TEG enhancement: acquire more farts, agent B, and GHC

[smilg]

This is a plan to make the TEG more fun to play and experiment with. Enhancing TEG operation is inordinately difficult (due to resource rarity), when compared to the other engines. So, this plan's method is adding ways to gain certain, troublesome resources.

These resources are: fart gas, oxygen agent B, and graphene hardening compound.

For now, my safest idea for the plan, is a space-based (on the quartermaster console) trader that sells these resources. These traders are fairly reliably available. They can have limited stocks over the round, and they deal in credits which aren't too hard to scrounge up.

There's another, more complicated idea. A trader NPC for interacting with engineers directly. Lives in the space diner, or anywhere accessible and sensible.
This trader deals in barter, like the Salvager Magpie trader (but with a shared barter point account). They buy bounty targets, such as tech equipment salvaged, recycled, or otherwise acquired from the station, and trade rare items that engineers would want. Like farts, agent B, and GHC.

[Kotlol]

I wouldn't MIND an alternate way of the TEG getting resources that isn't mining.

BUT.. only if it's very limited and just enough to get it going a little, but not maintaining it.
It would be expensive and hard to get. Thus forcing engineering to fully rely on mining to keep it going...otherwise this makes mining obsolete for Engineering. Wich is something you should never do.

Anything that allows you to circumenvent other departments needs to be done in moderation.
The only reason Medbay and the Bar have chemical dispensers is because science chems like to experiment and not be providing all day to Medbay and the Bar to do things. Though other departments needs chemistry too, they can also just ask the bar or medbay when science is too busy making triple meth or experimenting.
Also medbay kinda needs chemicals to treat patients or else they die.. so that's why they have that.

Engineering doesn't NEED these upgrades to do their job, but it is WELCOMING to make em accessiable but not in a way it might undermine mining.

[smilg]

Departmental interdependence is nice, in theory. However the design of other engines doesn't really lean that way.

Geothermal is 100% engineers. Nuclear, on Nadir, is again 100% engineers, via the siphon. On Clarion they fully rely on mining for materials, but it stays within the CE's territory.
The singularity only craves usage of Sci's gas coolers. Otherwise, it's 100% engineers, who expand the singulo, build more collectors, set up feeders, collect food. Occasionally mining or cargo are sources of engine food.

Then there's the TEG. TEG's power output without the help of other departments is BAD. 5 to 25 MW before the entire hot loop bursts into flames. Or you can begin a pipeburn and accept that the rest of your life will be babysitting pipes. (Nuclear is the only other engine that explodes if you leave it alone, by the way - and only if you set it up to.)

The ideas in my OP are mostly with the combustion chamber in mind. More resource abundance leads to more experimenting. It's sure to make pipeburns easier too, but I don't know why anyone sane would volunteer to do a high power pipeburn more than once.

[Lord_earthfire]

Tbh, i think engineers should loose access to the siphon on nadir. I always found that weird that it's right in the middle of science and engineers can go in and out.

Personally, i think the TEG needs a full rework. Its either generating a couple MW or TW worth of power without much inbetween.

[Frolicsome Flufficorn]

I would personally like to see a revamp of the entire power system. It annoys me that I can either put in 5 minutes of work to get like 5 MW or like 40 minutes of work to get 10. I know it wouldn't be entirely accurate but I would like the scaling to be more macro. Small changes should yield bigger results. Make me feel like when im doing engineering what im doing to make engine more efficient be that Singularity, Nuclear or TEG feel more powerful and worth while. Currently the only engine I feel that achieves this somewhat if Singularity.

I would like to see GW and TW be more accessible to engineers. And the power requirements of the station set to match the change as well.