High-End Power Calculations

[Black Wyvern]

I've been running into an interesting problem with power blocks lately, and the only threads on the issues I can find only seem to revolve around small core efficientcy.

What I need help with is the larger numbers.. I currently have:
? 4 1x465 power tubes generating 1,032,287.3e/s
If I go through and add 6 blocks to each tube, I would -potentially- have:
? 4 5x3x465 power blocks
However, these extra blocks only increase my output to 1,034,337.8e/s

So, my questions are:
1. Is there a maximum limit to grid-space detection, and if so, what is that limit?
2. Is there some kind of maximum falloff to power that even if it were detecting the grid-space correctly would limit my power gains?
3. Just how many shield generators does a nearly 500-tile long space station need?

 

[Seris]

Power does fall off eventually if i remember correctly. i dont know when but i know it happens

 

[Pineapple1996]

i cant build meduim plated perma-claok-radar jamming ships cause the power always platos and becomes inefficint and my previous perma cloak-jammer ships are just that and cant barely support thrusters and the barest weapons. i think the excessive power claoking and jjaming takes should be re-balanced

 

[King Chameleon]

From what ive heard, once the regen goes over 1,000,000e/s each block additional block only provides another 30-50e/s.

 

[Trafalgar]

The power equation is a bit complicated. For multiple generators, where each one has its x, y, and z dimensions added to get an xyzdim, and xyzdims is a list containing all of them, and sum sums the elements of a list, and math operators on a list act on all its members and return another list, you do:

epersec=(1/(1+(1.000696)^(sum(-((xyzdims/3)^1.7)*.333))-.5)*2000000+25*generatorblocks

You can also do a simpler version without lists if you have generators with the same dimensions or you don\'t care if you\'re imprecise, replacing sum(-((xyzdims/3)^1.7)*.333) with numGenerators*(-((xyzdim/3)^1.7)*.333).

As for stealth, for cloak and jamming you need 150 e/s/block, although maybe it\'s more if a block has more mass? If mass based, 1500 e/sec/mass. The most efficient power configuration for stealth in terms of additional blocks stealthed per power block, disregarding power tank requirements as I am unsure precisely how many are needed, is for two 594-block 596-dimension generators. This provides stealth for 6554 blocks total, or 5366 blocks beyond the generators themselves, assuming all your blocks have 0.1 mass. I have a spreadsheet but (a) did some of the math offline so it isn\'t all on it, and (b) google drive doesn\'t seem to want to give me a sharable url while I\'m on a tablet. All that said, with a huge ship, you can stuff it with power tanks and make a really long cloak even if you can\'t make a permanent one.

 

[Black Wyvern]

Not sure how this got sidetracked into cloaking and stuff, as one can\'t cloak a starbase.

But having the equation is kinda.. nice? Lol. I was just asking if there was some kind of upper limit. Seems there is, looking at the upper threshold of the equation itself.

 

[Trafalgar]

There is, except there isn\'t. Every power generator block always makes 25 e/sec no matter what. The exponential gains from putting blocks in lines and +s slow down and stop entirely after you have 1 million e/sec, but you can keep adding power generator blocks at 25 e/sec/block forever.

 

[Puck]

yes, cloaking and jamming should be rebalanced big time, at least to allow for aesthetically pleasing stealth ships, but to not allow stealthed battlecruisers with million shields, the power requirement for hull and decoration blocks should go down

 

[AnIronGolem]

Should post your creations to www.starmadeblueprints.com

 

[Zaflis]

The exponential gains from putting blocks in lines and +s slow down and stop entirely after you have 1 million e/sec, but you can keep adding power generator blocks at 25 e/sec/block forever.


Are you absolutely sure about that? Have you tried extending in all 6 directions, or by making a new block group? I don\'t know how it works, it\'s just possible that there is some limitations to the box size, perhaps just 1 axis limit. is it 200 (just a guess) in 1 direction? But you can still try 200x200x200 x numOfGroups.

 

[DracoNB]

Yes, I\'ve tested it

 

[DivineEvil]

I\'ve also noted that after 420 ton mass Radar Jammer becomes unreliable and cannot work permanently together with cloaking even if ship hull is made out of power blocks and thus the energy is sufficient.

 

[Trafalgar]

You need power tanks too at that point, DivineEvil.

 

[Trafalgar]

Yes. Yes. Yes. No, we have the equation and have checked it against a number of different configurations. Straight lines, Ls, +s, and 3d +s all work identically - with the same block count in all of those configurations, xdim+ydim+zdim is also the same. Now a cube, on the other hand, that is far less efficient, but since the e/sec gained from dimensionality decreases as your total (including only the amount from dimensionality) approaches 1 million...

Feel free to build any of these in-game to verify these numbers:

Power spreadsheet

 

[Zaflis]

Make a power/box-dimension graph out of the values.

 

[gonica]

ok real question is I have a single line of power at what length will that line reach 1 mil E/S and if I have a second identicle line not touching will the result produce 2 mill E/S.

 

[Qweesdy]

Hi,

If you have a single line that reaches 1 million e/s; then it\'s more efficient to break that line into \"596 block long\" pieces. If you have one line that reaches 1 million e/s (using the dimensional bonus), then a second identical line won\'t have the bonus and will not get you 2 million e/s (you only get 25 e/sec for each block in the second line).

What this means is that once you reach 1 million e/sec, you can start slapping power blocks anywhere you like without caring; and a 10*10*10 cube of them is just as good as a 1*1000 line or a 333*333*334 \"XYZ frame\".

It also means that once you reach 1 million e/sec; you need 40000 more power blocks to get to 2 million e/sec.

 

[TheMoro]

continuing with this side-track for a bit:

Cloaking and Jamming above the threshold mentioned does NOT need power tanks. you never neeed power tanks on a stealth ship. What you need to do is add another cloak+jaming module. Don\'t ask me why it works, it just does.

And if you made a way to add \'decorative\' blocks to stealth ships, it would also enable larger and larger battle cruisers to stealth as well. If you want a cool looking stealth ship, use the thrusters, AMCs, sields, and energy blocks to decorate your ship.