Singularity Engine

# How To Set Up The Singularity

Located at the southern end of engineering in Space is the Singularity Engine. A radiation pulsing, self contained, miniature black hole that is your job to activate and maintain.

It's really not that hard to set up the singularity properly and keep it maintained. This guide will assume that you're doing it alone, either because you're the only engineer that signed up, or because everyone else decided they had better things to be doing. First off, you'll need to know what to bring to the singularity room with you, which you can aquire handily from around Engineering.

## Required Items

**You will need the following items:**

* 6x Gas/Plasma Tank. These are located in the  Tank Storage Unit by "Dispensing" Plasma.
* engineering hardsuit
* magboots
* oxygen tank
* breath mask
* wrench
* screwdriver
* cable coil

Now that you have your supplies, it's time to get to work!

*Note: Each of the following "Setting Up" sections can be performed individually or with additional team members. Order of operation does not matter as long as "Finishing Up" is done last.*

## Setting Up the SMES

There are 4 of these are located in the Engineering bay.

1. Make sure they are set to "Charging: Auto" (for Input) and "Online" (for Output);
2. So long as the Engine is set up correctly, maxing out both Input and Output will work perfectly, and you will never be at risk of losing power, so feel free to hit the "Max" buttons.

## Setting up the Radiation Collector Arrays

There are 6 Radiation Collector Arrays on either side of the Particle Accelerator.

1. Insert 6 x  gas tanks into each Collector.
2. Click on each  collector with an empty hand to make them , which turns them "On".
	* (Optional) See  Radiation Collector Array Optimization for additional information.

## Setting Up the Particle Accelerator (Engine)

**Caution: Do not bump into the accelerator before it is secured with a wrench. If you knock a piece out of place, right-click > "Pull" it back and right-click > "Rotate" to put it back in its place.**

1. Equip a  wrench and click on each of the 6 sections of the engine, including the  control box. You will see "You secure the external bolts" 7 times. Make sure the arrow on the control box is pointing down. This is often a pitfall of new engineers. Rotate it until it is.
2. Equip  wires and click on each of the 6 sections of the engine, including the control box. You will see "You add some wires" 7 times.
3. Equip a  screwdriver and click on each of the 6 sections of the engine, including the control box. You will see "You close the access panel" 7 times.
4. Click on the control box to open it's menu, then click on "Run Scan".
	* If you continue to see "Unable to detect parts", you missed something in steps 1-3.
	* If you see "All parts in place", you may continue this instruction.
	* (Optional) See Particle Accelerator Optimization for additional information.

**Caution: Do not click "Toggle Power" yet!**

## Setting up the Singularity

1. Make sure your  Oxygen tank and  Breath mask are equipped and your Oxygen tank is "Open" or highlighted "On" in your HUD.
2. Use one of the two southern  External Airlock exits to go outside the station.
	* (Optional) Enable your  magboots' mag-pulse traction system so you don't accidentally slip into space or into something dangerous.
3. Wrench and remove the  tesla generator. You don't want two engines fighting it out in there, do you? If you want to run a tesla instead, look at the Guide to the Tesla Engine
4. Click on each of the 4  Emitters to turn them on.
	* **Caution: Do not walk in front of running emitters!**
5. Walk around the *outside* of the inner circle and click on each of the 8  Field Generators, being careful to time your movement while passing in front of online  Emitters.
	* Slowly, you will see a  containment field surrounding the inner circle connected by the Field Generators.
	* **Caution: Do not walk into, or even stand near to the containment field!**
6. When the containment field has surrounded the entire inner circle, return inside the station.

## Finishing Up

1. Open the  control box menu.
2. Make sure your  Meson Scanners are equipped to prevent blindness and your  RIG suit is equipped to prevent radiation poisoning.
	* (Optional) Enable your  magboots' mag-pulse traction system so the singularity does not prevent you from walking away from the window.
3. Click "Toggle Power" to turn the power on.
4. Set Particle Strength = 2.
5. Walk down and look out the window. You will see a stream of purple particles shoot out from the Particle Accelerator, and after a few seconds, a small  Singularity will appear.
6. The singularity will begin to grow. On the 2nd growth it gets larger again, remaining blue.
7. Go back to the  control box and click the minus to turn the power to 0. The result should be a large, pink, 5x5 singularity (see below).
	* *Note: The singularity will fluctuate between 3x3 and 5x5 with power set to 0. It is safe to leave the accelerator on at power 0.*

