So, here are my ideas.Hannu wrote:Decay chain from uranium to lead takes billions of years. Of course the game should be balanced for gaming but I think that there should be some relation to real world in this kind of game.
Your idea that you could make something useful from nuclear waste is good. However, I suggest that instead of lead it would give radionuclides. Radionuclides could be used for satellites and radiothermal generators, which would be maintenance free electricity sources with relatively low output and large but finite lifetime (several hours) with exponential decay. They could be used to power distant mining outposts but too weak to be practical energy source for production facilities or laser defences. RTGs could also replace the portable fusion reactor, which is quite strange out of place artifact in my opinion..
Maybe there could be a new science potion too, which would use radionuclides. Or it could be combined with alien artifacts in the purple science and it would be moved to later researches. If you do not want to use nuclear energy you could build a small research reactor to produce radionuclides from uranium.
1. Nuclear Waste
So, how should we handle nuclear waste in a world where every item can be destroyed with a steel chest and a shotgun? Simple, make it a fluid. But not just any fluid. Any container with nuclear waste in it will generate pollution. No storing it away or it'll bite you back in the form of actual biters. This also creates an interesting design mechanic: get it to the processing plant as soon as possible. Anyway, my idea is to make an oil refinery-type scenario but with nuclear waste. Input it in, it turns into 2 items: Plutonium and americium. Both of these have uses in the endgame, but we'll get to those. Next up here are all the recipe changes I have planned.
2. Recipe Changes
- Processing Unit: Requires americium in addition to the other materials.
- Rocket Fuel: Requires 5 plutonium in addition to solid fuel.
- Alien Science Pack: Can also be created with rocket fuel, a filter stack inserter, a flying robot frame and a smoke detector (explained later).
- Alien Artifact: Can be crafted with 10 alien science packs and 10 repair packs as seen in the Alternate Alien Science mod.
So, plutonium has the obvious uses of nuclear weapons and recycled reactor fuel, alongside the other uses I mentioned above. Americium, however, has a different use. Smoke Detectors are created with 10 steel plates and 5 americium. This is used to create the Pollution Scrubber with 10 electric engine units and 5 smoke detectors. These do exactly as they say, they scrub pollution very slowly.
What do you guys think?