*Disclaimer* I have not done testing at extremely high power regeneration levels, so some of this may not always apply
After seeing some discussion in public chat about power regen, I decided to do some testing of my own to determine just how it actually works. Some of this will probably seem obvious to you mega builders and reactor-configuration masterminds, but hopefully this will shed some insight to others.
1 - Power regeneration is quadratic. For each block that extends a reactor in any given dimension, the gains in regen will be greater and greater.
2 - Regeneration is NOT proportional to the volume of the box that would inscribe your reactor. Rather, block for block, the gains in regen from expanding into any dimension will be the same as if you had only extended your reactor in one dimension. For example, a "cross" type reactor that is 15x15x1 will provide the same power regeneration as a "needle" reactor that is 1x1x30. Both reactors expand 30 units into three-dimensional space, and as such, have the same regen.
3 - Separate power groups scale independently. If you have one 15x15x1 reactor, you will get exactly the same amount of regen from adding another, separate 15x15x1 reactor.
What does this mean? Not much, except for clarifying how the game actually calculates regen. For builders of large ships, it does mean that reactors should always run the full length of the longest axis of your ship to get the greatest gains in power regeneration. It also means that per unit mass, the most efficient reactor configuration will always be a single reactor expanding infinitely in any dimension. This is not an ideal solution, however, as no one wants sector-spanning spindly spaceships :P
I'll leave the floor open to anyone who would like to talk about more space-efficient reactor configurations, that particular area is not my strong suit.
After seeing some discussion in public chat about power regen, I decided to do some testing of my own to determine just how it actually works. Some of this will probably seem obvious to you mega builders and reactor-configuration masterminds, but hopefully this will shed some insight to others.
1 - Power regeneration is quadratic. For each block that extends a reactor in any given dimension, the gains in regen will be greater and greater.
2 - Regeneration is NOT proportional to the volume of the box that would inscribe your reactor. Rather, block for block, the gains in regen from expanding into any dimension will be the same as if you had only extended your reactor in one dimension. For example, a "cross" type reactor that is 15x15x1 will provide the same power regeneration as a "needle" reactor that is 1x1x30. Both reactors expand 30 units into three-dimensional space, and as such, have the same regen.
3 - Separate power groups scale independently. If you have one 15x15x1 reactor, you will get exactly the same amount of regen from adding another, separate 15x15x1 reactor.
What does this mean? Not much, except for clarifying how the game actually calculates regen. For builders of large ships, it does mean that reactors should always run the full length of the longest axis of your ship to get the greatest gains in power regeneration. It also means that per unit mass, the most efficient reactor configuration will always be a single reactor expanding infinitely in any dimension. This is not an ideal solution, however, as no one wants sector-spanning spindly spaceships :P
I'll leave the floor open to anyone who would like to talk about more space-efficient reactor configurations, that particular area is not my strong suit.
hope it helps
