Particle Accelerator and Plutonium Sludge radiation buffs

[SerynEngi]

About The Pull Request

This PR increases the radiation output of plutonium sludge by 12.5% when walking on it, and increases the radiation output of the particle accelerator projectile by 1000%.

Why It's Good For The Game

People casually running through plutonium sludge should need to urgently seek help, but people who clear plutonium sludge should not receive as high a spike. In addition, standing in front of a particle accelerator that is capable of starting both nuclear reactors and singularities is probably not all that smart.

Changelog

🆑
balance: Increased radiation emission from Particle Accelerator particles and plutonium sludge.
/:cl:

[SerynEngi]

FAQ

Q: If you think that radiation is too weak, why not nerf chem?
A: My goal is not to make radiation hard to deal with, it is to make it something you actually protect yourself from, or urgently seek treatment for instead of just casually walking through sludge and getting treatment a couple minutes later.

Q: Why haven't you created a variable that everything uses everywhere?
A: I'm not inclined, nor have the knowledge, in truth, to rewrite those sections of code. What we have here works and I'm disinclined to tamper with it much.

Q: Why didnt you include fusion or tamper with the tritium radiation defines?
A: Fusion is an incredibly complicated section of code that I pretty much just "noped" when I looked at it. If I had any idea how to make tritium radioactive as it sits there, I would, but as I dont, I made it produce half again as much radiation when burned.

Q: Why didnt you get all sources of radiation, such as uranium tiles?
A: Like I said, I'm concerned mostly about common and static sources of radiation. As such, sources such as gravity generator powerups and radiation storms were ignored. For tiles specifically, I'm not interested in increasing the trolling potential of such a thing.

Q: Why didnt you tamper with radiation.dm?
A: The goal isnt to increase the spread of contamination, nor tamper with the effect that said contamination has on your body. Also, tampering with this file is a good way to suddenly irradiate the entire ship.

[Karmic-Skink]

Consider including the particle accelerator in this change, there are little consequences for standing in it..

[SerynEngi]

Consider including the particle accelerator in this change, there are little consequences for standing in it..

I agree with this wholeheartedly. Also, in response to the inevitable comment from everyone else, while I did increase the power of the PA projectiles by a factor of 10, we do not have a map at present where this is a potential hazard to non-engineering crew, and only one where its a hazard to engineers who are not paying attention; the Aetherwhisp.

The radiation from it has been verified through repeated testing to not be what the various engines use to start, so it also does not effect that.

[DeltaFire15]

I'll need a link to this bugfix that "functionally nerfed radiation" (which is not the contamination change itself) as during cursory search in rad core files I've not seen anything younger than two years that might've had any such impact.

[SerynEngi]

I'll need a link to this bugfix that "functionally nerfed radiation" (which is not the contamination change itself) as during cursory search in rad core files I've not seen anything younger than two years that might've had any such impact.

Bokkie was the one who managed to trace down the thing, as I asked about it due to radiation not being as strong as I remember.

[Bokkiewokkie]

Changed my mind on these changes, the 1.5 times multiplier for the heavy engineering equipment seems pretty much a non-change for any situation besides giving you less leeway during an emergency.
The changes to the sludge and particle accelerator are still fine though.

[SerynEngi]

Changed my mind on these changes, the 1.5 times multiplier for the heavy engineering equipment seems pretty much a non-change for any situation besides giving you less leeway during an emergency. The changes to the sludge and particle accelerator are still fine though.

I would argue that for the crystal and the singuloth, it actually causes them to produce more power, but as neither of those are primary power supplies for any ship, I'm not arguing for it any further than the mild disagreement provided by this comment, and we can always change that later if someone does make it an integral part of a ship.