Hey guys,
So I've gone through a few threads here on the forums and a consensus I seem to be getting is that Engineering, in recent times, has become quite a dull job, having not all that much to do before the implementation of the Tesla Engine, but even less so now due to it apparently requiring no maintenance whatsoever.
Now, I don't usually play Engineering, so what I'm saying here is as an outsider, but I would like to take the opportunity to invite those who do play Engineering on a regular basis to give their input here.
That being said, as the title implies, I don't believe the Tesla Engine should be removed completely, rather I wonder if it would be possible to looking into making some amendments to it, for example, the capacity to fail (assuming of course, it can't currently fail on it's own without malicious input from a crewmember).
I've heard several complaints that the TE has become the go-to soft option as once it's up, the Engineers can literally just leave it.
I believe in one post, someone said that once the CE has ordered it's installation (apparently CEs invariably choose to have the TE ordered over the Singularity these days), they literally just sit around and hope a bomb goes off or a compartment decompresses so they actually have something to do on the station that NT is paying them to be on.
So, my suggestion, to kick things off:
Just as the Singularity has the capacity to be fed too much and break out of it's containment field, give the Tesla Engine the capacity to short out, blow a few circuits in various areas of the station, maybe a few electrical fires.
This could be instigated by outside interference of course, debris getting caught in the currents, a stray meteor hitting just the wrong place and/or just a small percentile (not too small as to be nigh statistically impossible, but enough that it may happen once every few rounds) chance that the circuit could just overload/short out.
N.B. electrical short outs with that kind of voltage can also be quite explosive, giving our Engineers the opportunity for station maintenance as well as the sense of urgency that comes with having the station's power source suddenly go out.
Any thoughts/opinions on this would be greatly appreciated