500 meters vertical ship power layout

[MrNoty]

Hello, I building a replica of the ISA ship from Killzone wich is a vertical ship.
I've made it 500 meters tall and i'd like to have a really high power regen, so i'd like to know, what is the best layout for it, rows, Full block, Big optimized cubes?

 

[Megacrafter127]

Long rows, 3D L, T and X shapes.

 

[Panpiper]

At that size, don't worry about it. Just lay a dozen or so 500 block lines and you will pass the soft power cap. Once past the soft power cap, stop laying lines (likely around 1.2M power). For really big ships, what you need are docked power reactors if you want lots of power. The native power lines in the ship itself become almost moot compared to the power of the docked power reactors.

The real question you need to be asking is how to build effective docked power reactors and how to structure them in your ship.

 

[MrNoty]

I am really interested in docked reactor, I have designed a 23x23x23 cube that produce 1,1 million power, would this be good?
is there a video or somethig explaining how it works?

 

[Panpiper]

That is definitely at the upper limit of what a docked reactor should be producing. My own are 21x21x21, produce 930K and are likely somewhat more power efficient for their mass. Yours however will certainly do the trick and will give more power per 'lag factor', so I would say go with what you've got.

I have not found a video that discusses this. Everyone seems to either assume that it is so obvious that it need not be discussed, or so strategically important that it needs to be kept a secret. Ultimately I had to figure things out for myself, including how to build a logic clock to fire the beams. My clock does not have error checking/correcting built in, something I know is possible, but the sole video I found that did have such error checking was not followable by myself, I could not figure out what was done. In any case, my own logic system is so ridiculously simple, it appears to avoid getting broken.

This is NOT the best logic, indeed it may well be the worst. But it is the one I've got that works. jayman38 tried to talk me though a better logic in this thread but try as I did for a couple of hours, I could not get his description to work, and I certainly did not understand what it was supposed to be doing. My logic also has the advantage of being really simple to understand, which makes it easy to build and in theory repair.

Absolutely someone will have a way of building the clock that uses three or four less blocks and will chime in insisting that we should use that more efficient design to save the few blocks. However their design will be an undecipherable mess, harder to build, and utterly impossible for the mentally challenged such as myself to understand or debug. I also strongly suspect that any breakages in logic systems are directly proportional to how fidgety their system is. I suspect a very straight forward system like the one I figured out for myself is less likely to break. As I said before, this logic has yet to fail.

As you probably already know, your power block should have two sets of power supply modules and two computers for them. You will probably need around 1700 power supply modules per computer/beam for your power size (test it to find the exact amount). You will also need some battery storage equal to the power draw, again test to find your quantity.

 

[MrNoty]

Why do i need 2 computers?
I've never tried docked reactor so sorry if it's obvious .
Also, how can i check if i got enough power supply beam?

 

[Panpiper]

Each power supply beam lasts for 2.5 seconds and then has a cooldown period of 2.5 seconds. The idea is to have two beams that alternate, so one is always firing. To have two beams, you will need two sets of power supply modules and a computer for each one. You test it by 'flying' the power block and manually firing your power supply beam. You want enough power supply modules to use 'almost' all the power generation. Leave just a smidgen to it so it never runs out.

 

[MrNoty]

Really interesting, thanks!
Is it usefuul to place capacitor on the docked reactor?
And how do you calculate that i need 1700 beam?

 

[Panpiper]

You want enough capacitors to be able to fire your beam. Likely that is equal to your one second power generation. I guestimated approximately 1700 modules per beam because my own reactors that produce 930K power need ~1550 modules. You should test precisely how many you need yourself however. Do NOT use my guestimate as anything other than a first test.

 

[Dwarfwarlock]

Super new to the game, building a similar ship, although mine is a lowly salvager. I was also curious about this it's great to see that people are willing to share what they know.

Is the concept of the dockable power supply essentially the same as a dockable weapons system?

Thanks

 

[Panpiper]

Is the concept of the dockable power supply essentially the same as a dockable weapons system?

They are the same as in they both use a docking system, but their similarities other than that are few. A docked power supply will use a rail docker to dock to a regular rail. A docked weapon system would usually be a turret, which would use a rail docker on the turret base to dock to a rail turret axis, not a regular rail. Moreover the docked turret base would itself have on in a rail turret axis (likely higher up and at a 90 degree angle to it's own docking) to which the turret gun(s) would be docked with a rail docker. This is all quite a bit more complicated than docking a power reactor.

