new engine: fission reactor (try 2)

[CrazyAmphibian]

[content]
reopen of #36853 since i'm back to it.

sprites were made by RealestEstate, and updated by Eneocho/No

What this does

adds a new engine: fission reactors.

fission reactors are

• a long term power source
• costly to set up
• a way to get useful byproducts
• able to be customized to the needs of the station

what is added?

• the engine itself
• a new gas
• 5 new reagents
• associated cargo orders

the reactor is a multi-tile engine, whose stats are dictated by the design of it. Besides the design being flexible, so are the fuels you can put into it.
Different fuels have different lifespans, power outputs, and byproducts. The reactor must be constantly cooled, or risk a meltdown.
Luckily for the crew, the reactor is equipped with an automatic shutdown should it lose power, or get too hot (though a saboteur and/or engineer could disable this)

Future updates could add more fuels or reagents to put into the reactor quite easily.

media gallery:

the cargo orders avalible

the starter kit setup (screenshot is using old sprites)

a proposal for a reactor room on box (new sprites)

the reactor UI

the fuel machine, as well as the radon gas canister

Why it's good

gives engineers something else to do that has some complexity and customizability. Another way to generate power, another way for traitors to blow up the station, and adds some more ways to get reagents and and new ones to play with.

How it was tested

booted into a test server to ensure that reactors could be built from components in different configurations, the cargo orders were correct, and that nothing broke under normal conditions.

Changelog

🆑

• rscadd: A new engine has been added: fission reactors! Used in conjunction with a TEG, they can make a respectable amount of power with a low upkeep.
• rscadd: Fission reactors can either be ordered from a cargo crate, or unlocked with the help of the science department and miners.
• rscadd: Fueling a fission reactor will require some outside assistance. Ask a miner for some uranium, or the chemist for some radium.
• rscadd: Fission reactors can convert certain non-fuel reagents into them to more exotic ones.
• rscadd: Fission reactors will produce a new gas as a byproduct: Radon. Radon is highly radioactive, and can supercharge the supermatter (caution is advised)

[west3436]

For the love of Nar-Sie please just use TGUI or Nano so we don't have a random snowflake CSS UI. I think the sprites are cool but don't fit their surroundings at all.

[west3436]

Also this just seems like a RUS-T with the setup difficulty of an AME. What really makes this engine unique?

[CrazyAmphibian]

Also this just seems like a RUS-T with the setup difficulty of an AME. What really makes this engine unique?

as for why it's not a "RUS-T but AME":

1. the power output is somewhere between the two, with it really tapering out in the MW range unless you really au the tism.
2. a roundstart reactor would be set up similarly to the ame (add fuel, raise rods), though is a bit more involved, since you'd need to add coonant to the lines, so i'd say in terms of roundstart complexity, it's more in line with the SME. (this is assuming it comes roundstart)
3. there's a choice of fuels. AME doesn't have a choice, RUS-T only has like 2 that matter.

as for what makes it unique:

1. it's the first engine that produces (meaningful) byproducts. currently every engine exists soley to make power with, and secondary products (if any) are treated as waste.
2. the interior is customizable to the wants of the engi. you can forego safety for power by not including control rods, you can make a reactor with the purpose of burning through fuel as fast as possible to get the byproducts, or you can build something to just power the station for the round and do something else.
3. there's a complex fuel system. The shard's gas system, while interesting as a concept, is just "nitrogen for normies, oxygen for power", and burn chambers only have 1 ideal ratio to burn with. Every fuel is a tradeoff between attainability, fuel duration, and power output. uranium has both duration and output, but will require help from miners to get. radium is a pretty shit fuel, but is much easier to obtain, though it also has a different byproduct output, so there's still a reason to use it even if you have uranium.

it draws aspects from all engines to make it a bit familiar to engineers, while still giving them something different to do. like the SME, you need to actively cool it or bad things happen. like the AME, you need to set up a building with a dedicated controler. like the burn chamber, you need to hook it to the TEG.

[CrazyAmphibian]

new fuel machine UI to be muh tee gee you eye. looking for feedback.

[angryturnip]

new fuel machine UI to be muh tee gee you eye. looking for feedback.

what about the sprites for the machine itself?

[Eneocho]

what about the sprites for the machine itself?

WYSI

[cloutcode]

i'm being told it's sovl and it's kino

[angryturnip]

what about the sprites for the machine itself?

WYSI

isn't that the job of the person making the PR?

[CrazyAmphibian]

the much await sprite update has arrived

[west3436]

Updated branch to fix linters. Reviewing now

[west3436]

Still hate the use of gotos but we'll give it a test merge

[west3436]

@CrazyAmphibian update wiki pls

[Eneocho]

update wiki pls

The in-game manual is solid enough for most engineers, it's good enough to tide us over while the wiki gets updated.