Transmission Laser/QM Suggestions.

[Silvercloud29]

This is some ideas I had about the power transmission laser and how to make it more interactive and add more gameplay features to it.

Currently the Power Transmission Laser (PTL for short) is BY FAR the best way to make long term cash on the station. It's pretty much a set it and forget it setup. The problem with the PTL is that it's income is based off of how well someone can ignite their hellburn mix. Then while the generator is pumping out terrawatts, or even PETAWATTS of power any engineer can run over, turn and crank the laser up. Leave it on, And just let the station roll in cash.

Now sure, I'm all for the station being super mega rich. I am not a party pooper. However, when you can leave the beam running for 30 min and the station having a excess of over 100 MILLION SPACE CREDITS, that tends to be an issue when it comes to the jobs that are supposed to make the station money. QM and Mining. This sort of just nasty income over time makes QM and Mining completely useless. QM loses one half their function and mining is just completely outclassed by how much money the PTL can pull in compared to crates of ore.

So, to help balance this out I had a couple of suggestions for the PTL and the energy trade.

1: Add a new contact option in the QMs terminal to sell directly beamed power to different clients, (Like Space merchants, but they are other stations, etc) This gives QMs the rights to manage who the power is sold to, but engineering still manages the PTL. At the same time add a console to engineering so they can see who QM is selling power to, at what cost, and what other clients are offering. If there is a better offer, they can ping the QM like a supply request to change it to a a new client. If there isn't a QM around the CE should have rights to override it on either end.

2: Have the option to sell energy by directly beaming it to space (Like its done now) At a much lower cost then what the station currently earns for it. OR you could redirect the beam to a charging machine that takes special batteries (Think SMES sized battery canister packs) and charges them. The uncharged batteries (or you can buy charged from space traders) can be ordered by the QM from the standard supplies section of his terminal (Like next to empty crates as an example) Or the batteries are made at a special fabricator near the PTL.

Battery Sizes should come in small, medium and large sizes, holding more power each tier. When the PTL is set to charge mode, the beam is redirected into the machine. (A redirection mirror could come into play here *wink) Then a engineer pushes a battery into the charger. It gets locked into place and charged to the amount it can hold (lets say for example. A small battery can hold 5MW) After it's full it gets ejected out the other side onto a conveyor belt and put into a spot both engineering and QM have access to. The battery can be either used by the station in an emergency (A new plug port next to the SMES' where you can push the battery into and wrench it in place and it will drain into the SMES' like a gas can into the pipe system) or a QM can grab it, drag it over and either sell it on the open market, or to a space trader for a haggled priced. (Either way, selling power in a charged battery would earn the station x2 more per MW than directly beaming it somewhere)

3: Misc Suggestions for the system. With large batteries, have them only movable by forklift/conveyor belt (Too heavy to push or pull around when fully charged) Add a safety system to the battery charger. When disabled by the CE, it will let engineers set a percentage to overcharge the battery by. With every percent over 100 it will have increasing margin for error with the battery exploding spectacularly. A battery exploding would cause a extreme burst of heat, followed by a gush flood of battery acid that spews out and melts floor tiles and people. (They should also have a random chance to explode if hit with a arc flash, and probably other triggering methods)

Enough rambling on. What do you guys think? How else can we improve the PTL system?

TLR
PTL is OP, Makes QM/Mining useless. Give QM some PTL control. Have a battery maker/charger as an alternate to make more money from charging and selling them.

[Sundance]

Pretty solid suggestions.

[atomic1fire]

I kind of think it would be neat (although potentially frustrating for some players) if the transmission laser could be directed to telescience coords.

Say you find a new area, but it doesn't have enough power to run everything.

Call your buddy the engineer, tell him that you've activated a remote doodad, and let them shoot a space laser in your general direction. (as seen by a new option on their laser computer or whatever they got.

Remote space place delta is now powered up and ripe for whatever gimmick or research you have planned.

Unfortunately since the crew only has one laser, any remote fun times will have to happen one at a time, or hope that last laser shot can keep everything online for more then 5 minutes.

[Silvercloud29]

*snip

Could do something like that, just using the battery system. Add the charger plugs into some of the adventure Z levels like the biodome. Port a battery over. drag it and plug it in instead of fighting with the furnaces.

[Vunterslaush]

I would just like to say that I have powered the biodome with weed, and it was fun as heck.

