power systems 3 types

[symbiot999]

Ok, I was watching an Idea for a power system and I mostly did not like it so I thought I might give my 2 cents about power system. To me this game, is a game where what you build is limited by your imagination and I think that is great. So anyways about power system.
Like the title says 3 power system.
1. what we have now a power system ran by eletric
2. a power system ran by fuel that is found as a resource on planets.
3. A power system that is ran by crystals found on astdroids.

The first one should not have a certairn way it needs to be it could be in a cube or go through out the ship
The second would be found on planets and you would have to have an engine to use it.
The thrid would be harder to find and would be powered by a laser hitting the crystals. Also would have to have a eletric power reactor to run the laser to get the extra power that you get from the crystal.

Each level of resourses would be harder to find then the next. The first would take up lots of space like it does now. the second would take less space then the frist then the thrid and so on.

That was for ship even though you could use them on plaents I would say that on planets we have more options we could make windmils or dams since the game has water but does not seem to have a use for it "at least from what I have seen.

 

[Lord_Greyscale]

Interesting thoughts, but they literally won't be implemented for the following reasons:

A: The devs have allready decided upon how they'll be re-doing power, going for something that is difficult for me to explain due to how much I despise it.

The best way to think of it is reactor cores that make heat, and all the other systems that allso make heat, and this heat doubles or triples if the systems are within "heat range" of the reactor, leading inevitably to systemic failures of your ship.

B: The devs have often and emphatically said "Starmade will never have fuel or hunger mechanics".

 

[Lone_Puppy]

I like the idea of having different power supply levels that are more difficult to obtain the higher you go. Perhaps this could still be achieved using the existing, possibly the new power mechanics or a combination of both. This would allow for existing designs to remain functional and the new power system would provide a better, leaner footprint at the same time providing the additional complexity.

Perhaps also involve the linking of effect, weapon and support computers for variations in power output and reactor stability.

 

[Elo106]

Maybe they could add Chambers that increase your reactors output by consuming certain items.
That way you could have a fuel Chamber and a crystal chamber and what ever else people come up with.

 

[sayerulz]

Interesting thoughts, but they literally won't be implemented for the following reasons:

A: The devs have allready decided upon how they'll be re-doing power, going for something that is difficult for me to explain due to how much I despise it.

The best way to think of it is reactor cores that make heat, and all the other systems that allso make heat, and this heat doubles or triples if the systems are within "heat range" of the reactor, leading inevitably to systemic failures of your ship.

B: The devs have often and emphatically said "Starmade will never have fuel or hunger mechanics".

Umm... where did you hear that? That is not even remotely what the new power system is.

 

[Tamren Shade]

Greyscale is referencing the 1st power system proposal. A lot of people, including myself, had reservations on the heat box thing.

In the 2nd proposal they dropped the heat box idea. The only thing that loses efficiency if they're too close together is reactors and stabilizers. I don't even think they kept heat as an idea.

Your reactor will generate x amount of e/s depending on how big it is, and a reactor will need an equal amount of stabilizers to run at full efficiency. The only constraint is that the more reactors and stabilizers you have paired, the farther apart the system groups need to be. Each system on a ship will draw power, and you can set which systems get access to that power first by a customizable priority system.

Thrusters and shields have a constant draw depending on usage, and weapons will store enough power for a single shot and draw power after they've been discharged. The weapons capacitors do "leak" a little and suck a small amount of power even when fully charged. The small power draw is based on the size of the system, it's a balancing mechanic so you can't build a 500 block fighter and stick a 10K block nuke on it. Well you "could" just the ship won't work

The chamber system will replace the defensive effects, each reactor can support a certain number of chambers and each chamber would be the same block count as the reactor. The chambers will have to be linked by conduit to the reactor when they're built, and they'll start to lose power efficiency if they're too far from the reactor. The system leaves it open for them to add more special abilities/bonus types in the future. It's kind of like a small skill system like you'd see in an RPG but for spaceships.

So once it's in place, you'll have another layer of complexity to customize your ship. It should be more interesting then current approach of just cramming as many blocks into a ship as possible .

I think I explained how it works properly, if I got something wrong I'm sure a friendly member of the community will be along to correct me posthaste .

I'm personally looking forward to the new system, and I can't wait until spaghetti noodle reactor blocks and boring chunks of capacitors are no longer a thing .

 

[nightrune]

The chamber system will replace the defensive effects, each reactor can support a certain number of chambers and each chamber would be the same block count as the reactor.

Mostly right! I wanted to clarify on this point. We'll probably be starting with same size but the config will be a proportion of the reactor size. I've been thinking 2x would be good, but needs to be play tested a bit.

This could change per reactor type. Meaning some chamber types or nodes could be smaller or larger then others. This may be tedious or it could add back in the complexity some in the community desired after spaghetti reactors and docked power are no more.

Also the plan currently is to have the same amount of tech points for every ship. So any ship can have all/any chambers. It's just limited by tech points. We do want chambers to be more or less useful at different ship sizes.

Great explanation though!