[Suggestion] Naquadah Generator

[gaiaweylyn]

I figure it’d be nice to have another use for naquadah ore, and more power options are always good. I apologize for the wall of text below, I got a bit carried away and explained all the details of a potential implementation.

There have been a couple different ideas floated by other SG mods on how to implement these. This concept is not an approach I’ve seen anyone else take, but I feel like it aligns well with the way other stuff works in this mod, is expensive enough that it’s not too unbalanced, and stays pretty darn close to canon. This is the only idea that makes each generator unit a single use item like the ZPMs are, which although finite, don’t require constant refills.

The design, function, and capability of this naquadah generator is intended to mirror the Mark 1 units seen in the first season of SGA. Relatively compact, capable of being switched on and off easily, and made to be placed down, picked back up again, and taken to wherever you might need one.

Obviously, the output would be vastly lower than that of a ZPM, which contains a whole signed integer of EU rated for IC2 Tier 3. The generator should be more than fine dropping down to Tier 2 for IC2 purposes. This would fit the Mark 1 well enough too, as it was sometimes seen directly powering small alien tech. The Mark 2 was able to very briefly substitute for a ZPM in a state of barely controlled overload. It was specifically stated that this was a 600% increase on the output of a Mark 1.

Capacity is the big question. Since it can be crafted by anyone, using expensive but replaceable resources, it shouldn’t be too generous on power. However, we do know that a canon Mark 1 was able to provide ample power for a stargate missing its DHD, and even though they did not speculate on how long it would work for, power was not the most pressing concern. So.. Going off the mod’s existing electric stargate power usage.. Perhaps somewhere in the range of 5-10M EU? That should provide enough power to fully timeout a couple average distance connections before running dry, unless my estimates are way off. The capability of providing direct output of FE power is also a big must have, in case that wasn’t already assumed.

And finally, onto potential crafting recipes. In order to make it more balanced, I’ve got the perfect idea for a new item. Just put 9 pieces of raw naquadah ore in the crafting table to make one chunk of “Refined Naquadah,” which is exactly what the actual generators used. Refined Naquadah ended up being utilized in many other canon applications as well, so it definitely shouldn’t be too hard to come up with more uses for the item in the future.

Using IC2 items for the recipe ended up being the most balanced and the closest to canon, with 4 lead blocks surrounding a piece of Refined Naquadah in the center, two copper wires in the bottom corners, and two circuits at the top. I’m honestly not sure what would work for a universal/neutral recipe though.. Naquadah alloy blocks would be way too expensive, iron blocks alone seems just a little too cheap. If it provides FE power it should be craftable by anyone. Maybe 4 iron blocks surrounding the Refined Naquadah core, and naquadah alloy ingots in the 4 corners?

Well, that should just about cover the important parts! I hope this is something others might be keen on too. And if anyone has a good suggestion for a better vanilla+sg neutral crafting recipe, definitely reply with it below.

[gaiaweylyn]

Ah! Actually there was one thing I forgot about up there. When the generator is depleted, there would be a leftover empty item. I’ll admit I’m not sure what could be done about that, if anything. I suppose there’s no reason why we couldn’t just toss it like we would a depleted ZPM.

Any kind of material recovery wouldn’t make much in-universe sense anyways , they were made with lead for a good reason.

[Bysokar]

@Dockter happy for you to borrow my code ideas for this as well. Part or in full.
Be aware Im using AUNIS's Model renderer instead of blockstate.json because I am familiar with it - the model definitely works with blockstate though.

I'd really hope you keep the overload mechanic if you bring it across in some form. Computer interface to allow programming and managing the generator is a cool idea to allow it to run in an overloaded state (or deliberately overloading it)... our players love it.

Longer term.. if you'd like to import features from StargateMC.com's version into SGCraft… happy to work with you instead of separately :)

[gaiaweylyn]

The one mentioned on your site looked to be very different to this concept though. Also the idea here would be to make it a portable power source option you could use with other stuff, but even though I’d want it to have just enough juice so that I can use it to power a gate in a pinch, that wouldn’t be its primary use case.

Probably more like powering a couple basic machines and an OMT unit at a remote camp. The generator would last a lot longer for something like that too with less power draw.

[gaiaweylyn]

If I want to continuously feed fuel into a box to keep machines powered in the field, I’d just use any old furnace generator unit. For this sort of thing, I honestly see that as a downside. Instead of making it complicated by loading it with extra features and making users mess around with a computer interface to make their portable power unit work, this just keeps it as simple as possible.

You build it, connect it and it’s either providing power or it isn’t. On or off.

[Bysokar]

@gaiaweylyn I don't have anything on the site yet, in fact I'm writing and haven't published the wiki article either.

The purpose of the generator is twofold:

• To be a simple, 1 block reactor unit that has a long lasting power supply. The Fuel rods last quite a while, as they are modelled after the Zero Point Module from @Dockter 's code.

• To allow for overloading of the reactor to increase its throughput (without capacity changes) at risk of it exploding unless properly monitored and maintained. This instability is almost nonexistant if the device isnt overclocked/overloaded.

I don't see how you can get any less portable than that.

[Bysokar]

@gaiaweylyn Sorry mate I come across pretty strong sometimes :) You have some really good points.

[gaiaweylyn]

So I just rewatched The Storm / The Eye, and came to the realization that the fuel rod itself is the same mechanism which gets rotated 90° to toggle generator power. It can also be safely removed from the generator with ease. Now that I'm aware of this aspect of the canon generators, I am quite fine with making a few small changes in order to enable the mod's version of the generators to become reusable.

I still don't think that the generator should have it's own graphical interface or inventory slot for the purpose of refueling. The addition of a naquadah fuel rod item for packaging the refined naquadah into a fully modular component is definitely in order regardless though. The generator would still be constructed and function exactly as it would have before, just with a fuel rod replacing the refined ore in the recipe.

I realized that by using this method, it meant that instead of discarding depleted generators, they could be kept until new fuel rods are crafted. The new rods could be swapped with the old ones simply by using a shapeless recipe containing a depleted generator and a new rod, returning a completely new unit, full capacity restored by the new fuel rod.

Since this allows the body of the generator to be repeatedly reused, it means that players are no longer throwing away all of those expensive shielding/casing components with every generator cycling. After the initial creation of a generator unit, it would not be necessary to gather those ingredients again, unless it's for the production of additional generator units. That said, it should be completely feasible for a player to build and rely on a single active generator to power their basic machinery, so long as they don't mind taking it offline for fuel rod replacement on occasion. Building additional generators should feel optional, reserved for those with naquadah and lead to burn.

[gaiaweylyn]

Oh. And as for the recipe of the Naquadah Fuel Rod. Given that material costs the generator are only paid once this way, it should become a bit more expensive to refuel. Thusly, I'd suggest two chunks of refined naquadah in the lower middle slots, with three iron ingots, one to either side of the center, and one on top. Perhaps with redstone dust in the upper corners to approximate the activity lights on the body of the real thing.

If the equivalent of 18 naquadah ores still feels too cheap to produce 5M EU of power, then either the redstone dust, iron ingots or both could be subbed for the block versions. Surely that would be enough.