Suggestion: Rework The Tesla Engine

[Renfield]

 

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

 

[Keroman]

 

There have been other ideas regarding the Tesla in the past which have come to little or naught. I think the most that people were willing to do is lower the energy output of the tesla so that it puts out less energy than the singularity at first, but slowly builds in output over the course of the round.

 

I like the idea of having the grid short out. Maybe occasionally a cable somewhere just gets fried and needs to be replaced (of course anyone not wearing shock-proof gloves will get fried if they try to fix it!) Electrical fires would give Atmos Techs something to do and cause interesting chaos that's not directly antag related. Having the engine simply shut off occasionally (in-game it could be explained a failsafe to prevent "overload" of the grid) and the generator would need to be replaced, meaning the emitters have to be shut off, wait for the field generators to stop working, drag the burnt-out generator out and put the new one in, then start everything up again. This would also create a need for Engineering to have a spare singulo/tesla generator on standby at all times in order to do a quick swap. Maybe make spare generators orderable by Cargo?

 

[chopchop1614]

I do like this idea, I have to say that the Tesla is "OP" when it comes to choosing an engine.

[Renfield]

 

Engineering to have a spare singulo/tesla generator on standby at all times in order to do a quick swap. Maybe make spare generators orderable by Cargo?

 

Or have Cargo order the parts and have the Engineers assemble them, perhaps?

 

[Rurik]

 

I completely agree that Tesla needs a change, as there is no reason to choose singularity over it unless you think someone may let the Tesla out. Which at the start of the round, role play wise there is no reason to suspect that as nothing has happened yet. The possibility of the grid shorting out, or a wire somewhere sometimes gets fried and possibly causes a fire would be a good way to balance the two.

 

Another way of balancing it is to make it so some of the parts for the Tesla have to ordered from cargo, so therefore if someone wants to have the amazing Tesla, they will have to wait in line at cargo. However this may be nerfing the Tesla too much, as many people would likely set up the singularity instead of waiting for parts for the Tesla.

 

There have been other ideas regarding the Tesla in the past which have come to little or naught. I think the most that people were willing to do is lower the energy output of the tesla so that it puts out less energy than the singularity at first, but slowly builds in output over the course of the round.

 

I dont think this would balance it out, because no maintenance will always triumph over effectiveness in my opinion, however perhaps I am wrong, and some CE's would prefer singularity in that regard.

 

[Purpose2]

 

I'd imagine tesla engine was implemented to help out low pop rounds and the like.

 

I think the best suggestion would be if the server has over 50 people, the Tesla engine doesn't even spawn. Would be a simple change I imagine - but I haven't looked at the mess of code that is the server.

 

[davidchan]

I just want my super matter back

[Spacemanspark]

I just want my super matter back

[GelatinousGlob]

 

I just want my super matter back

 

 

This right here. There is literally no good place to setup a supermatter engine either because we need a larger, reinforced wall area. However certain admins complain everytime we want an area for it because 'its just a large empty box' except that is exactly what is needed. No vents or pipes (besides maybe the edge of the room if you must) and a large square powered area. The only 'safe' place for a SM is secure storage which requires removing all that trash in there, making an ultra-compact SM with an extremely confusing layout of normal, scrubber, and supply pipes layered on top of eachother. The new areas around maintenance? Barely large enough to autism fort and lack reinforced walls which means everyone will die from radiation. I built one int he old bar once and literally had to block off all the way down to the chapel due to radiation killing people.

 

Back to the topic at hand, Tesla is too power, too easy, no downsides. Unless tesla becomes far more dangerous or requires some maintenance, it should have far far far lower energy output, barely meeting station needs early int he shift. Safety should have a cost.

 

[Spacemanspark]

 

We used to have a roundstart SM with a roundstart room which was perfect.

We also had a custom singulo sprite which I miss dearly.

 

[Fruerlund]

There are a lot of ideas with new engines/electricity system, but maybe we should consider looking into upping the power cost of different things, LS, Computers, Science etc. making it more different and cost more than it already does. That way command would actually have to priotize what to spend the power on.

[davidchan]

 

Apcs have a hard limit of their input output rates that makes tweaking powernet usage a nightmare, without recoding how apcs function the only other solution would be adding more apcs.

 

As for SM setup, there was a pr or suggestion a while back that made the containment area a large empty room with materials one would need to assemble what ever engine you wanted. It was shotdown because "too much work for round start engies"

 

Getting tg rapid pipe dispenser would alleviate most of the problem, but our pipe system isn't compatible at the moment. Making things like the turbine relevant and competive would also help( currently turbine is capped at 150kw without upgrades and that's 30 minutes of work.)

 

[Coldflame]

A change nobody seems to suggest is adjusting SMES units so they can't vent excess power as effectively- meaning that overloading the grid unintentionally is a genuine risk associated with the more heavy-duty engines. This would force engineers to juggle the PA when running the tesla to keep it within an area where it's producing enough power without producing too much.

[GelatinousGlob]

That is an interesting idea, overpowering the SMES could either cause heat or allow excess power to leak through them. It would be cool if we had a cooling system or room for SMESs or otherwise had to balance the engine power to them. Maybe bother, if SMESs get too hot then excess power starts to leak through. This means SMESs would benefit from science upgrades, you can use atmos systems to cool SMES, and you can balance the engine power to how many SMESs you have.

[Rurik]

 

A change nobody seems to suggest is adjusting SMES units so they can't vent excess power as effectively- meaning that overloading the grid unintentionally is a genuine risk associated with the more heavy-duty engines. This would force engineers to juggle the PA when running the tesla to keep it within an area where it's producing enough power without producing too much.

 

I think that this would be a interesting change, and one for the better in my opinion. I support this.

 

[Shadeykins]

 

A change nobody seems to suggest is adjusting SMES units so they can't vent excess power as effectively- meaning that overloading the grid unintentionally is a genuine risk associated with the more heavy-duty engines. This would force engineers to juggle the PA when running the tesla to keep it within an area where it's producing enough power without producing too much.

 

I think that this would be a interesting change, and one for the better in my opinion. I support this.

 

This is unfortunately easily fixed/cheesed by hooking in the backup power SMES arrays, or solar SMES arrays and setting them to charge without having an output.

 

A little more work, but still easily circumvent-able.

 

[Earthdivine]

As much as I believe the Tesla should be changed, as Goofball keeps pointing out in PR's there's not much reason to until Power matters. As it stands right now we don't even need the engines much, Solar Panels can power the station for the most part without much excess power. Goonstation encourages better power management by using the excess power to send off station for more money, but as it stands there's really no reason to change much engine wise since it doesn't matter.