Battery management balance.

[turzik.miklos]

The battery system needs some rework.
There are serious balance issues (I think).
The fastest charging (and most expensive (by using the very rare exotics))
battery is the exotic nanowire battery, 60GJ/600sec -> 100 MW charging.

960cm UV Phased Laser Cannon 1.3GJ/10sec -> 130MW consumption
A simple PDPhased laser consumes 110MJ/3sec -> 36.7 MW consumption

I put a laser and 3 PDs on a Lancer for 130MW + 3*36.7MW = 240MW consumption
This is a medium consumption configuration, yet 2.4 times higher consumption than reloading, 60GJ runs out in minutes

And I haven't even talked about the Coilgun yet
Spinal Coiler MK3
1 shot = 7GJ
5 shots in 84sec = 35GJ / 84 sec = 417MW
More than four times higher consumption than reloading and I haven't even included the secondary weapons.
You can't even shoot through the 4 salvos.

So the rate of fire of the weapons is practically meaningless, because it is determined by the battery charge only.
It would be nice if the battery could at least recharge the secondary weapons
There is no high-end configuration that wouldn't drain the battery even the best one

Even if the concept is to make players suck at reloading, it could still be tweaked a bit.
Say, double the storage capacity while keeping the full reload time.

Than
Plasma config -> No problem
Laser config -> Constant usage can drain the battery but keep the pace for a while
Coil config -> Still can drain the battery fast, but not armageddon.

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Heat management is also problematic.
High-end drives fill up the biggest heat sinks in seconds.

[Ericus1]

You only ever use batteries if you are firing and actively thrusting at the same time. You don't need to. And drives only fill heat sinks if you are thrusting with your radiators retracted, which again, you don't need to do. Once you are using those high end weapons, static wall formations are really about ideal for combat since you want your ships to remain closely packed to have good PD coverage. Most you might have to do is a bit of rotation to keep noses pointed in the right direction.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Ericus1:

You only ever use batteries if you are firing and actively thrusting at the same time.

Or if the power couplers or whatever they're called between the reactor and ship are wrecked, in which case you can't recharge them anyway.

[Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia]

Unless your enemy is using beams you have plenty of time to retract the radiators in combat without risking them, and batteries only matter if you are using your drives while trying to fire everything. Make your manoeuvres and accelerate to intended combat velocity before entering range to fire and you won't care how fast the batteries drain or how fast the heat builds up, fly by the enemy nose on and you won't need to worry much with late game tech.

[wei270]

you the op have to keep in mind of perspectives, most of the player in this game use the wall strategy , where they build BIG ships with lots of gun lots of armor and just push the armored wall of guns toward the enemy, simple and effective.

in this case you don't need to worry about battle or heat, because pretty much all your ship power goes to weapons, and with the late game safe radiators you don't even need to retract them, so heat is also not a problem.

where you will have problem with heat and power is when you want to build a fast ship that can maneuver and have decent armor to survive and have decent fire power to take down enemies. in this case you really have to use all the optimization capability you have to create you ship.

And yes there is currently no good battery that is light enough to carry while have enough capacity for to do all that crazy ♥♥♥♥.

[Pawleus]

Originally posted by wei270:

with the late game safe radiators you don't even need to retract them, so heat is also not a problem.

There are no safe radiators - some are safer but not safe.