Brainstorm This New Power Block

[DraconisDomini]

I believe the original point of this thread was to discuss the idea of a power block that produces more power than the current power reactors, but that explodes when hit.

That concept does not require or have anything directly to do with fuel, so I would suggest that debates on the merits or de-merits of fuel be taken to a different thread.

Getting back to the original concept, the idea of a more powerful reactor that explodes when hit is interesting.

As has been pointed out, in a paradigm where shields are dominant and most people would not continue fighting once their shields are nearly depleted it is probably not particularly useful, since in that case no-one would ever be exposed to the danger of their reactors exploding. About the only situation where I could see the explosive aspect coming in with dominant shields is in torpedoes where the 'warhead' is also the power reactor of the torpedo.

That said I don't know how much the new HP system may have changed the balance between armour and shields as I haven't been able to test it yet.

In a paradigm where armour is dominant and not shields (such that parts of a ship can be damaged without the whole thing rapidly becoming swiss cheese), the explosive aspect might actually come in and have some effects on ship design. It could go in one of two ways (possibly depending on the size of the ship). Star Trek style nacelles would move the reactors away from the main ship and so help protect it from damage if they exploded, but would also make the reactors more vulnerable in the first place. Burying the reactors in the heart of the ship would reduce the chance of the reactors being hit and exploding, but it would also mean that if they were hit that would be game over.

Actually I suppose one way that the explosive aspect of the reactors could come into play even with dominant shields is through boarding. If you could board an enemy ship and sabotage the reactors - causing them to explode and cripple the ship - that would provide a reason to try and board.

NB: I presume that if one reactor in a reactor group exploded all of the others would too since the first explosion would hit the reactors around it and cause them to cascade.

 

[TheOmega]

That is the idea, that it would be a chain. And it doesn't matter about shields and whatnot, in a normal battle the shield of both ships go down. My idea was that if they are so volatile that they all explode when destroyed, they would not be very durable, and possibly reduce the structural integrity of the ship.

 

[0Samuel0]

No one has really talked about configuration.

I think that there should be a need to cool reactors, or heat reactors, causing changes in power generation and stability. For example, let's say you just build a brick of antimatter reactors. You get a ton of energy, but each block vents heat to the blocks around it. so, the center block becomes to hot, the reactor fails and your power shuts down. (or you could make it so that it explodes, but then when designing you ship it would too easily blow up all of your hard work). More heat = more energy, higher explosion chance. Less heat= lower power, lower explosion chance. So, a antimatter power generator surrounded on 6 sides by lava will shut down quickly, but generate huge amounts of power. And one shot from any weapon will make it go boom. An antimatter power generator surrounded on 6 sides by ice will generate no power and will not explode. So, too hot - reactor fails, no power. Too cool, reactor doesn't generate power in the first place. I think there should also be air ducts, that move heat around. Additionally, you have a power core (or maybe this could be a use for the normal core), and the greater the distance of a connected block from the core, the more power it can generate; however, it must be close in temperature to the core. So, same temperature, say, 10% bonus per block. Too high, too low, and it might generate no power at all. So, reactors can't just be giant lines, because they have to be heated/cooled evenly by air vents (ice and lava just used as examples, only work when used with air vents). So, a tiny reactor would be grossly inefficient, because the distance from the core would be small. And so small ships wouldn't benefit from using them. But a large ship could fit all the infrastructure for heating and cooling. Ideally, reactors would be a single, roughly cube shaped entity, but would not work just as a block of reactors. Heat would need to be vented from the inside outwards, then dumped into cooling areas. So on small ships, you see only really power reactors. On large ships, you see mostly a single, large power core. A medium ship could really on a mix of both.

Also, the power core could be hit with a torch, and depending on stability (how evenly the heat is spread, how hot the reactor is in total) the power core might began cascading or not. Each damage point applied would be worth on attempt. So, let's say 99% stability - identical heat throughout, perfect temperature for that size reactor. It would take roughly 100 damage points from the torch to guarantee the reactor to blow. A cooler reactor would have a higher time between cascading and explosion than a hotter one. So, if you can torch it in one hit, you probably are going to blow up too.

 

[TheOmega]

Before suggesting an idea, think:

Will new players understand this on their own relatively easily?​

 

[friendofvampires]

So, I had this idea reading :

act as a secondary effect

and thought maybe, have the idea in REVERSE, as in, treat it like an effect, but instead of increasing power gen, it reduces power cost, by consuming fuel in its place. Now the easy balance is to have the effect use a directly proportional amount of fuel, for example, for every point of power that is saved, consume 2 lava. Then the ratio would affect how much power is converted. so if I had a cannon with 90% fuel effect, 90% of my power would be used in fuel. I don't think it would be fair to give a whole ship 100% power conversion, but its a possibility. The way this would work is either throughout your ship you have "fuel lines" each with connected fuel to destroy sepperatly and bring down different functions, or to have 1 or more large fuel rooms embedded deep into your ship and risk it all.

