Chief Engineer
Job type: Engineer. Access: Engineering, Maintenance, Command. Difficulty: Medium
"ALRIGHT! what goddamn moron cut the high voltage wire again?"
Relevent guides: Construction, Engineer, Atmos and Atmospherics technician
Chief Engineer - Your Job
As the CE your main goal is to make sure the rest of the station is airtight, breathable, and functional. To achieve this you have your hired help, ordinary engineers and atmospherics technicians. Engineers are easier to order around, and will generally do their job, unlike atmos techs, who while usually capable, are more likely dicking about and setting themselves on fire. Don't worry, chances are one of them is a wizard at engineering and will know how to do your job better than you, its almost guaranteed.
Help the lights are off
One of the first things you'll want to do is set up a power source. order the engineers to do it for you or get outside your office and do it yourself. once that's done, make sure it stays on. You may want to secure the generator with things like reinforced windows, as it is a favorite target of saboteurs.
Help my chair broke
You'll have to ignore many of the calls for engineering that come your way, as you'll simply be dealing with more pressing issues most of the time. For those rare cases where the station isn't being dragged into hell, be sure to send engineers out to fix things so as to tell the crew that engineering exists.
Help someone blew the wall open
The most often thing you'll deal with is breaches, most can be fixed with a single engineer and atmos tech, but a shuttleram from the syndicate shuttle is another beast entirely. simply designate someone by name to patch up the wall or floor and make sure they have a space-worthy suit.
OH GOD EVERYTHING IS BURNING AND EXPLODING
The eventual end of most shifts, there are holes into space everywhere and almost everyone is dead. Generally, if the station gets to this point, its unfixable. Rather than bother with lost causes, seal burning halls and create safe routes to escape, making sure everyone at your disposal is working on getting others out alive. At this point your job is less about fixing the station and more about keeping it together just long enough for the shuttle to arrive. Make sure to pack a gun.
Chief Screw-Loose (traitor CE)
A traitor CE has a lot of fun option available to them to cause absolute havoc on the station. You have access to almost all critical rooms and machines in the station, the highlight options being the engine room, the bridge, department batteries, the AI upload room, and ACUs. You also come with the best construction tools on the station, a very good hardsuit, advanced magboots, and whatever equipment that's in engineering's storage room.
Because you have access to the engine bay, you also have the most effective way to create an excuse to call the evac shuttle by setting loose the engine, whether it's a Singularity, Tesla, or Supermatter. Just be sure that the shuttle is called immediately, as you won't have long once you sabotage any of them before they begin tearing the station apart.
Guide to the nuclear reactor
Note: The reactor is VERY complicated, and you shouldn't touch it unless you are experienced as an engineer or fully intend to fuck it up.
Overview
This guide will cover the basic background info of the reactor, how to start it, how to run it, and how to blow it to hell. Many terms relating to the reactor will also be covered, under the assumption that you are almost certainly not a nuclear physicist.
Background
Before you even touch the reactor, its best you know how it works
Pipes, steam, water, and a shit-ton of radiation
The reactor has several distinct parts, all of which must be properly connected to each-other for the reactor to work. Starting with the simplest, the water reservoir. It holds water. This water is cycled around the reactor through the use of a pump,it heads to the reactor core where it is heated to steam by the fission reactions within and used to drive a turbine, creating power. the water then returns to the reservoir where it is cooled, and the process begins again. This whole system has, as of now, only two weak links, the pipes and the reactor core. The other parts of the reactor can be built with cheap steel in the build menu, but the pipes and core are both difficult to replace and require leanghy repiping and large amounts of plasteel respectively.
How the core works
The core itself is just as complex as the rest of the reactor combined. Inside the core, fuel rods are used in fission reactions to heat up water cycling through the core. These fuel rods cannot start up on their own, and require a starting rod to fire up initially. Control rods are used to reduce or increase the rate of fission reactions to control the core. The cores pressure and temperature are what you need to control to generate power and avoid getting your teeth kicked in by an admin, Though these are not directly controllable and make up a large chain of dependence.
