Guide to the High Energy Lab
If your dream method of conducting science is to repeatedly destroy objects with high energy laser bolts in the vain hope of learning something new? If so, your local stations High Energy Lab is the place for you!
Objects of the High Energy Lab
The H.I.E.C.A
The H.I.E.C.A or High intensity energy collection apparatus is the machine used to collect the data from scattered laser bolts emitted from the R&D Laser Projector. In order to function correctly, the H.I.E.C.A must be first connected to an APC and the laser projector it is intended to send data too. This can be done by using a multitool on the master APC or Laser Projector and then using the multitool on the desired H.I.E.C.A. The H.I.E.C.A must be secured to the floor via a wrench. Once secure, the H.I.E.C.A may be rotated by simply interacting with it using an open hand. When a scattered laser bolt hits the H.I.E.C.A's collector (The blue face), the data will be automatically transferred to the projector.
The Research Item Plinth
The research item plinth is used to contain objects in stasis, ready to be shot by the R&D laser projector. An item may not be shot with the research laser unless it is being held in stasis within an item plinth. All scattered shots will originate from the plinth on contact. It should be noted that the item plinth contains an inbuilt security measure that will refuse crew members attempting to place high risk items such as the nuclear disk or the captain's hat inside of it, as such, it cannot be used to dispose of such items.
The R&D Laser Projector
The R&D Laser Projector is your workhorse in the high energy lab. The R&D laser projector can be used to fire specialised high energy laser projectiles, which upon colliding with any item held within a research item plinth, will scatter with varying energy and velocity. The scattered laser bolts can be collected via H.I.E.C.A panels, providing invaluable data towards research nodes. The projector has two modes: Visual and Live.
While in visual mode, pressing the power button will project the visual path of the laser to be shot, including the paths of any scattered bolts if the path intercepts a research item plinth. While in live mode, the visual path will not be visible and pressing the power button will instead fire a high energy laser projectile.
Once a laser bolt intercepts a H.I.E.C.A panel, the research data will be automatically transferred to the projector, this data can be viewed in the "Current Research Data" section of the UI. Research data is in the form of progress towards an unresearched Techweb node. Once enough research data for a specific Techweb node is completed, the Techweb node will be researched. Operators of the laser projector have no control as to what nodes are researched. If need be, players can sacrifice research data and
upload it to the Techweb as RP to be redistributed towards any research node, however, uploading this data as RP is only 75% efficient and RP loss will occur.
An R&D laser projector does not connect to an APC, but instead must be connected to a medium voltage cable using an overlap connection similar to a SMES or radiation collector.
