Improve engine effects beyond 4MW?

[Spy_Guy]

I would like this a lot. Watching the engine go ballistic was the primary reward for working the engine prior to the pumps being removed. Now it hits the top level almost instantly and the new reward is ungodly high numbers. Watching the engine go absolutely batshit would rock and improve the experience significantly.

New color changes would be cool. Perhaps a brilliant white light for 5MW? Anyone in the vicinity of the brilliant white light is stunned unless they are wearing sunglasses/meson's (preferably mesons). This could make the hotloop room a hazardous area for non-traitors, and a trap area for traitors.

The hotloop room is already extremely hazardous during any self-respecting hellburn.
(and so is the inner engineering circle, engine core, cold loop room, engineering control, port primary hallway, tool storage and a large portion of the catwalks above engineering)

Honestly more uses around the station when the engineers have did a good job, like energy-sapping portals in telescience, for example. But the advantage of it should benefit engineers more so, because it was them who did in the first place, including people without powergloves. The arc-smelter room is curious, but that is definitely something engineers could play with. A SWITCHROOM TO MAKE SERIOUS MONEY *SCREAM

It would be swell to have a switchroom. Telescience stealing your stuff? Flip the switch, then demand money and a written apology. It's already possible for a good setup to provide power to a permanent telesci portal.

One issue is the actually the arc flashes for non-traitor engineers. There has been many rounds where an engineer has potentially made the engine too powerful and causes arc flashes, which made crew members attempt to sabotage the engine because they're tired of getting stunned and whipped by the arc flashes. The AI is well in it's laws to help the crewmembers under law 1.
So arc flashes are stopping non-traitor engineers from making the engine a mega-death-burn, and that's kinda bad.
On default arc flashes should occur from APC's. There should be a method using insulated gloves, something made from electronics to ground the APC's to stop arc flashing, so non-traitor engineers can continue their quest for infinite power.

This is not how arc flashes work at all. What makes you say that?

The power reaching the station at large is regulated by the SMES. They receive the raw power from the engine, and output a fixed amount (excess is discarded *scream). The power in the grid needs to be >2,5 MW for the APCs to start arc flashing. Even if all the SMES were set to max output they would not reach that number.

That's why you can walk around and beat crime over the head without worrying about an APC souring your fun, in spite of hearing the growl of an engine outputting >4 MW / GW / TW / PW / EW (nice job)

Now, why does this happen sometimes? Simple answer: an engineer has decided, either out of malice, good intentions or stupidity, that the power going to waste is bad and have wired the main station grid directly to the engine output cables, bypassing the SMES (referred to as hotwiring the engine).

Why do you think arc flashes happen randomly, again?