[Dions]

This is exactly the sort of stuff I like to see added. Although it's complex it's also pretty elegant. Making people work together is also a plus, and I really like the new flavor of death that a huge exploding battery and it's resulting spray of superheated acid would provide.


Besides nobody wants to see any jobs become useless, and no spaceman worth their space salt want things to be easy on the station.

[Erev]

As someone that supported the battery concept I gotta say I'm not a big fan. The batteries would not only be a pain in the ass to move around but would also add in an artificial cap by what the batteries could take.

What might be better would be keeping the laser and adding a reflector dish. This dish could beam the laser out to clients to fulfill contracts selected by the QM. Trader Bob needs 5 minutes of 20MW+ uninterrupted power or Syndi Kate needs a total of 2 terrawatts of power whenever (or on a time limit).

Also let the beam work as it does now but with diminishing returns. This would mean that entire COULD make their own money but they'd want to work with QM for those sweet contracts... And QM would surely want their cut.

Mining's saviour will be when we finally get the rest of the material science system.

[Paineframe]

I am not a big fan of making the laser useful as long as the engine is so fundamentally broken. It's fine as a money generator, since money is useless and you're just adding another dimension of watching useless numbers go up, but right now the engine balance is too broken to tie anything useful to the laser. Hellburns are bug exploits, not skill-based activities.

[Sex_Robot]

I am not a big fan of making the laser useful as long as the engine is so fundamentally broken. It's fine as a money generator, since money is useless and you're just adding another dimension of watching useless numbers go up, but right now the engine balance is too broken to tie anything useful to the laser. Hellburns are bug exploits, not skill-based activities.

I know blank quotes are bad but I cannot add any more to this

[Noah Buttes]

I am not a big fan of making the laser useful as long as the engine is so fundamentally broken. It's fine as a money generator, since money is useless and you're just adding another dimension of watching useless numbers go up, but right now the engine balance is too broken to tie anything useful to the laser. Hellburns are bug exploits, not skill-based activities.

The issue with fixing these bugs is that it would require delving into atmos code. While I am not a coder, I have heard time and again that the code behind atmos is enough to drive men to the depths of madness just by looking at it.

[Frank_Stein]

I kind of think it would be neat (although potentially frustrating for some players) if the transmission laser could be directed to telescience coords.

Say you find a new area, but it doesn't have enough power to run everything.

Call your buddy the engineer, tell him that you've activated a remote doodad, and let them shoot a space laser in your general direction. (as seen by a new option on their laser computer or whatever they got.

Remote space place delta is now powered up and ripe for whatever gimmick or research you have planned.

Unfortunately since the crew only has one laser, any remote fun times will have to happen one at a time, or hope that last laser shot can keep everything online for more then 5 minutes.

So, when I read this, I initially thought you meant some kinda SOL defense thing like what blew off Tetsuo's arm in Akira

[Megapaco]

I would love to see the laser change it's shape and color depending on the power output of the engine.

[UrsulaMejor]

I think the PTL should be able to be set at a percentage of engine output so that you don't have to sit there all round to use it. As it stands, it's got the same antisocial issues of genetics or other things where you stand in front of a computer all by yourself in remote parts of the station

[Zamujasa]

Make it controllable via PDA, so you can hotwire the engine and proceed to check the output and set the laser on the go

[Silvercloud29]

The overall post idea was that, the QM is supposed to be the job that handles all incoming and outgoing transactions on the station. Goods and such. Sure anyone can buy stuff but it's the QMs job to make the station money and provide the station what it needs.
No other job on the station has access to selling anything into the station budget. Mining, botany, science (artifacts) All need to be sold out of QM unless you are trying to make yourself money for something (Space traders on different Z levels) We aren't talking about personal stuff though. Just station supplies and budget.

As it stands, with PTL, engineering bypasses the QM to making the station money. Which the PTL makes A LOT of money, so it makes QM useless as a job. The proposed changes:
Lowering the amount of money the PTL makes per MW.
Give PTL selling control to the QM, and give engineering ways to monitor and suggest to QM who to sell to.
Add an alternative more interactive way to make money then just a set it and forget it setup (Battery charging and sales) That promote people working together between departments. Giving a bonuses for it (Making more money per MW than selling direct power)

Is meant to fix these problems. Yes, hellburns are broken, but you can still balance the PTL despite it.