Power & Oxygen systems

[Byamarro]

Oxygen System

There could be block that fills area with oxygen. Let's call them Oxygen Distributors.
These block would fill ball area of radius 5 with oxygen. Let's

That's 2D example

Dark blue is Oxygen distributor, light blue is area filled with oxygen.



Of course oxygen can't pass trough walls:

This could be achieved by using fill algorithm.
Oxygen would need to be recalculated everytime when player would place/destroy block near oxygen block or if plex doors would be open/close by someone.

Now let's add some economy to it.

Oxygen collector would need of course energy to work. But would also need oxygen.
Oxygen could be achieved from water in block that could be named Electrolizer. You just would need to place tanks filled with water inside Electrolizer. This block would transform it into tanks filled with oxygen.

Of course Your space helmet would also need oxygen tanks to allow You breath without being near working Oxygen Distributor.

Ok it would be fun and would add a little bit of survival feeling. But constantly feeling of all Oxygen Distributors would be irritating.

This schematic shows how it would be solved. Green blocks is group of Plex Storages. There is also oxygen pipe that connects Oxygen Distributor with Plex Storages. There could be multiple Oxygen Distributors in one network.

Example image of Oxygen Distributor:

Power System

1. Cables

It's much more interesting when You need to lead Your cables. You need to strategically build Your ship/base to save enough space for cables. Also You need to be sure that enemy shoot will not destroy Your cables... This could cut off half of Your ship from power.

2. Light consumes power

Lights would need only a little bit of power.

3. More power generators

--->Microcollision Power Generator
Price: Low
Power generation: Low
Need to work: Nothing
This generator gains power from collisions of atoms in space. This generator is cheap and don't requires fuel but it generares low amount of power.




--->Solar Power Generator
Price: Low
Power generation: Medium
Need to work: Star light
This generator is cheap and generates good amount of power but there is bad side... It gains power from light. So it will not generate power if You're in darkness.

Example Image:

--->Biofuel Power Generator
Price: Low
Power generation: Medium
Need to work: Plants/Leaves/Grass
This generator is cheap and generates good amount of power but You need to connect it to Plex Storages filled with many types of plants. This Generator uses plants as fuel.

--->Geothermal Power Generator
Price: High
Power generation: Medium
Need to work: Small distance from planet core.
This generator allow You to constantly produce electricity but You need to build it near planet core.



--->Nocx Power Generator
Price: Medium
Power generation: High
Need to work: Nocx Shards
This generator produces big amount of power but consumes Nocx Shards.

--->Nanosynthesy Power Generator
Price: Huge
Power generation: Huge
Need to work: Neutrino Capsules
This generator produces huge amount of power but it's consumes Neutrino Capsules that's hard to craft. You also need to have additional ice blocks in connected plex storages to prevent Nanosynthesy Power Generator from explosion.
Nanosynthesy Power Generator sends logic signal if is out of ice. Also You need to keep it out of oxygen as it can cause explosion when contact with this generator.

 

[ToyotaSupra]

Man, I love all of these ideas and I hope they get implemented. I don't think they will sadly, but I can hope some aspiring modder does.

 

[Zehenos]

Sure, if they will allow us to configure them.

 

[Krutzelpuntz]

Oxygen, hell yeah.
It is really strange to play a space game with no oxygen factor.
I can't help but think Spacestation 13 here, and since it always annoys me when a game reference unknown to me is used, I'll explain.

Say we have a ship, and inside we have your beautifully made O2 Distributor.
It does not have a limited radius(except for all of space maybe), but will fill the connected area with O2.
There more space it has to fill, the slower it is.
The more Distributors, the faster.

Then we have the airlocks.

An airlock opening from space to spaceship
​

To get from space through the airlock, you would activate the exterior access panel, and enter the airlock. Then inside, you select 'cycle to interior' from the airlock panel. Then wait a moment (again, the more Distributors, the less moment for the air to fill, and when done, the interior door opens, and you can take off your helmet and go safely inside.

To get from interior to exterior, it's the same but reverse, (the air will be vented out) and to be true to Spacestation 13 you'd be able to force open doors, via the airlock panel. On interior to exterior, this would mean all the current air in the airlock would flush into space and you would be too... Fun!

(Smaller ships would not have an airlock, but the cockpit itself would fill with air as you close the door to space, and you can take off your helmet. If you have a O2 Distributor, that is)

In your HUD you have a oxygen meter, showing the current oxygen level in the surrounding space.

(EDIT: took me so long to write, I forgot about this

Oxygen could be achieved from water in block that could be named Electrolizer. You just would need to place tanks filled with water inside Electrolizer. This block would transform it into tanks filled with oxygen.

