Why all the hate for nuclear reactors?

[Corvus]

I'm coming at this from the prospective of someone who's beaten this game several times over in many different ways.

So the other day I was moving my cyclops into the giant tree cove to set up a base, but realized that I forgot to stock up on magnetite before going down. So I took inventory of what I did have, and realized that I had enough to make a nuclear reactor, which at that point I had never used before because I always heard that it wasn't worth it. Went ahead and built it, mined up the uraninite that's all over the cove, fired it up and was shocked to see how much power it generated and how fast it did it.

10 hours of gameplay later (Was really taking my time for fun) and I still haven't depleted those reactor rods. It doesn't expend any energy from the rod if nothing is actively running (Water filter, moonpool charger, etc) and it has so much charge per rod that I can't see how I would ever run them dry unless I was trying to run an entire room of water filters for kicks and giggles. It's to the point where I don't see any reason to use anything else, despite the fact that thermal energy is about as hands off as it gets.

Maybe it's because it comes too late? Thermal generators are pretty late too though.

[PrimeSonic]

My guess is, it has something to do with the fragments for the Nuclear Reactor being out in the dunes where many people dare not go.

Otherwise, nuclear power is excellent and simply without limits.

[Corvus]

Originally posted by Alexstratos:

My guess is, it has something to do with the fragments for the Nuclear Reactor being out in the dunes where many people dare not go.

Otherwise, nuclear power is excellent and simply without limits.

Is that the only place its located?

Though you're right, that's where I ended up getting it. Then again I also have the benefit of multiple playthroughs under my belt, so I know exactly where the large wrecks in the dunes and the mountains are and how to completely avoid the reapers near them.

[Suzaku]

I've been surprised that thermal is so popular. Sure, it's limitless, but the generation is mediocre and the places it can function are extremely limited outside of the lower zones. I can easily survive using only solar panels for the first few hours, and then upgrading straight to nuclear for end-game if I even bother (my latest run was under 9 hours, surviving entirely on 4 solar panels).

Even a single nuclear rod is like 20+ hours of energy, you can have 4 of them in a reactor at a time, and they're easy as hell to make.

[kwong20287]

A nuclear reactor is great for a secondary base....just dont place spotlights or floodlights around, those suck up so much power. Another this is a uranium source too, you either have to be near some or grab as much as you can and haul it back which could take many prawn or seamoth trips (maybe not cyclops..). Uranium is pretty much in the dangerous areas too except for the cove tree. I dont think it works for a main base as you're going to expend alot of power there.

[Corvus]

Originally posted by Suzaku:

I've been surprised that thermal is so popular. Sure, it's limitless, but the generation is mediocre and the places it can function are extremely limited outside of the lower zones. I can easily survive using only solar panels for the first few hours, and then upgrading straight to nuclear for end-game if I even bother (my latest run was under 9 hours, surviving entirely on 4 solar panels).

Even a single nuclear rod is like 20+ hours of energy, you can have 4 of them in a reactor at a time, and they're easy as hell to make.

I usually start with a single solar panel and biogenerators, but that's only 'cause I like to make my first outpost in the grassy plains right above the jellyshroom cave (Next to the lifepod). Lots of reginald.

But I was surprised how easy it was to make. With the thermal generator requiring aerogel and magnetite, the nuclear generator was absolutely nothing. And the giant tree cove has an outrageous amount of uraninite.

[Amanoob105]

Originally posted by Alexstratos:

My guess is, it has something to do with the fragments for the Nuclear Reactor being out in the dunes where many people dare not go.

Otherwise, nuclear power is excellent and simply without limits.

That's not the only place it can be found, simply one of the places it is likely to spawn.

Though to that point it is true that it's areas like that which are far away from the starting point and at depths that make it harder to get quickly.
So by the time you do, you'll already likely have more than enough power from the options you found before you come across it.

[SmooshieBanana]

I personally don't like it because unless I'm making a megabase, it's not really needed. It says even in its own description that it is used in bases with 20 or more people, and since you are alone, there isn't really a need.

[Vanessa]

It's annoying to build and annoying to keep fueled. It's just kind of overkill. A bioreactor is very easy to make and very easy to fuel.

[Suzaku]

Originally posted by Vanessa:

It's annoying to build and annoying to keep fueled. It's just kind of overkill. A bioreactor is very easy to make and very easy to fuel.

