Beluga - Tier II Transport Sub

Lore

"A relic from the old days back when Europa only had a few colonies. The sub is a testament of its nature as it was built to last and endure the harshest environments, this is why it still functions to this day. Boasting a rather hardy hull, the Beluga is the first of its class featuring a complex power train on board. Little was known about the availability of fuel resources at the time. As such alternative fuels and power systems where designed and tested, eventually the Beluga became to be outfitted with a saltwater driven power system. By no means is this system efficient or powerful, but you will essentially have unlimited power.

Turning the system on, allows the sub to utilize a massive intake valve on the bow of the sub. The salty water of Europa is fed through the ballast tank and then into a saltwater generator. Through some mechanical and chemical magic, the chemical reactions created spin the turbine generating around 200 kW/h of power. Amazing right? Any who, the true magic comes from the attached hydro-static transmission. The 200 kW/h of power, is enough to kick start the transmission into spinning the main turbine, which has the potential of generating 3,000 kW/h of power. Additional nuclear fuel can be added to increase the pressure within the transmission allowing this power output.

Power is split amongst four batteries, each of which control a section of the sub. As you increase the recharge rate, the output decreases to match it. Sort of a fail safe so the transmission doesn't blow up... It shouldn't happen, don't worry about it... One other thing is that while the clutch is engaged on the transmission, or when the system is recharging, the propeller is only allowed to spin as fast as the water current because again you only have about 200 kW/h of power to play with.

More specifications are listed in the dossier."

Features

** Tier II Transport sub for 22,000 marks. **

** This sub is rather technical and extensive, but also very simple in how it works after reading the battery section. **

• Runs off a "hidden" reactor with an infinite fuel rod. This produces 3,000 kW/h, with additional fuel and without modification, which is dispersed amongst 4 batteries. Most machines deteriorate quicker than usual to make up for this amongst other balancing features implemented.

** Please read battery section below for more details. **

• When the sub is recharging, both engine's receive a significant restriction in how much power they receive. The main engine can only receive 200 kW of power, the small one receives 150 kW. You can get the sub to move around 11 km/h in this state, but it takes awhile. ** For best results, keep the speed arrow within the sonar signature. **

• When the sub is recharging, a hidden pump and an engine turns on in the ballast. This nearly doubles the vertical movement of the sub while recharging only.

• Ascends at -19 km/h Descends at 13 km/h Has a top speed of 38 km/h. Accelerates quite fast due to power coming from the battery.

• The sub has a lot of utilization in how it can be played with the systems in place. (More on that listed below.) Such as running the sub silently or limiting power to different sections. Also the dynamics of choosing between faster horizontal speed or faster vertical speed all while deciding if you should recharge the batteries or not.

• 48 cargo spaces, with some space for makeshift shelves.

Battery / Power system

This sub receives power from a hidden reactor that produces 3,000 kW/h of power, which is shared amongst 4 batteries throughout the sub. ** See pictures for areas supplied by each battery. **

The terminal in the engine room allows for quick recharge rate adjustments. ** Type your command like so: " Battery 1 100 ", to set battery 01 to recharge at 100%. **

** Please note, due to some quirkiness of components the last battery you adjusted will be locked to the terminal and can't be adjusted externally until another command is entered. This also rounds to the nearest tens digit, rounding down. So 1 = 10, 33 = 30, and 59 = 50. **

** Button: Turns the system On (GREEN) / Off (RED). Lever: Switches the system from recharge (GREEN) to discharge (RED). **

** Battery info **

• Battery: 01 - Capacity = 1,800 kW; OUTPUT - 1,100 kW

• Battery: 02 - Capacity = 4,000 kW; OUTPUT - 2,300 kW

• Battery: 03 - Capacity = 4,000 kW; OUTPUT - 1,600 kW

• Battery: 04 - Capacity = 800 kW; OUTPUT - 1,500 kW

Each battery can recharge at 2,400 kW. It will appear as though you can max each to 100% and never have to mess with them. This is entirely false, as the batteries are designed to output whatever percentage they are not set to. For example: ** If Battery: 01 is set to recharge at 20%, this means it can only output 80% of its max output. **

Essentially, you can limit the main engine to 10% power or the oxygen generator to 30% power as an example. Why is this important? It allows you to save power when in discharge mode, but also doubles as a silent running mode. Just make sure to turn off the hidden reactor too for full silent mode.

Indicators are in place for when the power load is greater than the power output and when the batteries falls below 80, 60, 40, and 20% values. At less than 10% charge for any battery an alarm is triggered.

Weapons

** Hidden periscopes are to the left of terminals. ** Arrows mark which turret they control. Take care with the weapons as the battery controlling that section of the sub can only hold 800 kW of power. The supercapacitors can easily suck all the power if not managed correctly leaving you without power to the navigation terminal.

• Dorsal rear flak cannon. Swappable

• Dorsal forward coilgun. Swappable

• Ventral real rear coilgun. Swappable

• Ventral mid double coilgun. 5 round burst

• Electric discharge coils on front and bottom.

EXTRA

• I haven't timed it, but it takes around 7-10 minutes to completely recharge the sub depending on how efficiently you can do it. It takes around 5-7 minutes to completely drain the batteries. Battery 02 and 03 are the main culprits as they have the largest power draws.

• Most items in their sector are tied to the battery over that sector (See photos). There are a few exceptions with some lights and pumps, I didn't want to added extra relays and wires to an already packed sub.

• The engine restrictions are not actually percentage based, at least not mathematically. They are tied to a separate system of components that limit their power.

• There are a lot of components on this sub. I can't guarantee your performance with a lot of BOTS or on a server. I played with a GTX 960m without issue on a server with 7 BOTS. However, it does feel like the simulation speed was a bit slower.

• The BOTS can't adjust batteries, but this sub is more than playable by one person. In fact it is probably easier since you can go at your own pace.

• BOTS rarely drown in the ballast trying to fix things. They like to wait until everything in there is broken and try to fix it in one go. It seems to happen mainly if the ballast is around 50% full.

Don't get stuck where the propeller blades are underneath the main engine unless you want a bad time.

• The lockers under the bunk bed give access to personal storage. CAP > SEC > Everyone

• If you're wondering the light in the Brig is motion activated.

• There a good number of hiding spots. Some contain "fun" things for traitors.

• The crane and antenna may stick through outposts. I've layered everything as far back as I could.

Ignore the engineer on the ground in the engine room for the first photo, he's just sleeping.