A few quick observations on the new auxiliary generators...

    Az14el

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    seeing as they provide much less system HP with the same block HP as before, and the obvious that shield blocks are the system that can go first when taking hull damage, sounds pretty sensible to me if you want to follow a weaved design. Protection & Function, and good use of all important volume due to both being fully functional blocks, instead of just slightly over half the group with the rest being equivalent to decor, and without being too heavy compared to competitor placements as it would with weaved advanced armor.
     

    Lecic

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    seeing as they provide much less system HP with the same block HP as before, and the obvious that shield blocks are the system that can go first when taking hull damage, sounds pretty sensible to me if you want to follow a weaved design. Protection & Function, and good use of all important volume due to both being fully functional blocks, instead of just slightly over half the group with the rest being equivalent to decor, and without being too heavy compared to competitor placements as it would with weaved advanced armor.
    This is only a problem if you care about weight.

    Shield caps are not going to do much of anything at reducing the effectiveness of reactor explosions. You need an armored block to do it properly.
     

    Lecic

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    Agreed, good thing weight is really really fucking important
    Weight is only important on small ships. Small ships also need the least amount of auxiliaries. Heavy reactors means almost nothing for large ships except specialized high speed ships.
     

    Az14el

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    Weight is only important on small ships. Small ships also need the least amount of auxiliaries. Heavy reactors means almost nothing for large ships except specialized high speed ships.
    Assuming that weight comes from thin air & passive effects & thrust consumption are not based on weight over blocks, sure
     

    NeonSturm

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    Ok, can anyone reply to a few issues I posted on Page3?
    1. Large hollow-box stations with undocked shield-supply ships inside them are more laggy than docked reactors.
      • means: Limit does not apply to stations if you are willing to pay increased lag-cost or risk getting deleted from the server
    2. Fleet formation with advanced AI some day will make ships hide behind and even inside a tank which receives shields and weapon-power from the ones hiding behind.

    3. How about limiting power generation through free-energy generators per sector? This would be mostly independent.
    (ofc you would need to make it "blur" into other sectors if near boundaries if you want to avoid corners being preferable)

    It could give birth to a new option which is the maximum value that can be drained per sector and entity size or entitymass.​
     
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    If we have fixed formations where ships keep the same distance to each other, it might affect ships as-well, rendering the limitation on non-fuel-based reactors effectively useless.

    The upper limit would be dictated by the supply with fuel, which is (currently) a bit too uncertain to speculate about the size of weapon systems (with information I've seen).
    Um... these two sentences confuse me a bit. When was it stated that fuel will be a thing for any reactors? I know that the idea has been tossed around and discussed (I actually like the idea of possible fuel sources, infrastructure, and usage) but Ive not seen where fuel is involved in these new reactors. If fuel has become a thing can you provide a link? If not how does mentioning it fit into the discussion? I'm confused. :confused:
     
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    But you haven't shown what happens if the bottom side gets hit.
    Nothing else happen. Doesn't matter wich block is destroyed first they'll blow at the same places (that's what i saw with my testing). But if the explosion happen where they're connected, there will be more different group yeah. Like everything else. I think this pattern could work for small reactors, big ones are simply too explosives to use this correctly. With shield it could work to lower a bit the damage but the blast is too strong for 10 000 blocks reactors without destroying the whole ship on the inside.
    Well, i'm thinking about cruisers around 300 to 500m long or high. After that ships are big enough to get a LOT of useless systems around and lower the damage (aka shields). Titans doesn't even care that one of the 60 auxiliary reactor got destroyed and the shields around too. Just don't put them together or they'll all blow up when one is hit. Once again, it's smaller ships that are the most problematic. Big ones just doesn't care.

    Anyway, I don't think that pattern is perfect since even if it prevents too many auxiliary blocks from being destroyed, it's very likely to separate split the group when the explosions happen (i.e. less energy).
    Yes but less destroyed blocks mean more power provided even if they're in separate groups. Everything is about balance between theses factors.

    Ok, can anyone reply to a few issues I posted on Page3?
    1. Large hollow-box stations with undocked shield-supply ships inside them are more laggy than docked reactors.
      • means: Limit does not apply to stations if you are willing to pay increased lag-cost or risk getting deleted from the server
    2. Fleet formation with advanced AI some day will make ships hide behind and even inside a tank which receives shields and weapon-power from the ones hiding behind.

    3. How about limiting power generation through free-energy generators per sector? This would be mostly independent.
    (ofc you would need to make it "blur" into other sectors if near boundaries if you want to avoid corners being preferable)

    It could give birth to a new option which is the maximum value that can be drained per sector and entity size or entitymass.​
    1. What's the difference between a docked ship and a one that isn't ? If they don't move and do collisions like docked ships do. I don't see why they should do a lot of lags.
    2. This update will need to take care of this issue, right now AI can't so what's the problem ? You can do so for stations, that isn't a big deal since huge stations are usually home based. The place used to put some reactors-ship could be used to protect auxiliarry reactors too with different layers of armor.
    3. Just remove power and shield supply then, problem solved.
     
