Nuclear Upgrade (idea)

[EternalGolem]

NUCLEAR UPGRADE IDEA:

Nuclear power, the ultamite source of power. Takes in uranium (or just a reactive ore) and water, puts out radioactive sludge (a new liquid), steam, and a whole lot a power. The exact amounts of each resource are unknown to me but the science people of this forum will inevitably find the data.

The main focus of this update would be radiation and how to stop it. Radiation would cause serious debuffs to most dupe stats and would eventually chip away health due to “Radiation poisoning.”

Lead (new) and Abyssalite would stop radiation. Lead would be the metal and Abyssalite would be the material. Lead would have it's actual numbers (will be added here after a while). Lead would spawn in small veins around nuetronium, and the uranium would spawn there too.

Radiation would radiate from a source and basically act as “germs.” Stuff in proximity would gain radioactivity and “infect” the area. Lead atmo suits or just Rad suits would replace the 300kg copper with 300kg lead and would fully protect dupes from radiation along with all of the normal bonuses.

[EternalGolem]

I have an add-on to this idea. One of the "ruins" has a nuclear reactor that is broken. Once the reactor is inspected, it is unlocked. This could be applied to many good stuffs.

[Michi01]

On 9.10.2017 at 4:00 PM, EternalGolem said:

Nuclear power, the ultamite source of power. Takes in uranium (or just a reactive ore) and water, puts out radioactive sludge (a new liquid), steam, and a whole lot a power.

People have found mentions of a steam turbine in the files and it would be interesting if the nuclear reactor and the steam turbine would be separate buildings, to add more depth and complexity (there could be more things in the future that could make steam for the turbine).

On 9.10.2017 at 4:00 PM, EternalGolem said:

Radiation would radiate from a source and basically act as “germs.” Stuff in proximity would gain radioactivity and “infect” the area.

I had this idea as well when I was thinking about how radiation could work. I guess every nuclear material (uranium, sludge, etc) would act as a source that continually produces more and radiation particles could spread and "die" just like germs, but be displayed on a separate overlay and not be affected by things that affect germs. They should also be capable of passing through vacuums, unlike germs. If they wanted to go even further into depth, they could add different types of radiation.

On 9.10.2017 at 4:00 PM, EternalGolem said:

Lead atmo suits or just Rad suits would replace the 300kg copper with 300kg lead and would fully protect dupes from radiation along with all of the normal bonuses.

Lead should be surrounding the biome with nuclear ores in addition to the usual abyssalite border. Since players will probably want to make suits before entering the biome, it should also be scattered in small veins across other biomes, maybe the chlorine biome. They should also add metal tiles so we can build tiles out of lead to prevent radiation from leaving storage areas with radioactive materials. Metal tiles would also be useful because of their thermal conductivity.

[LeadfootSlim]

On 10/13/2017 at 5:42 AM, Michi01 said:

I had this idea as well when I was thinking about how radiation could work. I guess every nuclear material (uranium, sludge, etc) would act as a source that continually produces more and radiation particles could spread and "die" just like germs, but be displayed on a separate overlay and not be affected by things that affect germs.

Change "Germ overlay" to "Contaminant Overlay" and you can have your Radiation and Germs living happily side-by-side.

Real question, though; if we get lead, do we get lead poisoning? Or is that a step too far?

[Vincie]

The entire thing was mentioned before. I personally see uranium as one of two-three elements of a reactor (along with steel, made from reffined iron and, I don't know, maybe reffined cooper), that would be a source of heat, tons of heat (like 40kW). It would be switched off and on, by being powered (using 60W or so) and it should have a water intake vent, steam output vent. And, since a kilogram of U is more than all the coal and another stuff around the map all together, it should not require refuling... But it sure would require temperature maitnance (so it won't melt down) . And this should be fun to put this temperature above the melting point of thermo switches, that should be craftable from raw metals only. Radiation should spread like germs, but only dividing, with no further multiplication. And it should kill germs, so we could have radio water purification plants or something. Uranium should be extremly rare, like for 1 reactor on the entire map, so keep your hatches awye.

[brummbar7]

Ceramics would probably be a good candidate for a high-heat build material.  And give a use for all the stupid clay everywhere.

[Michi01]

10 hours ago, LeadfootSlim said:

Change "Germ overlay" to "Contaminant Overlay" and you can have your Radiation and Germs living happily side-by-side.

I was thinking from a perspective of wanting to separate these two things because they relate to different game mechanics and because they're completely different things (in the sense of what they are supposed to be and not how they work in the game).
I still agree that they could just be put into one overlay though and wouldn't really mind if they were.

[Coolthulhu]

On 10/12/2017 at 7:13 PM, EternalGolem said:

I have an add-on to this idea. One of the "ruins" has a nuclear reactor that is broken. Once the reactor is inspected, it is unlocked. This could be applied to many good stuffs.

I like that idea of discovery-research. Current research is bad because you do it all in your base at start and most points of "interest" are incredibly boring. Having to discover things could fix research. Though it would have the potential of forcing colonies to get very laggy very fast.

[MF99K]

radium is already in the game, though it can only be spawned via debug

since many soils and minerals contain trace amounts of radioactive materials, there could be some sort of refiner that extracts radioactive minerals from things like granite?

radioactive materials would probably be consumable ores, and would also emit radon gas at a steady rate depending on their half life (ores would also reduce mass on decaying. They would also have proximity boxes so that players would know what areas for dupes to avoid unless they have the proper equipment to handle the ore. Any dupe that gets exposed to radiation too long risks getting sick with radiation poisoning. Symptoms would be reduced athletics (temporary anemia) and vomiting and damage to stamina if left untreated.

but if the ore is used, stored, and disposed of properly, they get a really good source of energy.

 

^{just occured to me that if my dupes can't operate an oil refinery properly without flooding the oil reserve we'd probably get a chernobyl within like five seconds if they were tasked with taking care of a nuclear power plant}

[BlueLance]

I am completely for this, radiation would be an amazing mechanic to deal with, and like EternalGolem said I would also ideally like it to be you have t find certain technologies, forcing people to expand and travel, I used to rarely leave the starter biome, and now I actively look outside it because I have different systems in my base which I love. Was a new learning experience for me.

Edit -  Would germs be killed by radiation? or could they be resistant? I would love the whole idea though, like an invisible layer of CO2 slowly building up which can suddenly and catastrophically kill your dupes.... had that happen when the oxygen was too high up