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Randomized Backstories

67 (25.9%)

Genetic Additions

98 (37.8%)

Mess Hall

50 (19.3%)

Revamped Area

44 (17%)

Total Members Voted: 257

[beorn080]

Yeah, but its 15-20 minutes of boring crap, plus it leaves you open for a quick toolboxing. Plus setting the other panels up assumes you have other compentent engineers.

[Mono124]

Hmm, well i personally believe it should be easier to set them up because most rounds only last 15-25 minutes, and spending all that time setting up solars won't be fun.

[qwertyuiopas]

However, part of the fun of the game is when all power is out and you get things running from a solar array.

On the other hand, it should be somewhat easier. How about a "sun is stronger (clockwise/counterclockwise) from current position" indicator?


Edit: Maybe a sun direction command, limited to max 1 per 10 seconds, that only works if you can see, and only gives one of the 8 primary directions?

[Jakkarra]

Just give then the cardinal directions, simplify it somewhat,

HOWEVER! (see what i did there?)

have an override button, so people can tweak it for maximum output. (using the current system)

there should be a limit on power to be gained from using the simplified version.

[Trorbes]

I don't see how hard it is to find the freaking sun.  I mean, I understand from a gaming perspective that you don't want the whole thing automatic, or else why even have the ability to adjust the solar panels?  But it's seriously kind of odd how you can't do anything like, say, look out a window to see where the sun is, or look it up at some kind of terminal or something, to at least be able to figure out where the sun is relative to the station.  Even if it's just a general "The sun is to the northwest" message it would still be a whole lot less stupid than the current "durr where's the big shiny ball" deal.

[Micro102]

The sun doesnt have a perfect degree speed....I've tried.

Lets say i started at 100, and the power was going down fast, went to 120, power went down more slowly, kept going up 1 degrees at a time but the power level never leveled off it just went up or down. Meaning there is no perfect tracking speed and the sun needs to be fixed.


You don't need to have the omtimum angle, having a horrible angle will still show if you have the right speed or not by not altering (meaning the sun isn't going faster or slower then the arrays) and then you cant change the angle manually until you have a high engery level.

[Mono124]

Yeah, it is kind of stuipid that you have to try to figure out where in the hell the sun might be. Most of the time i just put the arrays to 0 degrees and then make it go to 359. It turns the panels and whenever power goes up (lets say its pointing south east) I adjust the degrees to be south east and go from there.

Anyway, when is the server going up?

[qwertyuiopas]

Code: [Select]

/datum/sun/New()
rate = rand(75,125)/100 // 75% - 125% of standard rotation
if(prob(50))
rate = -rate

// calculate the sun's position given the time of day

/datum/sun/proc/calc_position()

counter++
if(counter<50) // count 50 pticks (50 seconds, roughly - about a 5deg change)
return
counter = 0

angle = ((rate*world.realtime/100)%360 + 360)%360 // gives about a 60 minute rotation time
// now 45 - 75 minutes, depending on rate
Also, the sun is blocked by the station.


Oh, I forgot: I optimized the rotation code so that it will NOT do a total loop from 359 to get to 0. It turns them counterclockwise if the numeric diffrence is over 180. Naturally that is the one bit I forgot to test.

Edit: and not surprisingly, it was a simple enough change that it worked.

[Mono124]

NOOOO my way i used to use is ruined! Well, if you going to ruin it you have to add a way to at least have the direction of the sun... please?

[qwertyuiopas]

Oh, all right...

But it will have a 5% chance of temporary blindness‼(Well, maybe not..)

At the very least, you must
a) be able to see the sun, in the same way solar panels must, to get anything from it.
b) Only get a N/E/S/W/NE/NW/SE/SW response.

[Micro102]

just make sure that there is actually an angle at which the power doesnt change.

[Mono124]

Yay... I am happy now i guess.

BTW here is a list of things i think would make the game better, but you don't have to do anything about it or agree, i just want to see if anyone else agrees with me.

~!WARNING!~ WALL OF TEXT ~!WARNING!~

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

1 ) A back-up engine, sort of like the prototype engine, except that the hardware will break after X amount of time? (Would help when engineers are lazy/don't know what they are doing, or you decide to load the engine the "correct" way (you hook up the plasma and o2 instead of launching it))

2 ) More power storage units, or backup power storage units that start off X% full but must be toggled to output?

3 ) Have storage units automatically charge, no need to go "The generator is sending off 400k power, so i have to set each of these to 133 input", this really is irritating especially considering that in long games the generator will stop producing 600k+ power, and you will find the station having blackouts even though the generator is making enough power for it to run (However make it so that you can toggle input/output off still).

4 ) Fix engines extreme heat problems... I don't like walking into engine room after it's been started and everything is fine, and then I walk onto the heating loop pipe and insta-die. (although it may be hilarious, it isn't fun)

5 ) Connect toxins to the rest of the stations power grid! It sucks when no-one sets up the solar arrays at toxins (the only source of power i think) and toxins go dark after 5 minutes of game play! If I am playing a toxins researcher I always have to have my character minor in engineering/station repair so i can hook up toxins to the rest of the grid. This would also take the least amount of time to fix! It's just laying down some wires when you next map something!

6 ) Maybe have portable power storage units that you can hook up to APC's or wires? It can get really irritating when you REALLY need power to an area and everyone has looted the batteries.

7 ) Make A.I.'s power storage unit be automatically charging, and have it take precedence over every other power unit if there is an A.I.. It really sucks when half way through the game the A.I. dies because it either didn't set up its power storage unit, or the generator wasn't making enough power for all the units.

8 ) Add power storage unit's to the power grid's computer. I would really like to see if all the power storage units are charging or not without having to go run over to all the different storage units and check them.

9 ) Get rid of the plasma leak in the teleporter room, please? It's really annoying when someone just decides to open the teleporter room up, and someone else runs through with a welder or something. It kills the game, especially when the shuttle is coming and it traps half/all the crew.

10 ) Move the prototype engine to inside the station, but make it have like 4 sets of doors and have them bolted with A.I. control off (or in other words make it hard to get to, or make it not completed all the way (walls missing and floor tiles and wires and such)). I think it is really ridiculous that an engine that far from the station can be supported by a small pathway of tiles. An engine is supposed to be heavy (or since space is weightless, it would have a lot of mass) and that really wouldn't work.

That's all i can really think of right now......

[qwertyuiopas]

What do you mean by that? That if you get a certain angle, the power always gives full?

NEVER!

The sun moves for a reason.
You ALWAYS get cosine(diffrence in angles between solar panel angle and sun angle)*1600 power for each panel within 90 degrees of the sun WITH A CLEAR PATH TO IT. The sun moves so that setting up solar power takes as much or more effort than setting up the engine.

There is always an angle that can give full power, but it moves in a circle at a constant rate, and sometimes some or all the solar panels are blocked by the station.

That is the way it will remain.

On the other hand, "Hey, for once, the lazy crew don't have to rely on technology to find the sun!.zip" Is on it's way to the host.

[Mono124]

In other news.... *Knocks on Johb's door* WAKE UP! TIME TO HOST THE GAME FOR US BORED PEOPLE!

[Micro102]

Sorry i meant speed not angle. If its at the same speed as the sun then it shouldn't change right?