Best Reactor Type.

[Keptick]

Docked reactors are good in theory but they never play out that way in practical game application. Lag on multiplayer servers slows down/breaks logic relays frequently. Also, there are bugs with docked entities not managing power properly that causes them to drain power from the mother-ship when they should be supplying power instead.

I tested mine out on the NFD build server (which is super foocking unstable) and my reactors seemed to be working fine. My only problem with the is the gigantic fps drop when they're online (40 reactors), I drop to 15 fps every time they're turned on, even when looking at empty space. However that's due to beams having a lack of optimization.

 

[Jaaskinal]

That's a horrible weakspot, though. Once you're below 50% shields, you lose your power gen.

Honestly, though, here's my opinion on docked reactors- I don't like them, but they're currently a necessary evil for most large ships. I'd like for docked reactors to be removed, and for a fuel system that allows you to generate over the softcap to be added. It'd give a maintenance cost to high power generation on large ships, and people wouldn't even need to refit much if they use internal generators since they could convert the space for generators to a fuel tank easily.

I think some lag and vulnerbilities could be avoided with externally docked shields outside of the ships box dims to protect docked reactors also outside of the box dims. It'd look bad, but it would be effective.

 

[Tunk]

Pretty much however I feel with my rail heavy ships, sure they can be tough but they can also explode into a million pieces.
Reason I suggested they remain 'soft docked' awhile back to prevent collision detection going nuts.

 

[Planr]

I think some lag and vulnerbilities could be avoided with externally docked shields outside of the ships box dims to protect docked reactors also outside of the box dims. It'd look bad, but it would be effective.

box dims dont matter anymore for docking lol

 

[Jaaskinal]

box dims dont matter anymore for docking lol

I don't believe you understand what I'm talking about.

 

[Planr]

I don't believe you understand what I'm talking about.

yea clearly i dont lol

box dimensions play no role in ships now whatsoever
except for shipyards, afaik

 

[Lecic]

yea clearly i dont lol

box dimensions play no role in ships now whatsoever
except for shipyards, afaik

Overlapping boxdims means constant collision checks, even when things are docked to eachother. It's a major source of when two large entities have overlapping boxdims.

 

[Jaaskinal]

yea clearly i dont lol

box dimensions play no role in ships now whatsoever
except for shipyards, afaik

Box dimensions of the ship detect when a collision check is required, docked entities withing the box dimensions of a ship cause collision checks. Basically I just want to put rail dockers at the edge of box dimensions so that they don't cause collision checks.

 

[<SCRIPTKITTY>]

Good video,
the 5x5x5 reactor looked a bit too symmetric, and I have the imagination it was built a bit different, but anyway, the room efficiency is almost the same, as long as you can make sure you add to the covered-virtual-box-dimension with each placement, and they do not touch by accident.

I described the change and the reasons about this here:
Thread: What happened to box dimensions bonuses for power regen?

However, you may really want to look into docked designs, that push their energy via energy supply toward the host ship.
Sure at a certain loss, to the beam, but when closing in to the soft-cap and thus lowering overall efficiency, the loss by single reactor size quickly exceeds the loss by the beam. Getting the right modular size, for the room you have to spare for your power generation is some sort of science then. Values around 450.000e/s to 750.000e/s should be targeted then, below that you can still get a good bonus by adding dimensions, above you are most likely down to plain add per block, and dimension does not yield any additional bonus anymore.

- Andy

I agree about the 5x5x5 reactor, however it was the most popular design i could find as multiple sources used it. A lot of people are talking about docked reactors ans stuff that generally goes over my head at the moment I think ill play around with some and maybe make a video on how they work for me, thanks for the feedback!

I deffenently need to do a lot of googling and stuff on docked reactors sound controversial and unstable and awesome.

 

[Lecic]

I agree about the 5x5x5 reactor, however it was the most popular design i could find as multiple sources used it. A lot of people are talking about docked reactors ans stuff that generally goes over my head at the moment I think ill play around with some and maybe make a video on how they work for me, thanks for the feedback!

The 5^3 design is not something I would recommend for anyone to use. It's extremely inefficient compared to lines and crosses.