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    Do the new Power Auxiliary blocks work on stations? I placed a bunch on my new station but they didn't seem to affect my recharge rate.
     
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    Do the new Power Auxiliary blocks work on stations? I placed a bunch on my new station but they didn't seem to affect my recharge rate.
    "Stations/Planets can’t switch between modes, their reactor is always on."

    You have 2 separate recharge rates listed in your build mode stats box. One for normal reactors and the "ON" stat for auxiliary reactors.
     
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    "Stations/Planets can’t switch between modes, their reactor is always on."

    You have 2 separate recharge rates listed in your build mode stats box. One for normal reactors and the "ON" stat for auxiliary reactors.
    Yes, I noticed that, but to see what was happening I removed most of my standard reactors so I had about 1,000 e/s recharge via reactors and 10,000 e/s through auxiliary reactors. I watched my power pool and as it recharged after each factory tick, it only recharged at about 1,000 e/s. The auxiliary reactors didn't seem to have any effect.
     
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    Yes, I noticed that, but to see what was happening I removed most of my standard reactors so I had about 1,000 e/s recharge via reactors and 10,000 e/s through auxiliary reactors. I watched my power pool and as it recharged after each factory tick, it only recharged at about 1,000 e/s. The auxiliary reactors didn't seem to have any effect.
    I did a quick test. The auxiliary reactors seem to be working on stations on my end.

     
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    I did a quick test. The auxiliary reactors seem to be working on stations on my end.

    What about your actual power? Can you set up a factory with a ton of enhancers to be a power drain, and monitor your power level? Should be pretty easy to eyeball the recharge rate and see if it matches the auxiliary rate.
     
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    What about your actual power? Can you set up a factory with a ton of enhancers to be a power drain, and monitor your power level? Should be pretty easy to eyeball the recharge rate and see if it matches the auxiliary rate.
    If you're testing on an existing station you probably have shield rechargers or mass enhancers draining some of your power? Maybe you did some interior decorating with mass enhancers?
     
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    If you're testing on an existing station you probably have shield rechargers or mass enhancers draining some of your power? Maybe you did some interior decorating with mass enhancers?
    No, this was a brand-new station in a brand-new world. Just a tiny starter platform with a faction block, Undeathinator, a storage block, and a few factories. Are you testing on single-player or multiplayer? Could be a bug in the server I guess.
     
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    I put one basic factory with 416 enhancers on my station. Seems to be draining and generating tons of power like it should. I'm doing this in single-player by the way. Maybe your server is messed up or has weird settings.

    I don't think there's anything more I can do for you? o_O
     
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    Now that we have auxillery power blocks, we just need to get rid of reactors needing to be placed down in XYZ lines [...] just uneeded complexity [...] Having to lay them down in XYZ lines to get the biggest bonus out of them is one of the largest complaints I hear from new players.
    I'm a pretty new player, and I have to say that the engineering challenges of this game are very simple compared to other block building games I've tried. In fact, the apparent simplicity initially put off some friends from playing Starmade. Fortunately, the weapon combinations and particularly the logic systems make the game much more interesting than it first appears.

    If a lot of new players are asking questions about how to build - what are already super-simple - reactors, I would say that is just indicative of poor in-game documentation. A lot of the blocks don't seem to be very well documented in-game for new players, forcing them to seek answers elsewhere (YouTube often being the best place to look). If there's a problem, that's it.
     
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    If a lot of new players are asking questions about how to build - what are already super-simple - reactors, I would say that is just indicative of poor in-game documentation. A lot of the blocks don't seem to be very well documented in-game for new players, forcing them to seek answers elsewhere (YouTube often being the best place to look). If there's a problem, that's it.
    You're likely overcomplicating the issue. If there's a problem, it's likely lack of I.Q., and/or the proclivity of the "gimmie gimmie, I want it now" generation(s) to live up to that title.
     

    Lecic

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    You're likely overcomplicating the issue. If there's a problem, it's likely lack of I.Q., and/or the proclivity of the "gimmie gimmie, I want it now" generation(s) to live up to that title.
    Um, no. There's no ingame explanation on how a key feature works. That's a problem with the game, not new players.
     
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    Um, no. There's no ingame explanation on how a key feature works. That's a problem with the game, not new players.
    I figured it out in under five minutes. I'd venture a guess the rest of the current player base, or least a substantial majority, did the same. I won't argue that in game documentation wouldn't be convenient, but any who cannot (or will not) fathom the basics in an hour or two in the year 2016 is likely to fit into my previous definition.