The chain of dependence
As previously mentioned, the temperature and pressure of a core are not directly controllable, only indirectly through a long series of dependencies. Starting from the beginning, you have the number of rods. More fuel rods means more heat and neutrons, while more control rods means more control over other values. The second thing you have control over is rod height. When the control rods are deep in the reactor, they lower the amount of fission reactions that occur, and when they are nearly outside it, the amount of reactions increases. This is measured by the K% value (or more accurately a 1+k%), which shows on a triplet of horizontal sliding gauges. This K% value changes the amount of neutron flux exponentially, meaning a K% value of 10 causes the flux to grow not ten times faster than a k value of 1, but a hundred times faster. The neutron flux can be seen as a way to measure how active the reactor is. The higher the flux, the more fission reactions occur. This causes the temperature to increase which in turn increases the pressure of the steam around the reactor. The higher the pressure, the faster the steam moves through the turbine, and the more power is generated. If all this has you confused, try reading the chain of dependency backwards.
Reading the console
With recent changes to the reactor control console, its become easier but more complicated to read than before. The K slider has been given two extra gauges for finer readings, these are more difficult to explain verbally than with examples, so well get right to those. If the value of K# was 0.71, the top slider would be ~2/3rds between 0 and 1, the second slider measuring increments of 1/10th would be at 7, and the finest display at the bottom would be off its right far end. Alternatively, if it was at 0.07, both the top and second slider would be close to zero, with the lower slider at 7. If you want a k value that is perfectly at zero, you should have all 3 gauges centred along the centerline.
The reactor rod controls are far easier than before. there is a display showing the % of the max depth the rods are inserted at any moment down to the hundredth of a percent. The left course slider controls this depth at increments of 1%, while the right one does so at increments of 0.01%. The latter is essential for achiving a perfect 0 k value.
Areas of gauges that are shaded in red mean that having a value in the range is either counterproductive or dangerous. A pressure incapable of powering the reactor and a pressure close to blowing it up would both be in a red shaded area.
Starting up the reactor
Starting up the reactor is a rather long process, with multiple steps, and can result in you turning into a fine mist if done incorrectly.
Rods
Before starting the reactor, you need to gather what you'll need to do so. these are the rods, typically found someplace near the console. There are three types, control rods, whose function is discussed in "The chain of dependence", Fuel rods, which drive the fission reactions and are slowly whittled down by them, and starter rods, which provide the initial neutrons for starting up the reactor. These must be placed into the reactor in an appropriate ratio to avoid it fizzling out or exploding horribly.
"Simple" reactor setup
This is simply the method that I personally use when I'm just looking to generate power. Id recommend experimenting on private servers if you want to try different setups, as admins frown upon unscheduled reactor decommissioning.
- Start the plasma generator so crew doesn't complain and your lights/consoles are powered.
- Gather 4 to 5 control rods, one fuel rod, and one starter rod.
- Head out the airlock and plug in the control rods. then the fuel rod, then the starter.
- run back inside to man the reactor console
- Raise control rods until the k% value is ~ 6 or 7
- Keep it there until the neutron flux reaches a point between 10^5 and 10^6. Going higher will make the reactor MUCH more feisty, exponentially so. (going too high will result in a reactor meltdown that cant be stopped via the console)
- Set K% to zero using the rods. (all 3 sliders should meet at the center point, see "Reading the console")
- Lower and raise K% until a stable and relatively high temp and pressure is reached (being in the top-side red is safe-ish, going above it results in reactor failure)
- Check that pressure is rising, and use the other console to see if power is being generated
- go to the core, remove the starter rod, be sure your wearing rad-proof gear.
- go back to the console, repeat steps 7-9 as needed
Continued operation
Now that you've got the reactor running, you are expected to keep it nice, fueled, and stable.
Refueling
The step by step setup should be good for most rounds, lasting over an hour, but if you need to refuel the reactor, head out the airlock, take out the old fuel rod, smack in a new one, and repeat the startup process. Its a good idea to startup the plasma generator beforehand so the crew doesn't complain about the lack of power. If your using a multi fuel rod setup, having someone trustworthy man the console while your replacing rods is generally a good idea.
