Chief Engineer: Difference between revisions

Know that guy who builds all the things?  Well, he has a boss, and it's you! You are the head of the Engineering Department, which includes not only [[Station Engineer]]s, but [[Atmospheric Technician]]s as well. Essentially, your job is to boss your staff around and make sure [[Starting the Engine|the power flows]]. Other than directing the workflow of the department, you're also expected to carry out general [[Station Engineer|engineer]]-duties and maintain [[Telecomms]]. To be a good CE it is imperative that you have a good working knowledge of how APCs, SMES cells and power in general works, how to decipher atmospherics, how to efficiently set up the singularity and solars and how to get your charges' sorry asses moving.

Designate someone to do solars (unless someone else volunteers first) and get everyone else working on whichever power source is the default one on your station. (Most likely either the Singularity Engine or the [[Tesla Engine]].) If you take charge these first minutes of the round, most of engineering will follow the rest of your orders until the round ends. If you stay silent then when you suddenly need something done halfway through the round, you can guarantee that nobody will listen to you. If nothing else, speaking over the channel will at least tell you who on your team you can rely on.

Whilst the singularity or tesla outputs a metric shit-ton of power, a hardened engineer like yourself knows that it's incredibly unreliable at the best of times. This is where the [[solars]] come in. Solars output a decent amount of energy and can keep the station running at bare minimum whilst you inevitably sort out an issue with the singularity, but they need setting up first! Luckily this is even easier than setting up the singulo and you can just designate one of your minions to go out and complete the task, better yet if they volunteer. Remember though, engineering has only two hardsuits (radiation protection but no fire protection), and atmospherics only one (fire protection but no radiation protection). No yellowsuit chump's getting his hands on YOUR pristine white hardsuit (which protects against both radiation AND fire). So get the AI's attention and tell it that the man is allowed in EVA to pick up some equipment. Or just do solars yourself, you lazy fuck.

Depending on the model of your space station, there might also be a [[Turbine|turbine]] or [[Thermo-Electric Generator|thermo-electric generator]] installed. Both of these burn through plasma to generate energy, but they work differently so make sure you refer to the right guide when setting one up.