All Things Scanner-Room
Isummon_Durt
Lower MiddleEarth Join Date: 2017-12-09 Member: 234349Members
Lower MiddleEarth Join Date: 2017-12-09 Member: 234349Members
1:a vehicle upgrade could allow camera drones to be deployed from larger vessels. This'd be important for exploring places like Arctic Caves, as if you're confronted with a fork in the path, you could send out a drone to see if the cost is clear and any larger predatory cave-dwellers aren't lurking around the corner; ready to attack. Once the cost is clear, quickly re-dock the drone and pull the sub out from behind whatever crevasses it was hiding behind, set to Ahead: Flank, and speed past the fork before any big beasties come around.
2: Weather satellites could be crafted out of a scanner drone, (a drone which could expand a scanner room's holographic map,) at a Launchpad. Of course, this'd be well before the player has begun construction of a Neptune Rocket. The weather satellite, a day after deployment, will trigger a new quest essential to the storyline; in which the satellite detects an electrical storm- (no, hurricane,)- approaching the crater along the planet's equator. They'd then receive a timer similar to the one counting down to the sunbeam's arrival, but with much more time provided. The quest would place a waypoint far the the east, (the weird placement of the planet's Arctic,) where the storm would not hit, (see my scientific explanation at the bottom of this section,) whereupon the PDA would automatically unlock a series of vessels which would allow the player to explore the Arctic; a place where previous subs didn't have powerful enough heaters to keep the player from dying, and couldn't break through the ice to refill their oxygen tanks. This, of course, is when the player first unlocks the array of 'Icebreaker Subs' coming in update 1.0; leading to their first voyage to the Arctic.
The quest would be picked up from the player's radio, of course. Below is an example of what the quest's introduction might be:
PDA: "Warning. Detecting trace electromagnetic signatures a few miles down planet equator. signals inconsistent with those generated by Aurora's core.
Assessing...
Assessing...
Assessment complete. Data is consistent with high probability of approaching class-4 storm. It is suggested that you spend the remaining time preparing for the hurricane. Make sure that PDA systems are fully operational, as this may be a system error. Wait...
Assessing...
Assessing...
Scan of environment from orbital satellite suggests that there is an area (so-and-so distance) East of your position which might provide shelter from the oncoming storm. For the best interests of your survival, you should prepare for a long-distance journey to this location."
Sciency explanation of storm. (Disclaimer: most of what you're about to read was written at the same time as it was thought of; so lower your expectations for a well-written draft):
since planet 4546B is likely of similar mass, (and by extend density,) of earth, and since it's almost entirely covered in water and of similar proximity to its sun, the amount of solar energy heating the planet around the equator must cause an insane amount of evap in the planet's atmosphere. So, there'd probably be an enormous hurricane slowly zigzagging its way along the equator, slowing down to a class 2-3 along most of the planet, (maybe even become class 1-2 during the winter,) but leaping up to class 4 as it comes around to the crater where the game takes place due to the thermal heating of the water there. If 4546B is similar to the Earth in circumference, (the player wouldn't experience the radiation from a smaller atmosphere because they're mainly indoors or submerged,) the hurricane would slow down for most of its journey around the equator, (about 6226 miles,) at which the amount of evaporation it'd be fed by would not allow it to exceed class 3, (111-130mph,) but going down to class 1-2 (75-110mph,) and let's pretend for the sake of the gameplay that summer takes place by around the time the hurricane reaches the crater map and sticks around for a bit and then continues on its way. So this averages around 102mph; which would take... ok, I guess it'd only take 247 hours or ten days for one hurricane cycle. So that'd be too common. But if we pretend that the rest of the planet 4546B is much more akin to a sort of arctic ocean, it'd take more like 67 days or two Earth-Months. Ok, fine, that doesn't work. Jeez. But... what if there's a sort of ice barrier- or mountain range, even; which the storm has to leak through in order to finish a lap? Or what if this storm were an electrical storm which is apprehended by some magnetic anomaly caused by an iron meteor or Alien Facility? In fact, the former seems much more likely; as we know that the planet was hit by a large Meteoric Event in its early life, (this is canon information). Maybe this event wasn't just a single body but a number of large fragments. and based off of the fact that many asteroids in the Sol system contain mainly iron, it's possible that the planet may have been hit by a number of iron meteors which could apprehend an electrical storm. But, in all honesty, we don't really know the size of 4546B, and so none of this is going to be entirely accurate. But at least, it'd be fun.
