New Reactor Power Limitations

[UrstMcRedHead]

Now that the new reactor system is out I've started testing it, and I feel like the new reactors are extremely underpowered.


My first test was with making a simple expandable Noob-Miner, and it quickly expanded exponentially to power the relatively small/compact mining array.

So that got grindey really really fast, and I decided to get into creative mode and retrofit one of my previous builds.

Before I continue I would like to point out that I make most of my ships with the following requirements:

1.5-2.0 Mil power in as efficient space as I can make based off the overall shape: (Lots of T, and L shapes)
Minimum RP compartments in a small space:
Birthing (5-15 bunks)
Lounge area (1 table)
Bridge
Functioning Airlock
Medical wing(2 beds)
Engine Room

With these requirements I can usually make a ship with a 150-190m length and a 50-75m width/height with ab0ut 1500 power blocks.

So in creative mode I started running into issues with cramming enough power/stabilizer blocks into a small enough space and decided to use a space station as my baseline for what it would take to provide 1-mil power.

10k-power+10k-stabilizer(no chamber modules) positioned along the vertical axis (10x20x50 volume) making the height of my station 220m



It really feels like the power output was set low to make it impossible to make a reasonably compact design impractical. However I haven't had a chance to test this with some half-decent cannon systems yet so I may be wrong.

 

[TrainDodger]

The new reactors put out less power, but the new weapons consume less power, and there's less of a penalty for being non-powerstable, because weapons can still recharge (albeit slowly) even if there's a small deficit, and you can arrange power priority so that essential systems still get power even if you go over your power draw limit.

 

[Brokengauge]

Also in these dev builds the actual numbers aren't what they will finally be. It's there for testing. A few days ago I had a surplus of power for my testbed cruiser, but tonight once I updated, I found I had to downgrade or disconnect most of my chambers just to be power stable.

These things take time. I'm not counting on anything using the new stuff working from one release to another.

 

[UrstMcRedHead]

yeah, and thanks to my work life balance it's going to be really hard to sit down and do proper testing on small(10m), and medium(50-150m) designs.

 

[UrstMcRedHead]

OMG finding power consumption by module is a giant PITA.

 

[UrstMcRedHead]

[doublepost=1508297085,1508296519][/doublepost]Embedding isn't working in my posts so here are the direct links.



So far I'm going to stand by my original assertion that the new power systems are too weak.
In order to refit my ship designs I have to put both components as far apart as possible not only leaving them in sections of the ships that will get shot at first (very front/back). It's also very hard to protect the reactors now given the size and distance from each other which means I'll have to create large void spaces to make my designs work.

 

[Dire Venom]

Have you tried balancing your power around the actual power draw? Previous power outputs are useless for the new system, everything has new numbers and they are far too different from the previous system.

 

[UrstMcRedHead]

I have to balance it off of power-draw+(PowerHungrySystem) to get it working in new designs.
However I'm not primarily testing new designs; I'm refitting old ones, and running into problems with them because they where optimized to fit as much power into as small of a space as possible up to 2mil.
I can't do this nearly as easily now because power requires distance.

 

[lupoCani]

It really feels like the power output was set low to make it impossible to make a reasonably compact design impractical. However I haven't had a chance to test this with some half-decent cannon systems yet so I may be wrong.

Correct. Making ships less compact is an explicit goal of this update, which we're seeing in action here.

 

[Panpiper]

Making ships less compact is an explicit goal of this update, which we're seeing in action here.

Yea, because bigger ships are such a good way to address server lag, we really needed to make ships less 'compact'.

 

[lupoCani]

That does not follow. In fact, it doesn't even follow that ships would become less compact in terms of capability, only volume. Capability-per-volume is an easy variable to tweak.

 

[Dire Venom]

The devs explanations personaly just don't jive well with me at all.
I dislike that power generation has been specificaly tied to one (x,y or z length)
I dislike that they expect players to put stabilizors in low effeciencey zones to make more compact ships.
I dislike that they think anyone would actualy do this is practice, no one in their right mind will deliberatly saboutarge their own enegery generation to make prettier ships in PvP.
I dislike that to get around this limitation, I have to either exploit the game mechanics or live with not being able to build the designs that I want. A subpar and energy limited design because of it's hull shape is not something that I would ever build.

I also dislike that I feel more limited when building, and that I have less motivation to actualy build ships because I dislike the mechainics.