Grinding Batterys: Power Cells not returned ?

[nottrusted]

Hi there,

Opposite to what the WIKI says about grinding blocks

All Components used in the construction of a block will be returned by the Grinder.

it turns out that the Power Cells, that are a component of Batterys, are not returned. Instead they turn into Srap Metal when grinded.
Seems to be the only component that doesn't return properly.

So, question is: Is that by intent, or an oversight (bug) ?

I personaly can't see a reason why Power Cells should give a different result, then all other components

[Smokey]

Originally posted by Eskidead:

Batteries should just have NO power when built.
It's f**king lame that you can't get the power cells back when grinding down a battery.
Does a reactor come with uranium in it when built?

End of story.

you do know how a battery works don't you and why it comes with a partial charge, like reality batteries and not your fictional ones that are empty and devoid of charge

[TheBird]

Originally posted by RoofCat:

As far as I remember, Power cells from batteries have never been recoverable. That's by intent.
But you can recover them from some other parts using them - intentionally or not.

The power cells were recoverable until patch 01.105, that's when they made newly built batteries start with a charge so they made the power cells turn into scrap metal to balance it out.

That was quite a while ago, October of 2015.

[callme-jk]

gz - you found a years old feature... ;)

[mid endian]

There is a mod available that will allow you to recover all the power cells, and start with zero energy. What sources of solar and wind available, I prefer this method myself.

[ShadedMJ]

Originally posted by RoofCat:

As far as I remember, Power cells from batteries have never been recoverable. That's by intent.
But you can recover them from some other parts using them - intentionally or not.

I disagree.
At one point you could get the power cells back. What players did was build up a battery and started with the basic 30% or whatever charge. The battery was then used to where its power was gone. The player then grinded the battery and welded it back, and now it would have that 30% charge again. Unlimited power.....

Yeah, batteries should start with zero charge, but then players would complain that they put a "new battery" in their ship and now have to wait for it to charge.

[TheBird]

Originally posted by ShadedMJ:

Yeah, batteries should start with zero charge, but then players would complain that they put a "new battery" in their ship and now have to wait for it to charge.

I think it is better for them to have a little charge when built. It lets you connect a battery power only ship up to a base or something to charge without having to build reactors or solar panels on the ship to power the engines first.

[Slye_Fox]

Originally posted by ShadedMJ:

Yeah, batteries should start with zero charge, but then players would complain that they put a "new battery" in their ship and now have to wait for it to charge.

That's how they worked when first implemented.

Then they made them start with a charge and not give cells back (at the same time).

[hi5kba]

It’s quite fair actually that you only get scrap metal back.

If you wanna be a stickler. Make sure the battery sits on top of a merge block and separated from other blocks by at least 1 steel block.

Then on moving day so long as the battery has a little charge decouple the merge block and transport via landing gear to new location.

Problem solved

[Mr B.]

Part of the issue was when people are building things which need power to start.

Example, a small ship or buggy. They might not always be on a merge block, and one of the main problems was uranium powered ships couldn't be powered up - issues with the reactor/s not having an accessible port.

Which imo is sensible, I'd prefer to have a layer of armour between it and bullets or bumps.

The only other option was to have another reactor somewhere in the outside, accessible to the engineer to out uranium in to power up the convayors system, to get uranium into the proper reactor/s.

Now, especially with the introduction of the smaller battery, this isn't needed.

There are various other scenarios which it helps too.

[ShadedMJ]

Originally posted by Mr B.:

... They might not always be on a merge block, and one of the main problems was uranium powered ships couldn't be powered up - issues with the reactor/s not having an accessible port. .... There are various other scenarios which it helps too.

Just to add a little : Not having accessible ports is a ship design issue that is where the engineering part of Space Engineers comes up.

I guess an alternative would be putting solar panels on to charge batteries, but that's its own engineering task.

[Mr B.]

Originally posted by ShadedMJ:

Just to add a little : Not having accessible ports is a ship design issue that is where the engineering part of Space Engineers comes up.

Nope, that's a flaw of SE, not ship design. You shouldn't have to have your most vital component so exposed in order just to power it up after building to add fuel.

To clarify, having accessible ports isn't enough, since convayors/tubes etc do not work unless the grid is powered. To start a reactor, you have to put fuel directly into it.

Before batteries started with charge, the only option was to have small reactors facing out. And on small grids, this annoyingly meant they were not going to be connected to the convayors - since small grid reactors only have one port.

Having a battery give a bit of charge so at the very least the convayor network is functional is a good idea imo. I plan to redo my small grid ships to swap out the external small reactor to a backup battery.

Originally posted by ShadedMJ:

I guess an alternative would be putting solar panels on to charge batteries, but that's its own engineering task.

I've long asked for some smaller panel sizes for small grid - those are just too big. The reduced output wouldn't matter, as long as you had enough to power convayors which use very little.

[Psojed]

Originally posted by Mr B.:

Nope, that's a flaw of SE, not ship design. You shouldn't have to have your most vital component so exposed in order just to power it up after building to add fuel.

Nope, it's the engineer's oversight. If your design doesn't include even a single battery, then you're supposed to power up your reactor right after you build it.

[Mr B.]

Originally posted by Psojed:

Originally posted by Mr B.:

Nope, that's a flaw of SE, not ship design. You shouldn't have to have your most vital component so exposed in order just to power it up after building to add fuel.

Nope, it's the engineer's oversight. If your design doesn't include even a single battery, then you're supposed to power up your reactor right after you build it.

I think you missed the earlier point in the conversation.

I was explaining why the batteries now come with charge as they didn't previously.

[-_Tyger_-]

The wiki explicitly states "...placing all Components from the block into the player's inventory. ... All Components used in the construction of a block will be returned by the Grinder."

This should be updated, if anyone wants to. I haven't created an account yet.

The first time I tried to move my base and ground down my Survival Kit, I didn't think it retuned the Medical Comp. When I got to the new location I was screwed because I didn't have the materials to make the Kit so I had to start over. However, I just tested this and all 3 Medical Comp. were returned from 3 different Survival Kits I ground down, so maybe my inventory was full the first time.

[Solid Snack]

Wouldn't it be better to simply have the power cell return = the total power left in the battery? So if it takes 100 power cells (I know this isn't the exact number but just more for the hypothetical example) to build, and has 30% power remaining when it's being ground down, it will only return 30 power cells. Meaning that you can't build + grind since you start off with 25%, but if you find a base somewhere you can 'salvage' those batteries for whatever power they have left etc. ?