Cyclops useless until you can make 6 Ion Power Cells?

[Seph64]

I decided to make the Cyclops before making a Prawn and I am definitely regretting that choice because by golly this thing eats up so much power that it's not even funny. I think I was using it for like 5 minutes when I noticed it went down from 100% to like 67% power. I then replaced two of them with fresh power cells and went on my way.. Then I noticed it was down to 43% power after letting it sit idle when I was searching a wreck.

Good freaking god, how is this acceptable? It ran out of power completely when I returned to my base. And now I have to power up about 8 cells.

Oh, and that's WITH the Power Efficiency module. I shudder at the thought about how fast the power drain would be without it.

[Iraneth The Goat]

did you leave stuff like the sonar and sheild on? how about lights? what speed were you driving it at?

[Seph64]

I don't even have my shield I think. Lights were dimmed for silent running.

[Kleadron]

silent running takes power you know

[Tim Dungeon]

silent running kills power

[Mini]

Cyclops power conservation guide:
Never use silent running unless under the threat of a reaper or ghost leviathan spotting you, and keep her in slow so that it doesn't amplify the power strain too much.

When using Sonar pings, manually ping the system by turning it on and off. The sonar shreds your battery if you leave it on, up to 10% every 20-30 seconds if running fast.

As for speed, never use flank speed except for emergencies, (as the cyclops calls it, emergency speed) try to keep the cyclops in slow at all times. The power lost vs the speed gained is dramatically bad. Just put her in slow at all times if you can manage it.

And that's it. I like to keep a spare set of six power cells in my lockers for emergency purposes, which are easily attained by visiting the Aurora. The wreckage around the ship is filled with the things!

[Seph64]

Alright, thanks. Just kinda wish that they kept the old Cyclops.

[Zemecon]

One more thing: In case this doesn't happen anyway, remember to turn your engines off manually when exiting your Cyclops and leave them off unless you are going to take your Cyclops somewhere. Internal modules like fabricators can still work with the engine off.

[celr]

Some sort of power generation for Cyclops might be in order, perhaps solar, or nuclear like real subs.

[Zemecon]

Solar power would be useful. Nuclear, not so much. Putting aside the fact that the Cyclops is not a military submarine (it is a cheaply-made emergency survival sub so what do you expect?), it would become too much of a hassle to constantly be making reactor rods all of the time (anyone else remember having to look for copper to make batteries prior to the Power Nap update?), and if the Cyclops was ever destroyed with a nuclear reactor on it then [realistically] it should start leaking radiation and we would need to repair the leaks with our radiation suit in order to salvage it. If it didn't do that then a large chunk of the game's believability and immersion would be taken away.

EDIT: Expanded third sentence.

[Nanners]

i bring 18 power cells in storage just in case...(though now i have ion cells)...but it's still the 3x formula

[TheGraveDigger]

What ye expect

ITS A GIANT FREEKING SUB POWERED BY ONLY 6 MINISCULE POWER CELLS

[celr]

Originally posted by Salinité:

Solar power would be useful. Nuclear, not so much. Putting aside the fact that the Cyclops is not a military submarine (it is a cheaply-made emergency survival sub so what do you expect?), it would become too much of a hassle to constantly be making reactor rods all of the time (anyone else remember having to look for copper to make batteries prior to the Power Nap update?), and if the Cyclops was ever destroyed with a nuclear reactor on it then [realistically] it should start leaking radiation and we would need to repair the leaks with our radiation suit in order to salvage it. If it didn't do that then a large chunk of the game's believability and immersion would be taken away.

EDIT: Expanded third sentence.

The game's believabiltiy and immersion do not depend on realism. What realism is there in having a planet gyrating in the sky like a fragment of angry candy? Or a diver ascend from 500 metres in eight seconds and not get the bends?

[Zemecon]

Originally posted by celr:

Originally posted by Salinité:

Solar power would be useful. Nuclear, not so much. Putting aside the fact that the Cyclops is not a military submarine (it is a cheaply-made emergency survival sub so what do you expect?), it would become too much of a hassle to constantly be making reactor rods all of the time (anyone else remember having to look for copper to make batteries prior to the Power Nap update?), and if the Cyclops was ever destroyed with a nuclear reactor on it then [realistically] it should start leaking radiation and we would need to repair the leaks with our radiation suit in order to salvage it. If it didn't do that then a large chunk of the game's believability and immersion would be taken away.

EDIT: Expanded third sentence.

The game's believabiltiy and immersion do not depend on realism.

They do if realism is how people make sense of the game and take it seriously enough to immerse themselves in it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspension_of_disbelief

I like my games to atleast make some amount of sense based on what I know can happen in real life. The more speculative material is iffish (lack of a better word).

Originally posted by celr:

What realism is there in having a planet gyrating in the sky like a fragment of angry candy?

The large red planet's graphics have not been finished yet. Wait until it is fully completed before you judge how realistic it is.

Originally posted by celr:

Or a diver ascend from 500 metres in eight seconds and not get the bends?

That feature is technically already in the game - you can switch Nitrogen on and off with the console - and should be fully implemented before Subnautica's official release.

[Moose]

It works fine. Go to a location and shut down the sub and silent running. Build a temp room like a scanner room and charge your cells while you take the seamoth and prawn suit to scavange. You shouldn't be using the cyclops like a seamoth, it's a "mobile base" not a seaglide.