Power plants!

[KA101]

I recall that Whales planned to include a nuclear power plant but never succeeded; no idea how much code exists. More generally, Cata has a pretty weird electrical system: there’s no power for lights or refrigeration, but unlimited electric to run computers, gas pumps, security-card readers and their associated doors, etc. Haven’t tried the mine elevator yet.

Suggestion: have power plants as overmap facilities. Three come to mind:

1. Nuke plant. Safely shut down as civilization ended, has fuel rods available on-site but requires hella Cooking/Mechanics/etc to load and start up. Haven’t looked it up but guessing it ought to run for about 2 seasons on one load; one could potentially get more from a Mine or a Nuclear Silo, with both requiring some processing to make usable.
   +Generates lots of power, constantly; -radioactive generator, with difficult-to-obtain fuel.

2. Solar plant. Panels as far as the eye can see, with capacitor bank for cloudy times. Can probably find vehicle-usable panels as repair parts. Simply reset the local power grid, probably requiring Electronics/Mechanics/Computers in that order, and you’re good to go.
   +No fuel required, just reset the grid & fix a panel or two; -low power output, with possibility of dropping off in winter,

3. Hydro plant. Turbine located a z-level down in a Dam structure, needs some sort of water-based activity to make it work, and there might be a hole in the dam, too.
   +No fuel required, consistent output greater than that of the Solar; -needs Swimming and/or water-adaptive upgrades to repair/unclog* the turbines, as well as possibly having to fix the dam.

*Of course an aquatic horror could be gumming it up, but that’s not the only possibility.

Having an operational plant would, at minimum, let players recharge powered gear there. (If the same battery can power a Welder, a Soldering Iron, a Hotplate, or a Flashlight, I don’t want to hear about recharging it being “unrealistic”.) Other ideas include letting a nearby Sewage Treatment actually convert sewage to clean water, illuminating buildings (for better or worse), letting Refrigerators slow food-spoilage, etc.

Thoughts?

[theShaikan]

I like this so far, but I really don’t see a single guy running a nuclear power plant by himself even in 20 years of scientific advancements and robot helpers, given they all still work. Or transporting fuel rods by himself on a flatbed semi you found on a parking lot (anything less would be mildly ridiculous, those rods are pretty big). Also the obvious problem of requiring a hazman suit or melting within half an hour of handling a fuel rod.
The other plants, I can see that working, perhaps wind parks with a few windmills, those are actually designed to be maintenanced by just one technician.

Also it should require some learning to avoid catastrophic failure. Even if you have learned a lot about electronics and making things, that doesn’t necessarily mean you can safely run a dam or windpark or a nuclear power plant, so unless you find some specialized lecture (maybe a beginners level and some advanced, detailed manuscripts) there is a good chance of the plant shutting down, like a turbine totalling from too much pressure and rotation speed, or the power plant just shutting down totally, with the control rods bending or something. Good idea to make survival more possible, but should be equally difficult to provide new parts to replace damage (solar panels shattering, cogs becoming round from wear) that could be craftable to a degree, but it has to be just difficult enough to bar any new survivor to put 4 points into electronics and mechanics and then run a powerplant.

[Zyuta]

You can already attach solar panels to a car and they work just fine. The only thing you really need to repair is a welder.
So using that logic, maintaining a solar power plant or “solar farm” should be relatively easy.
A nuclear power plant… That might be an issue. You’d probably have to involve NPCs in some way.

[KA101]

Thanks for the insight. Nuke plants were in basically because there’s a map glyph listed for them.

New England does have offshore wind-farms, so two zeds with one stone there. (My ulterior motive for the hydro generator is to make Swimming/CBM:Aquatic/Fish & Cephalopod useful for something.)

Regarding the specialized learning suggestion, would that be high skills or a post-gen Trait? “Machinery Operator” might also be useful for other map development; factories, etc?

[TaintedHolyWater]

I would recommend against a trait that you have to take at the start. Instead I suggest having to hack a rather difficult computer (considering it is for a nuclear facility i hope it’s hard to crack) and spend time reading the computer’s instructions for maintenance and operations you could get you “Machinery Operator” trait that lets you interact with all the technical stuff.

