helium, iridum and rubidium editing

[Teodosio]

I am planning to do some work on the "chemicals": helium, iridum and rubidium. I would like to provide them with appropriate gamefont icons, models and textures.
In order to do this best there are some things I must ask to Maniac. What is the story of these resources? Why did you choose to include them in Planetfall? What are their use and importance on Chiron?
Thanks.

[Maniac]

They're added to get a decent number of health resources. Planetfall currently has 12, about the same number as unmodded Civ4. It's kinda hard to think of resources that work well in the context of Chiron.

The idea is that:
Helium-3 powers fusion reactions
Iridium is necessary for Antimatter production
Rubidium is necessary for Singularity energy production

Such energy production enables you to provide power to large bases => 'health' bonus.

[Teodosio]

First chemical: Helium-3

Helium-3 is an isopote of Helium that has been proposed as fuel for nuclear fusion reactions. It is very rare on Earth, while the standard Helium is quite abundant.
Since Helium-3 is usually in gas phase and becomes a liquid at very low temperatures, I thought of using for it the Oil model. I don't know what color Helium-3 has and I tried to paint it in cyan.
I have attached the gamefont icon too, my own concept.
Below you will find the lines to substitute in the CIV4ArtDefines_Bonus.xml file:

Spoiler:

<BonusArtInfo>
<Type>ART_DEF_BONUS_HELIUM</Type>
<fScale>1.0</fScale>
<fInterfaceScale>1.0</fInterfaceScale>
<NIF>Art/Terrain/Resources/Helium-3/Oil.nif</NIF>
<KFM>Art/Terrain/Resources/Oil/Oil.kfm</KFM>
<Button>Art/Interface/Buttons/WorldBuilder/Helium.dds</Button>
<FontButtonIndex>43</FontButtonIndex>
</BonusArtInfo>

While working on this I thought of some ideas:
1- First proposal: rename everywhere in-game "Helium" in "Helium-3". They are two distinct things and it is not correct to ignore that;
2- Second: rename "Nuclear reactor" in "Fusion reactor", since nuclear is a generic term that includes fission power too, but that is a technology that the colonist already knew from Earth;
3- Last proposal: add another effect to the "Fusion reactor": "+10% minerals and energy with Helium-3".

Iridium will come next

[Maniac]

Originally Posted by Teodosio

First chemical: Helium-3

Looks great!

1- First proposal: rename everywhere in-game "Helium" in "Helium-3". They are two distinct things and it is not correct to ignore that;

I'll do so.

2- Second: rename "Nuclear reactor" in "Fusion reactor", since nuclear is a generic term that includes fission power too, but that is a technology that the colonist already knew from Earth;

The Nuclear Reactor is supposed to represent all of the following four energy reactions: fission, fusion, antimatter and singularity. Notice the health bonus this facility gives to the four resources this thread is about. Hence the name Fusion Reactor would not cover the package.

[Tssha]

Helium-3 looks awesome man!

[Lord Tirian]

Originally Posted by Maniac

The Nuclear Reactor is supposed to represent all of the following four energy reactions: fission, fusion, antimatter and singularity. Notice the health bonus this facility gives to the four resources this thread is about. Hence the name Fusion Reactor would not cover the package.

Oh, that's why! The name always confused me a bit. Can I still suggest renaming it, as nuclear only fully covers fission and fusion - antimatter and singularity energy isn't really "nuclear". Perhaps something like "Reactor Core" or "Reactor Chamber" or something similar that sounds a bit broader and doesn't make people think of nuclear power plants?

Cheers, LT.

[Maniac]

Problem is the name should also be distinct enough from the 'Bioreactor'. Adding Core or Chamber to Reactor does not make it more clear what it is, it seems to me.

[GeoModder]

Would a simple, although long, "Advanced Energy Plant" do?

[Lord Tirian]

Originally Posted by GeoModder

Would a simple, although long, "Advanced Energy Plant" do?

Also fitting would be "High Energy Reactor", like in "High Energy Physics" (and the latter two reactors must be pretty high in energy, considering that they are more effective than fusion reactors!).

Cheers, LT.

[deadliver]

What are the primary advanced power sources used by the factions? Fusion, antimatter would use Magnetic Bottles. Would singularity power? Maybe Mag Core?

[GeoModder]

Originally Posted by Lord Tirian

(and the latter two reactors must be pretty high in energy, considering that they are more effective than fusion reactors!).

That's a pretty cautious remark regarding the potential power output of antimatter and singularities.

