Reactor size too small issue

[Cakes]

OK. I could swear I've reported or asked about this one before, so apologies if I have.

As the title says, I get the error about reactor size being too small.
I have researched (Industry) Early and Basic Nuclear power also researched ALL of the Nuke types (all the way to Hydrogen Bomb) and have a reactor size of 9. It should have started producing Nukes, right??

Playing as UK..
1941 scenario (yeah, this is possibly what I was told the last time).
Anyway, if anyone knows where this check for reactor size is (or whatever so nukes start appearing) please let me know and I'll have a look at what's going on.

Thanks!

 

[Mr_B0narpte]

Are you able to share the save, uploading via dropbox or maybe even as an .zip or .rar attachment here?

Also, what is the checksum for your game?

A reactor size of 7 would be sufficient, you'd get the first nuke upon completion of the reactor, and production starts automatically from that point.

 

[Cakes]

Think I've figured it out..

1.12 QKAV

My save had "nuclear_reactor = no"
Also didn't have the "nuclear_reactor_prov" statement present (where it should be).

The province (that my reactor was in) had "type = nuclear_power" (plant) rather than "type = nuclear_reactor"
Was that because I only started building after researching nuclear power OR does the name change from reactor to power? USA's nuclear reactor province was still named "nuclear_reactor" (size 10) so I guess it must not have changed name??

....So I changed it (from nuclear_power) to....
nuclear_reactor = {
type = nuclear_reactor

I then set the correct info in the nuclear_reactor_prov line (pointing at the correct province) and reloaded the save game.

Then I got my first nuke date..

I'm thinking it's related to with the naming of "nuclear_power" and "nuclear_reactor" in provinces?

 

[Mr_B0narpte]

To me it sounds like you produced nuclear power plants rather then reactors.

 

[Mr_B0narpte]

My save had "nuclear_reactor = no"
Also didn't have the "nuclear_reactor_prov" statement present (where it should be).

I believe that's just related to the AI so wouldn't have impacted you.

 

[Cakes]

Oh different buildings? I may have just chosen the wrong one if that's the case.. Whoops.

Should you be able to get material for nukes from the nuclear plant though?

 

[Czarina Julie]

Oh different buildings? I may have just chosen the wrong one if that's the case.. Whoops.

Should you be able to get material for nukes from the nuclear plant though?

Well, not really. Nuclear power plants run off of nuclear (uranium) materials. So you'll need the nuclear reactors.

 

[Cakes]

Well, not really. Nuclear power plants run off of nuclear (uranium) materials. So you'll need the nuclear reactors.

I thought nuclear power plants HAD reactors - or else they're not going to be producing much power?

Are you saying that nuclear power plants, in AoD, don't have nuclear reactors? If that's the case, I now have a workaround anyway (don't produce the nuclear power plants), so all good. Nuclear power plants do/can produce material for nuclear weapons, so that's where my confusion was.

Thanks for everyone's input..

 

[Mr_B0narpte]

I believe nuclear power plants produce energy? AoD/HoI2's way of recreating nuclear power for civil consumption.

Never built them myself as my games don't tend to last long enough, and even if they did, resources aren't likely to be an issue.

 

[Mr_B0narpte]

It's a very simplistic system in AoD/HoI2, to produce nukes you just need 7 or more reactors. No need to search for uranium or retrieve heavy water.

Same applies for power plants, you just need the tech with no other considerations.

 

[Cakes]

It's a very simplistic system in AoD/HoI2, to produce nukes you just need 7 or more reactors. No need to search for uranium or retrieve heavy water.

Same applies for power plants, you just need the tech with no other considerations.

Yeah, what I am saying is that the power stations 'should' count as reactors for the production of nukes.
I now know that this is not the case in the current game. Is that a possibility for the future - or not worth the hassle?

 

[Mr_B0narpte]

Not worth the hassle. In AoD/HoI2 reactors are for nuke production, power plants are for energy.

If anything should be changed regarding nukes, its implementing radiation. Currently they are effectively just incredible tactical strikes with no worldwide repurcussions if used. But for AoD purposes, this is okay I'd say.

 

[Czarina Julie]

If we want to replicate (or at least get close to) how nuclear material (plutonium) is created, we should:

• keep the nuclear reactor research technologies
• split out from the basic current nuclear reactor technologies 2 branches:
  • low grade plutonium that leads to nuclear power plants
  • weapons grade plutonium that leads to nuclear weapons. Maybe even split this group further into:
    • weapons grade which would only allowed low yield (in game, less destructive effect on a province)
    • super weapons grade which which would allow the player to build both weapons grade (lower cost and build times) and super weapons grade (higher cost and build times). Super weapons grade plutonium would have the highest destructiveness on a province.

At the most, it would take me 2 days to do the code, the technologies, and test it all. What do you all think? Ideas?

 

[Cakes]

As an aside, I read an interesting book on it years ago (Uranium) and how the USA - actually some dude who thought there might be a use for yellowcake - shipped a lot of it over long before the government knew they needed it - then sold it to the US government when they realised they did.
I think they continued to use fast boats to bring more of it across the Atlantic from Belgian Congo (for the Manhattan project).

Uranium235 is used in the reactors (either in a standalone reactor or in a power plant) and from them comes plutonium (though plutonium isn't as widely used in modern weapons - apparently). So plutonium is a byproduct and it was only discovered during the research into the bomb. Apologies if I don't recall everything correctly.

The actual construction of the reactor was probably a much cheaper and quicker process than the mining and especially refining of the yellowcake to U235..
That's where much of the time and expense was.

- The reactor was solely to produce plutonium (though you can get uranium back from the spent fuel). They 'can' also produce electricity for their own use (if modified to do so) but their main purpose is to produce weapons grade material for nukes.

- Power station (with a reactor) can do exactly the same, but also produced electricity for public use.

So I'd keep both, but perhaps make the power station a 'bolt on' to the reactor.
So your reactor could 'change' to a power station above, say level 6?
.....or you could just continue producing reactors.
The costs would probably need tweaking too.

Also, the time to research the technology should slowly reduce as more was understood about the process. In reality the tech teams should get 'better' over time - as they work on it. We have tech teams with abilities that were 'rated' long after the war ended.
Also, as the war went on and more was understood (discovery of Plutonium etc) 'research' should get a bit easier.

As far as mining/refining goes, might it be possible to have a 'Research team' to signify the mining/refining (of uranium) process? You'd need this 'always on' during the entire process (which could be years).

Obviously it depends on how far anyone wants to go with this. It's fine as it is, though this would perhaps make it a bit more historical!