Sooo... How About a Craftable Alternator?

[Macmanius]

I don't know if this would reduce the difficulty of the game too much, or interfere too much with battery management, but the level of battery drain does start to get annoying after a while. I headcanon the drain by telling myself that my car's alternator is just busted, but come on: alternators have been standard on every automobile since the '60s. It could even have, I dunno, a really slow recharge time, or only offer enough power for one or two standard features, like the lights and/or the radio. It just kind of seems... unrealistic to lack even a crappy alternator in a late-70's/early-'80s station wagon.

EDIT (23 hours later): After reading the below posts arguing that "realism" isn't at all the point (and that's true, it's not), I'm adding this note to address my actual concern: chiefly, that standard-feature drainage factors shouldn't affect mid- to late-game utility choices or power-generating decisions, and that a low-voltage static charging utility or part should be added to give players the option of negating said drain while being balanced out with tradeoff such as spare battery capacity or faster part degradation. The "real cars have alternators" stuff was an attempt to be clever that clearly backfired and ended up muddling my actual reasons for the suggestion.

[DR_awsomo's]

yes
1 they are real
2 they will not charge all but will charge a small amount for small things lights radio extra.
3 cop cars and other rigs have larger ones as well for the extras but it will drink more fuel parasitic loss and all.
it will let players play the game with the radio on and the internal light if they wish without it being a large drain unless you leave them on and the motor off it will still eat the power and the alternator drains engine power will need fixing to if broke and will get wet.

[ShockedHearts]

Opprinnelig skrevet av DR_awsomo's:

yes
1 they are real
2 they will not charge all but will charge a small amount for small things lights radio extra.
3 cop cars and other rigs have larger ones as well for the extras but it will drink more fuel parasitic loss and all.
it will let players play the game with the radio on and the internal light if they wish without it being a large drain unless you leave them on and the motor off it will still eat the power and the alternator drains engine power will need fixing to if broke and will get wet.
:summer2019vehicletortoise:

radio window wipers and dome light do not consume battery power.

at all.

the only things that do are the headlights and abilities.

[Macmanius]

Opprinnelig skrevet av ShockedHearts:

Opprinnelig skrevet av DR_awsomo's:

yes
1 they are real
2 they will not charge all but will charge a small amount for small things lights radio extra.
3 cop cars and other rigs have larger ones as well for the extras but it will drink more fuel parasitic loss and all.
it will let players play the game with the radio on and the internal light if they wish without it being a large drain unless you leave them on and the motor off it will still eat the power and the alternator drains engine power will need fixing to if broke and will get wet.
:summer2019vehicletortoise:

radio window wipers and dome light do not consume battery power.

at all.

the only things that do are the headlights and abilities.

Well I'll be damned, you appear to be right. Just tested all three simultaneously for five minutes without generators attached, and I had no noticeable drain.

Huh. I could've sworn I'd seen them drain power with the headlights off. I mean, I really remembered the radio and domelight draining battery with no headlights running, more than once. I guess I was wrong.

[MadMxmOvrDrv]

Yeah, we're not expecting super powered, like just enough output to run main headlights and maybe 1 other low power item like a side or roof light without taking a mounting spot, or a radar with all lights off etc. and usable with AMP engine too, since I really want to like it, but gas is found everywhere and so so easy to use and even have the synthesizer so you can drive 7 zones without a problem using gas, maybe 2 seat tanks and 1 synthesizer/wind rest all open storage or shields etc... but AMP is too hard and too much to use unless we can get just a little more power, it's ok for 2 to 3 zones in but end game with mid to deep zone is pointless when you have to use all 4 sides, seats and even roof just to have enough power to reach deep zones and back without having enough slots for storage to even bring more loot back with you, I just feel you have to sacrifice way too much for the AMP engine and an alternator could make it much better and maybe to also be able use radar/shields along with AMP. And solar is completely pointless, water is good IF it rains, wind is meh with all 4 slots driving, you still lose way too much power fast and just to slow it down a little would be nice, since headlights or anything on will mean hundreds less meters of power range each few seconds of use, way more searching for charger parts to craft, lots more waiting for charging and maybe weather to change and way more packing in storage when gas doesn't need even 1/4th of the slots or storage space, so AMP needs just a little balancing and an alternator would be a perfect way to solve that, again not super powered, just enough to run main lights etc. at the very least and slow down the AMP drain slightly when off...

[Wish You Were Here BY PINK FLOYD]

Opprinnelig skrevet av ShockedHearts:

nah, tons of ways to keep battery power up, a single wind turbine is enough to keep the car battery even if you arent constantly using abilities.

and thats 1 of 4 slots that can be used for battery regen.

EDIT: the entire game is unrealistic.

my headcanon is that the car is an anomaly kitted with hightech gear that is constantly in use, therefore your outdated alternator isnt enough to charge anything.

I headcanon that the car's alternator is being used exclusively to power the ARC device, starter motor, and ignition coil for the engine (as well as a potential ECU for the later tier engines). Since the arc device is this crazy high tech sci-fi doodad, it plus the ignition coil and starter motor is probably the most it can take. It would be pretty bad design to run the ARC device, ignition coil, and starter motor off of the same battery that runs everything else, because if that battery were to run out, then the ARC device would be dead and the engine wouldn't start, leaving the driver stranded. So it's important that only ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY accessories are on this circuit, and a secondary isolated circuit runs all of the other accessories.

[Bane882266]

Everyone chill out remember you're driving a anomaly that defies the laws of physics and the alternator is the thing we're concerned about? We can break into headcannon but it's another plate to spin another resource to be handled.

It would be interesting if you could have a small medium or large fuelled generator so you could turn your full electric build into a hybrid. I could get behind that.

[Macmanius]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Bane882266:

Everyone chill out remember you're driving a anomaly that defies the laws of physics and the alternator is the thing we're concerned about? We can break into headcannon but it's another plate to spin another resource to be handled.

It would be interesting if you could have a small medium or large fuelled generator so you could turn your full electric build into a hybrid. I could get behind that.

That's a really interesting idea, actually: a fuel-powered electrical generator that operated sort of as an inverse to the Fuel Synthesizer, in that it would generate a low but constant amount of energy while burning a roughly equivalent amount of gas until the battery was fully charged, and then shut off until it was needed again. At the very least, it could address some of the resource balance issues some people have raised while also allowing for more frequent utility usage.

[Nahui Ollin]

The reason alternators dont work is explained in the log entry for diesel trucks and why all gas stations have no diesel.

Batteries drain for little to no reason, cars dont act right, and that meant ARDA needed to bring in tons of plasma generators and diesel trucks to make everything run because battery operated anything was out of the question.

The fact you have a working car with a working battery is a miracle itself.

[maeharaprojekt]

I would not say "No!" to a mod that provided a kludged alternator or LIM-voodoo trickle-charger device, one that required some Mid Zone. or several Outer Zone. visits in order to obtain sufficient Stable or Unstable Anchors to unlock.

I can also easily play without one and take my lumps.

There are Quirks and Junction conditions that can play merry-hell with the batteries and if you are spectacularly unlucky with RNGonious, prophet of Murphy, the 6th Chaos god, you can end up stopping frequently to use battery chargers or plasma ticklers to top up all your batteries.

It's an exciting situation to be in, one that I cannot recommend to even my worst enemy, but dual wind turbines and a hydro-gen slowed the rate of power loss enough that using the chargers and awkward cattle prods kept me running long to gate the eff out that Junction.

I have not experienced that particular combination of gremlins, predatory weather, and bad luck again, but it did make me even more wary of hidden Quirks and how fickle the Junctions can be.