em-rail ejector explanation, what does it do exactly

[battl3hamm3r]

I feel like I hit a wall when I unlocked this tech because I have no idea what it does exactly, I feel like the in-game explanations dont really say much

So the basic principal is that I need to launch continuous solar sails to surround the star to harness its energy, which is part of the main quest ?

And the guns have to be pointed at the star in my solar system ?

Thanks for the help

[cswiger]

You need to launch solar sails via the EM Rail Ejectors, yes. They fire when they have ammo, power, and a line of sight to their assigned orbit they are sending the solar sails to.

Build a ring of these EM railguns around each pole, assign them to orbits, and let them do their thing. Over the course of a year as the seasons change, some will fire and some will be blocked for a while, but it'll all average out over time.

[Bobucles]

The rail ejector is not a weapon. It builds the dyson swarm, using "solar sails" as ammo. The dyson swarm is a bunch of free floating solar panels that create energy for your ray receivers. They can be used as is, but will slowly decay and be destroyed.

Click the big dyson sphere button on the bottom left. A swarm orbit is created by default, but you can customize up to 20 orbits. Build the rail ejector, select an orbit, feed it sails, and cross your fingers. If the orbit is in range it'll start shooting right away.

You will have to experiment with orbits and rail ejector locations to find good setups for the rails to stay active. In general a standard planet has pretty good rail ejector locations wrapping all the way around the high latitudes, your "canada" regions and the like. These tend to be poor factory locations because of the constantly changing grid, so it's a good synergy.

Proliferated solar sails will increase the fire rate of an ejector, giving you more launches per minute.

[josmith7]

I will point out that launching solar sails are completely optional -- it's entirely possible to beat the game without every launching one (there's actually an achievement for doing that). And using them for electrical power is even more optional.

To produce white science (and so research "Mission Complete!") you'll need critical photons. Those can only be generated from a Dyson Swarm (the free flying solar sails) or a Dyson Sphere (a structure made from small rockets; which optionally also incorporates solar sails preeminently to fill in between its structure).

You use ray receivers to capture the power (or critical photons) from the Dyson swarm/sphere. If you don't have a Dyson swarm/sphere ray receivers won't do anything. If you have a Dyson swarm/sphere without ray receivers then it won't do anything (other than annoying Dark Fog space hives). You need both to get power and/or critical photons

[battl3hamm3r]

So its better if I use the solar sails after i have Dyson sphere so the sails do not decay ? Is a Dyson sphere later in the tech tree ?

thanks

[teron]

Originally posted by battl3hamm3r:

So its better if I use the solar sails after i have Dyson sphere so the sails do not decay ? Is a Dyson sphere later in the tech tree ?

thanks

Really it depends. If you are trying to do one of the speed run achievement, or do a quick setup to get power/antimatter you could launch solar sails.
Another case to use sails could be to make a dark fog space hive launch attacks, since a Dyson sphere/swarm generates aggro on them. This could be useful if you are trying to attrition the space hive after cutting off all their matter flows from planets.

Initially sails last for 1.5 hours, it can be upgrades to last 2.5 hours. Though if you start launching rockets to build the frame, then the sails can be consumed for the shell.

[pemmons1]

I've been on the lookout for a long time for advice as to where on a planet to locate rail ejectors. It doesn't seem to matter much. Therefore, I reserve polar areas for ray receivers and place a row or two of rail ejectors somewhere else-- anywhere, really. I have a little blueprint for four rail ejectors, one each for four orbits.

[josmith7]

Originally posted by battl3hamm3r:

So its better if I use the solar sails after i have Dyson sphere so the sails do not decay ? Is a Dyson sphere later in the tech tree ?

thanks

Dyson Spheres are quite a bit later on the tech tree.
You unlock the ability to build and launch solar sails with 'Solar Sail Orbit System', and the ability to receive power from them with 'Ray Receiver' -- both of which only requires you to be up to Red science.

You unlock the ability to start making a Dyson Sphere (using small rockets) with 'Vertical Launching Silo' which requires you to be all the way up to Purple science. (And if you want a spherical sphere you need to research multiple levels of 'Dyson Sphere Stress System' which requires a step further, Green science)

[Bobucles]

Originally posted by battl3hamm3r:

So its better if I use the solar sails after i have Dyson sphere so the sails do not decay ? Is a Dyson sphere later in the tech tree ?

thanks

Sails are cheap, super cheap, insanely cheap even. Each sail has a base value somewhere around 200MJ if left to their own devices. They're worth using as early as possible, at least to learn how the dyson build system works.
The permanent sphere shows up much later and there are far more steps involved. It also takes much longer to pay off, for example the carrier rockets cost 4 deuterium fuel cells a piece. That's 2.4GJ of fuel investment for something that might make 50-200kW of power on its own.

