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Thermal Vents

Overview

Section titled “Overview”

A thermal vent is a fracture in the planet’s crust where internal heat leaks through as steam. Vents are discovered by sonar and harvested by placing a Thermal Cap blueprint on them. Each vent cycles between active and dormant phases.

Discovery

Section titled “Discovery”

self.sonar.scan() returns a SonarScanResult. When .status == "ok", iterate .sites and select contacts whose kind() == "thermal"; .message explains any rejected scan. Survey the selected contact with self.sonar.survey(site) and read the SurveyResult .site payload only after its status is "ok". Basic Sonar reveals phase, Wide adds steam rates, and Deep adds cycle timing.

Harvesting steam

Section titled “Harvesting steam”

Plan a Thermal Cap on the vent, carry its kit in the Pioneer, and execute the queued blueprint with the Constructor. The completed cap captures steam into its chamber while powered.

Routing after capture

Section titled “Routing after capture”

Nothing leaves until the cap script calls self.steam_out.connect(...) with a compatible consumer’s stable machine id or display name and opens it with self.set_throttle(value), where value is 0-1. A local target transfers directly. A remote target uses completed gas topology between the cap and target locations automatically; scripts never select an individual pipe. The complete connection establishes steam identity even before flow starts and keeps it while idle, full, off, or throttled to zero.

Overpressure

Under-release and the chamber climbs. At 100% it overpressurizes and blows off the whole chamber, then refills from empty. Read pressure(), is_overpressured(), and is_stalled() to control release, add storage, or restore physical reachability.

Cross-references

Section titled “Cross-references”