[MERGED PR] Nucular Fishin' Engine

[github_bot]

PULL REQUEST DETAILS



[INPUT WANTED][FEATURE]
About the PR

🐟

Status: APPROVED :dancers:

Adds a nuclear fission engine with matsci and gas integration to the available power generating engines.

Design doc: https://hackmd.io/@amylizzle/nuclearfission

Draft wiki page: https://wiki.ss13.co/User_talk:Amylizzle



Why's this needed?
More engine good.

Changelog

Code:

changelog
(u)Amylizzle, Danger Noodle, WALPVRGIS, ZeWaka
(*)Adds a nuclear fission engine which replaces the TEG on Clarion. Sprites by WALPVRGIS and ZeWaka, mapping by Danger Noodle.
(+)Make reactor components out of mined and alloyed material: pizza control rods, ice heat exchangers, erebite fuel rods.
(+)Feed gas into the reactor to cool it and use the heat to generate power in the turbine.
(+)Mechcomp integration as standard!

PULL REQUEST DETAILS

[DismasOfAmerica]

Chernobyl 13

[zululerman]

We really need more power generation methods teg gets stale after a while and singulo is boring but THIS this has potential

[Lucky.Cobra]

ngl i dont like engie and it bores the heck outta me but this looks dope

[Oremir]

I like the idea of a Fission engine of some kind, could potentially promote some nice coöperation between Engineering and Mining to try and get more radioactive material.

[Kotlol]

FINALLY! I complained about engineering needing more.. and you provide!

[DioChasek]

Yay another alternative to power Oshan because I hate hotspots.

[Maegor]

If this get's added, and I hope it does, please change Destiny's engine to this. It'll finally stop engineers from incinerating the halls.

[DioChasek]

We will replace it with radiation in Destinys halls I call it win!

[ohjoy]

I like this! Some feedback:

• Why a new fuel rod item? Why not just let people make rods directly (with metal/etc. sheets) and slot them in?
  
• Neutron Moderators are important in nuclear reactors but I didn't see any mention of them in the design doc. Making the reactor a big container might be good enough. It would be cool if chemicals besides Water had different effects (e.g. Radium produces passive power but makes it easier to meltdown, etc.) The TEG uses viscosity, maybe you could use something else like heat capacity?
  
• It would be nice if a meltdown was less "Nuke time, I win" and more "Catastrophic levels of radiation", like the random event, even more than the black hole's. A TEG failure burns you alive, a singuloose eats the station, I think it would be appropriate for a meltdown to emit unbearable amounts of radiation, a kind of disaster trinity. Maybe with just a bit of explosions and heat as a treat, since you are including piping.
  

I don't have anything to say about how the power will be calculated since I'm not familiar with the inspirations you listed.
Overall, it looks great so far!

[amylizzle]

I like this! Some feedback:

• Why a new fuel rod item? Why not just let people make rods directly (with metal/etc. sheets) and slot them in?
  
• Neutron Moderators are important in nuclear reactors but I didn't see any mention of them in the design doc. Making the reactor a big container might be good enough. It would be cool if chemicals besides Water had different effects (e.g. Radium produces passive power but makes it easier to meltdown, etc.) The TEG uses viscosity, maybe you could use something else like heat capacity?
  
• It would be nice if a meltdown was less "Nuke time, I win" and more "Catastrophic levels of radiation", like the random event, even more than the black hole's. A TEG failure burns you alive, a singuloose eats the station, I think it would be appropriate for a meltdown to emit unbearable amounts of radiation, a kind of disaster trinity. Maybe with just a bit of explosions and heat as a treat, since you are including piping.
  

I don't have anything to say about how the power will be calculated since I'm not familiar with the inspirations you listed.
Overall, it looks great so far!

Hi, thanks for the feedback!
1) Honestly I've been thinking about ditching the fuel rod item, since as you say, any material component is basically a fuel rod. The counter to that is that I'm messing with mass, so fuel rods are 2-3x more massive than other components, and so it's more efficient to have your fissile material in a fuel rod than say, in a gas channel. It's all still very much rough edges, so a lot of this is subject to change.
2) Neutron modulation is being handled relatively simply, in that neutrons are either low, medium, or high velocity and that collisions knock them down a velocity step (except when they hit fissile material and are consumed). Collision chance is currently determined by density, but I may look into other material properties as well. Also, plasma is going to act as an anti-moderator, accelerating neutrons, because that's kind wacky and very much in the flavour of plasma. No liquids though, because the liquid handling system sucks. This here is a gas cooled/moderated reactor
3) That's very much the plan - neutrons that aren't absorbed by the fuel are going to leak out of the reactor, and a meltdown is going to be less "boom" and more "oh god everything is super radioactive and melted and stuck in the reactor and so very hot". The turbine might explode, there will be plasma fires, and ungodly amounts of rads produced.

[Ikea]

I think balancing core nuclear reactions by unrelated matsci stats will lead to a balance mess.

[Decarcassor]

I think balancing core nuclear reactions by unrelated matsci stats will lead to a balance mess.

Yeah matsci being the mess that it is, its probably better if the reactor runs of pure radioactive material for the fuel rods at least.

I would assume the default rods would be made of cerenkite. With erebite and neutronium being the high risk high reward alternatives.

But there is also plasmastone and koshmarite as low intensity radioactive materials. I wonder what theses could be used for ? Koshmarite especially is weird eldritch matter and eldritch artefact are know to have anomalous X-ray readings in artlab. Maybe there is something fun to do with it. But lets see how the basics work first.

[ohjoy]

2) Neutron modulation is being handled relatively simply, in that neutrons are either low, medium, or high velocity and that collisions knock them down a velocity step (except when they hit fissile material and are consumed). Collision chance is currently determined by density, but I may look into other material properties as well. Also, plasma is going to act as an anti-moderator, accelerating neutrons, because that's kind wacky and very much in the flavour of plasma. No liquids though, because the liquid handling system sucks. This here is a gas cooled/moderated reactor

Oh, I didn't mean engaging with Goon's weird-ass liquid simulation. I meant treating the reactor like a reagent container and calculating properties based off its contents, the same way the TEG's blowers are reagent containers and change temperature, efficiency, etc. based off the reagents inside them.

[DisturbHerb]

speedmerge this in its current state 👀