And to be very thorough, we could have O2 tanks on the vessel, which you can fill (From where? I don't know), and will empty as the O2 is used.
The more tanks, the more O2 can be stored, of course.
You can also fill your personal O2 tank from here. Which should hold at least an hour of use or so.

Oxygen in this way would come with some really cool aspects and desicions you'd have to deal with.
For instance, will you have full oxygen in your ship, and risk attacks that breach the hull, or will you choose to always have vacuum, and not risk loosing the air. (For planed combat, this seems like a viable option, especially if space would suck you and the air out, in the event of hull breach.)

As for the power:
I have nothing constructive right now, but cool stuff you came up with.

 

[starhaiden]

problem water isn't very easy to get for new players.
I would like a lava fueled power generator because lava is common and new players can easily get lava through salvaging. It would be cheap to make, produces low-medium power.

 

[philthy mcnasty]

problem water isn't very easy to get for new players.
I would like a lava fueled power generator because lava is common and new players can easily get lava through salvaging. It would be cheap to make, produces low-medium power.

I think water is completely flawed. how come it has to be made from ice crystals and not ice blocks? That bothers me to no end. Also, instead of ice planets i want to see poles on each planet. that would help so much with orientation, as it gets a little annoying trying to figure out which plate my noob base is set up on.

I really like the power idea, as i strongly feel that power is very flawed. A huge chunk of a ship is going to be power generation. This severely limits aesthetics for ships.

I feel that there should be multiple power generators, that are more complex, tiered, and powerful. the drawback, is that they should be unstable. They should explode if hit, and emit radiation if not properly shielded with armor, and be dangerous if not set up properly. This way, we can keep the current power blocks, but also have a means to provide huge ships with both power and the means to cloak, while giving them a proper disadvantage to balance things out.

I sort of feel that this was the way the game is planning of going, as i see a lot of blocks that can be crafted in the different factories, but have no current purpose.

Though if anything is to be a fuel, than i would rather it not be the valuable ores, but the minerals. I have no idea what to do with a million capsules of refined cinnibar besides sell it to the merchants until their stock is too full.

 

[jayman38]

I suggest that the oxygen distributor should be placed into the game, regardless of an accompanying astronaut asphyxiation mechanic, just to see how the fill algorithms work in the wild (finding out if they work well, or are huge lag monsters, and getting mass suggestions on how to fix them.) For instance, I really want to see what happens to the game when a wall that was limiting the oxygen distribution gets blown away in combat. Maybe the oxygen simply stays where it's at until build mode is entered, to avoid costly recalculation? And what happens to the game if build mode is entered in the middle of combat (emergency combat repairs)?

 

[Krutzelpuntz]

For instance, I really want to see what happens to the game when a wall that was limiting the oxygen distribution gets blown away in combat. Maybe the oxygen simply stays where it's at until build mode is entered, to avoid costly recalculation?

Oxygen level would instantly drop to zero when exposed to space.
What is interesting is how to handle a door opening from a oxidized room to a vacuum room.
Maybe both rooms just share the available oxygen.

I see no need for complicated recalculations, although I don't know anything about the mechanics of the game.

And what happens to the game if build mode is entered in the middle of combat (emergency combat repairs)?

Entering build mode would do nothing. In or not in combat.
As long as the area is sealed, the oxygen level will rise, until the desired amount is achieved.

If the area is open to space, there can be no oxygen, and the distribution would not happen.

I wonder how to handle doors though.

 

[jayman38]

Oxygen level would instantly drop to zero when exposed to space.

Ah, there's the first calculation. How do you determine what is exposed to space? Here is your first complex path-finding algorithm. Especially if combat damage has created a maze of dead blocks and breach points.

I see no need for complicated recalculations, although I don't know anything about the mechanics of the game.

This is why I suggest throwing it into the game, and seeing what it actually does to the gameplay.

Entering build mode would do nothing. In or not in combat.
As long as the area is sealed, the oxygen level will rise, until the desired amount is achieved.

If the area is open to space, there can be no oxygen, and the distribution would not happen.

Again, this speaks to calculating what is "outside space" versus "internal non-block volume" and will involve path-finding algorithms. As for using "build mode" as the calculation point, it was just a suggestion for a relatively easy way for the game to determine that it is safe to begin the oxygen-vs-vacuum calculations.

I wonder how to handle doors though.

Similar to combat damage, I suppose.

 

[Valiant70]

For doors, some complexity and such could be saved by using a containment forcefield instead of an airlock. You could walk though the field or fly a vessel though it (think hangar bays on Star Wars Battlefront II) but gasses cannot pass though. This could be accomplished with a ring of blocks similar to a warp gate, although presumably much smaller. It should be possible to shut off the field with logic to strategically decompress portions of a ship.