[ted]

Power plants shouldn’t be operable. The amount of electricity generated would be effectively unlimited for any purpose you could personally enact. It would be better to have plants be a source of fuel and parts, and as an abstract power source for big survivor groups to fight over.

[KA101]

Unlimited power! Time to Do Science! MWUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Anyway, power plants’ output would affect other structures around the plant, rather than just being an infinite charge supply; other structures would become more useful. (Card readers returning your card, lights working, sewage plant outputs clean water, radio tower can send signals, etc.)

Certainly something that could anchor a faction, once NPCs & factions become viable.

[ted]

Bringing a power plant up to power one or a handful of buildings would be an insane waste of effort and resources compared to just stealing fuel and rigging generators to the stuff you actually use. It would only be practical if power plant fuel is amply supplied, yet you are arbitrarily prevented from repurposing it, or you are arbitrarily prevented from rigging a generator to power just the radio tower and not the entire city.

You’re advocating the player get a whole lot of electronics/mechanics/computers and set your fuel supply on fire so you don’t need an electrohack, a few lamps, and a water purifier. If you have to do it to power a portal or something, fine, but you wouldn’t use it for anything else.

[KA101]

RTFOP, ted. The power plants I had in mind were

nuclear (admittedly, not a viable option),

solar

&

hydroelectric.

TheShaikan suggested wind turbines, and I approved as offshore wind exists in IRL New England.

Coal or other combustion plants? Hadn’t considered the idea, because they do go through literal tons of fuel every day. There’s no way the player could operate them.

[ted]

Don’t patronize me. Renewable plants don’t need fuel, but the plant itself is by nature much more expansive and vulnerable, so you would have to spend dramatically more effort repairing it, and the necessary parts and infrastructure likely would not be available. Regardless of what power source you find, you would also have to repair the transmission network, which would be an enormous task in itself.

As an individual, the only utility would be in stealing whatever fuel and parts you can find, and moving on.

[TaintedHolyWater]

Ted if you just wana smash and grab what you need from the place I say all power to you (figuratively, the rest of us get the real power) because having the towns power supply turned back on isn’t a necessary thing if you don’t do it.

For the rest of us I’m just waiting to be able to plug in my car… it’s always raining so it never charges.

[ArgusTheCat]

One benefit of turning on a whole power grid that I don’t think has been mentioned yet is that it returns power to the nearby cities and towns. Like, the whole thing.

Streetlights and electric lights in homes make night operations viable, or give you an extra few hours of operation every day, but also mean the zombies are just as capable of spotting you at night as during the day. Homes and shops would still have their refrigerators on, meaning you could actually DRINK MILK. Some homes would have their heating on, leading to warm places to sleep. Or, if someone left a blanket in the wrong place, fires.

A power grid activation mission would be a great way to totally mix up the dynamic of play in an area, while still being totally optional to the player. Generators would be a good small option, while turning the lights back on for miles is a bigger thing that isn’t required, but is kind of cool

[KA101]

I’d alluded to the benefits of lighting & refrigeration, but it’s good to see them clearly laid out. Gas-powered generator has some code existing as it’s the objective for Defend, IIRC; porting it over to the main story seems like it should be straightforward. Not sure if one could Mechanics-up a foot-cranked one for people who really want to recharge electric gear.

(I’ve yet to find a vehicle-scale solar panel. Not sure if those can be set up by themselves to recharge things like one’s hotplate/purifier/etc, but betting not.)

Would love to encounter drinkable milk. Trouble is that I’ve seen it (rotten) within the 90-minute starting window. IMO if it’s that untouchable, it should probably be considered a clutter-item rather than a comestible.

[ArgusTheCat]

Yeah, milk goes bad crazy fast. I’ve never seen any fresh, and I’m not sure if it CAN be fresh. At least you can dump it for bottles…

Dump milk… Does rotten milk smell, in game? It damn well should. Zombies hunt by scent, and I would love to be able to duck down an alley out of sight, and pour a bunch of rotten milk behind me to mask my scent so the zombies lose the trail.

