Guide to the Stormdrive Engine

This page is currently under construction! The following page is currently in the process of being created, is undergoing a major structural rework and/or is being moved. The reason for this is: "karmic changed the engine again aaaaa"

So you want to learn Kmc's shitfuck engine, and the in-game tutorial is just too hard to understand (or you're too lazy to read it and decided the wiki must clearly be the more concise version). Well, good news! You've come to the wrong place, because nobody can learn this engine properly. Sorry.
If you'd like to see our attempt at getting the Stormdrive to maybe not explode, you can continue reading.

Warning

This engine is REALLY HARD. Power is a genuine issue if you're too slow, and many first-time engineers have no clue what they're doing.

• If you leave the particle accelerator on too long, you're out of power.
• If for some ungodly reason there's no engineers in the first 5 minutes, you're out of power.
• If you can't find that wrench or screwdriver, you're out of power.

Still willing to continue? Then read on.

Mechanics, AKA how do engine work

The Stormdrive does a lot of things. Making sense is not one of them. Here's a list of things you need to know to have a chance of understanding it.

Temperature

Temperature is the basic thing you'll be looking at as an engineer, and wondering "is this too high?" while your body is being irradiated by a recently melted Stormdrive.

• Temperature is in Celsius, because Farenheit is a horrible idea for nuclear reactors.
• The temperature level directly corresponds to power output, where a higher temperature leads to more power.
• If the temperature is above 110C, the control rods will begin to decay, and will eventually require replacement with plasteel.
• If the temperature is above 500C, you've fucked up, and the meltdown is irreversable. The control rods have fractured, your body parts have elongated, and everyone hates you. Enjoy the job ban.

Control Rod Integrity

The Control Rods are not invulnerable - the high heat will damage them over time, much in the same way as a clown crewmember would if you put them into a fire.

• Integrity slowly decays over time - higher power output leads more rapid decay.
• Integrity can be restored by adding plasteel to the rods when the reactor is in maintenance mode. Luckily, the table in the reactor room has 50 sheets of plasteel. You're welcome.

Control Rod Insertion

This refers to how far the rods are inserted into the reactor.

• Insertion levels can be either set to AZ tiers or percentages.
• AZ tiers almost work in gaps of 25%; AZ-1 is 0%, AZ-2 is 25%, AZ-3 is 33.6% ("safe" level for pansies), AZ-4 is 75%, and AZ-5 is 100%.
• Unless you want piss poor levels of power, you'll need to have insertion at around 25% to keep rate of reaction decently high to keep temperature decently high to keep power output decently high to keep the crew decently high happy.
• Unfortunately, you can't just leave it at AZ-2 and be done with it, because raising the control rods increases the rate of reaction, which increases temperature, which causes a meltdown, which is bad.
• Thus, you'll have to constantly babysit the engine so it doesn't explode, adjusting the control rod level between 25% and 50% to prevent Engineering from being the target of the crew's next revolution.

Fuel Level

Surprisingly, this is how much fuel is in the reactor.

• The Stormdrive uses constricted plasma, which is plasma run through the constrictors at the north and south sides of the engine room.
• Fuel levels are measured in Mol - usually you'll want this to be something other than 0, because 0 Mol of fuel means the reactor isn't on, and that causes the ship to be irradiated. Funnily enough, radiation hurts.
• A higher rate of reaction consumes fuel faster.

Rate of Reaction

This is the important one which influences basically everything else, so forget everything you were just told and only look at this one.

• Rate of Reaction is the direct cause of temperature changes. A higher rate of reaction will lead to increases in temperature, and a lower rate of reaction will lead to decreases in temperature.
• Of course, because people complained that the engine was too safe, changes in temperature affect the rate of reaction, which in turn affects the temperature, which in turn affects the rate of reaction, which in turn means fuck you.
• You can adjust rate of reaction with the control rods - more insertion reduces reaction rate, whereas less insertion increases it.
• It's measured in mol/tick, where the value is the amount of fuel consumed per tick. A tick is based on a server tick, which varies so much that not even a range of values is sufficient to define it.

A Step By Step Guide (for you lazy peons)

If you're here, you've either read a lot or not much. You'll see a great big set of stuff in the engine room (image right) and have no idea what to do with it. Luckily, this page is here for you to blame when you fuck everything up!

The Stormdrive Engine room as it is at the start of the round.

1. Start by wrenching down the things which move so you can stop them from doing so. That's the entire particle accelerator and the two plasma constrictors at the north and south.
2. Add wires to the particle accelerator, then screwdriver the particle accelerator and the plasma constrictors (including the monitor).
3. Get the welding helmet from the table and weld the two plasma constrictors, then click with an empty hand to turn them on.
4. There's a bunch of pumps in various places. You want the ones underneath the plasma constrictors to be below 250kPa, the return loop pump to be maxed, and the plasma entrance pump under 200kPa. Ideally, if you have an atmospheric technician, the output from the plasma tank should also be slightly higher than default. Then, turn them all on.
5. Check the fuel level in the reactor. If it's not rising, see the section below..
6. Set the control rods to AZ-3 to start off. Do not set it to AZ-1, as you will cause a meltdown within 2 minutes.
7. Activate the particle accelerator by setting the power level to 2 then turning it on. This thing eats power, so if the reactor isn't on after three shots, turn it off.

All does not go well

1. Turn off filter, constrictors, and plasma inlets (there's also one under the door!)
2. Open waste valve
3. Let it vent to space for 5 seconds
4. Re-engage plasma inputs and constrictors
5. Wait 5 seconds
6. Re-engage filter

If you're out of power before turning the engine on, increase the output from the SNES in the north-east section of engineering.

All goes well

This is what it should look like.

Lucky you, you haven't blown yourself up. Unfortunately, that can still happen, as the Stormdrive is actually a 2-year-old in disguise, and leaving it alone will cause it to have a tantrum which annihiliates the ship you're currently on. (Hint: that's bad)

So, you'll need to act as a babysitter for this toddler, by preventing the temperature from getting too high, and also producing enough power to counteract the power lost. Once the SNES in the north-east wing of engineering are charged (make sure they're at 200/200 for input/output), turn off the reactor by setting the control rods to 100% immersion, or press the SCRAM button.

Turn the reactor back on when power levels in the SNES get low, and repeat from All goes well.