The helmet on/off stuff needs to be fixed or recoded before using the helmet for something of consequence. There also needs to be a way to see if your helmet is on without zooming out.

Remember that a lot of players are desperately afraid of micro-management, so there should also be an option to enable unlimited oxygen stores in the server config. In other words, tanks are always full and you'll never run out of air with your helmet on. This should keep people from screaming bloody murder.

problem water isn't very easy to get for new players.

It shouldn't be. There's ice on asteroids. We should be able to make that into water.

I really like the power idea, as i strongly feel that power is very flawed. A huge chunk of a ship is going to be power generation. This severely limits aesthetics for ships.

This is only true of very large ships. My light cruiser's power grid is under 1000 blocks and generates over 700k e/sec. Remember to make each power reactor as long in each dimension as possible and put in as many parallel to each other as possible.

 

[Snk]

First suggestion worth reading on a while. +1

 

[Krutzelpuntz]

...Remember that a lot of players are desperately afraid of micro-management...
...It shouldn't be. There's ice on asteroids. We should be able to make that into water...

I realize how circumstantial my way of dealing with O2 is,
and how it wound not suit a large number of people leaning to the arcade game style.

But, damn it'd be cool! :D

And forever thumbs up for turning ice to water.

 

[starhaiden]

To make large room better, what if one block hole in a ships drains 1 block of oxygenated air every second.

 

[Blakpik]

Oxygen, hell yeah.
It is really strange to play a space game with no oxygen factor.
I can't help but think Spacestation 13 here, and since it always annoys me when a game reference unknown to me is used, I'll explain.

Say we have a ship, and inside we have your beautifully made O2 Distributor.
It does not have a limited radius(except for all of space maybe), but will fill the connected area with O2.
There more space it has to fill, the slower it is.
The more Distributors, the faster.

Then we have the airlocks.

An airlock opening from space to spaceship
​

To get from space through the airlock, you would activate the exterior access panel, and enter the airlock. Then inside, you select 'cycle to interior' from the airlock panel. Then wait a moment (again, the more Distributors, the less moment for the air to fill, and when done, the interior door opens, and you can take off your helmet and go safely inside.

To get from interior to exterior, it's the same but reverse, (the air will be vented out) and to be true to Spacestation 13 you'd be able to force open doors, via the airlock panel. On interior to exterior, this would mean all the current air in the airlock would flush into space and you would be too... Fun!

(Smaller ships would not have an airlock, but the cockpit itself would fill with air as you close the door to space, and you can take off your helmet. If you have a O2 Distributor, that is)

In your HUD you have a oxygen meter, showing the current oxygen level in the surrounding space.

(EDIT: took me so long to write, I forgot about this


And to be very thorough, we could have O2 tanks on the vessel, which you can fill (From where? I don't know), and will empty as the O2 is used.
The more tanks, the more O2 can be stored, of course.
You can also fill your personal O2 tank from here. Which should hold at least an hour of use or so.

Oxygen in this way would come with some really cool aspects and desicions you'd have to deal with.
For instance, will you have full oxygen in your ship, and risk attacks that breach the hull, or will you choose to always have vacuum, and not risk loosing the air. (For planed combat, this seems like a viable option, especially if space would suck you and the air out, in the event of hull breach.)

As for the power:
I have nothing constructive right now, but cool stuff you came up with.

You'd need a way to suck up Oxygen too, so that you don't waste it when you open the airlock.

 

[Krutzelpuntz]

You'd need a way to suck up Oxygen too, so that you don't waste it when you open the airlock.

Airvents.

I imagine the Oxygen Distributor could do the job, and it happens when the 'cycle to exterior' is activated

 

[Blakpik]

Airvents.

I imagine the Oxygen Distributor could do the job, and it happens when the 'cycle to exterior' is activated

Yeah, I could see that.

 

[Byamarro]

problem water isn't very easy to get for new players.
I would like a lava fueled power generator because lava is common and new players can easily get lava through salvaging. It would be cheap to make, produces low-medium power.

Water amount in space might be object of change. Also there is a lot of ice :P

 

[philthy mcnasty]

Water amount in space might be object of change. Also there is a lot of ice :p

Yeah, there is a lot of ice. You than take the ice, and convert it to ice crystals, than take the ice crystals and convert it to water, than you sell the water for profit.

 

[Byamarro]

I would also love to see hunger system :P
Players would need to build farms.

 

[NoK0mm3nt]

I love the idea, but if I had a choice of them implementing something like this that adds a lot more calculation costs or spending time on fixing and/or optimizing existing mechanics so it isn't as easy for players to kill a server, I know where I'd throw my money.