Safety hazards
Having a very slowly exploding nuke in your backyard comes with a lot of dangers, not the least of which is may blow you into tiny smithereens if you fuck up. Therefore, it is always a good idea to be aware of the various safety hazards it poses. The two largest dangers come down to the fact that the reactor is sometimes in exposed space, and that it emits a massive amount of radiation. The first is easily counter-able, just grab a hardsuit, Engineering hardsuit preferred, tack on an o2 tank, and wear a mask. The second is more difficult. Even a single fuel rod reactor emits a massive amount of radiation, and anyone near it not wearing radiation protective gear will slowly melt from the inside. The tile above the reactor core, as well as those directly next to it, are typically so radioactive that even this wont help you totally, and even in a full Engineering hardsuit you will rapidly begin turning into goo if you get too close.
Meltdown prevention
Preventing a meltdown is very simple, and there are two ways to do it. Number one is to slam the control rods all the way in once the reactor tries to meltdown, which may not be fast enough if you get there too late. The second option is to go outside yourself and manually take out any fuel rods. If you fail at either, you will be turned into a red unclonable mist still alive and just floating in space because explosions dont damage people yet.
Sabotage prevention
If you want to prevent someone from turning engineering into a crater on purpose, there are a few things you can try. There are two places you need to protect, but still have accessible, these being the reactor and its control console. If you want to prevent sabotage, walling up the reactor and leaving an engineering airlock is typically the best course of action. The console is typically decently protected, but if you feel the need you can replace the windows with reinforced walls or place the console in a more hidden location.
🎵 I dont want to set the wooorld on fiiiire 🎵
So, lets say you're a traitor and need all of engineering gone. There are a few ways you can go about detonating the reactor, depending on if you approach the console or the core first.
Chernobyl
The Chernobyl method is fucking with the console and moving the control rods as far out as you can and hoping nobody notices, before blitzing the fuck out of engineering so you don't end up dead yourself. This will take a longer time to come to fruition, and is easier to both stop and repair, but is far less difficult to set up than the other method
Ghetto Tsar Bomba
If you've got a deathwish, and access to the rods themselves, this method guarantees the biggest boom. to do it, simply take out all the rods in the core, shove in only fuel rods, smack in a starter, and RUN LIKE HELL. This is more difficult to set up but cannot be stopped using the console and can guarantee that the reactor explosion is absolutely massive. This will guarantee a shuttle call and will most certainly get you sent to the void if you aren't an antagonist or have a VERY VERY good reason for doing so.
Guide to the singularity and tesla engines
Note: while both the singularity and the tesla are simpler than the nuclear reactor, the cost for failure is much higher. Because of this you should be familiar with engineering BEFORE touching it, unless, of course, you intend to make the engine fail from the getgo.
Overview
The singularity and the tesla are very similar to eachother, to the extent that a single guide can comfortably cover both. While they differ in some aspects, such as power generation, they can generally be treated the same way. This guide will cover the specifics of both, how to start them, and how to run them.
Background
It is important to know just how the singularity and tesla reactors work before setting them up.
The particle accelerator
The particle accelerator, commonly reffered to as the "PA" is a multi-part machine that draws a large amount of power in order to create streams of high energy (damaging) particles. a particle accelerator forms a T shape, with the upper part of the "T" made from the 3 emitter sections. A console is attached to one side of the particle accelerator, from where it is controlled.
In the console, the particle accelerator can be turned on or off, and its power level can be changed. Higher power levels will result in greater growth of the singularity and tesla, possibly to a dangerous extent. Each power level will take an increasing amount of power being fed into the PA to be sustained or activated.
The particles emitted by the PA are able to pass through shields (but not the shield emitters!), and upon repetedly hitting the singularity and tesla generators will cause them to form a singularity or tesla ball. They will also "feed" both the singularity and tesla once they are generated.
Although some Station start with one, a PA can be bought by cargo if needed.
