this is interesting stuff for sure!

apologies for a novel - you inspire a lot with the scope of this idea.

lore-wise;

it is a lot of fun to see such complex fleshing out of the FO universe,

and how 'immersive' it can be, if people want to play that way.

if folks learn a little about fusion and nuclear power/power real world,

and ERoEI etc... all the better!

FONV poseidon power was awesome -

you could allocate power to New Vegas, or to other projects -

it was a key decision in the game.

the absence of the karma and morality system, the absence of those wicked choices/sophies dilemma...

it is partly what make FO4 very much unlike previous games.

power to boston, to hangmans alley, the castle, or institute...

it will harsh relations in a no-win scenario...

quests associated with this kind of mod,

would be awesome content -

folks at a settlement would probably have a town meeting on what power source they want to go with

"not in my backyard" etc...

there is a risk that they become more of a target, at the benefit of easier living etc.

"Candy" workers (gigolo and strumpets) complaining about losing customers if they mutate due to a reactor,

science savvy farmer or robot wanting more power...

'prevent the raiders from causing an overload' as a recurring settlement raid mission,

that would be a fun ambient quest,

rather than preston garvey

"a settler has been kidnapped... again. I'll mark their location on your map"

(how does preston know where they were kidnapped habitually?)

or, people thinking the reactor is going to meltdown or go boom...

but a steam pipe or turbine breaks down instead, and there is no boom or extra rads...

heheh.

game-mechanics wise:

Adv.SettlementPower was a lot of fun,

though after seeing mods such as 'Any Door Anywhere" (a pair of doors that connect,

door A can be somewhere in a cell in the commonwealth, door B is in a developer level world, which is rad-free etc)

why not merely

make an object that is mapped to another object?

sorta like Basement Living entry doors...

power box A is connected to Power Box B.

if I put power box A at V111 and have 400 power,

400 power is available at power box B...

rather than stringing powerlines everywhere with cell-reset issues and other glitchy goodness to deal with...

(even though, proper above ground or underground power lines would be 'in-universe' how they do it)

-----

before you can make the parts to build the reactor...

do you need a supply line from a resource site in order to build the reactor?

ie - you have to have a supply line from a quarry or from sentinel site etc,

to supply the fissile materials and control parts...

turning to this immersive powerplant idea -

what happens if your terminal is destroyed?

does it start a timer...

and, if your reactor explodes, will it 'the nuclear option' your settlement?

anyone there becomes a ghoul, or dies?

what happens if multiple parts of the system are damaged?

do you have to repair them manually -

or , can settlers be assigned to the part, to repair it for you?

eg -

if say "Nuclear Powerplant Basement V111" is attacked, and settlers cannot repair the reactor...

would that be a 'drop everything and fix that before timer reaches 0" event?

where does the waste go?

do you have to assign settlers to supply-line the waste to a dump-site?

that could be fun for quests too

"protect the goo - raiders want your depleted waste to sell as ghoul-narcotic,

or, ghouls are attracted to that fresh sludge in the wasteland..."

or

"bad karma - dump the goo into the institute"

or "contaminate water supply down stream - dump waste into taffington boat house"

----

do all the components act like the in-game timer for the light or sensors?

eg - there are a range of tolerances for the parts in the console,

and you have to run a diagnostic to determine if the parts are in-tolerance,

ie

reactor is running at x,y,z pressure and x,y,z temp; producing x,y,z rads per minute.

(these are all array/struct and enum of values it random picks from for each component).

so,

if there are 12 components in the system,

if at any time t, there are 4 or more components out of tolerance,

or a critical component is offline,

the countdown timer begins?