Old Material Science

Old Material Science
Location
200px Metallurgist's paradise.
Access	Everybody

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This small room is home to the arc smelter, which can be used to turn raw ores or metal bars into weird, fancy alloys. It's located between the engine cold loop room and the cargo bay airlock. Public access is (temporarily) through an open wall in the back of the storage room left of the cargo bay.

So fucking metal!

The devices scattered around the room are as follows:

Arc Smelter: This giant contraption in the back of the room is where dreams are made. Simply insert a material into the smelter by clicking it with the desired material in your hand, then click the smelter with an empty hand to refine that material into an alloy bar, then click it again to retrieve the bar. Up to two materials can be loaded to make a combination alloy that combines the functionality of both materials (i.e. combing a metal and a crystal will have it be recognized as both metal and crystal). Note that every use of the smelter causes slag to build up inside of it which, if not removed, will decrease the quality of each successive alloy. Remove slag by clicking the smelter with the slag shovel. Then you can use the slag as a material if you want, I guess. Most compatible materials are listed here, though you can also use obscure things like gold. Experiment!

Fabrication Unit: The janky-looking thing on the right side of the smelter. This is where you insert your alloy bars to make stuff. Most schematics will only need metal alloys, though a couple will need fabric (fabric/fibrilith or an alloy mixed with it) or crystal (molitz, plasmastone, cytine, telecrystal or starstone) as well. A single bar will fulfill each requirement.

Additive barrel: The barrel to the smelter's left. A creative tool for the chemists to make use of, this will mix an inserted reagent with an alloy bar when it's created in the smelter, applying the reagent's effects and sometimes some stat alterations to the final product. The barrel may only contain one reagent at a time, and the more reagent used, the greater the effect. Note that this a work in progress and that not all reagent-mixed alloys work correctly at the moment.

Material analyzer: The computer terminal at the west side of the room tells you all sorts of info about a material such as its resistance to damage, its value, if it has any unique quirks, etc. Just click on it with a hand containing the material in question; both alloy bars and stuff made from alloy bars will work.

General Manufacturer: These are found all over the station, really. As you'd expect from the name they're supposed to be used for producing general objects, but in Ore Processing it's more for material storage so people don't dump a huge mess of materials all over the room.

oh god what are all these numbers

The material analyzer spits out a lot of information about a material when it's scanned. It's all explained in the "Dummies guide to material science" book on the table, but for the sake of completion it might as well be listed here too:

