schema Criss
OK, so while I welcome the chnges to the power system, there are some very fundamental flaws that hurt the very realism you guys usually want to incorporate at some level. Heat management is wonderful, but it needs to be refined as well.
Here's an alternative concept, maybe some part you'll find interesting enough to take another look at:
When you look at a nuclear reactor, you'll usually notice it has a couple systems, namely:
1. Reactor core (where the nuclear fission/fusion happens)
2. Reactor shielding (to prevent the surroundings to become irradiated and contain heat as well)
3. Reactor control (safety, power generation control etc. The control rods in a fission reactor, for example)
4. Cooling system
5. Power transfer (to get power from the reactor to the systems that use it)
On that analogy, the following blocks should make a reactor:
1. Reactor casing (armored blocks that shield the reactor from outside forces and shield the ship's other parts from the reactor's radiation and heat)
Any side of the reactor fully shielded with these would pretty much block the heat influence of the reactor in that direction. They should have a pretty large mass, though. Reactor casings are dealt heat damage first upon reactor overheat.
2. Reactor core (reaction chamber)
The actual blocks where power and heat is generated. Upon taking a hit, they explode just like aux. power blocks do now, which further incentivises surrounding them with reactor casings even more. The heat influence area scales with the number of blocks in a group, having 1-2 cores will have a minimal heat/radiation emission.
3. Reactor control (power distributor)
Since Starmade won't use fission reactors, reactor control here acts more of a power distributor. It's a control block through which the crew can activate or shut down the reactor core groups on the ship, and divert power to systems connected to the reactor with
power conduits. The interface could be similar to the current thrust config, as you could divert power to Shields, Propulsion, or Weapons.
4. Cooling system
There would be essentially 5 block types in this one:
- Heat sink: stores heat generated by the reactor, but doesn't disperse it any faster. Adding heat sinks to a reactor by placing them adjacent to the reactor core block group, makes the ship take longer to reach 100% heat, but without any adjustment to dispersion rate, will also take longer to cool down.
Their main advantage is, they don't need to be exposed and can be placed within the protective reactor casing shell.
- Radiator: increases heat dispersion, but has to be exposed to space to be efficient.
Covered up: 25% efficiency
No other block type within 10 block distance on one side: 50% efficiency
No other block type within 10 block distance on 2 sides: 75% efficiency
No other block type within 10 block distance on 3 or more sides: 100% efficiency
Other radiator blocks of the same group, as well as metal mesh or metal grill blocks, don't count. The heat dispersion bonus will only apply if the radiator group is connected to a reactor through heat conduits.
- Heat conduit: Allows heat transfer from a reactor to the radiators exposed on the ship's hull. Place a heat inlet within 3 blocks of a reactor core group, the build a one block thick line leading from the reactor core to the radiator group and place a heat outlet within 3 blocks of the radiator group(s) to connect them. Breaking the line will cut the radiator group off from the reactor core group and lose its heat dispersion benefit.
- Heat inlet: if placed within 3 blocks of a reactor core, allows the heat generated by that reactor core group to be transferred to heat outlets through heat conduits.
- Heat outlet: if placed within 3 blocks of a radiator group, and connected to a heat inlet via heat conduits, adds the heat dispersion bonus of the radiator group(s) in its vicinity to the reactor's heat dispersion.
5. Power conduits
These blocks would transfer power from the reactor to the ship's other systems (shield, propulsion, weapons, factories, rail mass enhancers, docked entities etc.) Has the following 3 blocks:
- Power inlet: has to be placed within 3 blocks of a reactor core block to be able to take power from the reactor. (allowing the reactors to be shielded with reactor casing)
- Power outlet: powers all blocks and block groups within 3 blocks of it if connected to an active power inlet through a power conduit.
- Power conduit: transfers power from a power inlet to one or more power outlets.
Example of a basic layout:
Explanation: A
reactor core group (aux. power) with
heat sinks (power capacitors) shielded by
reactor casing (black adv. armor) in the middle. 2
radiator(yellow force field) groups on the outer hull are connected to it through
heat inlets(red light),
heat conduits(power drain modules) and
heat outlets(shootout rail). Adding a
reactor control block onto the ship would also allow to prioritize power (and heat) generation between systems, and shut down some of them if the reactor would go to overheat.
2
power inlets(blue light) are transferring power to
power outlets(pickup point) through
power conduits(transporter modules) to power the weapons, scanner, jump drive and jump inhibitor on the front of the vessel and the shields and thrusters on the back.
rail blocks would also have to be in the vicinity of a connected
power outlet in order to allow transfer of the ship's power to docked entities.
Note that if the ship above goes into combat, and any of the power conduit or inlet/outlet blocks are destroyed, all systems powered by them go offline until the power line is restored. This encourages co-operation as mid-flight block placing is a lot easier if you have a co-pilot (or mechanic) in a build block with you. Alternatively, redundancy is recommended (multiple power lines/outlets to secure power flow even if one gets hit) but be smart about it, conduits do add mass and system HP (affecting the damage penalties) but do not affect power efficiency by themselves at all. Too much of them will quickly become dead weight.
I hope my post above presents at least some useful ideas, feel free to discuss below.
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