Ability To Keep The Power/Water Plants Running

[DrageDraeber]

Quite simply, my idea is that you will be able to go to the power/water plants and perform maintainance on them. This will allow players in multiplayer to have an actual job (Keeping it running for all other players). HOWEVER, the maintainance will be very hard to do, requiring strength and time. This will also ensure that it will take a small team to effectively keep the plants running. I would also suggest professions from each plant, with each slightly increasing their effectivness at repairing the plants.

 

 

Sorry in advance for horribly written post. :-/

[CrazyEyes]

That'd be a good idea, but not until the way, way late game.  This sort of elevates the purpose of the game from "survive" to "rebuild society" and once zombies and scarcity aren't a concern you're just playing a job simulator.

[SpaceJunk]

I guess they would be noisy places when running.

[CrazyEyes]

True.  But if your goal is to restore water and/or power to an entire town, you probably have adaquete defenses and have already killed a lot of the zombies in the general vicinity.  Maintinence would be a much bigger problem than zombies anyway - where are you getting spare parts?

[liongoat]

Would it even be possible for one/small group of citizens to provide water/electricity for a whole city? Seems like a big task 

[mikaelkerensky]

Not to mention the technical knowhow necessary to run such a place. Anyone here who doesn't work in such a place know how to run something like that? I'm fairly smart but it would still take a while to figure out, assuming you don't inadvertantly destroy delicate machinery while figuring out how it runs. Maybe once npcs are implemented there could be a mission to rescue techs who know what theyre doing and can train some other survivors for critical tasks. Otherwise, for power at least, just strip the solar panels off road signs, much easier and less technical knowledge required, just a decent electrician.

[Aenye Deithven]

Quite simply, my idea is that you will be able to go to the power/water plants and perform maintainance on them.

That's a nice idea. Lack-of-knowledge issues aside, this might be technically impossible. Why ?

 

Electricity:

 

In normal conditions a power generating station runs without much maintenance. Assuming we have modern technology, the facility is largely automated in terms of diagnostics, so not much training is necessary for day-to-day operation. Furthermore, most machinery used n such places is designed to be as modular as possible, so repairs are a matter of acquiring the relevant spare parts. Backups of critical elements are usually on site, in order to be able to shut off a block rather than the whole station.

 

The problem, however, is fuel - a facility providing power to a city eats through fuel like a swarm of piranhas during mating season. The details may vary, depending on the type of plant and country, however, in most cases the fuel is being constantly shipped to the plant. If the stream of fuel stops, so does the power. That works much faster than any conceivable hardware/software malfunction. Well, apart from Greenpeace, but that's another story.

 

Now, the question is whether any such facility is even remotely close to Muldraugh / WP. Wouldn't a substation be more likely ? If that were the case, virtually no maintenance is needed, however, the actual power station may decide to stop supplying the power to a "quarantine zone" - this is actually how I understand the electricity shutoff that is currently implemented.

 

Water:

 

Pumping stations need electricity to provide and maintain water pressure. End of story ? Not necessarily.- the greater the flow of water out of the system, the more power is needed to maintain pressure. What about low-flow systems ? Well, if such a system were to be operated without electricity (driven by physical labour ?), it would have to be ...miniscule. How small ? Not sure about it (not an expert in the field, unfortunately), but I would put the magnitude at one pipe, running a couple miles at best. Should be enough to provide a safehouse or two with water to drink / for gardening. Comfortable even if this would be incomparably less effective than using the river running through WP.

 

Actually, thinking about it gives me an idea. Without power and, hence, pressure, the water network would essentially become a huge reservoir (many countries actually have water systems of cities built in such a way that they can serve this purpose in case of emergency) of clean drinking water (not for very long, mind you). Knowing this, getting our hands on this water source is simple.

[Eblanc]

Generators is probably the most realistic. (And they are confirmed)

 

Seriously if you`re in zombie apocalypse...

 

1. Do you really know how to operate a power plant? It's not just going there and pressing a button

(Engineers take YEARS to learn how to program, maintain and diagnose) Not to mention you can't do it alone, you probably need a crew. Power plants (As far as i've known) don't run automatically.