power plants

Discussion about Production and Resources

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George Geczy
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Post by George Geczy »

Though I haven't had a chance to compare your numbers against my original notes (ah, those late nights of calculating the BTU energy produced by different types of fuel, power plant efficiencies, etc... :) ) your overall view seems pretty solid.

As noted above, uranium in the game is unprocessed, so that it doesn't directly compare to the volumes used by the reactors, which take processed/enriched uranium. As well, uranium is so darn cheap that it doesn't hurt to up the quantities to account for processing waste/terrorist theft/etc.

The petrol numbers are also a bit hard to mesh because, in the game, petroleum represents both oil and natural gas. I don't recll the cost to produce gas with petrol being quite so much more than the coal price, that's something I've made note to look at, but it may be correct anyways if you factor in the expected increases in natural gas prices over the coming years.

It should be noted that, in the real world, uranium prices have gone up considerably lately, so maybe for SR2020 we need to bump those a bit. Seems like the kind of thing that could command more of a premium price.

One thing to note about SR2010 is that, when you have excess capacity, the renewalable sources are used first (Fusion, Hydro, Other, and even Nulcear due to its low use of uranium). Only then are the Coal and Petrol plants used.

However, one thing that is not done automatically is adjusting coal and/or petrol production based on which material you are shortest of, or which material is most expensive - that would be something to look at.

I've made some notes on that in our wishlist file.

-- George.
felinis
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Post by felinis »

George,

FYI: I Googled some government and industry electrical energy sites (several of which are in Canada) and they all listed fuel costs for oil fueled plants at three times that for coal burining plants. And that is not in the future - that is in the last decade up to the present time.

Better re-check your assumption that uranium fuel is "so damn cheap". When I was growing up, they advertized nuclear power as being "too cheap to meter". Then Westinghouse caught on that that they were not charging enough and nuclear activists started protesting at both refining plants and generating plants.

The soaring cost of plants and fuel were contributing factors to the WWPS fiasco in Washington State where investors lost billions when the company building a complex of six reactors went bankrupt. That was the last attempt at constructing nuclear power plants in this country.
"We have met the enemy and he is us."
BigStone
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Post by BigStone »

George Geczy wrote:uranium in the game is unprocessed, so that it doesn't directly compare to the volumes used by the reactors, which take processed/enriched uranium.
Brings back the old question:

Do you Goats intend to expand the nuclear techs/research/facilties to be able to build plants AND nuke-bombs ?
I've always found it a little bit silly to be able to build nukebombs only by having the theory and not have the proper equipments .... :-?
NO MORE NOISY FISH [unless they are green & furiously]
I HAVE STILL A FISH IN MY EAR
Cirdan
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Post by Cirdan »

BigStone: the proper equipment is built when you research the "nuclear weapons production" tech. No other real meaning for that tech. On a related note, can we have more background info on things like tech and units? stats, stats and more stats can get boring at times.
felinis
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Post by felinis »

IMHO, it would be better for you to just Google the model/name and then share what you learned on the SupremeWiki.

Maybe the Goats would start a forum strictly for links to RW weapons info.

I posted an article on RW US Armed Forces Bases October 29th and it has been viewed 221 times.

I have been ragging Balthagor about the games's FIM-92 Stinger AA missile's capabilities, but I have to admit that in my RW research, it is never really stated just which aircraft it was designed to sucessfully engage.

I'm sure that General Dynamics would sell them for skeet shooting if they could get the export permit.

I have checked quite a few of their game units against RW, and in general they have done a real good job of correctly enabling their virtues, and (I'm afraid) their flaws.
Last edited by felinis on Jan 10 2007, edited 1 time in total.
"We have met the enemy and he is us."
Cirdan
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Post by Cirdan »

I might end up starting a thread like that, seeing that i'm modding right now and data can be bloody hard* to find. That said, i would still suggest that the Goats enhance the informative side of the game; anyone familiar with the historical games produced by Paradox could confirm that the fairly high level of historical information they contain was always a popular feature and selling point for their games.

*Unless it's on US equipment--i'm reminded of a line from Dr. Strangelove,
"Our source was the New York Times!"
Last edited by Cirdan on Jan 10 2007, edited 1 time in total.
BigStone
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Post by BigStone »

Cirdan wrote: the proper equipment is built when you research the "nuclear weapons production" tech.
True .. but i don't think it's realistic (same thing also counts for GPS-guided missiles without real orbitting sats ... :-? )

Piont is; i think the player should put more efforts in producings these bombs and it should have a bigger impact on the -diplogameplay-.
It will open the door to a more realistic worldview which i think is the aim for the Goats with their new tittle.
NO MORE NOISY FISH [unless they are green & furiously]
I HAVE STILL A FISH IN MY EAR
Cirdan
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Post by Cirdan »

I think it is fairly realistic to have the one-off investments required for nuclear weapons production happen during the preliminary research. Uranium can be enriched to weapons grade without a powerplant, Pu-239 can be purchased or even obtained from uranium without the need for a powerplant-sized reactor,etc. If you think about it, research involves the purchase or construction of large ammounts of hardware, and it would be simply stupid not to reuse that hardware. Any requirements for replacement of production equipment are presumably included in the costs for building the weapons themselves.
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