Why is the Exosuit Energy Relay classed as Illegal Technology?

[Nanako]

I'm currently working on documenting efforts for the robotics page, and research the Energy Relay at this exact moment. It requires Illegal Technology at 2 in order to make, so it's apparently an illegal item

What it does, is charges the battery by 12w (per second?), and drains 100x that much from the nearest APC. Exactly how often it procs is unclear, but it shows as a drain of 2-3Kw on the equipment section of an APC's power load

This is wasteful, sure, but in the grand scheme of things, it's a drop in the ocean. The engine usually outputs a load of about 400kw, and produces way more than that. The main SMES outputs up to 1.1Mw, , and a decent engineering team can amp up the engine and power network to put >5Mw through without too much issue other than running out of transmission coils.

So it powers an exosuit by draining power from the station. You know what else would drain power from the station though? Plugging in a toaster. Or in actual gameplay terms, building basically anything. The quantity of power used is miniscule enough to not pose a problem to anyone

I'm not seeing any logical reason why this should be illegal. Especially given the fact that it seems to come as standard on Marauders which IIRC the ERT uses (or maybe on adminspawned ones)

It's a really useful equipment module, though perhaps the ability to recharge anywhere is a bit powerful, is that why it's restricted? For balance reasons?

Personally, i think it shouldn't be illegal, it's a shame to see it never used. I'd like to see it use power storage research instead.

But also, i think the power drain should be amped up a lot. Like 30x it's current value. Right now even if an antag were using it to maraud around endlessly in an exosuit, you'd never be able to track them by watching the power drains. Their draining would have no functional effect on the rooms they drain from, and so there's basically no downside.

If it's power drain were in the range of 100kw, it would seriously stress departments and be detectable to a decent electrician who's setup the RCON network properly. That kind of value would start browning out a department as it hits the SMES output load limit, and APCs near it would start to turn red as they're losing more than recieving. I think that'd be interesting.

[Guest Complete Garbage]

inb4 Robotocist builds 4 Ripleys with relays and drains all the power.

But in all seriousness, I like most of these ideas.

[Guest]

It's classed as illegal tech because there's no other natural way to find contraband in a normal extended game to break down and raise the research levels for R&D.

[Nanako]

It's classed as illegal tech because there's no other natural way to find contraband in a normal extended game to break down and raise the research levels for R&D.

 

This made no sense.

Are you saying its classed as illegal so that you can break it down and research it?

It NEEDS illegal tech to build it in the first place.

[Alberyk]

It's classed as illegal tech because there's no other natural way to find contraband in a normal extended game to break down and raise the research levels for R&D.

 

This made no sense.

Are you saying its classed as illegal so that you can break it down and research it?

It NEEDS illegal tech to build it in the first place.

 

Not really;

 

datum/design/item/mecha/energy_relay
id = "mech_energy_relay"
req_tech = list("magnets" = 4, "powerstorage" = 3)
build_path = /obj/item/mecha_parts/mecha_equipment/tesla_energy_relay

 

Also, you could get illegal research by other means in old code, not sure in the new one, however.

[Nanako]

Welp, i've been looking at the wrong thing, i'm looking at the tech it gives, not what's required. Thanks alberyk.

Point about the consumption is still relevant though

[Guest Complete Garbage]

Welp, i've been looking at the wrong thing, i'm looking at the tech it gives, not what's required. Thanks alberyk.

Point about the consumption is still relevant though

 

I would say if they consume that much more power, they should also provide a bit more power to the suit.

Not necessarily proportional, but still, at least a bit more power should be able to be gained from the relay, if we're going to ~triple its draw.

[Butterrobber202]

Err... Its a Machine that chugs power from other machines, think about it, what if it gets near the MILLION Dollar AI

[Guest]

Also, you could get illegal research by other means in old code, not sure in the new one, however.

 

Such as telescience. Not anymore, though.