**Caution: Leaving the singularity at Particle Strength 1 or 2 will cause the singularity to release. As soon as you increase the power it is your responsibility to turn it down again.**

## Return to the SMESs

1. Check that the SMESs' "Stored Capacity" % is increasing and that "Input: Charging".
2. If the "Output Load" equals the "Output Level", it means that power is getting bottle-necked by that SMES. Click the far-right "+" to increase the Output Level until the Output Load stops increasing, then click the "+" a few more times to give the Output Load some breathing room.
3. Immediately set the Input Level higher than the Output Level you end up with in the above step.
	* The higher the Input Level, the faster the SMES's Stored Capacity will charge and be later useful for engine malfunctions.
4. Ensure that the engine  APC is charging (the one located in the same room, currently Northeast of the engine beside the lone SMES).

## Continued Upkeep

* Every 15-ish minutes:
	+ Make sure the singularity's size hasn't increased or decreased:
		- If the singularity's size is decreased, set the  control box's Particle Strength = 2 and watch it until it grows to a normal size. Keep it on Particle Strength = 2 for a few more seconds (but not too long) to ensure its size is sustained. Remember to turn off the Particle Accelerator using the "Toggle Power" button when you're finished.
		- If the singularity's size is increased, immediately click "Toggle Power" on the control box to turn the engine OFF.
		1. Remove them from the  Radiation Collector Arrays with a  crowbar.
		2. Click on a  plasma canister to place the gas tank inside the canister.
		3. Click on the canister to open the menu, and then click on the far-right "+" to increase the Release Pressure to its maximum.
		4. Set the Release Valve to "Open" until the "Tank Pressure" shows the same number set in the step above.
			- **Caution: Make sure you remember to set the Release Valve to "Close" when you're done, otherwise the canister will leak toxins.**
		5. Click "Remove Tank" and pick it back up, placing it back inside the Radiation Collector Array.
		6. Repeat the above steps for each Gas Tank.

*Note: Sometimes the singularity will cause EMP pulses if something is close to it and exposed to its radiation. These pulses can cause weapons to misfire and even disable the emitters. Keep an eye on it.*

# Optimization

* Locking Access
	1. You can lock access to the  Radiation Collector Arrays and  Emitters. This will stop an AI or anyone without management access from messing with them.
	2. Click on your  ID Card to put it in your hand, then click on *each* Radiation Collector Array or Emitter to lock them.
	3. Use a  Screwdriver on the  control box to prevent immediate access to the control box's menu (unless the person has a screwdriver to fix it).
	4. Close access to the Radiation Collector Arrays and the Particle Accelerator engine by clicking on the  Shutter Control buttons located on the wall on either side of the engine.

## Radiation Collector Array Optimization

*Note: Read the Continued Upkeep section above to learn how to fill  Gas Tanks, which will increase power output exponentially. This enables you to set the Input Level of each SMES to their maximum - 200,000.*

## Particle Accelerator Optimization

### Upgrade the APC Power Cell

1. Locate the  APC on the wall beside the lone SMES unit, in the same room as the Particle Accelerator.
2. Unlock it with your  ID Card.
	* Click on your ID Card to put it in your hand, then click on the APC.
3. Set "Equipment" to "On", not "Auto".
	* This is to ensure that vital engineering equipment will be the last to fail should the APC's power cell run low. You can also turn off the lights to save power, although this is not really recommended as it makes it harder to see trespassers in engineering.
4. Use a  crowbar on the APC to open it.
5. Click on the  Power Cell to remove it.
6. Find another Power Cell laying around and replace the Power Cell you just removed.
7. Close the panel with the crowbar.
8. Check the APC menu to make sure it is on and working.
9. Lock the APC with your ID card.

# Additional modifications

It is possible to wire the APCs directly to the main power ring. A good spot to do this is to the port end of engineering, near the bolted airlock. Lift the floor tiles and run a wire from there out into the maintenance tunnel and link it to the wire running through there. This allows you to charge APCs directly if somebody disables the SMES in engineering.

