how do thermal plants work?

[bort]

I have put 3 of them in a hot area, on the ground. It says 250/250. Now how do I do to send the energy to my base? Do I need to connect a wire or something, or are they already working?

[Artek [General]]

Thermal plants generate energy the moment they are placed, proportional to how hot it is.
However they have issues transferring said energy. They have a VERY short range in which they can transfer energy directly to a nearby building, but if there's any degree of distance (like 15m+) - you'll need to build an energy beacon or wttf is it called. 1 titanium, 1 gold. You'll know your base is supplied when there's a thin blue energy beam going from the energy source straight into your Base, like a power line.

[GeminiEclipse]

Need to use power transmitters.

[Artek [General]]

Originally posted by GeminiEclipse:

Need to use power transmitters.

Yes, this thing. Completely forgot how they are called.

[Notoshy]

Thermal reactors and solar panels are passive Energy Sources. They work from the Moment they are build. If you build them near enough to a Base, the connection is automatic. Beyond certain distances, you will need Range extenders.

[bort]

Okay, thank you. I haven´t researched that thing yet.

[dreamrider]

You don't research Power Transmitters, or anything. You find fragments on the ground or in wrecks, scan them, and the PDA reconstructs the blueprint once it has enough data from scans of broken ones.

In the case of Power Transmitters, it takes only one scan to get the blueprint.

Power Transmitter fragments can be found:
On Seabed: (in this rare case, this is far and away the easier locales to fined them.)
- Crash Zone (including in the "safe part" on the port side of the Aurora.)
- Mushroom Forest
In Wrecks (hunks of wreckage from Aurora, scattered across map.)
- Bulb Zone
- Northwestern Mushroom Forest

One Caution: A Power Transmitter fragment does NOT appear in a crate, and it looks like a bit of random bent pipe. In this, more than even everything else, SCAN EVERYTHING!

[Notoshy]

Originally posted by dreamrider:

One Caution: A Power Transmitter fragment does NOT appear in a crate, and it looks like a bit of random bent pipe. In this, more than even everything else, SCAN EVERYTHING!

Its looks a bit like one of these fancy Dyson Ventilators^^

[penner3]

A tip: Power transmitters have a pretty good range, but the first one must be built VERY close to the source. It's easy to tell if it's going to work because as you place the "blueprint," bright blue lines show the power connections that will be established once you build.

[bort]

Thanks guys, problem solved. Found the transmitter and made the blue line reach my base.
However I dont feel the energy quantity is good enough. I think is because the heat zone only hits the yellow threshold for a maximun of 68º C, I think a lava zone should be better but I´m not sure if it´s worth moving all the stuff when I´m close to get the nuclear reactor (2/3 blueprints)

[Notoshy]

Originally posted by bort:

Thanks guys, problem solved. Found the transmitter and made the blue line reach my base.
However I dont feel the energy quantity is good enough. I think is because the heat zone only hits the yellow threshold for a maximun of 68º C, I think a lava zone should be better but I´m not sure if it´s worth moving all the stuff when I´m close to get the nuclear reactor (2/3 blueprints)

It really depends how much Energy you need. You can place several Thermal Reactors close to each other (hopefully without cooking yourself while constructing them^^)
Nuclear reactors and their fuel need more ressources than Thermal reactors and have to be placed inside. I dont know how long a fuel Rod lasts. If you have many machines that need constant Power (several filtration machines and a constantly active scanner room for example), the Nuclear reactor would probably be better.
Beside that, the Temperature only decides how fast the Thermal reactor generates energy. The capacity is always the same.

From personal experience.... you will probably have atleast 2 bases. The main-base near the surface and a deepsea base. Some use the Cyclops as mobile base.... but there are a few issues with that Submarine^^

[bort]

Originally posted by Notoshy:

Originally posted by bort:

Thanks guys, problem solved. Found the transmitter and made the blue line reach my base.
However I dont feel the energy quantity is good enough. I think is because the heat zone only hits the yellow threshold for a maximun of 68º C, I think a lava zone should be better but I´m not sure if it´s worth moving all the stuff when I´m close to get the nuclear reactor (2/3 blueprints)

It really depends how much Energy you need. You can place several Thermal Reactors close to each other (hopefully without cooking yourself while constructing them^^)
Nuclear reactors and their fuel need more ressources than Thermal reactors and have to be placed inside. I dont know how long a fuel Rod lasts. If you have many machines that need constant Power (several filtration machines and a constantly active scanner room for example), the Nuclear reactor would probably be better.
Beside that, the Temperature only decides how fast the Thermal reactor generates energy. The capacity is always the same.

From personal experience.... you will probably have atleast 2 bases. The main-base near the surface and a deepsea base. Some use the Cyclops as mobile base.... but there are a few issues with that Submarine^^

I´m going to leave it like this for now. I was stuggling with energy because the water filtration machine but I think I don´t need it anymore. I just got the water suit and my area is full of salt deposits, so now I can handle better the thirst.

Right now I only have the main base. Is located between the floating Island and the lifepod 5 at -200 meters. I don´t know how the biome is called but it has some big spiky rocks there, a lot of minerals and it´s not very hostile.
The thermal plants are pretty closeby, in an area full of something like balls, patrolled by some kind of sharks and a creature like a mantis which can take me off of the seamoth, but nothing really as dangerous as the leviathan of the Aurora

[serkalk]

The advantage of a thermal energy is: once it is setup it lasts forever. You donot need to do anything.

[Bab Peeg]

Be aware that when you reload a game the power lines like to break so you have to go and fix them.

[penner3]

Bort, where you are is called the Sparse Reef. I also think of it as the Crag Zone, because of the spikes you mentioned, but I don't know if that's a general term or just me.

You are close to some very useful stuff!

[dreamrider]

Just don't get the Sparse Reef confused with the Crag Fields, which is a biome further SSE.

The one where the truly useless Lifepod is found. (But also engine parts, if you look sharp.)