Siemens coefficient: Conductivity rating. Ranges from 0 to 1, with 0 meaning non-conductive and 1 meaning perfectly conductive. Less conductivity means less damage and stun from electricity. Insulated gloves have this at 0.1, for example.
Heat transfer coefficient: How well heat is kept in the material. 0 means it never loses heat, and goes up to 1 which means heat transfers through it immediately. Spacesuits have this set to 0.1.
Thermal conductivity: Basically Heat transfer coefficient as it would apply to floors and walls. This isn't always the same as the former, so pay attention to it if you're making a room.
Temperature Protection: How well the material protects from heat if worn. If your current temperature exceeds this value, you will start taking burn damage.
Heat capacity: This is probably the limit before an Atmos Tank of this material ruptures from too much heat, but due to the atmosphere coding being mangled beyond recognition it no longer applies. Just ignore this.
Permeability coefficient: How well the material resists chemicals. 0 means fully resistant, 1 means it might as well be thin air. Biosuits lean towards 0.1.
Disease resistance: Exactly what it says on the tin, this is how well the material resists diseases of any sort when worn. Unlike the above, 0 means it's completely powerless against disease, while 100 means completely resistant.
Melee Protection: How well the material protects you from being whacked with stuff. Protects both health and stamina. Higher is better. This value is always rounded off to the nearest 1, i.e. it can be 7 ot 8 but never 7.5.
Bullet Protection: Get shot with a bullet, divide the original damage with this value, and the new value is how much damage you actually take. Again, higher is better. Unlike Melee Protection, this value can go into decimals.
Explosion resistance: The more of this the material has, the safer things behind it (not what is made of it) are from explosions. This only applies to walls. This value rounds off to the nearest 1.
Explosion protection: This is protection for the material itself. The higher this is, the less damage, stun and chance of limb loss the material and its wearer takes from explosions. Also rounds off to the nearest 1.
Radiation Proof: Whether or not the material protects from radiation. A simple Yes or No.
Magical: For Wizards, this is if the material lets you channel magic when worn. The more magical stuff you wear, the less time your skills take to cool down! Again, a simple Yes or No.
Value: Want to sell the alloy bars instead? This is how valuable the bar is.
Damage: The higher this value is, the more damage it does when you whack someone with it. Rounds off to the nearest 1.
Quality: The higher this is, the higher the rest of the material's stats will be.
Durability: Works off of a "# out of #" system. It decreases as the material is hit, and when it reaches 0, one of two things happen: the material no longer blocks damage nearly as well, or it outright breaks (this is only for certain things, like windows being beaten with a toolbox).
Hardness: How hard the object is, obviously. This is a modifier for certain values, and depending on what you're making, you may want either less or more.
"Material has unique properties.": This will only display when the material has a certain quirk to it that doesn't fit under the rest of the info. This includes obscure stuff like Molitz being see-through or Telecrystal randomly warping you. Experiment to see what does what.
Autoignition temperature: Once the temperature in the area reaches this value, the material will catch on fire and, if not put out, will be reduced to ash. If the material simply can't burn, this value will be replaced by a line stating as such.
Burn output: How much energy it puts off when burning. Think char ore in the furnace. Like Autoignition temperature, this value won't be listed if the material can't burn.

That's nice, now what can I make?

Product	Requirements	Description!
Glass sheet x10	1x Crystal alloy	Dissatisfied with the flimsy glass that the station uses? Whip up some of your own with your sturdier alloys.
Metal sheet x10	1x Metal alloy	Make floors, walls, lockers, crates, etc.
Jumpsuit	1x Fabric alloy	Someone steal your jumpsuit? Whip up a new one with the wonderful power of metallurgy! Stats don't seem to affect much with these, so most of their use will come from chemical additives and unique properties.
Heavy Armor	1x Metal alloy 1x Crystal alloy	One of the main reasons to use the smelter: a super-tough exosuit! Become an armored giant that can shrug off all kinds of abuse to anything not aimed directly at your head. Remember that this is not a spacesuit and will not protect you against the cold of space on its own... unless you can give it a low Heat transfer coefficient, of course. Note: The alloy stats used for the Plating part of the armor are the only thing the game checks for in calculations (damage, atmospherics, unique properties, coloring, etc.). The crystal is only used in construction and nothing else.
Slag shovel	1x Metal alloy	Did someone steal the shovel that came with the room? Teach them a lesson by beating them over the head with a newer, stronger one.
Pod Armor	3x Metal alloy 1x Crystal alloy	The other main reason to get into smelting: Pod personalizing! Acts like the Light Pod Armor in terms of speed and capacity, but uses the durability and defense of the alloy you make it out of. Note: Like the Heavy Armor, only the Plating alloy stats are applied.
Atmos Tank	1x Metal alloy	Tired of having your tanks rupture in the Toxins lab from too much pressure? This is for you.
Gloves	1x Fabric alloy	More useful than you might think, giving gloves a high Damage value improves the power of your punches. Giving them a Siemens coefficient (conductivity) of 0.1 also makes them act like insulated gloves, neat! Note: I'm not sure if this will allow you to make stun gloves out of them. Experiment!?

So where do I get all the stuff I need?

Procuring the right materials can be a bit luck-based. Sometimes the Quartermaster will get special materials from trades, and the Merchants that come by shuttle can also have some goods. In most rounds however you'll be relying on the Miners, whom you should yell at to bring materials to the smelter if they have nothing better to do (they usually don't). If you yourself are a Miner, then keep what you want to use for yourself and bring the rest of your spoils to the smelter.

