How would you improve the singularity engine?

[twoski]

Compared to the TEG, the singularity is kind of bland in terms of what engineers can do with it. You turn it on and let it do its thing, and that's it. You can't minmax anything to squeeze more energy out of it.


So how would you make it more interesting and enthralling for engineers to use it?  I was thinking about how cool it would be if you could use some sort of teleporter tech to poke the black hole so it gives off more radiation (not very scientific but you can get away with some abstraction here). Pushing the envelope would result in power surges or something of that nature which could either destroy a SMES or fuck up your arrays or something. Something to make engineering a bit more flavorful and interesting.

[Kovirii]

dump things into it to make it go faster (like people)

[Berrik]

TG's works by having it start small, and get larger as it's fed/shot by a particle accelerator. Of course, TOO big and it escapes containment.

[twoski]

TG's works by having it start small, and get larger as it's fed/shot by a particle accelerator. Of course, TOO big and it escapes containment.

I think the singularity should only ever escape via gross negligence or intentional sabotage, compared to the TEG it already has several downsides and is much more dangerous. Punishing people for trying to get more energy out of the engine should be something less disastrous imo

[KikiMofo]

The only way the TEG can be used as a weapon is either hotwiring it or using the traitor powergloves. Personally the only thing I want from the sing is the singularity bomb back.

[Frank_Stein]

Idea: Increasing the power generation of Singularity causes anomalous events as the fabric of space and time are stretched thin.

Things along the same vein as the random events that can occur

[Berrik]

I like that idea a lot.

[Xeram]

Personally, I always liked the low amount of attentiveness actually needed to set up an singularity and have it run. You set it up, turn on some SMES settings and go off to have fun elsewhere rather than babysit a tempermental Elder god fueled by temperature differences that moderately poor management of can render a majority of the station on fire, pushing objects around randomly and unpredictably, and dropping everyone dead with e+21 hotlung.

[Superlagg]

The ultraheating mostly happens when a badguy engi finds a way to dump hellburn hotloop gas into the atmos pipes. Otherwise, it mostly stays around Engineering and only bakes the nearby departments if the CE is particularly on their hellburn game. Even then, aside from the fueltanks exploding, it is perfectly survivable with internals.

As opposed to a loose singuloth which totals everything it touches and ends the round when it gets loose.

Plus, a basic charburn is really easy to set up and super unlikely to disappearify the station.

[twoski]

the singularity could be easily tweaked to be a bit less disastrous once it's loose, just make it so it doesn't move around too much and perhaps give engineering some means of killing it or pushing it out of the map

[Berrik]

The singularity is already really weaksauce even when it is loose.

[Triacontakai]

I really don't know why people like the singularity engine other than nostalgia. It has absolutely 0 variability when setting it up, and if by some miracle it actually manages to get loose, it can be safely ignored 60% of the time as it just fucks off into space.

If there was any kind of way to customize the setup and it had actually fun effects (like the random events mentioned earlier) I'd be on board with it.

[Wisecrack34]

Singulo revamp plox

[Zamujasa]

I'm not sure the singularity engine really can be improved. There's not much to adjust once it's running, or even before it's running, beyond field size.

Comedy option: Make a "mini-singulo" that's basically the Experimental Local Generator, but it outputs ~100kW to the power network. Takes up one tile, can be dragged around. Acts like a gravity well (pulls little objects towards it). Hitting it too much causes it to malfunction, emitting radiation, EMP bursts, and eventually breaking the jam jar and releasing a one-tile singularity that acts like a black hole before evaporating.

So, less gigantic engineering project, more solar-like utility.

[twoski]

I'm not sure the singularity engine really can be improved. There's not much to adjust once it's running, or even before it's running, beyond field size.

Think outside the box, the singularity engine is already a completely fictional thing so it's not like creative liberties cannot be taken.

With the TEG there are ways to fuck around and increase power output and tweak things to your liking. Who's to say a similar system can't be devised for the singularity engine using some fun pseudo-science game mechanics?

For instance, the whole array system could have actual plasma hookup lines and players could have to use their knowledge of toxins to mix a perfect combination of plasma and water (or something, this is just an example) to supply the array with the proper mixture to maximize the energy they produce since IIRC they do some fuckery with plasma and black hole radiation to produce energy. If the user makes a weak plasma mixture, the energy output will be low. If they make the mixture too volatile, it produces too much heat or something.