RELEASED From Coal to Electricity - Starship fuel mechanic change

Hi !

I'm pleased to present to you my upcomig mod called "From Coal to Electricity".

Mod objectives :
As we all know, coal is the main fuel used to move the ship. And coal is not really sci-fi. Even if Tier 1 send us to the stone age, we remember the first quest saying "Hello, you're lost in orbit with no fuel, we must find something to move again". But in fact, you can just land, extract some coal or cut a tree and gather wood to travel to the other moons or to nearby planets. The first planet becomes optional and the quest loses it's interest. Furthermore, the game introduce Uranium as the immediate successor of Coal. The gap is quite HUGE. So I thought, removing the ability to use coal and wood as fuel would be interesting.

Now the player must build it's first real energy device. Device that can produce electricity. This device is quite simple, it's a solar panel. This panel can be built with the metalwork station, saying you are stuck on the planet until you defeat the first boss !

This solar panel must be built on the planet surface. It's purpose is to reload empty batteries. Empty Batteries are built with the metalwork station and transformed in full batteries using the solar panel.

Each battery is built using copper and coal. It's fuel power is 2. It increases the lifespan of copperbars past Tier1.



Progress : 95%
- Arts : Done
- Items implementation : Done
- Recipes implementation : Done
- Object implementation : Done
- Lua : Stand By
- Modification of coal and wood properties : Done

Note : As I cannot find a way to detect if it's day or night, the solar panel will probably work even by night. I will eventualy fix this when a day/night property will appear in Json.

 

Looks good.
What about a generator also?
Something to burn wood/coal inside of to recharge the batteries? Make it less efficient, but it would provide a realistic alternative as well.

 

Yes, it's something I have in mind. As well as Wind Energy.

My ongoing plans are to add the Coal generator then to go on transforming uranium and other advanced materials in Uranium Rods that could add something like 250 fuel at once.

I wonder how much coal would be spent to load an empty battery. 3 coal seems fine. It would put the price of a battery up to 4 coal and 1 copperbar.

 

You can try to base it off of the energy density.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density#Energy_densities_of_common_energy_storage_materials

Items like this are why my mods get complicated, I put too much math into it.

 

Haha, nice. I guess it's better and easier to stay in a logic of pure gameplay and fun more than respecting so much reality. Well, coal for a ship is too far away from reality for my mind anyway

 

I can't help it.
I pull a table like that for a mod and convert the numbers from the table to match the game.
This is why some of my mods take a long time to create and I will probably stay away from huge mods in Starbound.

 

You should work in team, with people able to help you focus on gameplay objectives more than science rules. The game is far from being respectful from science so, don't bother too much with that.

I wonder if the wiring system allows an item connected to "read" other networked items properties... Hmmm. Implementing energy level for homebase should be great.

 

It is just a matter of me needing something to balance off of.
This would be an easy conversion, pick a constant (coal) and keep the already in place fuels and use the numbers in the table as a ratio.
Excel helps with this and it completes quickly (based on formula).
Plus, once you have a ratio/formula added then adding more fuel/energy types is easier.

 

Doesn't world.timeOfDay return true or false? Could you not use this?

 

I'm trying to use it but the complexity is that : the solar panel is a container. The script event seems to not be triggered.

 

The mod is out !

You can download it here : http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?resources/energy-devices.153/

 

Now I wish I wasn't working all night.

 

I dont understand how electricity could be used as fuel xD
Surely needs something that when you burn it it propulse.
But i might be wrong again, and we never know the future.
Good mod!