09-03-2023, 05:44 AM
Currently, both Farts and Agent B have issues that make them annoying to use in engineering. I'll start with Agent B. This is solely in the context of the TEG, which utilizes reactions between gases to generate electricity. Agent B is a gas with a very high SHC that, upon reacting with CO2, turns it into O2. Obtaining this gas is mostly fine, you just have to pull in a molitz asteroid in mining and get all the purple molitz (And I mean you). Then you get it into a scrubber somehow, put it in the burn chamber, and uh, pray? Agent B is only good for chamberburns, as its other special property is uncapping a chamberburn, so that it can get as hot as it wants. In my personal experience, I've only gotten it to a few hundred thousand degrees before the burn spontaneously reduces itself to around 2000K. Thing is, unless you can make the chamber go exponential, it's pretty useless for the TEG. (Best I've gotten is MW. Correct me if you've got higher! I tried my best at the TEG for this post.)
On the other hand, you have pipeburns. Pipeburns are automatically UNCAPPED. This means Agent B's secondary effect is redundant in a pipeburn. So what gets used instead? Farts. Farts turn CO2 into Plasma, and as CO2 quickly builds in a reaction, it's important to get a good percentage of it in to remove such CO2. Works great in a pipeburn, and if you're very skillfull (I haven't heard of any engineers of late getting extreme TEG temperatures, sadly), I imagine you could still get it to go exponential. In my experience, I've had no luck over bursts of 20-30MW. (I've been told this is because I used a custom TEG that was too small? And I needed xyz... I believe it). But my problem here is with the way of obtaining farts. If you've ever seen engineers farting over a scrubber, it gets boring and repetetive FAST. Fartonium or not, it's an incredibly boring mechanic for getting a nearly essential gas for the TEG (Besides aknowledging the fact that an industrial piece of equipment needing farts to perform well is... stupid).
First thing I would NOT like to see is pipeburns get capped and need Agent B to be uncapped. Last I checked, Agent B is difficult to get in such large quantities, and it likely wouldn't do a good job as farts do. What I would like to see is fart gas get rebranded, and a new way to get large quantities be developed. My thoughts here are like a special rock in some char deposits of asteroids, which would act like Molitz B, but for some gas like Methane. It's been said before, though I'm not sure on it since it'd be the same as Agent B, just harder to get as mining will rarely pull in a char asteroid.
Molitz B should also not be a huge pain to get (into a can). I've seen a PR for making cans of it get closed, but I genuinely think that it'd be a good idea. Ok, fine, it's a gas NT doesn't know much of yet. Why can't a fabricator treat it like molitz, as if it doesn't know the difference, and just hit the crystal in the same way it'd do normal molitz to make a can?
That's all I have to say right now. I've deleted and rewrote this about 3 times, I'd appreciate a good and healthy discussion in this thread. And please, no, this isn't some fart emote nerf removal whatever thing. I write this thread first and primarily to talk about Engineering and the TEG. I've seen other threads get derailed easily, please keep it focused on this. Thank you.
On the other hand, you have pipeburns. Pipeburns are automatically UNCAPPED. This means Agent B's secondary effect is redundant in a pipeburn. So what gets used instead? Farts. Farts turn CO2 into Plasma, and as CO2 quickly builds in a reaction, it's important to get a good percentage of it in to remove such CO2. Works great in a pipeburn, and if you're very skillfull (I haven't heard of any engineers of late getting extreme TEG temperatures, sadly), I imagine you could still get it to go exponential. In my experience, I've had no luck over bursts of 20-30MW. (I've been told this is because I used a custom TEG that was too small? And I needed xyz... I believe it). But my problem here is with the way of obtaining farts. If you've ever seen engineers farting over a scrubber, it gets boring and repetetive FAST. Fartonium or not, it's an incredibly boring mechanic for getting a nearly essential gas for the TEG (Besides aknowledging the fact that an industrial piece of equipment needing farts to perform well is... stupid).
First thing I would NOT like to see is pipeburns get capped and need Agent B to be uncapped. Last I checked, Agent B is difficult to get in such large quantities, and it likely wouldn't do a good job as farts do. What I would like to see is fart gas get rebranded, and a new way to get large quantities be developed. My thoughts here are like a special rock in some char deposits of asteroids, which would act like Molitz B, but for some gas like Methane. It's been said before, though I'm not sure on it since it'd be the same as Agent B, just harder to get as mining will rarely pull in a char asteroid.
Molitz B should also not be a huge pain to get (into a can). I've seen a PR for making cans of it get closed, but I genuinely think that it'd be a good idea. Ok, fine, it's a gas NT doesn't know much of yet. Why can't a fabricator treat it like molitz, as if it doesn't know the difference, and just hit the crystal in the same way it'd do normal molitz to make a can?
That's all I have to say right now. I've deleted and rewrote this about 3 times, I'd appreciate a good and healthy discussion in this thread. And please, no, this isn't some fart emote nerf removal whatever thing. I write this thread first and primarily to talk about Engineering and the TEG. I've seen other threads get derailed easily, please keep it focused on this. Thank you.