Thanks for estimate of Map Size goes to 'Melster. Yoon', (steam user)
2: Weather satellites could be crafted out of a scanner drone, (a drone which could expand a scanner room's holographic map,) at a Launchpad. Of course, this'd be well before the player has begun construction of a Neptune Rocket. The weather satellite, a day after deployment, will trigger a new quest essential to the storyline; in which the satellite detects an electrical storm- (no, hurricane,)- approaching the crater along the planet's equator. They'd then receive a timer similar to the one counting down to the sunbeam's arrival, but with much more time provided. The quest would place a waypoint far the the east, (the weird placement of the planet's Arctic,) where the storm would not hit, (see my scientific explanation at the bottom of this section,) whereupon the PDA would automatically unlock a series of vessels which would allow the player to explore the Arctic; a place where previous subs didn't have powerful enough heaters to keep the player from dying, and couldn't break through the ice to refill their oxygen tanks. This, of course, is when the player first unlocks the array of 'Icebreaker Subs' coming in update 1.0; leading to their first voyage to the Arctic.
The quest would be picked up from the player's radio, of course. Below is an example of what the quest's introduction might be:
PDA: "Warning. Detecting trace electromagnetic signatures a few miles down planet equator. signals inconsistent with those generated by Aurora's core.
Assessing...
Assessing...
Assessment complete. Data is consistent with high probability of approaching class-4 storm. It is suggested that you spend the remaining time preparing for the hurricane. Make sure that PDA systems are fully operational, as this may be a system error. Wait...
Assessing...
Assessing...
Scan of environment from orbital satellite suggests that there is an area (so-and-so distance) East of your position which might provide shelter from the oncoming storm. For the best interests of your survival, you should prepare for a long-distance journey to this location."
Sciency explanation of storm. (Disclaimer: most of what you're about to read was written at the same time as it was thought of; so lower your expectations for a well-written draft):
since planet 4546B is likely of similar mass, (and by extend density,) of earth, and since it's almost entirely covered in water and of similar proximity to its sun, the amount of solar energy heating the planet around the equator must cause an insane amount of evap in the planet's atmosphere. So, there'd probably be an enormous hurricane slowly zigzagging its way along the equator, slowing down to a class 2-3 along most of the planet, (maybe even become class 1-2 during the winter,) but leaping up to class 4 as it comes around to the crater where the game takes place due to the thermal heating of the water there. If 4546B is similar to the Earth in circumference, (the player wouldn't experience the radiation from a smaller atmosphere because they're mainly indoors or submerged,) the hurricane would slow down for most of its journey around the equator, (about 6226 miles,) at which the amount of evaporation it'd be fed by would not allow it to exceed class 3, (111-130mph,) but going down to class 1-2 (75-110mph,) and let's pretend for the sake of the gameplay that summer takes place by around the time the hurricane reaches the crater map and sticks around for a bit and then continues on its way. So this averages around 102mph; which would take... ok, I guess it'd only take 247 hours or ten days for one hurricane cycle. So that'd be too common. But if we pretend that the rest of the planet 4546B is much more akin to a sort of arctic ocean, it'd take more like 67 days or two Earth-Months. Ok, fine, that doesn't work. Jeez. But... what if there's a sort of ice barrier- or mountain range, even; which the storm has to leak through in order to finish a lap? Or what if this storm were an electrical storm which is apprehended by some magnetic anomaly caused by an iron meteor or Alien Facility? In fact, the former seems much more likely; as we know that the planet was hit by a large Meteoric Event in its early life, (this is canon information). Maybe this event wasn't just a single body but a number of large fragments. and based off of the fact that many asteroids in the Sol system contain mainly iron, it's possible that the planet may have been hit by a number of iron meteors which could apprehend an electrical storm. But, in all honesty, we don't really know the size of 4546B, and so none of this is going to be entirely accurate. But at least, it'd be fun.
Thanks for estimate of Map Size goes to 'Melster. Yoon', (steam user)
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