The shield generators (and emitters)
The shield generators serve to keep the very dangerous objects inside them contained. To do this, they must first be wrenched down. The shield generators DO NOT recieve power from wires, and must instead be powered by being shot at by an emitter. Emitters periodically shoot a green beam in a straight line, which deals high damage if it hits a player. Keep in mind that any machines (i.e. radiation collectors) in between an emitter and a generator will be hit by the beam and eventually destroyed. Once a shield generator is charged, it can be turned on by hand, at which point it will spread its shields and (to an extent) its power among the other shield emitters. The general shield generator setup, which works for both the singularity and tesla is a 5x5 square, with the generators in the corners, a space of three empty tiles between them.
Keep in mind, that having too many shields and not enough emitters may mean that the shields drain power faster than the emitters can supply, and will lead to the shields eventually failing.
Singularity and singularity specific machines
The singularity will destroy objects and players/mobs that fall into it, and will suck loose items, people, and creatures towards it. Touching the singularity is a guaranteed death sentence, and a loose singularity is often enough reason to call the shuttle. The singularity will wander around, even when contained, but cannot destroy or pass shields generated by shield generators unless sufficiently large.
The singularity can grow by absorbing mass (ie: you and the rest of the station), which can be provided with some safety using the particle accelerator. The singularity will slowly decline in mass, converting it into radiation, but the rate of mass conversion is low enough that a loose singularity will generally not "starve".
Radiation collectors are how you get power from the singularity. They will convert the radiation the singularity produces into electricity, which can be used in turn to power the station. You will want to place these as close as you can to the shield field, but not between the shield generators or within the bound of the singularitys containment zone. Then, wire them back into the station. After being placed and secured, the radiation collectors can then be deployed by being clicked. They will only function in their deployed state. Funnily enough, there is no distinction in the raditaion produced by a singularity and a nuclear reactor, so these can also be used aboard stations without a singularity to enhance power output.
To create the singularity itself, you will need a singularity generator. The singularity generator should be placed in the center of the shield square, where it can be hit by a PA. It does not need to be wired to anything. When shot with the PA repetedly (prefferably after the shield generators are on), it will create a stage one singularity, which takes up a single tile. Due to the nature of the singularity, the generator is destroyed in the process.
The singularity can then grow more and more as it is fed. A stage two singularity will generate more power, and take up 4 tiles, but require more mass to sustain itself (this trend of later stages converting mass faster continues) It can provide power to most stations without much difficulty.
The largest stations may require a stage 3 singularity. While containable in the same way as the earlier stages, it takes up 9 tiles. It requires a large amount of incoming mass to sustain itself, but be careful to not over-feed it, as it becomes far more difficult to contain later stages.
Stage 4 and 5 singularities will tear apart walls and ordinary machinery, even through shield generators. While a stage 4 singularity can be THEORETICALLY contained (does not rip out shield generators), a stage 5 singularity will flat out consume anything containing it, and is gaurenteed to get loose. Generally, you will only see a stage 4 and 5 singularity when a singularity has already broken loose and ate enough of the station to grow to such a size.
There is a fifth type of singularity, a supermatter singularity, which can only occur if a singularity eats a supermatter crystal. it takes up an enormous area, has a massive pull, and you are generally screwed if one happens to exist. Dont bother trying to contain it, it will set you on fire and turn you into an atom-thin noodle.
Tesla and tesla specific machines
In comparison to the singularity, the Tesla has both numerous upsides and downsides. Like the singularity, the core of the tesla will wander aimlessly. It will emit periodic electric arc blasts. The strengh (and power generation) of these blasts is proportionate to the number of orbs orbiting the tesla itself. Upon reaching a machine or player, the arcs will do enormous damage or explode the machine (oftentimes with enough power to cause breaches). The damage from being hit by an arc is oftentimes enough to instantly kill a player, and insulated gloves will not save you. These arcs make the tesla far more dangerous when it is loose than a singularity.
Unlike the singularity however, once the tesla has been set up it does not require babysitting and is easy to contain. The tesla cannot break the machinery around itself from within if the machinery is set up correctly, even if the tesla is at its maximum size.
The teslas arcs will prioratize hitting grounding rods and tesla coils over everything else. Grounding rods serve to stop the arcs from damaging the coils or shield generators, and the coils convert the arcs into power. A tesla coil or a shield generator hit by an arc without any grounding WILL be damaged, which can cause the containment to fail if set up incorrectly.
