Power System Overhaul Proposal

[Lecic]

How does it encourage "chandelier" ships? Any hulls you've created so far could accommodate the reactor system they've outlined in the original post of this thread. Some you would have to change the internals or externals, possibly, but I am pretty sure most would fit. Are you suggesting that you'd be forced (in that anyone who does not do so cedes the advantage to the people who do) to make such compartmentalized ships that they resemble chandeliers? 'Cause that sounds pretty far-fetched to me.

Because the chandelier ship, which puts a huge number of the new generator system out on armored spokes, allowing for the same "fill everything with systems" we currently have, just with uglier ships.

 

[Xacktar]

Because the chandelier ship, which puts a huge number of the new generator system out on armored spokes, allowing for the same "fill everything with systems" we currently have, just with uglier ships.

Or prettier ones, depending on what you do with the space inbetween.

 

[Brokengauge]

The specifics will definitely need smoothed out, but I think it's a good idea.

People fear and hate change. It's why ppl stay in abusive relationships, it's why they stay in shitty jobs, and it's why they stay in shitty underwear.

Starmade is my favorite game. The general consensus however, seems to be that it's "meh" and part of this is due to the "tedious grind" of gathering resources to make your systems.

No matter how this new system actually turns out, the core of it is about actually designing your systems, and designing your ships to use those systems, and have enough crew to maintain them.

My body is ready.

 

[petlahk]

That was my thought intially: The devs speak of people being forced to build a certain way, annd they come up with a way which essentially forces us to build a certain way.

But look at it more closely. They are giving us a way to have more power on bigger ships to power the pewpewpew and wooosh wooosh wooosh and ZZZZZZZZZZZT. But they are trying to make smaller and medium sized ships still have some advantages in that you don't have to devote as much space to reactors as the big guys do. It's more power in less space than before.

We need to give it a shot, see it in action, maybe try to kill each other with it first... before we can agree to it. But let's not shoot it down before we have had that chance, right?

Seconded.

 

[Gasboy]

Because the chandelier ship, which puts a huge number of the new generator system out on armored spokes, allowing for the same "fill everything with systems" we currently have, just with uglier ships.

... XD

Really?

Okay, so like, you're sailing along in one of your ships (excellently designed I might add) and a chandelier comes in from warp and pewpewpew starts.

Are you really telling me that the FIRST target you hit after the shields are down ISN'T one of the dangly bits you know has a reactor core in it? And DIDN'T someone already suggest this in the opening posts of this thread, in response to you?

Are you telling me that you're actually opposed to this suggestion is because people will build ugly ships?

 

[T_Lex]

I'd like to ask a few things (might be bit off topic sry).

Any plans on how power and heat will be shared (if at all) beetwen docked entities?
Like if i put on too many and/or too big turrets, will they overheat my ship or just cease to function? If a ship is overheated will it overheat docked stuff as well? On one hand if the main ship is disabled i'd expect everything else to shut down as well (turrets, docked weapons), but it would be bad if it also means loosing escapepods if u decide to abandon ship when loosing all/main reactor.

Will u be able to affect the heat of a separate entity?
For example changing the power supply/drain beams into some sort of heat transfer tools, power supply --> drain heat from target to add to your own (supporting a friendly with overheating), power drain --> obviously increasing the heat of target but not sure if it should decrease own heat (ship should be able to operate anyway).

 

[Lecic]

... XD

Really?

Okay, so like, you're sailing along in one of your ships (excellently designed I might add) and a chandelier comes in from warp and pewpewpew starts.

Are you really telling me that the FIRST target you hit after the shields are down ISN'T one of the dangly bits you know has a reactor core in it? And DIDN'T someone already suggest this in the opening posts of this thread, in response to you?

Are you telling me that you're actually opposed to this suggestion is because people will build ugly ships?

Yes, and the counter to that is- they're armored, they're at the back of the ship, a ship with this design will be able to kill you before you can even do that, and you are overestimating how easy it is to hit specific parts over a ship 5 or more kilometers away.

 

[kingreol]

Also would this change the meta back to Core drilling? Shields mean everything. I'm assuming then block penetration would be seriously gimped to prevent the game to be chase to the reactor core

 

[Xacktar]

Yes, and the counter to that is- they're armored, they're at the back of the ship, a ship with this design will be able to kill you before you can even do that, and you are overestimating how easy it is to hit specific parts over a ship 5 or more kilometers away.

I'm trying to follow your logic but really having trouble doing so. I'm fairly certain other people will armor their reactors and be able to shoot back.

 

[Lecic]

I'm trying to follow your logic but really having trouble doing so.

The heat makes systems worse if they're inside its radius. So you put the reactors far away from the rest of your systems on spokes, with additional sponge spokes in front of the reactor spokes to defend them, a "chandelier ship," if you will, and can continue to stuff your ships to the brim with systems like you currently do, except those ships are massively more powerful now because systems were changed to only need to be 5-15% of the ship.

