Suggestion: Higher tier energy production (Fusion)
Hi, i've noticed something during my last playthrough that seems to have had the attention of a lot of people: the change in uranium deposit locations which can't be found on planets anymore (at least on earth-like). And while i totally get that choice gameplay-wise (higher-tier energy generation forcing you to progress into space), in terms of realism it sort of breaks everything. Uranium is a heavy metal comonly found on large bodies that have see their birth in a supernova's corpse, there's no reason not to find any on earth.
So that's where my suggestion come in, we've got FTL jump-drives in SE, a tech far superior to Fusion, and you already have in-game mechanics to collect multiple ores from a single type of mineral. So here's what i propose:
-Regolith instead of common rock as a moon's upper mantle (i'd say a 10-20m layer before common rock)
-Advanced refinery able to process regolith and extract not only usefull minerals but also trace ammounts of Helium 3 (could also be made through a refinery upgrade)
- Neodimium ore for fusion reactor magnets
-Helium 3 tank (reskin of hydrogen tank)
-And of course, a fusion reactor block, able to generate ample power for ships and stations alike.
this way you end up having a proper 3-tier (basic, medium and advanced) energy generation system, with a much more player-friendly, and most of all realistic, progression curve.
In terms of developement time, Most of it would only need slight reskins, appart from the Fusion Reactor itself, and a the tiniest bit of back-end, all the while providing players with quality of life content as well as additionnal end-game mechanics.
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Uhm, re-reading this i'm noticing that i haven't given any context to all of this... If you're not familiar with fusion technology, Helium-3 is the go-to fuel, there is none better for one simple reason: 3He has more protons than neutrons. Meaning that it can be fused with deuterium without trashing the place with neutron bombardement that render your equipement radioactive (in an 3He + ²H fusion, only protons move about, which is great news, since they're charged particles in a magnetic field). You get a whole lot of energy without any of the issues comonly attributed to high-energy physics.
But there's a catch, on earth you won't find any (i mean you can make it on earth but it's a real pain, you have to start fissing lithium or tritium for that). In space though, there's plenty of it, as our sun is constantly spewing vast ammounts of it and pushing it through solar winds. When hitting the moon, these helium-3 particules bind with the regolith (so the moon is littered with 3He, even if the ppm is ridiculously low) . It is speculated that there is enough Helium-3 on the moon to power the human civilisation for 10 000 years, accounting for rising demands.
Now if we talk pure realism, people won't start shredding the moon anytime soon, mining opperations could quickly become visible from earth with naked eye and the problems generated by griding that stone and creating more of that awfully annoying moon-dust would make the opperation incredibly costly and damaging for every other type of opperation planned on the moon.
Earth-based production in breeder reactors or space-based refineries pumping it out of gas giants (much better 3He content, with additionnal usefull gases for space propulsion, instead of dull rocks) are much more likelly.
But in a space-based video-game where digging for ressources is a main gameplay aspect? It makes perfect sense, and would allow for some very interesting creations on these moons.
Uhm, re-reading this i'm noticing that i haven't given any context to all of this... If you're not familiar with fusion technology, Helium-3 is the go-to fuel, there is none better for one simple reason: 3He has more protons than neutrons. Meaning that it can be fused with deuterium without trashing the place with neutron bombardement that render your equipement radioactive (in an 3He + ²H fusion, only protons move about, which is great news, since they're charged particles in a magnetic field). You get a whole lot of energy without any of the issues comonly attributed to high-energy physics.
But there's a catch, on earth you won't find any (i mean you can make it on earth but it's a real pain, you have to start fissing lithium or tritium for that). In space though, there's plenty of it, as our sun is constantly spewing vast ammounts of it and pushing it through solar winds. When hitting the moon, these helium-3 particules bind with the regolith (so the moon is littered with 3He, even if the ppm is ridiculously low) . It is speculated that there is enough Helium-3 on the moon to power the human civilisation for 10 000 years, accounting for rising demands.
Now if we talk pure realism, people won't start shredding the moon anytime soon, mining opperations could quickly become visible from earth with naked eye and the problems generated by griding that stone and creating more of that awfully annoying moon-dust would make the opperation incredibly costly and damaging for every other type of opperation planned on the moon.
Earth-based production in breeder reactors or space-based refineries pumping it out of gas giants (much better 3He content, with additionnal usefull gases for space propulsion, instead of dull rocks) are much more likelly.
But in a space-based video-game where digging for ressources is a main gameplay aspect? It makes perfect sense, and would allow for some very interesting creations on these moons.
Okay well how about a block that converts stone into Helium with a really poor efficiency, remember when suggesting features if you want them to be considered you don't want to be hacking up the game and gluing it back together. So how would you achieve this without having to change the game much?
A block to turn hydrogen into deuterium and a block to turn stone into helium. But you need to store that somewhere so you would probably need a new tank for each resource. We are up to 4 new blocks so far. Then we need the actual reactor which will take hydrogen and helium and produce power.
We could save on the two tank blocks by adding built in tanks to the reactor... like the hydrogen engine.
Now I'm not familiar with the games specific working and how modular they might be but that seems achievable. The problem is this one feature could be the subject of an entire update. So it needs to be worth their time.
How else could deuterium and helium be used? How powerful should these things be.
If you really want things implemented you have to give them as much to consider as possible. Throw in some stats.
Okay well how about a block that converts stone into Helium with a really poor efficiency, remember when suggesting features if you want them to be considered you don't want to be hacking up the game and gluing it back together. So how would you achieve this without having to change the game much?
A block to turn hydrogen into deuterium and a block to turn stone into helium. But you need to store that somewhere so you would probably need a new tank for each resource. We are up to 4 new blocks so far. Then we need the actual reactor which will take hydrogen and helium and produce power.
We could save on the two tank blocks by adding built in tanks to the reactor... like the hydrogen engine.
Now I'm not familiar with the games specific working and how modular they might be but that seems achievable. The problem is this one feature could be the subject of an entire update. So it needs to be worth their time.
How else could deuterium and helium be used? How powerful should these things be.
If you really want things implemented you have to give them as much to consider as possible. Throw in some stats.
Honestly, we can probably just use hydrogen and helium-3 with a little hand-wave of "future science within reason". Adding deuterium adds too much complication to be worth the effort. Similarly, neodymium would need to be scrapped. The regolith idea is great: realism and a reason to go to any of the moons that isn't just for having a base there. I'd just have the normal refinery be able to process regolith and get He3 though. A new refinery which only gains the ability to process He3? Seems kind of useless to people who like old-fashioned reactors. This way, we have one new tank and the new reactor, without a ton of blocks that serve only one purpose.
Honestly, we can probably just use hydrogen and helium-3 with a little hand-wave of "future science within reason". Adding deuterium adds too much complication to be worth the effort. Similarly, neodymium would need to be scrapped. The regolith idea is great: realism and a reason to go to any of the moons that isn't just for having a base there. I'd just have the normal refinery be able to process regolith and get He3 though. A new refinery which only gains the ability to process He3? Seems kind of useless to people who like old-fashioned reactors. This way, we have one new tank and the new reactor, without a ton of blocks that serve only one purpose.
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