water, water tanks and their interactions with the environment

[misto]

recently i was reminded about how water tanks behave and i thought it was a good start, but could use improvements

currently, water tanks will, when exposed to heat such as sparks, fire, explosion, whatever you want, seem to become filled with steam rather than water. when you try to take water from the tank, you will instead receive a puff of steam and no water. this is a good attention to detail, but so much more could be done

a. when water turns into steam, it expands and puts pressure on its container. there is a possibility that a water tank exposed to high heat may rupture and jet scalding steam and spill boiling water in the room. this could make water tanks a similarly hazardous counterpart to welding fuel tanks. currently, steam clouds seem harmless, when in fact steam is quite hot and can cause injury. is being doused in steam and boiling water any nicer than the plasma flames that would cause it?

b. okay, lets say the water tanks aboard are strongly built and ignore all that rupturing stuff. shouldnt the steam cloud released when you try to get water from it still at least scald you a bit? and shouldnt the steam inside eventually cool back down into water? ive noticed this problem with certain other items such as drinks at the bar and fried food - if they get hot once they stay super hot despite room temperature being mild

c. why not bring cold into the mix? a water tank exposed to cold could become full of ice and need to be thawed. water spread on the ground in a cold enough room could freeze into a small ice patch.

[Superlagg]

Water tanks could work as an improvised welder tank bomb, I like it!

Also shooting it should make them leak water all over the floor. Then you could drag it around and slip up the whole station.

[Grek]

You can actually freeze a water tank already by click-dragging cryostaline and oxygen into it. Excellent for icing floors.

[Nnystyxx]

I feel like it'd be nice if wet floors were slightly more visible, but that's just me

[misto]

like if the weird wet floor gleam pulsed more rapidly? that sounds fair

my greatest concern is how the release of lots of steam and boiling water would interact with plasma fires. would it dampen them and slow them? or are plasma fires too powerful and hot

what do you think of electrical shock risk when water is spilled onto a tile with exposed wiring? the basic wires are synthrubber-insulated though, so perhaps this is a detail that can be ignored for now

[Frank_Stein]

what do you think of electrical shock risk when water is spilled onto a tile with exposed wiring? the basic wires are synthrubber-insulated though, so perhaps this is a detail that can be ignored for now

I dunno, that sounds like it could be a neat thing. Pour water out all over the floor and then toss a stun baton into it to stun people standing in the water

[The Grim Sleeper]

I dunno, that sounds like it could be a neat thing. Pour water out all over the floor and then toss a stun baton into it to stun people standing in the water

Frank, I think you might need an exorcist; Iirc, this is the second time I need to warn you that you have been possessed by a brilliant but malevolent spirit and posting it's horrible gloriously evil intentions online.

But seriously, the horrors of OP-stun attacks combined with the horrors of chemistry related mass-genocide might just be a bit too much !!win!! to survive. I am all for it, but there will be complaints.

[atamusvaleo]

Steam burns are horriible. The phase change from a gas to a liquid releases a lot more energy than water that's simply cooling. This would be quite dastardly.

The crew stands idle watching as the water slowly creeps toward an electrified grille until ZAP! everyone is a burnt out husk, except for the janitor still mopping away with his rubber golashes.