[Maniac]

Since magnetics got mentioned, Tokamak would be a distinctive name, but then you guys would say it doesn't cover nuclear fission.

[Keeper_GFA]

How about the Quantum Converter? The text is already there.

[deadliver]

I donno, I do think Reactor Core sounds cool despite being close to Bio Reactor, though not really

[Lord Duffler]

Rubidium being a rare resource?? On earth it's more abundant than copper! How about using deuterium for anti matter production and iridium for singularities? It would sorta make sense as iridium is already very dense.
Helium-3 could also be used for extreme cooling, perhaps giving a lab bonus? Alternatively it could give an energy bonus, as factions who did not have it from a natural source would have to make it artificially (as we do on earth today)

[Lord Tirian]

Originally Posted by Lord Duffler

How about using deuterium for anti matter production and iridium for singularities?

We-ell, who knows how they produce anti-matter and singularities using that stuff? Because it must be some pretty exotic process - otherwise using anti-matter as energy source is downright and completely silly. So my suspension of disbelief kicks in and tells me - these are just fancy names!

If you care for an explanation why it's actually silly, read this:

Spoiler:

Using anti-matter as energy source is like saying "using batteries as energy source" - to produce anti-matter... you need energy first. Simply by mass-energy conservation, every produced something of anti-matter requires you to have the equivalent energy before - at best, the annihilating anti-matter gives you as much energy back as you put in first. Like batteries, anti-matter can basically only serve as energy storage, unless you find naturally occurring anti-matter (which would go boom).

Furthermore, anti-matter annihilations produce a lot of energy - but not all of it is actually useful - because a lot of it will end up in the form of neutrinos - which basically don't interact with anything at all - you can't capture them, you can't see them - hell, physicists build huge watertanks (huge as in silo-sized) just to detect single neutrinos in months and years! So even as an energy-storage, it's far from 100% efficient (and the fact that it's effin' dangerous and costs energy to be kept safe with magnetic bottles and so forth) - it's really only useful as weapon, because then you get the best stuff-to-boom ratio.

Finally, anti-matter production is also very, very inefficient - remember the pesky energy-mass conservation? It gets worse. Protons and neutrons have a baryon number of +1, electrons a lepton number of +1 - and the anti-particles have one of -1, respectively. And there's a law of baryon no. conservation and one of lepton no. conservation - so if you just had energy before (no particles, hence no lepton/baryon no.), you need to come out with zero afterwards again - in short, you always have to produce as much matter as anti-matter, so only half of your energy used to produce anti-matter actually ends up as such, the other half is wasted in form of regular matter.

Cheers, LT.

[deadliver]

Originally Posted by Lord Tirian

If you care for an explanation why it's actually silly, read this:

Good point. Even in phoney baloney sci-fi like Star Trek had fusion power as the background power source.

[Maniac]

Originally Posted by Lord Tirian

We-ell, who knows how they produce anti-matter and singularities using that stuff? Because it must be some pretty exotic process

Well um.. they don't produce antimatter. They harvest it from vacuum fluctuations.

I wouldn't remind removing the health bonus of Iridium with the Nuclear Reactor. But then I would like to add another health resource. Preferably something else than another DNA or algae. And I'm out of ideas.

[Lord Tirian]

Originally Posted by Maniac

I wouldn't remind removing the health bonus of Iridium with the Nuclear Reactor. But then I would like to add another health resource. Preferably something else than another DNA or algae. And I'm out of ideas.

Immediate gut reaction: Ilmenite-rich deposits. The NASA was actually looking for deposits on the moon in 2005, because it's a titanium-iron oxide - you can get oxygen from it - and having titanium and iron ore isn't too shabby as well. For an early colonisation, this stuff would be pretty valuable and useful. And for a real-world mineral, Ilmenite certain sounds cool.

EDIT: Just out of curiosity, Maniac, why did you replace the SMAC's quantum reactor-theme with antimatter-themed energy?

Cheers, LT.

[Maniac]

Originally Posted by Lord Tirian

Ilmenite-rich deposits.

How can you justify this giving health, energy, recycling opportunities or anything else that could increase base size though? Planet's atmosphere already has oxygen (though not enough for humans), and AFAIK there's oxygen in all rocks.

EDIT: Just out of curiosity, Maniac, why did you replace the SMAC's quantum reactor-theme with antimatter-themed energy?

Err I don't remember. That change dates from years back, in SMAniaC. I guess I thought harvesting quantum power was too much of a fluff idea. But as you say Antimatter probably isn't any better. I guess that vacuum polarization idea I just invented doesn't make much sense?