I will try to keep this organized...
*Basically replace the 'burner' type machines with 'steam' to begin with. Then add some steam and steampunk specific things.
*Create a new piping system using copper & steel pipes. Steel pipes for bulk transport and copper to connect machines to the main supply.
*Add new boiler types.
*Add a few new resources and items.
*Make steam powered versions of things.
Firstly replacing the burner machines with steam (I think this would be easy...but I honestly have no idea how to code or anything like that.) So burner inserters and burner mining drills, etc, etc, etc.
Next is logistics; pipes made specifically for carrying steam. They should lose power over distance by losing heat. Boilers can be placed along the way to boost the power but they need a source of water and fuel. Insulated pipes would lose far less energy and could travel much further but would require insulation. (I have an idea for this too...later) Steel pipes to be mainlines and copper pipes to connect the various machines. copper pipes could be laid underneath or over conveyor belts. And an upgraded belt could have an underground steel pipe built into it; automatically connecting anything directly next to it with steam. And allowing pipes to connect to the sides and run power from there to nearby machines. This allows for clean and compact supply lines. But more costly than running the pipes separately.
Condensers: Condensers can be used to reclaim most of the water used by a boiler. (say 90% recovery rate) If a boiler is placed along a mainline route to boost pressure, the boiler would need either a fresh supply of water or a condenser to condense some of the steam passing by into water to reboil. Condensers make boilers more efficient and produce more power. (This is true in real life; it is much easier to boil water from 200*F than it is to boil from 50*F. Thus less fuel is used, less water is consumed and more water can be boiled in the same amount of time)
Water towers and water hopper tanks. Water towers could be used to store large amounts of water for use in areas away from any nearby water supply. Can be filled from barrels or tanker trucks/trains or by pipe(they can act as resurge pumps to either increase range or supply multiple units nearby). Water towers can supply water by pipe to several boilers within a certain distance. Pumps can increase distance. Hopper tanks would attach directly to boilers (one per side, up to 4 total) and would hold a few barrels worth of water. Hopper tanks can stack together to increase capacity. Does not need pumps to supply boilers.
Harvest the aliens! Turn alien skin into leather and chitinous components such as armor and fiber.
The chitin can be converted into kevlar-like fiber and used for armor or insulation. (can be used to insulate the steam pipes...wood can be used to insulate the pipes as well but it is not a good of an insulation and only does 25% of the insulating that the fiber does.) The skin can be made into leather to make lashings -to hold the insulation onto the pipe. (not sure what else to use that for yet) and the flesh can be boiled into steam oil.
Steam oil makes steam engines more efficient. Add to a slot in boilers and it gets added to all machines downstream of that boiler. Lasts a long time before being consumed -per machine consuming it- (in real life, steam oil is usually dripped into the steam line just before the piston every few piston strokes for lubrication and better sealing of the piston and valves.) This makes hunting the biters and worms more of a resource gathering mission than just killing them for self defense.
...and on that note:
>Elephant rifle! A double barrel, side by side rifle of extraordinary power. Able to kill two small biters in a single shot...provided you 'Quigley' them (shooting through one and hitting the one behind) It fires two quick shots, one shot per trigger pull and then requires a reload that takes a moment. Has slightly longer range than the assault rifle. Ammo stacks in sets of two (since two shots per reload) up to 10 per stack. Giving 20 shots per stack. Make sure you have another weapon for backup. But for hunting of worms and biters, it beats all.
>Quigley-Sharps rifle. Not quite as powerful as the Elephant rifle, but with twice the range. Single shot.
>"Whaling-rig" a large truck that enables you to hunt and gather the carcasses to return to base for processing.
>Harpoon. Drive any vehicle near a biter or worm and launch a harpoon at it. Bring it down the old fashioned way. Allows you to drag the carcass back to base. Doesn't kill larger aliens instantly. Can be used to hunt massive alien creatures by harpooning them to a vehicle and letting them run around until they die. Then drag them back to base. The whaling rig is best suited to this. (big & heavy, allows multiple harpoons, kills them faster)
Coalgas, woodgas, syngas & Gas-lights. Use coal & steam in a gasifier plant to make coalgas, syngas is the same thing but with wood, and woodgas doesn't need steam. Pump the gas through pipes gas to gas-lights or boilers. Coalgas can power steam engines as well. Can be pumped in regular & cheap iron pipe, no limits on range or number of boilers supplied (as long as the gasifier can keep up). Coalgas and syngas require steam to make. Made in a gasifier plant.
Coalgas has lots of energy. Syngas has medium energy and woodgas has low energy. Can also be stored in barrels or tanks.
Coalgas and Syngas can be used for perimeter defense flame throwers. Basically a big torch. Not as effective as a regular flamethrower. (in real life gasified coal or wood burns extremely clean, but the flamethrowers should have black smoke... for the violence effect.
)Like I said, at first I thought this would be simple. but the more I thought about it the more complicated it got. I can assume much of this is unnecessary for the steam power part. The rest is just for fun really.
Please let me know your thoughts and I welcome input and ideas.
