Steam/Nuclear

it is my opinion that the two should technically overlap, since a reactor is technically a steam boiler. unfortunately they are designed as two separate systems, and will most likely remain that way.

that said, i support the steam system as something to go for midgame, but it is a tad expensive when compared with the new reactors. right now, it makes a great transport system for potential power imo, and would make a great median between IC and BC energy.
i would have built a steam rig as my pre-nuclear infrastructure had they been released during the old reactors.

i see room for an epic collaboration here between IC2 and RC/BC.

You know that you don't have to kill magmacubes, because you can make cream from blaze rods and slime balls? I made same mistake.

The only thing I really dislike about the new steam stuff is that there are no dedicated pipes in Railcraft. I dislike Buildcraft, so the steam system (which requires pipes to use) is basically useless to me.

You don't need pipes to use boiler. Just mount water tanks and turbines directly to the tank.

The turbines in railcraft serve basically as a means to convert MJ power in EU, wheras in a real-life a nuclear reactor would heat up water to produce steam, which is then piped through to a turbine room, where the steam drives the turbine rotors in order to produce actual electricity. However, making IC reactors work like this would basically require one to install Buildcraft in order to use them, and therefore I would say it's quite unlikely, unless it was added as an "upgraded" reactor system.

In fact, I suppose one could see the conductive pipes in Buildcraft as like a "pressurised" pneumatic type system rather than electrictiy, which in the grand scheme of things would make far more sense.

Cross compatibility with IC2 nuclear reactors and RC steam would be a nice add-on.

Pump water into reactor,
filling up coolant,
coolant heats to stream,
piped through to turbine,
condensed back to water and repeat.

i've got it! the reactor block itself could have 2 variations: the standard, and the steam reactor. functionally they are the same, except that the steam reactor only outputs steam (from heat), while the standard acts in normal IC fashion.

steam reactors should not be able to breed, and run at a lower temperature...perhaps making them cheaper, a bit weaker as far as temp thresholds.

the steam reactor should be like the firebox...in a 1X1, 2X2 or 3x3 configuration, starts with 3X3 gui space, but increases to 4X4, or 5x5. the gui should also have a water gauge. on the fence about a temp gauge, perhaps one that only displays up to 200? steam vessels attach to the top normally, and function the same as for boilers...perhaps higher temp would cause more steam consumption/production.
lack of water, "dry fire" (the addition of water to a dry, hot boiler), or excessive heat causes it to blow up. the first two being smaller scale than the third.

in short, you'd be nuts to try and put a 4X4 uranium cell in it, but i doubt that'd stop people.

Is there an original thread discussing this steam system? I haven't seen anything in 1.106 and have been toying with the idea of mod writing just to do exactly like what this sound like, creating a sort of metamod that makes steam to turn turbines to spin generators that output ic bc or rp power. Is al working on a more realistic system for huge power plants?

the steam system is primarily part of Railcraft (and buildcraft by extention). it's a bit of a colaboration between ic and bc/rc.

Quote from GregoriusT

2. I'm probably the only Dev, who would seriously make it like that, when Railcraft is installed (as Defaultconfig).

That would be epic if that where to happen.

I'm doing a config because it's experimental.

so apparently someone else was thinking the same as me on the ic2 end, because the beta now has boiler-reactors.