Ship Power Plants

TheLordofError wrote:

LONG

That would appeal to those who like premade things, while those who like customization want, well, customization.

I had a idea for how to appeal to everyone:

There are 3 types of energy generators, solar, quantum, and fusion.


Solars generate a constant, medium-small stream of energy. Theres different sizes for different uses, and it doesn't work out of sunlight. It's cheap, easy, free, and self explanitory.


Quantum generators are somewhat expensive and generate energy for absolutly free, anywhere. They can be programmed to output a lot in a short moment or over time, but they have one universal flaw. After being turned on, they can't be turned completly off; and they completly fry their internal mechanism's after a semi-random amount of energy(up to 5% less or more than a set amount that depends on the model). They are mainly designed for tasks that only need a single burst of energy, like starting Fusions.


Fusion generators are the uni-generators, they are used everywhere where a Qgen, Sgen, or plain old power crystal(aka battery) doesn't work. There are 3 different sizes of them; tiny, large, and military-grade.

Tinys hardly larger than a torch, they are un-customizable (other then being able to use a few different fueltypes) and have to have energy supplied in order to start. I'll try to expand on the fueltypes and such later. Their mostly harmless, but standing next to one

Large Fusions are the middleman, you can either craft the premade version, or take the empty shell and add onto it(like the IC2 nuclear reactor, but with different physics). The premade is easy to use, you can use a few different fuel types and you can choose to either supply it with energy or throw in a little antimatter to start it for free. The output varys depending on the fuel, as does the starting energy. The empty shell version needs parts to be added in a grid(almost exactly like IC2 reactors) but it requires a (cont)

indepth knowlage of the physics of fusion reactors. And let me tell you, those physics are really, really complex. The grids are 20x20. This however allows for a great deal of customization, and can be optimized for certain tasks and fuel types. These would be moderately deadly when destroyed.

Military grade reactors are for ships that need a LOT of power. They are made from premade blocks, which I will list once I research the subject more. They can be as big as wanted, and are the only reactors that can possibly undergo P-P-P-P(proton-proton-proton-proton) fusion, which is what the sun uses. The reason that only military grade reactors can undergo this type of fusion is that it usually requires a, yknow, star to start. It has the advantage of requiring only the most common resource in the universe to start, outputing huge amounts of energy, and actually spiting out pure iron once it runs long enough. Military grade reactors can ofc use other fuel types, and only the most advanced reactors could undergo P-P-P-P fusion. Do not stand anywhere near a breach in the external hull of a running military grade reactors if you like being composed of atoms in a soild state.

Guys why don't you just save the time and convert industrialcraft2 into something you can use in ship power so you save time and could work on some more basic things.

Cason22 wrote:

Guys why don't you just save the time and convert industrialcraft2 into something you can use in ship power so you save time and could work on some more basic things.

Because this is entertaining, and the generators proposed here go well beyond that of industrialcrafts reactors. These generators allow for customization, which is a main component of FC.

Also, addon to buggy, it doesnt just have to be iron, the military grade reactor can output anything depending on the length of time it runs, tungsten, iron, carbon, titanium etc. but other than that, your proposal is good.

If you had a big enough ship, like that 600k+ ship in the "Size Matters Not" video, you could in theory build a antimatter generator. I argued against it in the weapons thread but I realized that if the ship was big enough, it could house a reactor that size.





P.S. Could you build a ship out of wool? I am building a small fleet on my server for when this comes out and they are mainly made out of wool because it looks best.

Quote :

P.S. Could you build a ship out of wool? I am building a small fleet on my server for when this comes out and they are mainly made out of wool because it looks best.

Last time I checked, wool doesn't stand up well to the vacuum of space. I suspect, at least in my model, that there will be various new metals specifically designed for use in space ship construction.

As for the anti-matter generator, I like the idea of a gigantic power supply for a large ship, however, I think smaller scaled reactors are going to win over, you'll just need a lot of them to power the subsystems of a larger vessel, although there has been talk of different size power supplies for different size vessels, its all going to come down to making a decision when we finalize our ship layout model and have an idea of what to expect.

Although the more small generators spread over the ship, the more places you could shoot and start a chain reaction explosion. If you house a single antimatter generator deep in the ship, it would be a lot less easy to destroy. Obviously, this could not work for a small cruiser/diplomatic ship, but for something like a dreadnought, it would be quite nicer for you not to have to spend all your resources building ridiculous amounts of armor.


P.S. On the wool thing, . I just finished building a giant Hades Class super dreadnought out of grey wool. Thats 2 weeks of my life wasted.

screens? and how many blocks did you use? Just for curiosities sake, I don't think its a waste of time if it helps us to calculate some scale, I know we've had debates as to the appropriate size for ships.

Ohh... I already deleted the map. Phooey.

GroundBurg_Coder13 wrote:

Cason22 wrote:

Guys why don't you just save the time and convert industrialcraft2 into something you can use in ship power so you save time and could work on some more basic things.

Because this is entertaining, and the generators proposed here go well beyond that of industrialcrafts reactors. These generators allow for customization, which is a main component of FC.

Also, addon to buggy, it doesnt just have to be iron, the military grade reactor can output anything depending on the length of time it runs, tungsten, iron, carbon, titanium etc. but other than that, your proposal is good.

I said iron because ideally a reactor would filter it out, up to iron everything P-P-P-P fusion produces can be fused further for more energy, but if you try to fuse iron you lose energy. It's actually ironic(PUN), one of the most common metals is pure poison to stars, once a star makes iron its the begining of the end.

@ The Other Posts

Nope, you definitly don't want to fly a ship made of wool. If it doesn't fall apart or burst into flames the instant the engines start then you'll die of either a rare disease called lack-of-air-syndrome or acute radiation poisoning once you get into space.


A antimatter reactor doesn't need to be very big btw. I mean, considering it's nature a pocketsized version would be a bad idea, but it wouldn't need to be massive either. Anti-matter is rather rare though. Really rare. Infact, buying a ounce of anti-matter at current rates would cost several trilion american dollars. Thats why I think my idea would be a good compramize(wow my spelling is getting worse by the day), instead of reacting anti-matter for energy use it to start a fusion reaction.