What is a Quantum Converter?

[Anon Zytose]

I get that it's an industry-enhancing facility; almost certainly some sort of factory. I know that it uses better technology than the Robotic Assembly Plant. I also know that it uses different technology than the Nanoreplicator. What I don't know is how it produces things.

What would I see if I visited such a facility that I would not see if I visited the other industry-enhancing facilities? Does it produce lots of sub-quanta as detailed in the description text for Quantum Power? Does its machinery rely on that sub-quanta in order to function? Is the Quantum Chamber just a power source for it? What does it do that the Robotic Assembly Plant and the Nanoreplicator don't do? And what does it not do that the Nanoreplicator does?

Despite its simple gameplay effect, the Quantum Converter has been one of the most difficult items in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri for me to try and wrap my mind around.

[Vidsek]

   A word of caution here: one of the unreported (and actively concealed) side effects of the Quantum Converter is to cause subtle damage to the human brain, resulting in confusion.

  After *I* visited one, I began misplacing my keys and can't remember my pets' names.
Fortunately, "Hey You" seems to work for all of them.   Now if I can just get them to let me back into the house......

[bvanevery]

Isn't this just a Star Trek energizer beam by another name?

[Anon Zytose]

I'm not that well-versed in Star Trek terminology, but a quick search got me to the transporters used to beam crew and equipment to and from the ship. That would make them significantly more comparable to Psi Gates, aided much more closely by the technology used in Nanoreplicators. I'm afraid that unless energizer beams in Star Trek are something else entirely from what I found in my search, I don't think they would match adequately with the Quantum Converter.

[bvanevery]

A nanoreplicator is the wrong point of comparison to a Star Trek transporter beam.  Matter "Editation" means building little blocks of matter, editing them.  Like imagine if you had nano-tweezers to assemble stuff.  That's not how a Star Trek transporter beam works.

[Anon Zytose]

Editing matter at the subatomic level has indeed been my conception of the Nanoreplicator.
As for Star Trek transporters, what I've read of them, admittedly mostly from Wikipedia, seems to say that they convert the target into some sort of energy pattern that gets transmitted to the destination where it is converted back into matter. This still prompts more questions: Does the Quantum Converter convert matter in a similar manner? If so, should Matter Transmission be more closely related to Quantum Machinery than Matter Editation, or does teleportation work too differently between the two works of fiction?

I'm also now wondering something else: Does the Quantum Converter simply convert energy into matter, perhaps in a form suitable to build things out of? Kinda like Stockpile Energy in reverse?

[bvanevery]

If so, should Matter Transmission be more closely related to Quantum Machinery than Matter Editation, or does teleportation work too differently between the two works of fiction?

In my mod, I decided this issue game mechanically, rather than in terms of theme, narrative, or hard sci-fi.  I decided that the ability to do something "interesting" like teleport from one place to another, needed to happen sooner than "more boring" stuff.  Like getting more minerals output or bigger weapons or yet more impervious armor.  Psi Gates are going to be a late game tech no matter how you slice it.  The risk is if you don't push it earlier, players will never use it, as the game will simply be over.  So I put it as early as I reasonably could, and ceased to care whether it related strongly or weakly to any other thematic technology.

Gameplay trumps narrative.  This is a general principle I've observed when trying to rearrange the tech tree to my satisfaction.  I started out with a lot more narrative and thematic linkages between techs.  They did not survive the brutal transitions of iterative design refinement and play balancing.  I tried to avoid gross violations of technical continuity, but I probably failed in a few places.  It simply isn't possible to meet all requirements when "how you play the damn game" takes top priority.

If I finally get around to writing my own 4X TBS, I will definitely design the gameplay first, and iterate on that until it is satisfactory.  Then I'll try to figure out how to have narrative in there, in such a way that it doesn't get completely screwed by someone's modding.  It's a difficult problem, as 3 person months of banging on it taught me.

I will also say, in my play style, endgame Psi Gates are superfluous.  I've already built so many Mag Tubes it's not even funny.  In my mod I pushed Mag Tube availablility much earlier in the tech tree, because it's a primary method of conquest IMO.  This is also not the 19th century, we are not just figuring out the Steam Engine.

[Dewbacca]

Now if I can just get them to let me back into the house......

Are you certain it's your home? Little details like that can make or break an operation.

[bvanevery]

Are you certain it's your home?

They might not be sure it's their home.

[Vidsek]

   Oh, they're quite sure they own the place.

   And did let me in.  They couldn't open the cabinet with the food in it on their own.