As for what materials you actually want, it really depends on what you're making and why. Here are some baselines:

• Floors, walls, grilles and the like? Make metal sheets out of something with a high Explosive Resistance/Protection. These can't (normally) be destroyed with melee or bullets, so explosives are the only thing you need to worry about.
• Heavy Armor? You will want to mash together as much Melee, Bullet and Explosive Protection as you can. You can't skimp on defense if someone is on a homicidal rampage, whether the rampager is you or someone else.
• Pod Armor and windows? Stack on Bullet and Explosive Protection. Melee Protection is nigh-pointless for Pods since most of the harmful stuff they deal with is ranged or shouldn't reach them to begin with. As for the windows, it's not hard for people to find a Screwdriver and Crowbar to displace them with, so firefights and explosions should be your priority.
  • Note that you can produce reinforced alloy glass with regular metal rods. You don't need to go out of your way for exotic metal rods if you don't want to.
• Gloves and Jumpsuits? These will always need at least one piece of fibrilith/fabric (they're counted as the same thing) per construct, so bother Hydroponics/the Head of Personnel/the Miners for some.
• Slag shovel? Well... let's be honest, the only reasons you'll be making this are if 1) someone steals the original shovel (rare, but it happens), or 2) as a melee weapon. If it's the latter, grab something with a high Damage stat and go to town.
• Selling stuff? Your only focus should be on Value.

All of this is, of course, subject to change depending on your objective and motives. You'll have to discover suitable materials for yourself, but after that it's all up to your imagination.

Alright, I got all that. Now how do I become indestructible?

Indeed, no crafting system is without a few advanced tricks. Here are some things to know:

• When you combine two materials, their stats average out. For example, say one material had a Melee Protection of 3 and another had 7; if you mixed them, the combined alloy would have a Melee Protection of 5.
• Merged materials will take on a mix-and-match name of whatever you put in: it starts with the additive if you used one, then the first material you inserted, then finishes with the second material.
  • If you're clever with the material order, you can cram all sorts of things into an alloy and then revert it to a base name. Make a jumpsuit out of starstone but prefix it with slag, no one can tell the difference without the Material analyzer!
• Once a material is smelted into an alloy bar, that bar will keep the material's typing and quirks forever regardless of how many reforges it goes through. You could fuse whatever you want into a telecrystal and it would always have its spastic warping properties, you could pump a hundred ultra-dense uqill into fibrilith and it would still be considered a fabric, etc.
  • This does not work with additives however, so always make sure to apply the additive last!
• When you know what materials you want, gather as many of them as you can and start piling them into the alloy bar. This is very effective in stat-boosting if one of the materials is a one-off thing for the alloy type and you desire another alloy's stats. It's not as great if you're doing this with multiple materials, but it can sometimes help the stats that go in intervals of 1 (mostly Melee Protection, Explosion Protection and Damage).
  • Note that constantly sullying the mixture like this will decrease Value, but if you're not selling it then you don't have to worry about that.

Evil Blacksmith

So you're a traitor? I'm sure you've already seen the boons of durable armor, so I have just one word for you: erebite. Erebite ore tends to make a huge explosion from so much as being looked at wrong: the slightest impact, be it from smacking/throwing, heating, electrifying or explosion knockback has a chance to make it go off, and the chance increases as its durability decreases. This extends to anything you make out of it or mix with it, so smelting a single erebite bar into a stack of metal essentially gives you ten easy pipe bombs. Pod Armors made of erebite are equally devastating, basically a 2x2 bomb with an engine strapped to it that will tear a huge chunk out of the station. If you can procure a bunch of it and find a way to set it off easily without blowing yourself up in the process, you can cause as much - if not more - damage than pyromaniac Scientists and Miners. Like with regular material acquisition, erebite is easiest to acquire as a Quartermaster or Miner depending on how the RNG rolls.