What happened to box dimension bonuses for power regen?

    AndyP

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    Wait a minute, so you're telling me that dockable reactor batteries are intended as a feature and not a bug? If so, may I just say, that's awesome! I was afraid it was a bug dealing with beams being interactive between the mothership and its docked entities, and that the feature would be removed.

    Thanks for clearing that up Andy. I feel better about the long line system now.
    Correct,
    support type weapons, should always work.
    Even in direct docking situations.

    Power beams have only 50% efficiency in the default setup.
    You use 10 power to get 20 in your mother-ship.
    This is not correct.
    (Edit: Overlapped with correction, but leaving the quote here to let the rest make sense ^^)
    Code:
            <PowerSupply>
                    <BasicValues>
                            <SupplyPerHit>40</SupplyPerHit>
                            <PowerConsumption>60</PowerConsumption>
                            <Distance>200</Distance>                        <!-- timeBetweenHits = 1 / (unitSize^pow)*mult -->
                            <SpeedPowPerUnit>1</SpeedPowPerUnit>          <!-- this non linear scaling up of beam ROF the larger an array is will impact balance in a nasty way, can we make it a set value -->
                            <SpeedMultPerUnit>7</SpeedMultPerUnit>
                            <CoolDown>1</CoolDown> <!-- Time it takes to fire beam again from the start-time it first activated -->
                            <BurstTime>1</BurstTime> <!-- Time the beam will fire -->
                            <InitialTicks>0</InitialTicks> <!-- Ticks to do at the initial contact of beam with a block -->
                    </BasicValues>
    According to config, you need 60 power to supply 40.
    This is a 66% efficiency.
    Reads like loosing 33%, but in fact,
    going half way to the softcap 'costs' you about 60-70% of the power per block efficiency.
    So with small reactors you have general WAY higher per block energy output.

    Didn't calculate the 'sweet spot' for this,
    but somewhere around 250.000e/reactor should work out best.


    Planr
    I don't think that's really a 100% confirmation that docked reactors are going to remain usable. Would be nice to know for sure, though.
    It is.
    Modular reactors are the current state of planned key features in power generation.

    - Andy
     
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    NeonSturm

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    Sry I told stats for power-drain - here a quote from the file:
    I already corrected myself - you are 22 minutes late @Andy:P

    67% power transfer efficiency * 2/3 block count are reactors = about 45%
    Then count in mass for (pc, core and *joking*) Power tanks (vs lags) = 40% efficiency compared to a reactor built into the main ship.

    25/145 power = 16.7% efficiency?
    Yes it is definitively more efficient.
     

    AndyP

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    True, when I started writing the post, yours wasn't there yet.
    (Should not get distracted so easily ^^°)
    Sorry then.

    - Andy
     
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    I have to admit I'm a bit confused from reading all this

    Is power generation best attained from having a power core that look a bit like the one AndyP showed a picture of - lots of sticks poking out in different directions?

    Its what I use.
     

    CyberTao

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    I have to admit I'm a bit confused from reading all this

    Is power generation best attained from having a power core that look a bit like the one AndyP showed a picture of - lots of sticks poking out in different directions?

    Its what I use.
    This is an old thread, so the argument is well done and finished for the most part, would have been easier to ask on chat about reactor effectiveness. (I dont even really remember what this was about!)
    Power Regen works best when the group (connected blocks) of regen has large dimensions, but low block count.
    So the bigger the dimensions, the more of a bonus you get to power regen (up to 1mill bonus).

    So like what AndyP showed, but I think it's better to know how it works, all-in-all, so that you can adapt it to your ship.
     

    AndyP

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    There are different approaches.
    Putting them in poles as a checker board works out good.
    Filling the gaps with power-supply beams, allows a space efficient use of both systems.

    Our faction worked out a good balance between design and block performance.
    mcm-reactor.png

    However, extending the dock-area and total size to one direction only, seems to be slightly more space efficient, although it requires more docking enhancers in total.

    - Andy
     
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    There are different approaches.
    Putting them in poles as a checker board works out good.
    Filling the gaps with power-supply beams, allows a space efficient use of both systems.

    Our faction worked out a good balance between design and block performance.
    View attachment 6807

    However, extending the dock-area and total size to one direction only, seems to be slightly more space efficient, although it requires more docking enhancers in total.

    - Andy
    Nice design it makes me want to build my own!
    You previously said the "sweet spot" should be near 250'000e/s but your design shows 500'000e/s. Is 250'000 too restrictive?
     

    AndyP

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    highest energy per block may be around 250.000-400.000 but I did not calculate that exactly.

    However 1M energy in 4 reactors is more work and may cause more lag.
    1M energy in two may consume the space of around 5 smaller ones but is less maintenance intensive and only causes two additional markers for people that do not have docked entities filtered.

    Its a bit balance vs lazyness, with sweet spot closer to lazy than to maxing out the system. :P

    - Andy
     

    Lecic

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    Is there a plan to reduce the server-crashing lag that these things cause when they come undocked in a battle?
    It's planned that when things undock and clip into the ship they are docked to, they'll stop colliding with the ship until they phase through it.