Dyson Swarm vs Dyson Shell

[Kenji]

Is there any practical reason to keep launching sails to build up your dyson swarm? I'm assuming you can get all the power/critical photons you need just by building the shells alone. Is the swarm portion just for the fun of it?

[TLHeart]

once you start building the shell with rockets, the sails are absorbed into the shell, and fill in the spaces between the structures points. And it provides more power, and the sails once in the structure do not waste away to nothing as they do in the swarm.

[Kenji]

So when you say fill in the spaces between the structures points, are you talking about the lines that you draw to connect the points?

[bizkitmaker13]

https://dyson-sphere-program.fandom.com/wiki/Solar_Sail

"A Solar Sail launched into orbit by the EM-Rail Ejectors will have one of two fates, it can either be part of the Dyson Swarm, or become part of the Dyson sphere proper. If a proper shell has not been designed, or if the shell has not been fully constructed via the launch of many Small Carrier Rockets, a Solar Sail will join the Dyson Swarm instead of a Dyson Sphere Shell.

As part of the Dyson Swarm, these Solar Sails will have a limited lifespan because they are unsupported. This limited lifespan makes this mode of operation undesirable in the long run. Still, it does provide some value if needed due to the variations in orbit radius having an impact on power generation per Sail.

Provided nodes and frames between them are constructed, and the inner region designated a shell (a blue-green area enclosed with frames), you will have the start of a Dyson sphere. You will then need to fill shells with Solar Sails. Just launch Solar Sails with the EM-Rail Ejector, and an unfilled shell will requisition them from their orbit. Sails will change from white to blue to show they have been requisitioned. Note that the Solar Sails will change orbit and speed in order to slowly join the required shell area. A sail that has been made part of a shell no longer has a lifespan. "

[bizkitmaker13]

I don't know if I did it "right" or "wrong" but I have a bunch of structure built and only now am firing sails so i can make the shell. Thought the rockets would just do it....
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2472598420

[Kenji]

Thanks biz, that makes more sense now

[tigerdan04]

The Dyson shell is permanent. The Dyson swarm is temporary. Once you place a few nodes on the shell in the shell editor and launch rockets at them to complete them, click the panel button and then click in the center of a few nodes (like in @bizkitmaker13's screenshot above in that triangle between the nodes). Now the sails will be absorbed into the sphere and produce tons of continuous free power. Afterwards, yes, you can just fire them for looks on different trajectories or sphere layers.

It can be practical in the beginning (depending on your resources in the system) to launch some sails and just take a few Dyson receivers to the new planets, so you don't have to build up a huge power infrastructure for maybe 1 or 2 resources you want from that planet.

ALSO when you disassemble any part of your Dyson sphere, that part will turn into the sails. This means you don't even have to build EM rail launchers and could bypass sails entirely if you wanted to, just launching rockets and then mass disassembling the nodes for tons of sails. IT LOOKS AWESOME WHEN YOU DO THIS!

GOOD LUCK, dude!

[vkobe]

Originally posted by Kenji:

Is there any practical reason to keep launching sails to build up your dyson swarm? I'm assuming you can get all the power/critical photons you need just by building the shells alone. Is the swarm portion just for the fun of it?

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