Large reactor on the ship - "low fuel" message

[expy777]

Good day,
When I turn on the large reactor to quickly recharge ship batteries (jump drives use a lot of energy), the energy gauge on HUD is showing e.g. "6 min". Checking in control panel it is the time until 300 MW from reactor will fully recharge batteries.
But if I start maneuvers on ion thrusters, it says "warning: low ship fuel". Don't quite understand what it's trying to tell me with this warning. How could it be low on fuel having batteries charged 2/3 full AND 300 MW coming from reactor?

[Rox]

Battery charge is stored energy, not fuel - the fuel warning only applies to uranium in reactors in this case.

[Dan2D3D]

Hi, that means you have power problems and hard to pinpoint when different power sources are used.
+
I think we can disable that warning in game options.


_______

ME :
I never use Batteries on my Nuclear ships, Uranium can give years of power and give the best ship concepts of the Game because they never need to be recharged and can be way more compact because Batteries take more space than one Reactor.

Keep in mind :

1 - Battery and Hydrogen :
= Minutes of power and must build Recharging stations and Gas stations here and there where it is needed.

2 - Reactor with Uranium :
= Years of power and never need to be recharged and that is part of why they give the best ship concepts of the game.
-> Just a bit of Uranium can give months of power on my Nuclear ships.

In my opinion
= Best to build Nuclear ships without any Batteries, I mean it's one or the other but never together.
+
My battery ships are Atmos and very very small that I use in the beginning when I start on Atmos planet and stop using once I am Rich able to build Nuclear ships that is the best upgrade we can do on ship.

[Dan2D3D]

I will add :

It's OK to use Batteries with Reactors if you really want but you will have power problems like not knowing what is going on when you see a message saying "low fuel".

[expy777]

Originally posted by Rox:

Battery charge is stored energy, not fuel - the fuel warning only applies to uranium in reactors in this case.

I have had similar warning on small mining ship for asteroids, with only batteries and ion thrusters, when batteries charge was low indeed.

[Dan2D3D]

+ You should turn OFF the Reactor if your ship is made to run Batteries, and setup Event Controller to turn ON the Reactor when Battery is low and turn OFF the Reactor when at 100% Battery charged.

Edit
Tho I still think it's not a good setup for a ship you may have found a good Engineer solution to use both so Battery + Reactor on a ship.

[Rox]

Originally posted by Dan2D3D:

... I still think it's not a good setup ...

I disagree ;) If the ship has jump drives, batteries are a good way to provide the energy at a fast rate for recharging them, and in other configurations where you may need a lot of power for only limited time, like supplying large ion thrusters for rapid acceleration.

[Rox]

Originally posted by expy777:

... I have had similar warning ...

Yes, my answer was specific to the situation in the original question - the low battery warning logic is really simplified and so it's not always a reliable warning :)

[Dan2D3D]

Originally posted by Rox:

Originally posted by Dan2D3D:

... I still think it's not a good setup ...

I disagree ;) If the ship has jump drives, batteries are a good way to provide the energy at a fast rate for recharging them, and in other configurations where you may need a lot of power for only limited time, like supplying large ion thrusters for rapid acceleration.

Oh! I did not noticed/tested that setup, because I focused on Nuclear ships without Battery, I will give it a try at recharging Jump Drives faster so Thanks for sharing.

[Ronin Planetary Industries]

Originally posted by expy777:

Good day,
When I turn on the large reactor to quickly recharge ship batteries (jump drives use a lot of energy), the energy gauge on HUD is showing e.g. "6 min". Checking in control panel it is the time until 300 MW from reactor will fully recharge batteries.
But if I start maneuvers on ion thrusters, it says "warning: low ship fuel". Don't quite understand what it's trying to tell me with this warning. How could it be low on fuel having batteries charged 2/3 full AND 300 MW coming from reactor?

The warning is based on your instantaneous draw of energy from the reactor vs the uranium IN the reactor. If you run the reactor at that RATE continuously, you will be out of uranium fuel very shortly.

Recharging batteries and jump drives will drain lots of uranium. Using thrusters will also drain lots of uranium.

Stock more uranium in your reactor to get rid of the warning.

[Oparator Stalker]

I use Two batts per large reactor. I never get that warning unless reactor fuel is really low. Then again, for each large reactor has 1 small storage container, which is full. It is like you have this car, in which you got batteries, a engine, and a fuel tank. This is the direction I choose to fallow. The batteries do not drain, the engine runs the ship, If the reactors have to pull more power, the batteries, like back up, help it. And when it gets low on Uran, it will pull what it needs from the tank. And this has worked fine.

[expy777]

Originally posted by Ronin Planetary Industries (RPI):

The warning is based on your instantaneous draw of energy from the reactor vs the uranium IN the reactor. If you run the reactor at that RATE continuously, you will be out of uranium fuel very shortly.

Recharging batteries and jump drives will drain lots of uranium. Using thrusters will also drain lots of uranium.

Stock more uranium in your reactor to get rid of the warning.

Well it could be because of that indeed. Charging 15 batteries x 12 MW = 180 MW power consumption, plus 32 MW * 2 for jump drives :) and I don't put much uranium to reactor.

In any case, I have finished with SE yesterday. Now started to replay one of open world rpg, then Satisfactory 1.0 in Sep, then Baldur’s Gate 3 and Starfield.

GG

[Dan2D3D]

I can tell there is always a solution to find in this game but it may not be what we wanted to do and you may find a very good Engineer solution using all available power sources on your ship.

+
And again :
-> I don't use Batteries with Reactor because it's not needed and adds the trouble to recharge the Batteries that lowers to total power while the Reactors are busy recharging the Batteries, I prefer to withdraw that "Problem" since Uranium can keep my ship powered for years.
=
Less total mass / Less blocks used = less thrusters and Gyros needed.


EDIT
I only recharge Tiny Battery ships using Wind Turbines on Atmos planets and I keep Uranium for my best ships.