The tesla and the singularity are generated through near identical means, though the tesla instead uses the "tesla generator". Hit the tesla generator and the tesla it creates with PA blasts to create the tesla core and grow orbs around it. Unlike the singularity however, the tesla does not break loose when it is too large, so feel free to hit the PA to the maximum and leave it on.
Setting up the generators
0: In both cases you will want to find a 5x5 (or larger) empty region, along with space for the emitters, wiring, and the PA. Gather the appropriate material, which is the PA parts, wires, machines specific to the generator you want to create, shield generators, and emitters. The region should also have good access to the stations power grid.
1: Place the shield generators in the corners of the 5x5 (or larger) square. there should be a space of 3 tiles between them if you are using a 5x5 region. Wrench the generators down. The generators do not have to be wired to anything.
2: Place emitters facing the generators. Typically, a one tile gap is left, but this is optional. The emitters should be wired to the stations power grid or otherwise supplied with power. As emitters are dangerous and consume large amounts of power, dont turn these on yet. Remember to wrench them down one they are facing the proper direction and then weld them to the ground.
3: Move your chosen type of generator (singularity or tesla) into the very center of the construct. It should be equidistant to all of the shield generators where it can be easily hit by the PA. Wrench or weld it down if possible.
4: Build the PA. The similar looking rectangular regions with what look like red coils ontop of them should form the top of a T shape (if you aim your PA up). They are labelled as to which side they should be placed on. These, and all other parts, should be wrenched down when they are placed.
Directly behind them, set up the part that looks like an exposed coil or magnet tube. The red part of it should face the regions you just placed.
Behind this, set up the console interfacing part. It is rather clearly asymmetrical. If the PA is facing up, the flat region should face the right. In the adjacent region to the flat part, you should place the console itself
And, to cap it all off, use the part which looks bulletlike.
Wire the console or any part of the PA to a power source. The PA demands very large amounts of power, so a plasma generator, the station grid, or existing reactor is reccomended. Test fire the PA (FOR ONE BLAST!) at the construct to see if it works.
There should be nothing in the path of the PA. Floors and glass are fine, as are tables, but grilles, emitters, shield generators, and walls will block the particles. Notably, the energy barrier put up by shield generators will not block the particles.
4.5 A: If you are making a singularity: place radiation collectors along the outside of where the shield field will be generated. wrench them down. they should not block the PA particle's paths. Deploy them by clicking them. Wire them to a transformer and other electrical converters
4.5 B: If you are making a tesla: Place one tesla coil at each side of the construct except for the one facing the PA. At the same time, place one or two grounding rods on each side. Wire the tesla coils to a transformer or other electrical devices and be sure that they are wrenched in place.
5: Turn on the emitters. If they were set up correctly this should be as simple as clicking on them. otherwise, check that they are secured and powered.
6: Wait for the emitters to power the shield generators. This is represented by a bar on the shield generator that will slowly fill up with a light blue color as the generator gets more power
7: When the generators are full, turn them on. This will create the shield field.
8: Return to the PA and turn it on. This will create a contained singularity or tesla which will begin creating power. Be sure to keep it fed, but not too large. If your tesla coils or radiation collectors were properly wired to the station (see guide to electricity), you will be providing power.
Department | Roles |
---|---|
Command | Captain, Head of Personnel |
Security | Head of Security, Warden, Security Officer, Detective |
Engineering | Chief Engineer, Engineer, Atmospherics Technician |
Science | Research Director, Scientist, Geneticist, Roboticist |
Medical | Chief Medical Officer, Medical Doctor, Paramedic, Chemist, Virologist, |
Cargo | Quartermaster, Cargo Technician, Shaft Miner |
Service | Botanist, Bartender, Cook, Janitor, Clown, Mime, Curator, Lawyer, Chaplain, Assistant, Psychologist |
Synthetic | Station AI |
Ghost Roles | Ancient Engineer, Ash Walker, Fugitive |
Antagonist | Revolutionary, Nuclear operative, Traitor, Blob, Wizard, |
Centcom | Centcom Officer, Death Squad, Emergency Response Team, Redshield Officer |