New science division: Particle physics

[Zadeon]

No, Cogwerks is saying this would replace the engine.

But wasn't the whole point of this was for research, not just a new engine type?

[Tteckk]

Cogmap 2 looks awesome. Love how the station has been divided up into 'mini stations with air bridges.
Its donut station and good ol Zeta merged into one.

[Sundance]

No, Cogwerks is saying this would replace the engine.

But wasn't the whole point of this was for research, not just a new engine type?

Please don't get rid of the hot/cold loop. It needs to be expanded, not done away completely.Implementing the arc smelter, and moving toxins to engineering for engineers to play with is exactly what it needs.
Inb4 going off topic.

[Captain_Bravo]

No, Cogwerks is saying this would replace the engine.

But wasn't the whole point of this was for research, not just a new engine type?

The Singularity was a research engine as well. The only difference was there wasn't much you could really research about it. This probably will build upon the interplay between research and engineering that was started with the current engine.

[Cogwerks]

More mockup stuff with placeholder junk:

[Crumplehat]

Looks mighty fuckin' neato. Looking forward to how it turns out; I'm still a little disappointed we never got the nuclear reactors working.

[Cogwerks]

Any thoughts on how an oscillating beam/laser -> fusion thing could actually harness the electricity?
Three things that stand out right away are a TEG setup drawing heat from a heatsink under the core, although a line fire with plasma coolant already generates so much power that it'd make the rest kinda pointless. The singularity's old radiation collectors could probably be revamped as another option... or maybe a set of tesla coil-like things near the core that attract arcing bolts. That would look cool as hell but might get laggy, radiation collectors would probably be the most simple solution. Any thoughts or other ideas? QP EVERGRANDE I definitely want your input on this, if you're up for brainstorming, since a lot of this is derived from your particle lab sketches.

Ideally the lens crystals would be interchangeable and craftable, with things like telecrystal lenses doing some really fucked up stuff. Modulated beams converging on a fuel source in the middle could yield a variable effect sorta based around the Precursor power sphere that sits under the ice moon (SPOILERS but not really??) - I'm thinking this layout would sorta be a nod to all the Hemera/Telesci salvaging and research yields from the current station.

[UrsulaMejor]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_mirror
What you've drawn there is a magnetic mirror setup, right? Where plasma is reflected off magnetic mirrors in a "bottle" of magnetic field in a linear fashion.

In setups like this, the most common way to collect the energy is using the high-energy particle capturing protective shielding, which then dumps off the excess heat caused by the high-energy neutron collisions into a coolant loop.

I think it'd be cool if the current engine got to play its original role by acting as the cooling system. You could set up modified radiation-collection arrays like from the singularity engine to collect the high-energy particles using plasma(which is a really dense molecule that's also a great coolant with weird magical properties) to feed directly into the heat differential engine. Obviously, the entire area around the beam is hilariously under-shielded and working around the machine when it's on will irradiate you to death if you're not wearing a radiation suit (heck, technically speaking, high-energy neutrons wouldn't even care about a radiation suit but I'll just assume those things work on space-magic)

The radiation-collectors connected to the current heat engine would be the most true to real life with what resources we have available.

I'm excited for this engine because I can already imagine what might happen if the magnetic bottle were to run out of power!

[atomic1fire]

I'd love to see something like this combine with chemistry and artifact research for SCIENCE.

For instance certain reagents could react to the presents of whatever radiation is released from the engine.

Now what happens if that reaction happens to happen inside of someone?

Possible explosions, radiation, diseases, mutations, etc.

Or some artifacts could either turn on due to the particles, or even work weirdly.

All sorts of deadly science could be done with engineers and scientists on staff.

Perhaps telescience could somehow be involved.

[KikiMofo]

I'd love to see something like this combine with chemistry and artifact research for SCIENCE.

For instance certain reagents could react to the presents of whatever radiation is released from the engine.

Now what happens if that reaction happens to happen inside of someone?

Possible explosions, radiation, diseases, mutations, etc.

Or some artifacts could either turn on due to the particles, or even work weirdly.

All sorts of deadly science could be done with engineers and scientists on staff.

Perhaps telescience could somehow be involved.

Telescience will teleport people into the engine and laugh while they scream about radiation obviously.

[Captain_Bravo]

Here's my idea, have the laser set up to consist of three parts.

Exciter: This is the initial starting point of the laser. You add in raw materials, and get a different beam for different kinds. So Engineers start off with some Molitz, that generates a basic white beam, but by tossing in gemstones they can get different beams for different effects. Miracle Matter would probably do something incredible, like generate a fuckton of power or cause arc flashes or something. Erebite would make engineering explode.

Particulate Lens: This is the midpoint of the laser, where the beam is focused. Different gases have different effects on focusing it. Playing around with various combinations of oxygen, plasma, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide would result in a more or less focused beam, either giving you more efficient energy output, or a much less focused beam, decreasing power output and heating up engineering/melting nearby objects. Putting in the Biodome gas should result in the same effect as the party button in the bar. Start engineering off with a tank of Carbon Dioxide, for moderate performance. Gas is used up as the engine works, and needs to be refilled.

Collector: A giant vat where the laser is focused onto, the collector is filled with a substrate which generates power as the laser hits it. You fill it with chemicals, different chemicals give different effects. Grog, or Initro or something should give insane performance. These are consumed very quickly as the engine operates, (At roughly the same rate chemicals would decay inside a body) and if the vat is ever emptied completely the laser passes through and starts hitting whatever is behind it. Whether that be a person, a wall, or a mirror directing the beam into the AI Core.

This means that the engine is now a focal point for basically all of the resources of the station. You've gotta use a little bit of everything to get peak performance. You can just toss some molitz, C02, and water in and it'll produce a little power, you can bug the different departments to get the best possible mixes and produce insane power, or you can set off on your own to track down the materials needed yourself, and singlehandedly arc flash the entire crew. It also provides several different avenues for sabotage, would require engineers to be more-or-less on the ball to keep running, and could lead to a ton of new effects. I would suggest also adding in a Mining-style power furnace which can be used to kick-start the initial beam. After that, the laser can be powered by using the energy it produces.

What do you think?

[atomic1fire]

What if the arc smelter was combined with that.

People add various chemicals to the engine to make it run faster, or hotter.

The arc Smelter takes ores, melts them into alloys that could be sold or used for specific things.


Now there's an interesting balence.

Do we ignore the arc smelter and try to keep the engine's level of heat down,

Do we superheat the engine and risk frying whatever's in the arc smelter at that time.

Also a possible mean thing to do, load the arc smelter with rocks and some poor sap and pull out a person statue.

[Cogwerks]

More refinements to the mockup:

http://i.imgur.com/Jcozke6.png

[Lantern]

Boy i sure can't wait for some stupid nerd to "accidentally" push me into that beam. Its like putting on an old favorite shirt that flings you across the room the moment you touch it.

[atomic1fire]

If you could rotate the dishes you could just as easily be a huge jerk and missfire the laser right into somebody, or cause an explosion.