz000]

I was about to offer to code something but I suddenly got a brainache thinking about doing so so the best I can (not) promise is maybe a ptl and a rust port if I feel like it one of these days.

[leibniz]

We could add it together with a budget similar to goon's.
Passive systems like airlocks, lights wouldnt drain much, but if you want to operate cloning, gulag teleporter, slime consoles, whatever, you need resources.
As in, either the department head could spend the department budgets to bring stuff online for some time, because something something money buys telecrystal power beamed to the station;
Or engineering gets their shit together and produces lots of power.
We could have a power distributor whatever thing on the bridge where the heads of staff would fight to the death over who gets to turn on fun stuff.
And the HoP could manage the station budget, giving him a chance for revenge after years of disrespect.

[Reece]

Add energon so I can name my durand megatron.

[One Seven One]

What if upgraded machines costed more power?

What if things that messed with wiring: Rats, frayed wires, a grey shirt stuck on an electric fence
It would constantly drain power from the section until removed?

What if more power meant more output?
Brighter lights, faster charging without upgrades, faster printing from consoles.

[Luke Cox]

Machines like cloning pods, protolathes, etc. could have a low power mode that functions way slower

[Jacough]

Port Goon overpowering mechanics where pumping shitloads of power into the system makes very bad thing happen, like APCs shooting out lightning, and doors/equipment fucking exploding when you use it to incentivize rogue engineers not just always releasing the engine.

This, maybe make it so the severity of the overload affects the chance of bad shit happening as well as what kind of bad things happen. MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE could be the round ender with shit just getting completely out of hand. Machines fucking malfunctioning like fucking crazy like chem dispensers spitting out random reagents with potentially deadly combinations, mules going haywire and charging around at ludicrous speeds crushing anything in their path until their charge runs out, cryotubes exploding and spewing extremely cold gases everywhere, the gateway activating and spilling out tons of highly destructive mobs that can break down walls, and tons more fun shit. Basically it makes everything go wrong in the most hilarious way possible.

[IcePacks]

Machines like cloning pods, protolathes, etc. could have a low power mode that functions way slower

This is a great start.

[Swagbringer]

Gravity generation could be a big powersink, its not 100% necessary but great to have, make sense that it would take energy, plus you could supercharge it to make super strong gravity and force people to a crawl (good for traitors and give another use for vehicles)

[Steelpoint]

You could make it that engineers can 'overcharge' certain machines and equipment to increase their efficiency at the cost of a significant power drain? Such as making Cloning Machines produce clones much faster, or botany having quicker growing plants, etc etc. However as you increase the efficiency, the power requirement multiplies very quickly to the point where a single heavily overcharged machine could have the same power requirement as half the station.

Balancing it would require multiple things, such as making it extremely hard for someone to hack a machine to overcharge and making it really easy for engineers to see and find machines being overcharged.