I tried the bioreactor and found it horribly underwhelming. Even with a mod to dump extra fish from a containment unit into it (meaning 0 upkeep for me), the power generation was so slow that I was frequently met with "insufficient power" messages constantly if I tried to fabricate even a handful if things.

Are there special fish that bump up the energy production, or is this thing just vastly underpowered?

[DieselCat]

I built a nuclear reactor in my main base (fairly large) in the shallows with 2 fuel rods and it gave me a ton of power, but I became annoyed with it because it just made too much noise for my liking.

I realized that once the fuel rods are installed, they can't be removed to be able to shut it down until the are completely empty and they seemed to last forever.....

So I deconstructed the entire reactor and continued to use the solar panels and Bio-reactor and Thermal-reactors for this base, which I've never had any problems with lack of power.

The Nuclear power works great and lasts a very long time before having to replace the fuel rods....but it also depends on how large of a base one has and how much power it's going to draw.

All in all...I've never had an issue with any of my bases losing power using all the different types of power sources.

[Vanessa]

Originally posted by Suzaku:

Originally posted by Vanessa:

It's annoying to build and annoying to keep fueled. It's just kind of overkill. A bioreactor is very easy to make and very easy to fuel.

I tried the bioreactor and found it horribly underwhelming. Even with a mod to dump extra fish from a containment unit into it (meaning 0 upkeep for me), the power generation was so slow that I was frequently met with "insufficient power" messages constantly if I tried to fabricate even a handful if things.

Are there special fish that bump up the energy production, or is this thing just vastly underpowered?

I've never even heard of a bioreactor being insufficient, but I only have a medium-sized base.

I just dump acid/deep mushrooms into it and even while charging power cells, batteries, alien containment and two moon pools I've never dipped far below max

[HiSaZuL]

Using all that uranite that is otherwise useless, sure sounds great, spending 5 balizion lead that I don't give a damn about, awesome, titanium? ye sure I guess, looks fin... wait, what? you also want glass? No amount of power output would make me throw quartz in the toilet.

Solar and thermal can be build anywhere, then you can spend all that infinite gold and wire it to your base. Why would I want to throw away quartz? For what? So I can have glorious time building scanner rooms everywhere and looking for it just because I want to make a window? Phlease...

For permanent solutions thermal is fully auto and requires no fiddling of any kind. Solar just needs to be above 100m. Bio requires you to participate and it's output is kind of low considering it takes up an entire room. Nuclear requires fiddling, eats up non renewable resources and only offers really quick energy generation in return. Meh...

[Suzaku]

Never thought I'd see someone toss nuclear energy under the bus because it requires a handful of the second-most common resource in the entire game. That's like hating on the knife because it uses titanium.

[Etherealtroll]

Originally posted by Suzaku:

I've been surprised that thermal is so popular. Sure, it's limitless, but the generation is mediocre and the places it can function are extremely limited outside of the lower zones.

Well, you dont need to be close to the generation point as long as you dont mind making longer transmiter chains. The generation is actually pretty good if you place at a 100 degree spot, and with a couple, like say 4 which is what I usually go for, they give you unlimited power with no maintenance, and a 1000 power cap so even if you do have something that drains the power temporarily, like your Seamoth or Prawn being recharged, they have the capacity to keep everything flowing.

[Telerion]

I know many ppl like the thermal reactor and dont like nuclear power, i am the total opposide. I think the most useless power generator is the thermal reactor.
You need thermal vents to use it, so you limit yourselfe where to build your base. Otherwise you have to build a ♥♥♥♥ ton of power transmitter, and these things are ugly AF, not to mention if you are far away from a vent, it costs alot of ressources. 250 Power storage? not very much for an expensive generator. Speaking of expensive, you need Aerogel for it to build, that means rubys and gelsacks. You find rubys at the same depth as uranium. No need for the thermal reactor when i get everything for the nuclear.
The only place the thermal really shines is the lava zone. There you have a constant high energie output, everywhere else your power outpot is simply not high enough to support a bigger base.
One nuclear reactor not only lets you charge batteries and cells you can run your scanner romm, have a prawn and a seamoth docked,have multiple water filtarion systems and fabricate things at the same time without any power shortage. 2500 power stored and over 4 power/second is simply the strongest reactor. 4 rods are 80k power, you never run out in one game unless you play for weeks on one save.

Finding the BP is actually pretty easy, you can find them around the gun island without going to deep.

And for the Quartz. Really? Quarz is everywere. You can pick it up in every biome and drill it in nearly every biome.