[Iosyn]

I think we just cooked up a recipe for [b]absolute disasater.[/b] So let's do it, for SCIENCE!! :D
Well, there goes the neighbourhood. Or continent, as the case may be.

If they do get ingame (god forbid, I can't bloody wait lol) Let's have a change to the general timezone. 
All new cataclysm times will be taken from the doomsday clock. That means it's five minutes to midnight all day every day-- until a PC [i]ever [/i]locates the possible co-ordinates, or co-ordinates to co-ordinates of a nuclear powered facility, tank, submarine, warship, spaceship or nuclear material refinement facility/ waste dump containing either enriched or non-enriched uranium or plutonium, upon which the doomsday clock is instantly set to 10 minutes past midnight. 

Also for the rotten milk, leaving it on the ground would probably stink-- and it never fades away. [i]Never [/i]. 
It's there [i]forever[/i]. It becomes carpet-flavoured [i]cheese.[/i] There should be an option to strain off the curd and make cheese or yogurht with it.

I'm reasonably confident most of us would seek out such nuclear material just to either:
1) eat and gain nightvision by absorbing the funky green glow.
2) Use as an anti-planetary cleansing device in an attempt to rid ourselves of the curséd rotten carpet cheese.
3) Create enhanced mutant carpet cheese with a funky green glow. Functions as both a nightlight and emergency food supply.

I think we just cooked up a recipe for absolute disasater. So let’s do it, for SCIENCE!!
Well, there goes the neighbourhood. Or continent, as the case may be.

If they do get ingame (god forbid, I can’t bloody wait lol) Let’s have a change to the general timezone.
All new cataclysm times will be taken from the doomsday clock. That means it’s five minutes to midnight all day every day-- until a PC ever locates the possible co-ordinates, or co-ordinates to co-ordinates of a nuclear powered facility, tank, submarine, warship, spaceship or nuclear material refinement facility/ waste dump containing either enriched or non-enriched uranium or plutonium, upon which the doomsday clock is instantly set to 10 minutes past midnight.

Also for the rotten milk, leaving it on the ground would probably stink-- and it never fades away. Never .
It’s there forever. It becomes carpet-flavoured cheese. There should be an option to strain off the curd and make cheese or yogurht with it.

I’m reasonably confident most of us would seek out such nuclear material just to either:

1. eat and gain nightvision by absorbing the funky green glow.
2. Use as an anti-planetary cleansing device in an attempt to rid ourselves of the curséd rotten carpet cheese.
3. Create enhanced mutant carpet cheese with a funky green glow. Functions as both a nightlight and emergency food supply.

[AseaHeru]

hey, heres an idea for milk. someone should spawn some in and see how many turn it takes for it to go bad.
but i think all milk starts bad.

[Reservoir]

I used a mod or something to start at 00:00. Zombies spawn at 9.30, as always, so I had time to go to a house, drink some milk, and then scavenge everything. Awesome stuff, if you ask me

[TaintedHolyWater]

The trick with the milk is it rots before 8:00 when you first spawn.

And you missed the biggest option for nuclear materials… Glorious hellfire! Time to take the mini out of mini nuke. (and hopefully add a much longer timer…)

but back to the non-milk-nuke topic (nuclear milk… we might be on to something) lets say we did get power plants in (in any way shape or form) how would you put your new found electricity to use?

[AseaHeru]

electric barbed wire fence.
several of them.

[KA101]

Ways to use All The Electric:
Re/charge powered items
Refrigerate my meat piles so I don’t get a Miasma
Grow lamps: farm plants
Lights at night
I like AseaHeru’s electric fence, which will synch well with Argus’ dinosaurs, etc
Ventilation: pump the gas out of that Mine so I can figure out where the downslope/next sector is
Operate a Sewage Treatment…so houses have clean water…Bathed, +30 Morale; Hot Bath, +60 Morale??
Stoves work (presumably, electric range)
Watch DVDs, Morale bonus
Close security doors/get the card back??
Run a power cable into the ant hill
Hook it into an energy gun for station defense

And I think that’s enough for this brainstorm.