The need for power in StarMade is always present. So much so, that players came up with complex designs that involve using the supply beam to overcome built in restrictions to docked entities.
The problem with this kind of construction was, that they didn’t really perform very well, and if they actually undocked in combat or on accident, they would cause major lag.
We don’t want to punish players by just taking their power away, so we had to come up with a compromise. Together with the council we developed a new block: Power Auxiliary
This new power block replaces the functionality of the current docked reactor concept with an onboard block. Eliminating any lag caused by physics.
Auxiliary power can be assigned to your hotbar (from your weapons menu) and can be turned on and off on demand. It works like a reactor with internal storage that can act as a buffer.
When it’s on, its regeneration gets added to the main ship and also its stored power gets dumped into it (even if there is no room).
When it’s off, it charges its internal storage although at a slower pace compared to its normal generation.
Stations/Planets can’t switch between modes, their reactor is always on. The AI though can’t use the block right now, that will be added at a later stage.
Docked reactors had downsides though. They were easily found on a ship because of their navigation markers. And when damaged, they would rapidly lose their efficiency.
The new block has a different downside that comes down to the same thing, loss of efficiency/regeneration.
If a block of a group gets taken out, the whole group starts to discharge. Explosions will occur inside that group. The amount of explosions, their radius and damage depend on the size of the group at the time of being hit.
The biggest reactors can almost reach an efficiency of 200 power per block but they’re also the ones that are easily hit and take the most damage when exploding. They’ll lose most of their blocks in about 1-2 minutes which still makes them useful for a short period after they got shot.
However, it is strongly advised to use armor, not only to protect those groups from external damage, but also to interlace it within the group, so a potential discharge would minimize damage inside a group.
It’s a high risk high reward system. Using it wisely can make your ship superior to others. Using it recklessly can make your ship useless with some lucky hits. Your power is the most important part on your ship and you want to make sure it’s out of reach.
StarMade News - StarMade v0.199.214 - Auxiliary Power, Better Graphics, Better Textures, and Bugfixes
