Use nuclear product for Portable Fusion Reactor

[herkalurk]

Now that we have U-235 and U-238 available the portable fusion reactor for the powered armor should require some of it to be produced. I know that it's sort of expensive right now requiring 250 processing units to be produced.

I feel like we aren't using enough of those items. I have thousands of each nuclear type item waiting to be used all the time.

[bobucles]

The game doesn't use enough Uranium for sure. As a resource it was kind of tacked on the side and all Uranium projects are basically optional. I think it'd be great to make green ore a mandatory part of main game and not just a "DLC bonus resource".

The fusion reactor is an obvious choice for using uranium as an energy source. I dunno why it isn't.

I think purple potions should need some U238 to encourage the player to start mining and processing early. Liquid mining is a new player challenge and centrifuges are a new production puzzle for players to experience. The tech tree needs to be tweaked for this, so that centrifuges are easier to research.

Nuclear train fuel was a nice addition but it's deep in post game territory. Anything that uses heaps of U235 simply isn't viable until Kovarex is ramped up. The opportunity cost of setting up Kovarex is pretty steep and you can probably launch a rocket in the mean time.

[Tekky]

The OPs suggestion has already been suggested a year ago in this thread.

Also, here is another thread discussing the recipe of the Portable Fusion Reactor. But that thread focuses on the question of whether it should also cost steel or not. It does not discuss the question of whether it should cost uranium.

[herkalurk]

Clearly enough people think the recipe should be rethought. I'm not sure what the best recipe is but I hope it's something the devs will look into adding this to either the .16 final or in .17

[Tekky]

Also, I'm not sure if I like the idea of only requiring the player to pay once for the uranium required for the reactor. Instead, the reactor should use a continuous supply of uranium. But I guess that would be a lot harder to implement than simply changing the recipe.

An alternative would be to get rid of the ability of the player to generate his own power completely, and instead require him to use charging stations in his base, so that the player charges his batteries from the power network of his base. Something similar has been suggested in this thread.

[herkalurk]

Maybe. We already create nuclear fuel for the other reactors, so why couldn't it be required for the portable reactor? Maybe the rate at which it depletes could be much slower since the amount of power is much less.

[QGamer]

It is a portable fusion reactor. Uranium is used for fission. If I were using fusion, I'd power it with hydrogen. Now if hydrogen fuel was a thing...
However, hydrogen is present in the air in the form of water vapor. Just strip away the oxygen and you have your fuel. So I disagree--the fusion reactor should not take any nuclear products.

And if it was a fission reactor, I'm not so sure I'd want to wear it on my body because of the radiation.

[m44v]

It is a portable fusion reactor. Uranium is used for fission. If I were using fusion, I'd power it with hydrogen. Now if hydrogen fuel was a thing...
However, hydrogen is present in the air in the form of water vapor. Just strip away the oxygen and you have your fuel. So I disagree--the fusion reactor should not take any nuclear products.

So rename it to portable fission reactor, that's it, now It can take uranium. I find the idea of a portable fusion reactor absolutely preposterous given how hard they are to build in real life and contrary to logic in the sense that you can't build them for power your factory.

And if it was a fission reactor, I'm not so sure I'd want to wear it on my body because of the radiation.

Fusion is no different in that regard, plenty of radiation.

[Tekky]

So rename it to portable fission reactor, that's it, now It can take uranium.

I agree, it does not make sense that the player uses a more advanced form of power generation (=nuclear fusion) than the player's base (=nuclear fission).

Your suggestion of the portable fusion reactor being renamed to fission reactor already has its own suggestion thread.

[Hannu]

And if it was a fission reactor, I'm not so sure I'd want to wear it on my body because of the radiation.

It would fit better to story if they were fission reactor powered thermoelectric generators. And it could use enriched uranium to fabricate. However, practical effect in game would be negligible because player needs just couple of reactors during whole game.

Fusion is said to be more safe than fission because it does not product highly radioactive and long lived fission products. However, fusion reactions produce fast neutrons which need several meters of materials to be absorbed. Portable fusion reactor would be as dangerous as portable fission reactor. Probably radiation level would be far too much for nitpicking safety bureaucrat in government agency but if you are alone on alien planet and use portable rocket launcher to shoot atomic bombs against locomotive sized anthropod monsters you may have to tolerate a little bit higher risks in your everyday life.

[bobucles]

According to the wiki either PU-238 or Sr-90 are the ideal RTG fuel. Both have excellent energy release and don't spray ionizing radiation all over people. Both isotopes are also an abundant waste product in nuclear waste, which works well in game because we have depleted fuel cells.