Optional ideas
1: special fuel
A new something used for fuel that is not already in game, including a refining process or whatever
2: special fuel containers
Containers that hold the fuel, either a new kind or an existing block
3: volatility
the effect, effect computers, fuel containers, or affected systems explode

 

[AdmiralGialAckbar00]

Why don't we just make the power blocks explosive? Simpler and easier than adding more blocks.

 

[TheOmega]

Because the whole point of this was to add a more powerful one with drawbacks that could seriously cripple a ship.

 

[Agent_Bladelock]

With the new update, I think this would be a lot more dangerous to have onboard -- it would bring back a bit of the critical hit sort of thing you got from core combat.

 

[kookster]

Say you have this new reactor block it generates a LOT more power, BUT if you say take any damage to a reactor block or say 10% of your reactors are destroyed the entire energy system explodes all the reactors explode in small explosions but then the new reactors go critical and explode in a very large explosion. I would also propose it doesnt effect unconnected reactors.

Summary of ideas:
1. New reactor block
2. New reactor block generates a significant more power then the current reactor block.
3. If the new reactor block or reactor blocks connected to it are damaged or a certain amount of them are destroyed, the reactors go critical and explode, normal reactors would just break or explode based off the new reactor strength. The new reactor block would explode in a massive explosion based off its strength.
4. Separate reactors would not be effected by other exploding reactors unless those reactors damaged the others enough, this could cause a really cool chain reaction effect on a ship.

[Edit]

5. New reactor blocks can be used in conjunction with regular reactor blocks using the same mechanics but greatly increase the output in all ways with the more new reactor blocks you use. But also with the more you use the potential explosive potential within your ship if they go critical.
OR
5. New reactor blocks have a new mechanic IE clumped together produces more power but makes a much bigger explosion if it goes critical.
OR
5. New reactor blocks not only produce more when closer together in the same system but also can work in conjunction with a regular reactor system greatly increasing the total output.

6. Make it so the reactors don't go critical right away and notifies you that it is, so you could "Eject the core".

Examples:

Shield-rechargers will represent the new reactor blocks.
In the image below we have 2 separate reactors that plug into the new reactor system. If any of the reactors in this case are damaged the new reactor would go critical.

In this second image there are 2 separate reactors plugged into 2 separate new reactors. If one reactor was damaged it would cause its connected new reactor to overload and go critical. Since it is close to the other new reactor it would likely cause it to go critical as well once it explodes. In this setup you would also get less energy since the new reactors arent as clumped up but if one of them were to explode it would be as devastating even when it makes the other reactor explode.

Math Ideas:
Key:
X = number of new reactors.
Y = normal reactor output per second that are connected to it.
Z = Actual power output.

Z = ( 1 + ( X * .001 ) ) * Y

The new reactor explosion damage from reactor if it goes critical ignores shields and goes in a perfect circle from the center of mass from the reactor dealing its full damage which could be equal to: Z - Y

Example:
3,000 new reactors connected to a reactor system that generates 1,000,000
the system would actually output 4,000,000. If the new reactor were to explode it would deal 3,000,000 damage to the ship.

 

[nightwalker_007]

Actually.... I had a better idea... It would be neat to have a power block, that's like normal power block--- except it can be rigged to overload and explode with more power than a warhead. Basically, if it's sent a true signal, it enters an overload state. The size/power of the explosion would be proportional to the reactor's power output.

That would make for a far more useful self-destruct system than wareheads.

 

[Dannage]

I like the idea of a second type of power block. I would not want to lose the existing power block, or calculation mechanic, since everyone with big ships has so much built around the three finger power reactor now.

So, yes to a second power block.
Yes to it having a different power recharge rate than the current one (leave current one as is, make the new one more powerful
Yes to it causing more explosive damage when it is destroyed.

I'm in two minds as to whether the volatile nature of this power system should chain react through the entire chain (like TNT in Minecraft) or whether it should just go with the 'explosive' effect for the blocks destroyed by weaponry.

Might even be worth doing both, having 'reactor' blocks and 'conduit' blocks, where a reactor will blow in its entirety, but only destroy a short length of conduit blocks.

