New power options

[hwfanatic]

I've made a pure XML reactor mod for A14 that included a uranium burner and a plutonium breeder. The reason it never got released was that it required fiddling with traders to ensure there is at least some fuel on the market - this would have been a major compatibility issue with other mods. And balance was a concern as well. I may revisit this mod if I have the time.

The reason these reactors are not in vanilla is because they are quite complex machines that require maintenance from highly-qualified personnel. Enriching uranium is also very complex and costly that not many countries can afford it. Seems like it's out of scope of this game. The reactor that is in the game is a simple RTG. Requires no maintenance, has low output and will effectively last forever (for the duration of the game).

[MikeLemmer]

I can see a fission reactor being put into the game that slowly consumes uranium for energy. As for a fusion reactor, I would suggest it doesn't actually use any fuel (since nuclear fusion involves the two most common elements in the universe), but instead have a hefty building cost in plasteel & components.

[tyriaelsoban]

There is a fission reactor mod for rimworld on the workshop, rimushima or something like that ... but i believe Dubwise56 is still working on recoding it for alpha 16.

If you feel like going backwards in tech ... Medieval times also has a plugin for coal mining, but you never run out of coal as long as you have a guy mining it ... so thats a bit op for power, the fireplaces are a bit naff and cant stave off even minus 40 all that well for a 5x5 room.

Chemfuel should be a generator thing (if it is not already) because, seriously? who the hell burns timber to make electricity?

[Thyme]

[...] Please do not ever compare ST to SW. You should check what a warp drive is and how a concept of Alcubierre drive works its way into our physics.

I just spent two minutes in the wiki article about the difficulties of that drive. Mass requirements of more than the observable universe, inability to steer or stop, need for exotic matter and more all speak against it. If FTL travel is possible at all, it is a long way to go, hence Star Trek and Star Wars are pretty much the same for me. I like the movies and that's it.

We research and build antimatter drives in a few ingame years. Mankind hasn't figured out how to do interstellar travel and we're already using fission reactors for decades now. I think my colonists could also maintain a nuclear power plant without breaking the lore.

I made a chemfuel generator mod yesterday. I admit it's not very shiny because its basically a duplicate of the wood-fueled generator that accepts chemfuel now.

Austria has several biomass power plants where we burn organic matter to produce electricity (waste heat is often used in district heating). The energy source does not really matter, you're looking for lots of heat to boil water and put it in a turbine. There're even some vehicles around that run on wood. Might also want to check out Güssing.

[RolanDecoy]

A warp drive isn't an FTL drive...

[Thyme]

[...] as proposed by theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre, by which a spacecraft could achieve apparent faster-than-light travel [...]

sentence one in the wiki article. The Enterprise is going FTL (and the other ship even faster) in Star Trek: Into Darkness. Source: Memory

[TheMeInTeam]

I can see a fission reactor being put into the game that slowly consumes uranium for energy. As for a fusion reactor, I would suggest it doesn't actually use any fuel (since nuclear fusion involves the two most common elements in the universe), but instead have a hefty building cost in plasteel & components.

It is a reasonable (though not necessary) inclusion in the game.  Give it an up-front cost and have that be enough to power it for the whole game.

Remember, for most games we're on a several-year timescale, and most other power sources don't have a weird replenishment aspect other than the occasional breakdown.  The lone exception is spamming wood, which goes a little faster...

Besides, uranium is expensive and difficult to attain w/o trade.  It also conflicts with ship construction which would cut into incentive.  Still doable but would be a reasonable tradeoff in principle.

The occasional breakdown would be appropriate, but not Chernobyl like stuff.  That was an early, and poorly maintained reactor.  Fossil fuel burning (acquisition and usage) is more dangerous than just about any other nuclear accident in human history, and that's with hundreds of reactors running many times the length of this game's timing.

[Limdood]

Besides, uranium is expensive and difficult to attain w/o trade.  It also conflicts with ship construction which would cut into incentive.  Still doable but would be a reasonable tradeoff in principle

No longer.  A single deep drill will cover all your uranium needs for any given vanilla needs.  One uranium vein contains enough uranium for 5 ship reactors (which use the most uranium of any vanilla object).

Without trading at all, your uranium needs can be easily solved as soon as you research into the deep drill.

[hwfanatic]

Admittedly these reactors would be most useful on maps that typically don't have an option for deep drilling or geothermal (sea ice).

[NeverPire]

What do you think about :
- tidal power plant for seaside colony
- solar power plant for extreme desert colony
I precise a solar power plant concentrate light with mirrors and is different of photovoltaic panels.
- dam for hydroelectricity if rivers are added one day
- using biomass to produce electricity with organics

All these technologies exist and work well in the real world so why not in a Rimworld ?