Recognized Solar Panels!

[MrFuz]

Solar panels would bring a new scope to non-combat ships and would add more realism and roleplaying to the game. I made a fully enclosed life support system miner called the Pathos/Nomad Starliner and I felt the need for functional solar panels, as the docked injectors had them. Solar panels in theory should be weaker than the average block, but when exposed to sunlight, generate larger quantities of power.

Until lighting is interacted with entities to prevent docked stacking, please add this!

This would be so awesome, and imagine the possibilities.
Docked injectors that slide out when the ship is low on power to collect solar energy,
Giant orange miners covered in it, solar farms on planets!
This could also lead into bigger features like oxygen, or food.
(If food is added, please add freezers as well)

 

[Wolverines527]

This is a pretty good idea

 

[spunkiethefirst]

I think they could implement this by altering the reactors behavior to increase its output when exposed to sunlight which would save a block id.

 

[wanzer]

I like it but how will it check if its exposed to a star ?
you need to trace every panel ?
or just the cores distance to the nearest star ?

one is very cpu intensive the other prone to abuse

cause if it doesn't check if each panel gets los of a star ppl can hide it under armor to boost the energy output

 

[SkylordLuke]

added to FSM thread
nice suggestion

 

[spunkiethefirst]

I like it but how will it check if its exposed to a star ?
you need to trace every panel ?
or just the cores distance to the nearest star ?

one is very cpu intensive the other prone to abuse

cause if it doesn't check if each panel gets los of a star ppl can hide it under armor to boost the energy output

Not a coder so I'm not sure of the performance impact, however I do believe there is already in place a method for casting shadows on an object from other objects in the way, not sure if it applies to internal docked objects though.

 

[wanzer]

Not a coder so I'm not sure of the performance impact, however I do believe there is already in place a method for casting shadows on an object from other objects in the way, not sure if it applies to internal docked objects though.

yes that looks like a ambient occlusion
but notice when objects get spaced, the shadow diminishes even within a enclosed space

 

[Madman198237]

The problem is that solar panels rely only on light.....but lights presently require no power. Therefore, using solar panels would just require some cheap exploiter exploiting those facts and building a delicate solar array....inside his titan and building armor all around it, lighting it with just a few blocks.

 

[Nickizzy]

The problem is that solar panels rely only on light.....but lights presently require no power. Therefore, using solar panels would just require some cheap exploiter exploiting those facts and building a delicate solar array....inside his titan and building armor all around it, lighting it with just a few blocks.

Make block light and star light have different affects somehow. Like how in minecraft the F3 key you can see the light level, and it says "10 block, 3 sky" Not sure how to make it change every once and a while(checking with every object within a sector would be laggy) but that could help solve that abuse.
[DOUBLEPOST=1460324946,1460324844][/DOUBLEPOST]Maybe make light blocks slightly less efficent, or lose efficency based on how many solar panels are using it, so you could have something of the sort...

 

[Edymnion]

Eh, I had a station once that had "functioning" solar panels. I just built reactor lines into the support arms for the panels.

 

[Nickizzy]

P.S. Could you change the poll? I said no to the poll but I agree with the thread. Modern space travel things in starmade would be weird and would have different power systems and new propulsions and parashutes and wings and thermaldynamicans and.... Those would be complicated and selective in starmade.

 

[nightwalker_007]

Solar panels would bring a new scope to non-combat ships and would add more realism and roleplaying to the game.

I actually brought up solar panels up as a solution to another problem in the game: it's impossible to start a game off with no gear and no money because there would be no way to power a factory. If solar panels were implemented and suit-craftable, this would make a true survival mode start possible.

And yes, it would be cool to have solar panel blocks... ones that generate more or less power depending on the proximity they are to a star.

 

[spunkiethefirst]

I actually brought up solar panels up as a solution to another problem in the game: it's impossible to start a game off with no gear and no money because there would be no way to power a factory. If solar panels were implemented and suit-craftable, this would make a true survival mode start possible.

And yes, it would be cool to have solar panel blocks... ones that generate more or less power depending on the proximity they are to a star.

It is currently possible to start with nothing (no tools, money, blocks, credits not even a ship core) and build up due to implementation of all entities creating 1e/sec. I think asteroids and planet plates have 500 energy storage standard without capacitors so enough to feed a factory for one cycle, it will just take a while as you have to make sure the factories are off until the entity has enough power for one cycle.

Only fun for those Les Stroud and masochistic types.

Also the poll doesn't seem to match the OP too well.

 

[nightwalker_007]

It is currently possible to start with nothing (no tools, money, blocks, credits not even a ship core) and build up due to implementation of all entities creating 1e/sec.

...that's news to me. I know when a ship is spawned as an entity it does this, but not a lone ship core spawned by a player. It might only work if an entity was able to generate power at some point before. I'll have to do some tests later.

 

[jstenholt]

I can't put into words how unneeded that is. Adding solar panels to make Starmade more realistic is like putting paint on your phone screen to make a selfie more like a portrait.

 

[Zaphord]

I think this would work very well for a static entity like a space station, which would cut down on the cpu load as far as caculating the distance from the nearest star, but it would still need to be able to differenciate between natural light and light emitted from blocks. Otherwise you could just put a layer of light blocks over the panels and armor them up. Solar panels if given the advantage of producing more power the closer they are to a star should have the disadvantage of being quite fragile to balance things out.

So a station with a huge solar array or a planetary solar farm could produce vast amounts of power compared to reactor blocks would need fairly strong shields for protection, but would still work seeing as they're exposed to light. Planet based solar farms would also only generate power during the planet's day cycle. Making them slightly less effective.

There's my two cents, I like the idea, but this can probably wait until beta or full release really.

 

[lupoCani]

Solar panels do fit with the concept of fuel- either as the stationary equipment that makes fuel, or perhaps as backup power. I suppose I can support this.

 

[Ithirahad]

I support this, but by the way there is absolutely no reason to use actual light calculations for this. You can just use physics - shoot a beam from the center of the solar panel module towards the sun. If it leaves your sector without hitting anything, you're good. (This allows for some strange things, like a solar panel with only one square exposed that works perfectly as long as you're directly aligned with the sun, but it doesn't matter too much IMO)

 

[MrFuz]

I support this, but by the way there is absolutely no reason to use actual light calculations for this. You can just use physics - shoot a beam from the center of the solar panel module towards the sun. If it leaves your sector without hitting anything, you're good. (This allows for some strange things, like a solar panel with only one square exposed that works perfectly as long as you're directly aligned with the sun, but it doesn't matter too much IMO)

Interesting, but it wont be automatic?

 

[therimmer96]

Just to quickly point something out to the people saying the panels would need to differentiate between sunlight and block light. They're already 2 separate things. that wouldn't be an issue.