Radbolt Accelerator

[supatatty]

If I understand correctly, the only way to get radbolts in Oxygen Not Included is to collect them from nuclear reactors. The game has one reactor, classified as a reactor for research. It produces energy as a byproduct.

I'm worried that this could end up being an artificial bottleneck for gameplay extension. Plus, I'd like to see the game be more interesting. So let's talk about particle accelerators.

Objective:

• Introduce a radbolt-producing, multimachine structure that is grotesquely power-hungry and resource-intensive.
• Introduce an additional class of reactor that does not produce particles, but gives off more power - with which to feed this new machine.

Reactor types:
The game currently has a research reactor. There are of course sundry different reactor types, but if other types aren't planned, then the lowest-effort way to convert it into a power-oriented reactor would be to install neutron reflectors. This could be just a recolour, or have reflectors represented by cartoonish, oversized mirrors.
Reflectors, of course, reflect particles back into the chamber. For ONI this means particles can't leak outside, but there's a gigantic increase in both power & danger.
Perhaps make it too powerful to cool with water. Reflector multipliers could be tied to how exotic a material they are made from.

Particle Accelerator
General:
Particle accelerators are extraordinarily expensive, and consume a preposterous amount of power. So much power, that it must be fed via superconductor wire.

Superconductors:
Conventionally, superconductors only become super-conductive at extremely low temperatures. What the industry calls a "high temperature superconductor" refers to materials that are superconductive in the... 77K (−196.2°C) range. Meanwhile, low temperature superconductors require below 20K.

For powering the accelerator, a high-temperature superconductive link is enough. Think of it as a heavi-watt superconductive wire that needs to be kept below −190 °C.

The low-temperature superconductors within the accelerator itself, though, depending on the technology, may require as little as 1.9K. Superfluid helium is used as coolant.

Superconductors theoretically generate no heat during operation. With video game physics this can be achieved. But what happens you fail to maintain cryogenic conditions (meaning you go above 20K or 77K?). Well, it stops being superconductive. Like any other eletronic device it will produce heat. And because it's conducting millions of watts... it produces apocalyptic amounts of heat, instantly destroying itself and melting surroundings in the process.

There would also need to be a transformer/power converter that outputs, for example, 1 million watts, into a superconductive wire. Alternatively, a supercapacitor (super battery) that accepts traditional power, but only outputs to superconductor wire at unlimited wattage.

Particle source:
For proton colliders this is easy. Just take hydrogen gas, ionise it, and shoot the particle bunches one by one through a perfect vacuum. For simplicity's sake let's call it an injector, and feed it hydrogen.

Particle acceleration:
For proton acceleration, RF cavities are used. They must be fed extreme power at extreme cryogenic temperatures. They produce dangerous radiation.

Particle trajectory correction:
To reduce scattering, particles are centred via magnets. The superconductive magnet coils must be fed extreme power at extreme cryogenic temperatures.

Particle collimation:
Right before the collision, particles are shot through a collimator. This increases "efficiency". Gameplay wise, these could be made from expensive diamond, and increase the value of any particle that goes through it and is consumed for research within one square.

Perhaps make it scalable. 250kW per segment: injector-magnet-RF-magnet for the most basic setup, and inevitably injector-magnet-RF-magnet-RF-magnet-RF-magnet-RF-magnet-RF-magnet-RF-magnet-collimator so Brothgar can brag about producing a 50-particle-long streams in one shot.

I think this would be an interesting alternatve path for advanced users. If you can gather the exotic materials to produce the machines, maintain absurd cryogenic conditions, and then power these machines in short bursts of a million watts, you should be able to produce streams of these otherwise progression-halting particles outright. And you may learn something in the process. What do you think?

[sakura_sk]

28 minutes ago, supatatty said:

the only way to get radbolts in Oxygen Not Included

Not the only way.. You get radbolts by collecting radiation through the radbolt generator. There are radiation sources other than the research reactor. Critters, a plant and space. Another source of radiation is radbolt collision.

[Electroely]

37 minutes ago, supatatty said:

If I understand correctly, the only way to get radbolts in Oxygen Not Included is to collect them from nuclear reactors. The game has one reactor, classified as a reactor for research. It produces energy as a byproduct.

That's not really the only way. The research reactor is strong, but you can collect a good amount of radbolts from
- Shine bugs and their morphs
- Wheezeworts
- Crushed Satellite (on the radioactive planet)
- Space Radiation
- Radioactive waste

if you properly mix and match to get high radiation in one spot.

For high-power, high production reasons you can make a machine that collides radbolts with each other to make even more radbolts. That requires multiple collectors (4-5 from my experience) but you get a very large amount of radbolts so it ends up being worth the energy consumption (480W each).

[supatatty]

On 4/21/2021 at 7:54 PM, sakura_sk said:

Not the only way.. You get radbolts by collecting radiation through the radbolt generator. There are radiation sources other than the research reactor. Critters, a plant and space. Another source of radiation is radbolt collision.

 

On 4/21/2021 at 7:55 PM, Electroely said:

That's not really the only way. The research reactor is strong, but you can collect a good amount of radbolts from
- Shine bugs and their morphs
- Wheezeworts
- Crushed Satellite (on the radioactive planet)
- Space Radiation
- Radioactive waste

if you properly mix and match to get high radiation in one spot.

For high-power, high production reasons you can make a machine that collides radbolts with each other to make even more radbolts. That requires multiple collectors (4-5 from my experience) but you get a very large amount of radbolts so it ends up being worth the energy consumption (480W each).

Thanks for clearing that up. It's probably showing that I (purposefully) haven't played in a while.

Reactors are fun. There are dozens of different types: traditional vs breeder, fast vs thermal, coolant types etc. I'd wager Klei is having trouble finding an energy consumer for a non-research reactor, though. As far as bottomless pit energy sinks go, I think a radbolt accelerator would be both interesting & challenging.

[RageLeague]

There's also the crashed satellite on the third planetoid that produces a lot of radiation near it. It seems like a good source of radbolt.