[Shiroe]

Originally posted by Bobucles:

Originally posted by battl3hamm3r:

So its better if I use the solar sails after i have Dyson sphere so the sails do not decay ? Is a Dyson sphere later in the tech tree ?

thanks

Sails are cheap, super cheap, insanely cheap even. Each sail has a base value somewhere around 200MJ if left to their own devices. They're worth using as early as possible, at least to learn how the dyson build system works.
The permanent sphere shows up much later and there are far more steps involved. It also takes much longer to pay off, for example the carrier rockets cost 4 deuterium fuel cells a piece. That's 2.4GJ of fuel investment for something that might make 50-200kW of power on its own.

I guess it's the "get a loan to buy that item right now" vs "save up, buy it later without needing a loan" mentality... ;) (get the power now with dead solar sails interest or get the power later without such interest)

I stopped launching sails into a swarm once I noticed they died after a certain time, which I myself saw as "wasting resources" compared to most other "permanent" resource uses.

[Bobucles]

"wasting resources"

The mid tier progression is filled with fuel sources that all have a resource cost associated with them. Disliking sails for that reason alone? That's not a real reason. Any mid tier base is going to be spending resources on its fuel supply. Swarm power is fairly efficient as a fuel supply.

Sails do have a real problem, but it has nothing to do with them costing resources. The issue is they have a disastrous loss of efficiency, simply by being part of a greater power grid.

For example let's make a simple power grid. You set up a single 6mw dish to cover average factory demand, and add a single 15MW fusion plant to cover various surges in grid demand. There are plenty of things in the game that require temporary extra power (guns, logistics, shields, charging your mech, factory chunks turning on/off), so getting a perfect 1:1 power grid is nearly impossible. You need the extra emergency power supply. Proliferators do not tolerate having a grid brownout.

So. The swarm loses maybe 10% to fog, then 30% to dish tech. And then. It loses 70% of swarm power to the grid itself. Why? Because the fusion plant exists. The dishes take the 6MW power. The 6MW is tapped from the swarm. And then. The fusion plant takes the load. The swarm power goes completely to waste.

Your factory is paying a constant upkeep of resources on sails, and the sails are not providing power. The power is going in the trash. That is a legitimate problem.

Should players be tasked with building massive base design workarounds just to make their red tier energy source work? Probably not. Would players rather skip the tech entirely and stick to energy sources that just work? That's a tragedy.

[Shiroe]

The same applies to wind turbines and solar panels: fuel power plants force them to run below optimal. [1] (though for the latter that accidentally has a real world analog at least here in Europe: on a sunny day lots of rooftop solar power being pushed onto the 230V grid, which isn't dimensioned for that -> voltage rises to over 253V -> rooftop solar DC-AC converters disconnect from the grid until it drops below 253V again. (Best case the house itself is still powered from the rooftop solar at that moment, worst case it isn't and the house's electricity is 100% from grid at that moment.)



[1] energy exchangers are even worse: 400MW of gas giant hydrogen burners, wind turbines and solar panels are pushed to idle on my factory planet by them...

So what players would expect:
- that sources such as wind, solar and ray-receivers would take priority at runnning at 100% (or that for the latter if running below 100% it would distribute to the other ray-receivers instead of just wasting it.)

What actually happens:
- energy exchangers take priority over all other sources
- all other electricity sources all run at the exact same percentage of their max, which is below 100% if demand is lower than that.
(well, tchnically ground-placed accumulators has lower priority than all those others)

[Bobucles]

Solar and wind power don't have upkeep. If the energy gets wasted it's a shame, but it's not really any harm. They get obsoleted eventually, so even though the problem remains it stops being important.
Sail swarms cost upkeep. When energy is wasted, it causes tangible harm in lost resources. You're kinda expected to be using this power from red tier to endgame, so the problem persists all game.

[pemmons1]

I, too, have never made a Dyson swarm; and if I did, it would produce photons for research, not power. Many of my planets are self-sufficient for power merely from basic "passive" sources (the three rings of wind turbines that distribute power around the planet, those connecting to miners and other machines, and geothermal plants on lava planets and captured Dark Fog base cores), with some power left over to fill accumulators to help out those that are not. Untold thousands of full accumulators are stored in ISLs all over the place and the cache is still increasing.

A set of charging and discharging energy exchangers can ensure that all power is harnessed AND cover either temporary or permanent deficit situations. It is not difficult to build-- often one of the first things I place on a newly settled planet. It is expansible as needs or opportunities grow. Proliferating accumulators at Mk3 upon their production doubles their transfer rate, making an energy exchanger discharging 108mw not far short of the output of an artificial star (if the Wiki weren't down at the moment, I could provide the exact figures). I could easily use artificial stars by now supplied with the ultimate yellow fuel rods, but just do not yet need them (or any other fuel-burning source). An accumulator, admittedly, is not a particularly dense power storage medium. Nevertheless, once a vessel carries 1000-2000 items, the cost of a few warpers is trivial. That's the way I'll go as long as possible.