'Batteries'

[Fossaman]

So, I was thinking/bored the other day...and to fix this I decided to bring up the subject of batteries or supplementary reactors again.

The basic idea is this: An item or device that you can hook up to something that uses power. The item will remove all or part of the power drain from that item from the main reactor.

Supplementary reactors would have to take up a device slot; and they would have to be refueled. I think this would be too much work to be worthwhile. Instead, why not have a self installing/uninstalling battery. You plug it into the reactor to charge it, unplug it once it's charged, and pop it onto a weapon or other device. While charging, it would put a drain on the reactor equal to it's maximum output.

What think you?

[Betelgeuse]

I think batteries that temp increase the max power of your reactor would make a simpler item while still giving them all the uses that you want batteries to have. Plus you can stock up on them and hope that you don't run out or you would have to turn off something.
This plugging them into different things and charging them seems too clumsy. Plus charging would only give you the same energy back as you put in to them so why waste your power when you can waste the stations power

[Fossaman]

That makes sense. Your way would probably work better.

Maybe you could return them once they're drained to get a fraction of the cost back?

On a related note, I wouldn't mind seeing a capacitor device: Allowing you to use stuff too big for your reactor normally for short periods of time without overloading. Any ideas on how that could be done?

[Vasdema]

Mmm.. I like the capacitor idea. Even with a 1GW enhanced to 1.2GW, you've got to be picky about your devices if you're using a Lazarus Shield Generator...

If you're hooked on the drain and return for a refund idea I guess you could maybe use charges somehow, but it would be a lot easier if it was drained in one go and replaced with an empty capacitor. Or if that wasn't realistic enough, perhaps a one use catalyst that you chuck in your reactor and it makes it burn cleaner or something.

As for the coding... okay I'm curious. I'm gonna go check out some theories.

[Czert]

Maybe you could return them once they're drained to get a fraction of the cost back?

No, you pay recycling tax

[Vasdema]

No, you pay recycling tax

Plus a surcharge for them to dispose of hazardous waste.


On a more sour note, I've got admit defeat for the moment on the capacitor thing. I thought having an elapsing time would be easier than it is, but the items I was basing that theory off - the SRS Damage ROM (the one that impairs your visuals) and the Booby-trapped Ammo Box seem to have the parsing of a duration hard coded into them... perhaps a visual might be easier:

(objMakeParalyzed gSource (random 450 900)) - from the booby trap; and

(shpMakeBlind gSource 3000) - from the SRS Damage ROM.

There's some 'tick' manipulation under the stSistersOfDomina, but I'm not familiar with that yet. Sorry.

Anyway, if you go ahead with the idea, good luck mate.

[Fossaman]

Oh no, I'm not planning on trying this myself. This is a suggestion for George.

I'm way too lazy to actually code something like that on my own, and not nearly familiar enough with functions, etc.

[Ghengis]

I think that the simplest, most straight-forward implementation of an item that lets you get away with extra reactor drain for a little while would be once-off "batteries" that you use to boost output. Say for 100-1000+ creds, you can buy a battery that increases your reactor output by 20-500 (perhaps multiple "levels" of batteries? chemical/heavy-metal/nuclear?) for a set period of time, probably a minute or two of game time.

It would probably provide for some exciting moments when you become "addicted", then can't find any more, or run out of them in the middle of a heated battle and your thruster cuts out, or... you get the idea.

Anyway, if you want them rechargable, you could simply have a "dead battery" item appear in your inventory after the effect wears off, then using that would *lower* your reactor capacity by say 10-20% more than it raised it (because battery charging is imperfect; some energy is always lost as heat). After a similar period of time, the effect would stop and you'd get a charged battery item. A few slightly tricky things, like what happens if you fill your cargo hold while it's charging, does it require a special device installed to use it (a la Quantum CPU), etc., but I think if there's any way to change reactor capacity with an item (is there? I know it can be upgraded, but by an item?), then you brilliant modders out there could upgrade, wait, then downgrade and spit out a "dead battery". I think it sounds like fun.

[Fossaman]

Nice post, Ghengis.

what happens if you fill your cargo hold while it's charging

The simplest way to do this would probably be to make a 'virtual' device. The battery always stays in your cargo hold, but a device that the player can't see is installed (or whatever) and changes the battery state to 'in use' 'drained' or 'charging' depending on the circumstances. I wouldn't think that would be too difficult...but then, I have no idea, really.

[Vasdema]

Yep, reactors can be upgraded with items (check out the invoke code for the Heliotrope Fuel for an example of the coding), but the problem remains of setting a duration.

[Ghengis]

So, the problem is that the "makeblind" routine takes a time parameter, but the "upgradeReactor" (or whatever it's called) routine does not? I mean, obviously that makes sense, but I can see that it would be a problem. Somebody mentioned seeing "ticks" in something related to the Sisters of Domina... what's the scoop there? Is there any way to set a generic timeout, and have an asynchronous event triggered when it expires?

[Guest]

I think, we can ask George how easy/hard will be create a battery. And how to create it.

And George, we can expcet battery in core or only in mod ?

And to reactor - if using battery result in loss of +20% enhancement created by Heliotrope fuel - battery lose a lot part of his attractivness.
And it will be posible to have +20% and battery on the same time .

[george moromisato]

I don't know if a battery can be created without changes to the C++ code. My guess is no--but I've been wrong before.

I have no plans at this point to create something like that in the core game. But I would like to (someday) make it possible to create a mod. Not in the next version, though.

[Yugi]

Not in the next version, though.

How come? I suppose you already have plenty to do for this version, thanks to these forums.

[Czert]

Trying anybody to create mod battery ?