90 lines
3.8 KiB
ReStructuredText
90 lines
3.8 KiB
ReStructuredText
steam-engine
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============
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.. dfhack-tool::
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:summary: Allow modded steam engine buildings to function.
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:tags: unavailable
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:no-command:
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The steam-engine plugin detects custom workshops with the string
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``STEAM_ENGINE`` in their token, and turns them into real steam engines!
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The plugin auto-enables itself when it detects the relevant tags in the world
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raws. It does not need to be enabled with the `enable` command.
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Rationale
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---------
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The vanilla game contains only water wheels and windmills as sources of power,
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but windmills give relatively little power, and water wheels require flowing
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water, which must either be a real river and thus immovable and
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limited in supply, or actually flowing and thus laggy.
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Compared to the
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:wiki:`dwarven water reactor <Water_wheel#Dwarven_Water_Reactor>` exploit,
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steam engines make a lot of sense!
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Construction
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------------
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The workshop needs water as its input, which it takes via a passable floor tile
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below it, like usual magma workshops do. The magma version also needs magma.
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Due to DF game limits, the workshop will collapse over true open space. However,
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down stairs are passable but support machines, so you can use them.
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After constructing the building itself, machines can be connected to the edge
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tiles that look like gear boxes. Their exact position is extracted from the
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workshop raws.
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Like with collapse above, due to DF game limits the workshop can only
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immediately connect to machine components built AFTER it. This also means that
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engines cannot be chained without intermediate axles built after both engines.
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Operation
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---------
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In order to operate the engine, queue the Stoke Boiler job (optionally on
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repeat). A furnace operator will come, possibly bringing a bar of fuel, and
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perform it. As a result, a "boiling water" item will appear in the :kbd:`t`
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view of the workshop.
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.. note::
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The completion of the job will actually consume one unit
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of the appropriate liquids from below the workshop. This means
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that you cannot just raise 7 units of magma with a piston and
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have infinite power. However, liquid consumption should be slow
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enough that water can be supplied by a pond zone bucket chain.
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Every such item gives 100 power, up to a limit of 300 for coal, or 500 for a
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magma engine. The building can host twice that amount of items to provide longer
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autonomous running. When the boiler gets filled to capacity, all queued jobs are
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suspended. Once it drops back to 3+1 or 5+1 items, they are re-enabled.
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While the engine is providing power, steam is being consumed. The consumption
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speed includes a fixed 10% waste rate, and the remaining 90% is applied
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proportionally to the actual load in the machine. With the engine at nominal 300
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power with 150 load in the system, it will consume steam for actual
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300*(10% + 90%*150/300) = 165 power.
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A masterpiece mechanism and chain will decrease the mechanical power drawn by
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the engine itself from 10 to 5. A masterpiece barrel decreases waste rate by 4%.
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A masterpiece piston and pipe decrease it by further 4%, and also decrease the
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whole steam use rate by 10%.
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Explosions
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----------
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The engine must be constructed using barrel, pipe, and piston from fire-safe,
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or, in the magma version, magma-safe metals.
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During operation, weak parts gradually wear out, and eventually the engine
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explodes. It should also explode if toppled during operation by a building
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destroyer or a tantruming dwarf.
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Save files
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----------
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It should be safe to load and view engine-using fortresses from a DF version
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without DFHack installed, except that in such case the engines, of course, won't
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work. However actually making modifications to them or machines they connect to
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(including by pulling levers) can easily result in inconsistent state once this
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plugin is available again. The effects may be as weird as negative power being
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generated.
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