 

[Keptick]

docked reactors sound controversial and unstable and awesome.

This. This so much.

 

[jorgekorke]

Docked reactors are part of a subject when we have a clash.

Playability VS. Creativity​

Sure, the concept of having docked reactors are a good solution for big ships, exploiting the soft cap. But the performace issues that comes with it makes me wish them gone.

 

[BDLS]

With what Biddles said, there's something kind of wrong about that I tested a very long time ago, but haven't tested myself since, but I've heard other people say it.
There's a point with reactor length where efficiency goes down (and it has nothing to do with the power soft cap.) And this length is about sixty blocks long. Basically, several sixty block long reactors will be more efficient than a single length.
Also, look into docked reactors. If you need seven million power a second, you're going to have a tough time getting it on the main ship. It's doable, but docked power is much more efficient.

Just tested this.

One 120 block long reactor makes 65,951 e/sec
Two 60 block long reactors makes 43,442 e/sec

Long lines remain KING.

 

[Drakkart]

There is often debate on the best kind of reactor setup...

kinda liked the vid though by just continuing garths pattern you showed that you did not comprehend how powercubes actually get build. btw. the real 5x5x5 cube does still around 9k regen... anyway you just started you'll find out soon enough how fascinating simple and complex at the same time this game is...

 

[NuclearFun]

i implement the old 5x5 power cube just for fun and decoration in my builds, but it is power lines all the way.

 

[StormWing0]

I think 3 lines connected at a single point gives more power though than just one line, not sure though.

 

[Aynslei]

I think 3 lines connected at a single point gives more power though than just one line, not sure though.

3 blocks connected in a line will have the same regen as connected at one point.

Also to note is that up to nine blocks in line is needed to barely beat the power provided by 9 single blocks. (I can't remember why this is but someone informed about its mechanic a bit ago)

 

[Gasboy]

i implement the old 5x5 power cube just for fun and decoration in my builds, but it is power lines all the way.

I have a question for you and others using power lines. I've always built fighters and small craft, so I don't run into this issue. And shipyards should provide an easy answer. But...

What do you do about battle damage? For a power cube, you have a fairly easy time assessing damage. How the hell do you figure out where power lines have been severed? With NuclearFun's ships as an example, I can only assume power lines are running throughout the ship, due to the lengths you need.

Also, as a prelude to me having to Google this... docked power. Am I right in assuming these are 'ships' with nothing but power, docked to your main ship? Providing power... how?

 

[Lecic]

I have a question for you and others using power lines. I've always built fighters and small craft, so I don't run into this issue. And shipyards should provide an easy answer. But...

What do you do about battle damage? For a power cube, you have a fairly easy time assessing damage. How the hell do you figure out where power lines have been severed? With NuclearFun's ships as an example, I can only assume power lines are running throughout the ship, due to the lengths you need.

Most people would take battledamaged ships and scrap them in build mode, then respawn the ship from an undamaged blueprint, replacing any destroyed blocks. Now, of course, shipyards basically do that for you, even skipping the scrapping part.

Also, as a prelude to me having to Google this... docked power. Am I right in assuming these are 'ships' with nothing but power, docked to your main ship? Providing power... how?

Docked reactors are docked power generators and power supply beams on a clock shooting power into the main ship.

 

[Tunk]

Pretty much its to do with how the 'bonus' regeneration is calculated on a group and a quirk of the math at a single block.
Anyways I spent some time torturing myself in excel for fun, have some nifty graphs.

http://imgur.com/a/gExnp

As for docked power, the common definition of it is a ship containing only a reactor, power storage and power supply beams to send power back to the mothership.
It can also mean inline reactors, which provide power to peripheral systems.

[edit]
Just thought I would add, these all assume a single group of reactors (all touching), and that all reactors added to the group increase the sum of the dimensions of the reactor (x+y+z).
So for OP, most cube reactors are generally made up of many small groups packed in tight (many groups, low group bonuses).
This is why the longer line reactors got more efficient when expanded, because the group bonus increased significantly.

With most of these reactors you can get a lower mass by using 3-4 longer reactor lines running the length and breadth of the ship rather than trying to build a reactor in a specific place.