Power Plants. What's the point?

[H2]

I unlocked the nuclear reactor and was really excited to build it, until i realised I have no need for it.

Besides the water treatment machines that are almost completely useless, there is no reason to build or upgrade power systems beyond 2-4 solar panels or a bioreactor for deep sea bases. Even charging 4 batteries, 2 power cells and crafting my power levels never dropped below 100 with 4 solar panels.

The bioreactor can generate unlimited power as long as you have another room with a holding tank full of fish/plants to fuel it. You can even keep it full with just an indoor plant plot.

Does something come along later in the game that sucks enough power to justify building the nuclear reactor ?

[Kal Manto]

I use 1 Nuclear plant. I use to have bioreactors an many solar panals and yes I would run out of power.

I find they are a long term place, load up, and forget power source.
But you're right, with the bio plants and a solar setup you can do the same (almost)
Deep bases, I am not sure how a soloar panal would work.. By logic, they shouldn't at all.
lol, I just go Neclear right away now.

[mouser9169]

Solar power plants are no good past the early game. Once you build your base below four or five hundred meters deep trying to beam all the power down there becomes a PITA.

Bioreactors are notoriously slow to charge up, so if you use a lot of power quickly, the reactors will lag behind.

My only concern with nuclear is does the uraninite replenish? If not, then nuclear will eventually fail as a long term solution, which sucks since as it stands now, nuclear is presented as the best source for deep water bases.

[ImHelping]

Like you said, right now water purifiers are the only real hit to power while they are running, and drain as much power as the rest of your base put together. So nukes are basically only needed if-

A: You are too deep for sun, but also don't want to use thermals or relays to thermals (if you've got nuke as an option, 90% chance you also have thermal as an option).

B: You want to regualrly run more than one water filter in a base you already drain your current grid a lot with, without adding a bunch of extra stuff to compensate.

Also, of late the Devs seem to be making things more drainy. Increasing the charge cost of docking your seamoth, adding battery requirements for builder/scanner. So if that trend continues, it may end up being "Do I use Nuke power to run what I used to be able to comfortably, or do I install 12 thermal plants which takes a ****load more resources to set up even if I don't need to fuel them?"

Nthing that Bios are essentially giant backup batteries for any base that sees regular usage. Great to have some around, but "One fabricated item per minute" power generation isn't going to keep up with regular usage all on it's own unless you don't use your base enough to justify other power methods anyways.

Or if over half your base is made out of bioreactor rooms, I guess.

[Tzvi]

i currently have two bases both have nuclear power
but one lasts forever and the other one drains really fast i dont get it
the rods keep depleting all the time so quickly.

the game might need better power management options
like pointing at something will show you how much power its using in real time or something like that. and on top of that you should have the option to turn off each thing you want.

so you could turn off lights in rooms you want to keep dark
and you could shut off the water filtration machine when you dont need it


and power plants that deplete over time could show the stats so you know how fast its going down

[Locklave]

Originally posted by mouser9169:

Solar power plants are no good past the early game. Once you build your base below four or five hundred meters deep trying to beam all the power down there becomes a PITA.

Why would you even want a base 400-500 meters deep? it's not like diving that deep is a problem or a drain on resources coming from the surface.

Solar power is the best early-mid-end game. Unless you are doing something odd.

[ImHelping]

Deeper bases would/will probably matter more once the actual story content gets added, and we have actual reasons for taking regular trips to the Deep Reef, inactive lava biomes, river, etc.

That and transmitters are real **** for trying to transmit a nice solar farm to deep down.

Because the max radius for TAKING power is so small it usually can't even make it to the other side of a thermal vent when I build a circle of thermals around them. So god help your dreams of slathering floater island with solar panels and transmitting all that eco friendly power.

[mouser9169]

Originally posted by Locklave:

Originally posted by mouser9169:

Solar power plants are no good past the early game. Once you build your base below four or five hundred meters deep trying to beam all the power down there becomes a PITA.

Why would you even want a base 400-500 meters deep? it's not like diving that deep is a problem or a drain on resources coming from the surface.

Solar power is the best early-mid-end game. Unless you are doing something odd.

That's the way this game is headed. We have the example of the Degasi survivors - eventually they left the island for deep water. Everything in the game points to that being the direction the players are expected to follow.

Look, if all you want is self-sufficiency, you can set that base up in five days without breaking a sweat. Two alien containment tanks - one for peepers, one for airsacks. Congratulations, you won! Now what?

Piloting the Cyclops is a beast at the best of times. Diving deep from the surface takes time. If you want to explore deep down, you're eventually going to want to build a base down there. Especially once you're walking around in your exo-suit all the time.

[SkunkWerks]

I dunno about the set of you, but I was excited about the nuke reactor because I thought it might be relatively set-and-forget, moreso certainly than the bioreactor.

Frankly I'm underwhemed by the rate it gobbles up fuel rods.

[Maxpowerammo]

I never felt the need to build a base anywhere deeper than 20 meters. If I have to visit an area at 500 meters, I'll just take my Seamoth down.

[SkunkWerks]

I've never felt a need either.

I have felt a desire to, though....

[Commander Riker]

The game is called Subnautica, which quite literally means 'Underwater'. The game is definitely heading the direction of deeper and deeper. Especially with the addition of the exosuit. If you only see a need or are maybe too scared(jk) to leave your 20m base, then perhaps you should seek a more "above water" game. This isn't even to mention how awesome it is to have a base at 800m.

[ImHelping]

Originally posted by Maxpowerammo:

I never felt the need to build a base anywhere deeper than 20 meters. If I have to visit an area at 500 meters, I'll just take my Seamoth down.

When they finally start adding the story content we may have a reason for bases past sunlight level, at least.

But then, everywere of note in those directions has thermals handy-so yeah.

For what it's worth, Nukes last quite a long time if you DON'T have water filters. Though with no way to customize power except "Usually it will drain the stuff you built first, first", that can be iffy even if you had a bio plant you never drained a full 100 out of installed first.

Plus they may jack up the power drain on more appliances as time goes by, like with the Moonpool drain, and making it so builder/scanner needs batteries.

[SkunkWerks]

Originally posted by ImHelping:

For what it's worth, Nukes last quite a long time if you DON'T have water filters.

This would have to be the most bizarre rendition of "quite a long time" I've heard in, well, quite a long time.

[Brittlebullet]

I have similar concerns that are hopefully addressed in a future update. There's just no real need for a lot of power. It's really easy to generate a lot of power but you only need small amounts of power at a time for anything. Charging the seamoth and using the water filtration machine cost a fair amount but compared to how easy it is to generate power I have never seen it as an issue except on my very first play through. Maybe it's just me wanting a bit more of a challenge to the game but I'd like a reason to use larger amounts of power.

[KinglyKap]

Everyone says that deep spots have thermals, and that's true for a lot of the finished areas, but in some of the end game caves(seatreader's path, lost river) where they haven't finalized a lot of the layout(admittedly), there are no vents within a reasonable distance. For example, to put a base near the giant skeleton in lost river, there is not enough sunlight and the closest vent is either floating islands or even the grand reef. Since bioreactors don't quite make the grade for a primary source of power, you're left with nukes.