This game desperately needs wireless power transfer

[Mr B.]

Make it more inefficient. Make it slow charging. But make it possible.

This whole connector business to charge kinda sucks. And I'd like to make ultra small light craft without having to put a huge 3x3x2 connector on there - which is only there for charging.

To me, this is a staple item in a sandbox game like this.

Please, no-one tell me to vote or create a post on their useless portal.

[Smokey]

You mean something like this:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=584639195

Not sure if it is still a functional mod as I've not tried it myself as of yet.

[mid endian]

It is functional, I use it in a multiplayer session. It may get buggy when you change the refinery speed to something excessive.

Works fine on defaults for Star system scenario.

[Mr B.]

Yeah, I know there's mods, but I only use vanilla. Mods are useless unless you run your own server. I like my blueprints to be able to be used by all.

I just feel this should really be something in the game.

[Buzzard]

With your blueprint, you can (and should) list any required mods on a build. There's tons of mod-builds on the workshop, and the better listings have a nice list on the side for easy acquisition.

[Lander1]

So don't use connectors. If all you want to do is charge then you could use a 1x small block rotor head on the drone to connect to a large or small grid rotor as the dock point.

If you need to supply items then use the advanced rotor instead.

[Mr B.]

Trouble is, using a mod makes it useless to most others even if listed. I ignore anything in the workshop with mods, tho I still appricaite them. I know many others are the same

I may try the rotor trick, but at the moment I can't see any way of undocking without going into control panel each time. I need to play with those options tho.

[Pembroke]

Wireless seems so non-space-engineer-style. Needs to be more mechanical...

How about having a hose or cable that could span a short distance and that could transfer electricity, hydrogen, and oxygen? That would allow you to fuel vehicles in a more satisfying way.

Technically, it could be a block similar to the connector block but instead of having to make them touch, they'd work in some set small radius. You'd then open the control panel for such a block and if there was another hose/cable block inside the radius (like 5m or 10m) you could click "connect" and the game would draw a hose/cable between these blocks and you'd have a conveyor connection that allows electricity, H2, and O2 to flow through.

[Mr B.]

Originally posted by Pembroke:

Wireless seems so non-space-engineer-style. Needs to be more mechanical...

How about having a hose or cable that could span a short distance and that could transfer electricity, hydrogen, and oxygen? That would allow you to fuel vehicles in a more satisfying way.

Technically, it could be a block similar to the connector block but instead of having to make them touch, they'd work in some set small radius. You'd then open the control panel for such a block and if there was another hose/cable block inside the radius (like 5m or 10m) you could click "connect" and the game would draw a hose/cable between these blocks and you'd have a conveyor connection that allows electricity, H2, and O2 to flow through.

Anything tbh, other than the huge connector blocks we have now. Ok, say for rockets and other large things, that's fine I get it. But power? Just makes things annoying, not challenging.

[Karmaterrorᵁᴷ]

We have charge pads irl now. So maybe a new type of armour block that uses power but charges anything locked to it with landing gears.

Could maybe have less armour value to make it usefull only in specific parts of your build :)

[Mr B.]

Originally posted by Lander1:

So don't use connectors. If all you want to do is charge then you could use a 1x small block rotor head on the drone to connect to a large or small grid rotor as the dock point.

If you need to supply items then use the advanced rotor instead.

This method doesn't work very well, as I suspected as it's a workaround. Not only do you have to get it dead on, but you have to get out the ship your in and interface with the large ship/station your docking with.

And as you can't put it in the menu bar, you have to dive into the controls to do it.

More critically, it's not something many others would do. As said before, I like my builds to be as compatible as possible.

I suppose there's other work arounds, like having a button panel by the docking rotors which attaches and detaches, but it needs something a lot smoother as part of the base game.

[Mr B.]

Originally posted by Karmaterrorᵁᴷ:

We have charge pads irl now. So maybe a new type of armour block that uses power but charges anything locked to it with landing gears.

Could maybe have less armour value to make it usefull only in specific parts of your build :)

Or that, I'm up for any easy solution. Obviously they might need rarer materials, and/or you lose energy in the transmission (as you do always, but wireless is especially bad). That would be such a useful addition, far more so than a hydrogen engine!

[Smokey]

You could construct your own type of landing gear with a merge block in for charging purposes.

Just spit balling ideas here..

[Mr B.]

Originally posted by Smokey:

You could construct your own type of landing gear with a merge block in for charging purposes.

Just spit balling ideas here..

Nah, by the time you make anything it's almost as big as the connector block. It's really needs to be build into the game, but I guess it's just one of a few things considered missing by some.

It's just annoying because batteries are the perfect thing for small hoppers/rovers/flyers but the charger port is huge!!

[Botji]

Originally posted by Mr B.:

Originally posted by Lander1:

So don't use connectors. If all you want to do is charge then you could use a 1x small block rotor head on the drone to connect to a large or small grid rotor as the dock point.

If you need to supply items then use the advanced rotor instead.

This method doesn't work very well, as I suspected as it's a workaround. Not only do you have to get it dead on, but you have to get out the ship your in and interface with the large ship/station your docking with.

And as you can't put it in the menu bar, you have to dive into the controls to do it.

More critically, it's not something many others would do. As said before, I like my builds to be as compatible as possible.

I suppose there's other work arounds, like having a button panel by the docking rotors which attaches and detaches, but it needs something a lot smoother as part of the base game.

I sometimes do this on my short range hydrogen fighters, it uses the adv rotor head ofc for the conveyor connection.

All you need to do is put a button panel next to the dock so you park your ship in the right spot, get out, press the button to attach the head to the rotor aaaaand.. done. Put a 2nd button for disconnecting the rotor head when you want to fly with it.

Its like a +5 second deal compared to just ramming two normal connectors against each other.

[Mr B.]

Yeah, I've tried it, but frankly it's rubbish. It's ok for decent pilots and a manoverable ship, but it's not great, and still quite faffy. Plus, aforementioned issues in that it won't be compatible with most people - they will have connectors, but not a rotor attachment layout.

I'm confused by your use though - an advanced rotor head is almost as big as a connector and needs a large connector on to it. Energy I get, that can be done through a single one.