A power reactor simply sits there. Other than firing it's beams into your ship, it does nothing, it rests inert. It is usually buried deep inside the ship.

A turret is designed to be active. It sits on your ship, exterior to it, so it can fire outside your ship. It is built to move. Rather than provide power to your ship, it often (depending on how you built it) draws power 'from' your ship.

 

[Wolflaynce]

Here's a diagram I made for a little more clarity (not that Panpiper's is not bad, just I hate not knowing which is the Master or Slave connection.) Used Visio to make it with. Enjoy!

 

[Dwarfwarlock]

Long rows, 3D L, T and X shapes.

I know this is a dead horse subject and I've seen lots or videos discussing it. That said, in the current version does the Power cube build matter as far as output? I know in earlier versions it was critical.

Thanks

 

[Megacrafter127]

I know this is a dead horse subject and I've seen lots or videos discussing it. That said, in the current version does the Power cube build matter as far as output? I know in earlier versions it was critical.

Thanks

That depends on the powercube at hand. I also forgot the old formulas, so I can't even tell you a general rule. :/

 

[Gasboy]

A power cube is only useful for when you have very limited space. It is probably quite useful for docked power systems.

 

[Dwarfwarlock]

I need to get the dimensions of my current ship and some pictures so I can ask the question in a better format I guess.

 

[Panpiper]

I know this is a dead horse subject and I've seen lots or videos discussing it. That said, in the current version does the Power cube build matter as far as output? I know in earlier versions it was critical.

The only thing power cubes are good for is for docked power reactors. Even there, you might consider long thin docked power reactors rather than cubes. Forget power cubes exist other than that. You will ALWAYS get more power by running the longest possible lines of power through the length, height and width of your ship. Sometimes you need to put some thought into how to get the most non-touching lines into your ship's space. I find it a trivial exercise to get a half million power regen in even tiny ships. I can easily put a million power into a 10K block ship.

If you don't have a part of the interior of your ship looking like this, you are not building for maximum power:

...And each one of those power lines extend all the way to the outer hull of the ship, save 'usually' the last block, which will be hull/armor.

Personally I prefer cubes for docked reactors, because it allows me to bury them. A long thin ship however might find it easier to bury long thin reactors. Burying a reactor behind many blocks of other ship system blocks largely ensures that it will not become undocked during a battle, which would both spell the end of the battle as your energy suddenly drops, but also likely spell the end of your game due to massive resulting lag and clipping issues.

A long thin reactor (over 60 blocks in length) will be slightly more efficient with blocks than a cube and easier to build (just a checkerboard of lines). The longer the reactor, the more efficient it will be compared to a cube reactor. If it is less than 60 blocks long however, it will start to become 'less' efficient than a well built cube.

 

[Dwarfwarlock]

A long thin reactor (over 60 blocks in length) will be slightly more efficient with blocks than a cube and easier to build (just a checkerboard of lines). The longer the reactor, the more efficient it will be compared to a cube reactor. If it is less than 60 blocks long however, it will start to become 'less' efficient than a well built cube.

This right here was pretty much exactly what I was looking for. So for straight line power, you want a min of 60 blocks.

 

[Panpiper]

This right here was pretty much exactly what I was looking for. So for straight line power, you want a min of 60 blocks.

That would be a rule only for docked power reactors. For a regular ship, if your ship is only 40 blocks long, your single dimension line will not be more than that. However that line can (and should) be branched not just the length of your ship, but the height and width of it as well. It would be a very small ship indeed that would have less than 60 blocks in a single power line if done as a 3D X that way. That said, even in such tiny ships, power lines should be used the same way, not cubes. If your ship is big enough to put a cube in, you can put lines in that will do better.

Forget about cubes completely except when considering docked power reactors. They are otherwise a red herring that will hamper your ship, not help.

 

[Edymnion]

Wow, thats a lot more complicated than mine.
I just have each reactor with a single computer, and build them in pairs. A simple pulse clock with a 2.5 second delay between pulses to an activator and a NOT on the mother ship, then hook those to wireless blocks with the other end on the generators.

Each reactor gets 2.5 seconds on, 2.5 seconds off, and between the even pairs I always have a steady supply of power due to one always firing while the other recharges.