You coud then extend the purpose of conduit blocks, to provide 'localised' power, bit like the old sim city games, i.e. you need a conduit nearby in order to power your systems. This could also lead to cool RP effects like losing power and life support on a specific deck.

Of course, since people would have to code all of that, maybe it's just a pipe dream...

Sorry, I have spare time to think at the moment, my server hasn't been upgraded to the latest version and I've therefore nothing to play.. :p

 

[alterintel]

You coud then extend the purpose of conduit blocks, to provide 'localised' power, bit like the old sim city games, i.e. you need a conduit nearby in order to power your systems. This could also lead to cool RP effects like losing power and life support on a specific deck.

Now that is a cool idea

 

[Lukwan]

I love it. Risk vs Reward.

 

[TheBunnySuitKiller]

I like the idea of higher power reactors, but I'd like them to run off consumables too and the old "infinite reactor" can be the old standby backup system, or even solar panels. There should also be a way to slew power capacitors to specific systems as emergency batteries, that would be way cool.

 

[Joe Tuber]

I really like this idea but with a few caveats. I think what this does for small ships is great - it allows them to pack far more weaponry but at the cost of fragility. However, I wouldn't like to see large ships using antimatter reactors for the most part. Maybe the explosion could scale exponentially with the size of the reactor, or the power production would scale poorly with size (so large ships use a small, heavily protected antimatter reactor at the core of the ship, with the majority of the power coming from normal reactors). Anyways, balance is key.

 

[Nickizzy]

I... really don't want fuel, honestly. No matter what, it'll just be a pain in the ass and result in getting stuck out in space. If we get some mechanics to replace the benefits of linear damping without keeping the damping itself, then maybe, but even then I don't want to find myself drifting out in the middle of space because I didn't have enough fuel left to brake. Games are supposed to be fun, and I don't find that sort of thing fun...

...What I would like, though, is some kind of exploding reactor that produces more energy. Would be a risk to use, but still rewarding, and without the annoyances that come with having a fuel system in the game.

I think normal power blocks should be 10x worse(gasp!), turn them into the sort of "ion drive" of power reactors. What you start with, simple, easy, still works. Your ship stuck in space out of fuel can limp to a shop and buy more, but cannot go full combat without more power.

Fuel engine requires ice/lava at 1/second/block, can be turned on and off, and has pps of 300 or so. Exploads with 300 damage in 3 block radius. Exponential increase in fuel usage and power gain when in filled cubes(like power caps), but exploads with the pps as damage, a radius of pps/100.

You don't need fuel, but for anything with big power use, fuel is key.

Capsule refineries(you might as well call it just a refinery) can turn all flora, dirt, trees, and stone into lava, but in various amounts(stone is 1:1, but flora is 20:1 or so) ans can turn all snowy blocks into ice or water and the base block(snowy dirt into ice and dirt)

If you purposefully make things tedious you are a bad innovator.

If you purposefully make something hard or tedious, you are a good programer to your game.

 

[whooplaah]

I'd like to see the chain-reaction explossions for most of the non-hull modules. But how about rather than destorying one block making an entire system explode, we utilize the voxel mechanics. You destroy a weapon module and it explodes dealing damage to the 6 adjacent blocks. Some of the adjacent blocks are hull and are destroyed by the explosion, but hull doesn't explode so that reaction ends. The rest of the adjacent blocks are weapon modules, but only one of them takes enough damage to explode. The reaction continues. It doesn't have to be instantaneous, it would be more interesting if it took a couple of seconds for the chain reaction to finish.

This would keep the OP suggestion of weak spots on a ship and big explosions, but also not make those weak points too weak.

As for the fuel system idea, I've wanted to see some sort of resource management system for a long time. Oxygen levels for passengers, food for crew, fuel for jump drives and engines and generators...

The current energy supply system is unlimited, renewable, and immensely scaleable. It will have to be nerfed if anything non-infinite is to be introduced. But I would like to see a different energy system.

 

[jgames666]

My personal recommendation is to keep the current SAFE power system, but Add the Antimatter reactor design and make it VERY explosive, but also generate 2X the safe reactor.

Also perhaps, add Lava fueled reactors that do heat damage to blocks right next to them and use lava as fuel. Give them 1.5X the safe reactor power generation

As an additional possibility, I think that more resources need to be available in the vastness of space. For example, you could have helium, Hydrogen, Plasma, and many more power reactors that vary in power generation, but also use common, rare, and rarer fuel types. They should have a bonus over safe reactors power generation, but they should have less than the Antimatter, and either need cooling or do small amounts of damage to blocks directly near them. That could balance out.