Today we had a slight problem in our office. It’s -10 °C outside and our heating system decided to take a permanent break. Since we were none too happy about the prospect of testing modern cryogenic theories first hand, we promptly called maintenance. The defective part was replaced and the heating unit is once again running at full efficiency. Which brings us to today’s topic. What happens when a system breaks down and all the maintenance techs are still frozen inside their cryo-chambers?
Maintaining your ships and stations is a big part of the core survival experience in Hellion. Stations and ships all have a number of sub-systems that are critical to their normal operation. Major systems include Power Grid, Life Support and Propulsion. Smaller ones include artificial gravity control, air-lock systems and RCS. Each system has several key parts that can break down, either as a result of direct damage, or by normal wear and tear. When these parts break down they cause a drop in system performance and can potentially increase the stress on other parts. If a critical component fails, the system shuts down. Some parts are universal and can be found in several systems, while others are system specific.
Resource injector and Servomotor are universal parts and can be found in many systems. Resource injector improves system efficiency, reducing resource consumption rate. As it wears down your resource consumption will rise accordingly. Servomotors can be found in many mechanical systems like large cargo-bay doors, solar panels and air filtering units. When they fail these systems become inoperable. Other parts are system specific and will be covered as part of their respective systems.
Power Generator systems have four basic parts: Resource Injector, Thermonuclear Catalyst (regulates maximum power output), Core Containment Field Generator (regulates power output) and EM Field Controller (determines start up/shut down duration).
Life Support is made out of three sub-systems Air Generator, Air Filter and Life Support nodes. Air generator is responsible for replacing any atmosphere lost during decompression. It requires resource injector and servomotor to run. Air Filtering unit is responsible for recycling CO2 and reducing direct oxygen consumption it requires Carbon filters (continuously wear down as the air filter is running), Air Processing Controller (reduces Carbon filter wear) and a servomotor (affects maximum filtering capacity). Life support nodes are found in every module and provide connection with the Life Support system. They contain Air Filter units (affects specific room/module filtering capacity) and a Pressure regulator (pressure control).
Propulsion systems are broken down into three categories: RCS, Engine and FTL drive. RCS system only requires resource injection to run at full efficiency. Engine on the other hand requires a resource injector, Plasma accelerator (affects acceleration) and High Energy Laser (affects acceleration speed). FTL drive or Warp drive has two critical parts Singularity Cell Detonator (affects FTL power up/shut down cooldown duration) and Warp Cells (consumed during operation while also affecting minimum/maximum acceleration).
All the best,
Zero Gravity team
Hi, I was just interested to know if you know about Honorverse? The technical parts of David Weber's writing in those books always made me interested in making a game using those concepts. Obviously the technology in this game universe is different but all the same I think you are creating compelling detail and realism.
Indeed, we know about it, however our knowledge is somewhat limited as we haven't had a chance to read the series. "Honorverse" is definitely on the list of must read books.
As for the technology part, you are right. The idea is that all technology used in game needs to make sense in the big picture and follow a certain set of guidelines in order to promote realism and immersion.
First thing in any fictional universe is to determine "established facts" and then build upon them. This way we can lay down the foundation of what "is possible" and what isn't.