Singularity Engine

From Paradise Station Wiki
Revision as of 10:51, 4 April 2022 by Shadeykins (talk | contribs)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Engineering Department


The Gravitational Singularity

Of the most feared anomalies in this universe, the Gravitational Singularity is the most terrifying. When at its full potential, it will consume all matter, abiotic and organic. However, it has been discovered that the radiation produced from these singularities can be harvested and converted in power via plasma. This has spawned the invention of the Singularity Engine.

This Guide serves as a how-to for setting up your very own Singularity engine. It includes the step-by-step construction process, what to order, what equipment to wear, and pointers on how to prevent it from consuming your station!

Singulo 1.gif Singulo 3.gif Singulo 5.gif
Singularity 1x1 (Stage 1)
Too small - Turn the PA to 2
Singularity 3x3 (Stage 2)
Poor size - continue waiting
Singularity 5x5 (Stage 3)
Perfect size - Stop here
Singulo 7.gif Singulo 9.gif Singulo 11.gif
Singularity 7x7 (Stage 4)
Too large - Turn off PA temporarily
Singularity 9x9 (Stage 5)
Too late - Call the shuttle
Singularity 11x11 (Stage 6 - Supermatter Charged)
Captain, we have an uh-oh

Containment

For the safest setup, a Singularity engine requires three layers of containment to ensure that the singularity stays safely within a confined space. On the innermost layer, a required 9x9 energy containment field will keep the Singularity from eating the setup. On the middle layer is a large solid container constructed out of reinforced walls to keep out intruders/meteors as well as house all the equipment needed to run the engine. The outermost layer(optional) is a soft barrier constructed out of lattices and grilles to sop up meteors.

Energy Field

An energy field is the only thing a singularity cannot travel through. If this fails, the singularity will breach containment. In other words, don't fuck up this step. You will need:

  • A minimum of 8 field generators Field generator.png
  • A powerful energy source CableCoils.png
  • A minimum of 4 Emitters Emitter.png
  • A 9x9 area

All of this equipment can be acquired from either R&D or Cargo.

Begin by placing plating down in an open space, this is where your Singularity generator will go. Follow this by building three tiles of lattice out in each direction and placing playing at the end of each of these. Continue placing lattice to make a box out of each of these. Make plating on each corner.

Now that you have done this, place a field generator on each of the external plating. Make sure that they are properly secured. Once secured, place 4 tiles of lattice out in any direction from the corner field generators. Only the corners need emitters(and they only need one emitter). At the end of these lattices place some plating(this is where the emitters will go soon).

Before attaching the emitters, you will need to build a perimeter out of either catwalks or plating so that you can lay cable all the way around. Do this in a way so that you can build cable coil nodes(endpoints) at each spot where the emitters would go. Ensure that the emitters are facing the field generators. Then you will need to wrench each of them down and weld them into place. You will turn them on later.

Hard Containment

EngineOuterContainment.png

Whenever making an engine that is susceptible to being tampered with or fragile to high-speed space rocks you will likely need a barrier from space. Build walls or reinforced walls around your current constructions. You can build your wires around the interior perimeter of this containment too. Ensure that there is an airlock leading in and out that is accessible only by engineering.

Soft Barriers

Along the outer walls, build 2x8 sections of grilles to absorb the impact of the damage caused by meteors and further impede the incursion of intruders into the engine area.

Particle Accelerator

ParticleAccelerator.png

Next, you will need to order a Particle Accelerator(PA) kit from cargo. Don't open it until you have it where you want to install it. You will need to construct it a minimum of 6 tiles away from containment. The Particle Accelerator is T-shaped and it fires in the direction of flat side of the T. Each piece will need to be properly oriented, wrenched down, wired with cable coil, and screwed close

Additionally, a PA control console will need to be constructed next to the PA with board from the cargo crate kit. In order for the PA to function it must be powered /Unfinished: need to add how to power/

Power Generation

Radiation Collectors

Place radiation collectors Collector array filled.png roughly the same distance away from containment as the particle accelerator. Once you do that, you should wrench them down onto wire node(direction doesn't matter). The more collectors, the more power generated. Fill tanks with plasma canisters Handheld-Plasmatank.png and place them inside the radiation collectors.

Click them to turn them on and then they will be ready to collect radiation and turn it into power Collector array on.png

SMES

You will needs at least two SMES units to manage the power your engine and to power your engine. See here for a guide on construction. Both SMES should be hooked directly into the engine wire network(which is separate from the station). However the output of one SMES(SMES 1) will feed directly back into the engine wire network and the other SMES(SMES 2) will output into the stations power net.

Before starting the engine, SMES 1 will need to have its output set to max and SMES 2 will need to have its Input and Output set to 0.

Turning on the engine

Before doing anything else, put on Meson Goggles and ensure you don't have any vital organs that rely on electricity. The Singularity will EMP everything nearby (PA, Emitter, and Containment Field not-included). This includes IPCs.

Once everything has been constructed. You will need to fill SMES 1 with at least 50k watts before attempting to turn the engine on(containment may fail otherwise). This can be done by using a P.A.C.M.A.N generator on the engine network for a bit of time.

While SMES 1 is charging you will need to drag a Singularity Generator node to the center of containment and leave it there.

Once SMES 1 has reached at least 50k watts stored, set its charge to off and set its output to max. Go to each emitter and turn them on, you will also need to turn on each field generator until a blue containment field Containment field.gif completely encompasses inner containment.

Once containment is up, you will need to walk over to the Particle Accelerator and turn it on to power level 2. You will need to wait for the singularity to reach size 3 and then you can set the PA to 0 and leave it running.

Turning off the Engine

Occasionally, bad stuff happens. Well, most of the time, bad stuff happens. Sometimes it is necessary to deactivate the engine as safely as possible because nobody can maintain it. Other times meteor showers and bombs endanger your containment machinery. Whatever the crisis, if you have followed the steps above it should be safe to simply turn the accelerator off. The engine will continue to generate power as the singularity starves and shrinks, so containment SHOULDN'T fail until the singularity is sufficiently small enough that it cannot move and pull stuff into it. However, the fickle baby singularity will take a long time to die completely, leaving it exposed to potential suicidals jumping into it, giving the singularity energy to expand again. (Cool fact: Engineers provide a singularity with a lot more energy than you'd expect).

Sometimes it's a good idea to charge the SMES quickly (using the optional techniques above) and then turn off the engine safely until you need power again. This means that poor solo-engie can actually go do other stuff and leave engineering for a bit without inadvertently destroying the station.