[Rakshasa]

Iron is the last step on the energy-positive fusion ladder.

So really running around with fusion reactors should give us a steady supply of iron ore.

[makrom]

And if it was a fission reactor, I'm not so sure I'd want to wear it on my body because of the radiation.

Fusion is no different in that regard, plenty of radiation.

Did you just try to say that the amount of radiation is in any way comparable?

[Ranakastrasz]

Well, i will note that my Modular Armor Revaml mod did this, and it seems to work reasonably well. While i think it should be vanilla, I think quite a few mods should be vanilla.

If you were to restrict the fusion/fission reactor further, yoi REALLY need to buff the solar panel equipment or add a new generator to bridge the gap

[m44v]

And if it was a fission reactor, I'm not so sure I'd want to wear it on my body because of the radiation.

Fusion is no different in that regard, plenty of radiation.

Did you just try to say that the amount of radiation is in any way comparable?

I don't know if they're comparable, my point was that you wouldn't want to be wear a fusion reactor either. Are you implying fusion would be safer? how so? if it weren't for the Earth's atmosphere and ozone layer, you couldn't safely stay under the sun.

[KampKounslr]

Well, i will note that my Modular Armor Revaml mod did this, and it seems to work reasonably well. While i think it should be vanilla, I think quite a few mods should be vanilla.

If you were to restrict the fusion/fission reactor further, yoi REALLY need to buff the solar panel equipment or add a new generator to bridge the gap

I totally agree with this! Portable Solar Panels are so damn expensive for what little they produce, a lot of the time I skip them and wait to equip modules in my armor until i have the Fusion reactor. I think that we should have the Portable Solar Panels (reduced in cost and/or buffed in electric output), which would then go to a portable Fission reactor (or portable steam power generator maybe?), which at endgame could be upgraded to the portable Fusion reactor.

And if it was a fission reactor, I'm not so sure I'd want to wear it on my body because of the radiation.

It would fit better to story if they were fission reactor powered thermoelectric generators. And it could use enriched uranium to fabricate. However, practical effect in game would be negligible because player needs just couple of reactors during whole game.

Fusion is said to be more safe than fission because it does not product highly radioactive and long lived fission products. However, fusion reactions produce fast neutrons which need several meters of materials to be absorbed. Portable fusion reactor would be as dangerous as portable fission reactor. Probably radiation level would be far too much for nitpicking safety bureaucrat in government agency but if you are alone on alien planet and use portable rocket launcher to shoot atomic bombs against locomotive sized anthropod monsters you may have to tolerate a little bit higher risks in your everyday life.

ROFL!

[Deadly-Bagel]

Yeah Solar Panels are totally useless, I tried using them once just for Construction Robots (when they made Modular Armour cheaper) and maybe 80% of the time it was loads quicker to "mine" them out of the air. IMO they should be removed entirely, replace them with the ability to charge from your own electric network (no module required, just a passive bonus of the armour). Batteries become useful for excursions away from your power grid, and you can push the personal reactor behind nuclear research.

[aka13]

Yeah Solar Panels are totally useless, I tried using them once just for Construction Robots (when they made Modular Armour cheaper) and maybe 80% of the time it was loads quicker to "mine" them out of the air. IMO they should be removed entirely, replace them with the ability to charge from your own electric network (no module required, just a passive bonus of the armour). Batteries become useful for excursions away from your power grid, and you can push the personal reactor behind nuclear research.

Solid suggestion as always, Bagel. I'd have a specific charging module though, maybe multiple tiers of them. Otherwise you just get "all the power you could ever need" for yourself without doing anything for it.

[Tekky]

Yeah Solar Panels are totally useless, I tried using them once just for Construction Robots (when they made Modular Armour cheaper) and maybe 80% of the time it was loads quicker to "mine" them out of the air. IMO they should be removed entirely, replace them with the ability to charge from your own electric network (no module required, just a passive bonus of the armour). Batteries become useful for excursions away from your power grid, and you can push the personal reactor behind nuclear research.

I totally agree with all of these statements. They are spot-on.

[bobucles]

Pocket fusion generates 5x the energy per tile compared to pocket solar. That difference is nothing less than ginormous when you consider that solar panels are also made for smaller suits with 1/4 the module space. When both suit capacity scales AND the module efficiency scales you get a quadradic increase in power.

It would be nice for there to be a charging option halfway between solar and fusion. Induction charging can help fill that gap. This type of module can also affect PvP balance, since induction chargers would give defenders a regenerating suit compared to attackers that need to hold on to their batteries.