 

[Beliant]

Is the primary coolant material going to be water? If so, will we have a better way of obtaining it than mining planets or buying small amounts from shops?​

maybe melting ice would be very cool, it could be done on assembler or factories

 

[Xacktar]

The heat makes systems worse if they're inside its radius. So you put the reactors far away from the rest of your systems on spokes, with additional sponge spokes in front of the reactor spokes to defend them, a "chandelier ship," if you will, and can continue to stuff your ships to the brim with systems like you currently do, except those ships are massively more powerful now because systems were changed to only need to be 5-15% of the ship.

Wouldn't the focus on minimizing ship size and highlighting of the systems make it easier to take down? A vessel that included even a simple shell around everything would have an extra layer of defense and add some uncertainty as to where the vulnerable systems were located?

 

[Beliant]

the idea of to be able to build more interior with less sppace penaltie, leads to more carrier ships, more cargo carrier, more hangarswith more fighters inside, aaaaaand the idea to have a coolant will be like to have a kind of fuel (ooor specificaly have a engine to make cores works with fuels maybe) will increase the immersion and roleplay, couse will need to carry a a cargo bay for it (on big ships) and would be nice have a kind of recicler to used cooler fuel... oh god ideas are comming.

thanks for to care about it, the actual power system is a little boring

 

[TheKingOfSpace]

It's an improvement, but it seems rather complex on the face of it.





I'd like to see in a Starmade power system:

* Be able to run a ship off stored power (and/or fuel) for 20-60 minutes, from a compact system, rather than trying to pack in enough infini-reactors into your ship - especially for smaller ships

* Easier, perhaps wireless, radius-based transfer of power to friendly ships - allowing you to power mining drones remotely, for example

* Solar-based power - Solar power that provides a good amount of power for lighter weight at the disadvantage of only working while inside star systems/sectors - restricting the routes you can take across (and between) galaxies
Or perhaps some sort of fuel material could be gathered from parking stations near rare star types - making them valuable targets, especially in multiplayer

 

[Lecic]

Wouldn't the focus on minimizing ship size and highlighting of the systems make it easier to take down? A vessel that included even a simple shell around everything would have an extra layer of defense and add some uncertainty as to where the vulnerable systems were located?

A chandelier ship with an external shell would just be a bell ship, or a massive hollow wedge. It's the same end point- making the shape that's got the most variety of good looking possibilities (wedge shapes) and replaces them with chandeliers and bells.

 

[BillGHero]

So then are we finally looking at mechanics that model the economy of scale we see in real life systems? That larger power plants generate more power, more efficiently, than smaller ones in comparison to their relative size?

I understood that one corner-stone of the current system is to have a principle of diminishing-returns to discourage ships that were too big for a server to handle.

If you do begin to model the real-life concept of economy of scale, will you introduce fuel or maintenance requirements to balance out the otherwise potential explosion in ship growth? This would make small ships have a valuable role alongside the large. Also, will we finally see the concept of high-performance systems that make fighter craft logical? Where you have a small ship that is much more powerful per ton but also much more expensive in terms of maintenance/fuel?

 

[Xacktar]

A chandelier ship with an external shell would just be a bell ship, or a massive hollow wedge. It's the same end point- making the shape that's got the most variety of good looking possibilities (wedge shapes) and replaces them with chandeliers and bells.

Alright. I think I see where you are coming from now. Still doesn't mean people won't make the shells pretty, but I understand what you're saying at least.

 

[Gasboy]

The heat makes systems worse if they're inside its radius. So you put the reactors far away from the rest of your systems on spokes, with additional sponge spokes in front of the reactor spokes to defend them, a "chandelier ship," if you will, and can continue to stuff your ships to the brim with systems like you currently do, except those ships are massively more powerful now because systems were changed to only need to be 5-15% of the ship.

Okay, but you seem to be under the assumption that this new system will end up taking the same, or more, space than the current system. When it appears to be that the new system will take up less space, even with the "heat spaces" having to be free of system blocks.

 

[kiddan]

A quick question, please tell me if it's thinking too deep into this proposal; With the proposed system, would we be able to put multiple conduits between just two chambers/a chamber and reactor? With the trade-off being you can maintenance one conduit when its broken, but with lower efficiency (in some form) as a downside (or something along those lines, you get the idea, I hope).

 

[Philiquaz]

If an array of data detailing the heat of a ship can be maintained where different critical elements affect said array; then you could say that heat above x level causes it to stop being functional; so players are forced to spread items apart; or to maximise the effectiveness of a single generator object implement heatpipe-like systems. But the key effect of such a system is to drop the density of system blocks; dropping the size needed, but more importantly limiting abuse of filling the ship with the new kind instead. Sure you could fill a ship with small reactors and maximise the density of power system blocks, but if you put them into a single reactor; you let them be more effcient; or rather you need less to achieve the same power output- BUT this reactor will still make a similar impact on the density of system blocks imposed by the heat it generates.

Ie, instead of replacing power cap/regen; you add on a heatmap that creates a density cap of sorts; and by simple rerarrangement, extra space can be found in the ship's interior