Why on earth does silent running consume power?

[David Davidson]

Everything on the Cyclops except the engines drain power at an almost absurd rate, shields I can understand, sonar eats up far too much power but the one to really confuse me was silent running.

I mean, it's called silent running. Internal lights are set to red and external lighting is disabled.
How does this consume power at a constant rate, even when the engine is off?

[toinkertoy]

Because they needed a “cost” for being protected! Just a game dynamic is all! The still being on while engine is off part I can assume is a foul up mistake!

[David Davidson]

Originally posted by toinkertoy:

Because they needed a “cost” for being protected! Just a game dynamic is all! The still being on while engine is off part I can assume is a foul up mistake!

They could make it like real submarine silent running where you are reduced to a walking pace, you can't use items such as fabricators and lockers can't be opened due to the noise.

Hopefully they remake a new large (possibly larger) sub for the DLC and a small sub that bridges between seamoth and Cyclops in terms of size and features.
The large one would be essentially a mobile base with a docking bay for the smaller sub and a vehicle. The smaller one would be a silent exploration vehicle powered by something quiet, like Stirling engines (already used on one super stealthy sub IIRC which managed to sink a US carrier (the engines were too quiet and ran longer than batteries) during the 2004 NATO war games) and water jet propulsion rather than antiquated screw propellers.
Having a sub that takes 6 power cells and chews through them is a bit silly. Yes there are the ion cells now but still, they should have used something other than power cells for it.

Or allowed us to run it on reactor rods.

[Pembroke]

Originally posted by Schlomo Shekelshoastein:

They could make it like real submarine silent running where you are reduced to a walking pace,

And that works, too. If you choose the slowest speed you make way less noise and attract less predators.

If the silent mode didn't cost anything you'd keep it always on. The intended purpose is that you only use it for short periods and only when there's real need. Therefore, there has to be a mechanism that makes you not want to use it unless you must. Making it cost lots of energy achieves exactly that so I'd say "works as intended".

If it weren't an energy cost then it would be something else that would also reduce your want to use it to minimum. Because of this need to limit your use of it, there can be no solution that would allow you to use it more frequently. You can "pick your poison", that is, the game-lore-explanation why it is so, but it will be there because it must.

A tip: Drive at slow speed and turn your engines off every time before you exit the pilot seat. Even the standard cells will give you many kilometers worth of range. There's no hurry in this game. Take your time.

BTW internal lights don't consume power but the external lights do. So, no need to walk in the dark inside your sub. The external lights are usually more trouble than worth as they don't light up much but attract predators like crazy so might as well leave them off.

[miklkit]

Besides, it's always fun to read about someone's first trip out in a cyclops. They go out and meet something big then run the batteries down so they have to abandon ship and swim back to base.
Yes I did it too.

[piddlefoot]

Well it cost so much and took so long Im to scarred to take my cyslops into deep water to much, its my new mobile base, I like how I can build on it and dock my cylon raider sub to it, very cool indeed.