Another interesting point is that the APC in engineering will not charge from its own SMES unless this modification is made. Meaning that when the collectors are turned off, containment fails pretty quickly. With this quick modification, this gives you time to notice and fix the problem.

If you added the maximum amount of plasma to the collectors, this modification can generate ~6,000kW of power for the station. Enough to charge the 3 Engineering SMES and the 4 Solar SMES at 200kW input. Therefore, run a tiny bit of wire from the maintenance tunnels to each solar SMES, and set each of them to an input/output of 90,000/3,000. This will ensure massive amounts of power reserves (enough to last hours with the engine off).

For those overzealous engineers worshipping Lord Singuloth who want to maintain a Stage 4 singularity, rejoice for it is possible and totally safe if done correctly! What's the secret to keep a Stage 4 singulo within the field? **Turn off the Particle Accelerator after the singularity reaches the blue 4th stage, size 7x7. Turn it off. COMPLETELY. Not power 1, not power 0, but PA set to off.** That's it, the rest of the setup is identical to the normal Stage 3 singulo.
Check back every few minutes to see if it dropped in energy and add more if it drops to stage 3. Congratulations, you are better than most just by knowing this. Enough loose singularities because of the CE wanting to try something new.

**Caution: It is your responsibility to make sure your experiments are safe, Don't experiment with the singularity if you're new to using it.**

# Turning off the Engine

Occasionally, bad stuff happens. Well, most of the time, bad stuff happens. Sometimes it is necessary to deactivate the engine as safely as possible because nobody can maintain it. Other times meteor showers and bombs endanger your containment machinery. Whatever the crisis, if you have followed the steps above it should be safe to simply turn the accelerator off. The engine will continue to generate power as the singularity starves and shrinks, so containment SHOULDN'T fail until the singularity is sufficiently small enough that it cannot move and pull stuff into it. However, the fickle baby singularity will take a long time to die completely, leaving it exposed to potential suicidals jumping into it, giving the singularity energy to expand again. (Cool fact: Engineers provide a singularity with a lot more energy than you'd expect).

Sometimes it's a good idea to charge the SMES quickly (using the optional techniques above) and then turn off the engine safely until you need power again. This means that poor solo-engie can actually go do other stuff and leave engineering for a bit without inadvertently destroying the station.

# Using it as a weapon

The singularity is - along with massive plasma infernos and large scale bombings - one of the most brutal forces on the station. Dangerous enough when set free, it becomes a lag-inducing, shuttle-calling, indiscriminately murdering monstrosity when given a directed path by a Singularity Beacon, leaving nothing but debris, body parts and cold hard vacuum in its path. Perhaps the most dramatic way to end a round as a traitor, it can even eat the emergency shuttle itself, restricting escape to those few smart or lucky enough to grab EVA gear. Its a very effective weapon to use against assassination targets that commonly spend a lot of time in one area, such as scientists.

Setting the singularity free is not the easiest task to complete as a regular crew traitor, and you will get robusted in short order if you are caught. Generally speaking, all you need to do is disable the singularity containment field. This can be accomplished by deactivating the emitters, which is very hazardous due to the gravitational pull of the singularity, its radiation, and the hazards of the containment system itself. Alternatively, you can disable the engineering APC. If you are not an engineer and get identified doing this, you can expect to not make it onto the emergency shuttle alive. Another option is deactivating the collectors, as the Engineering APC cannot charge from the SMES, this form of sabotage probably won't be noticed and will likely be blamed on engineer incompetence. The easiest way to release the singularity is accessing the engine control console and turning power up to level 2. Keep in mind that the containment field is designed to tolerate short term power outages, so if anyone notices the power failure before the containment field fails, then your attempt will be thwarted. Tip: Try turning the PA up to 2 for a while until the Singularity gets huge, then turn off the collectors after a few minutes. If the Engineering staff hasn't wired the Singularity straight into the system, it should fail extremely fast and you'll have a 5x5 singularity running rampant around the station. Be careful to not get caught in the pull, though.

Directing the singularity to a target area - be it the emergency shuttle bay or the bridge - requires a singularity beacon and a screwdriver. Don't hang around after you plant it. Putting the beacon somewhere outside the station is usually your best bet to ensuring the singularity reaches its destination.