Steam Vs Fuel Vs Electic - what is more effective?

[Pak0tac]

Just wondering
Fuel requier a lot of parts + large fuel refinery
Steam burns matter
And electric requiers Steam for energy generation

So which one is more effective, specificly for adventure mode?

[Terran Guard]

actually fuel engines can make electricity so electric engines do not require steam.

I personally use steam because it gives so much engine power and electricity but if I don't need that much power fuel is probably better because I believe it uses less materials total. also, you don't have to carry the refinery with you. even if you do you can just make a super tanky brick of metal on wheels with all your explosives in it (most of your ammo and/or refineries and fuel storage)

what I like doing for something like that is having a super tanky part (more blocks away from the more important stuff) and just spam a few heat decoys there to mess with missiles and the AI card that aims for hot things.

[xchrisx88]

Originally posted by MNIMissingno:

actually fuel engines can make electricity so electric engines do not require steam.

I personally use steam because it gives so much engine power and electricity but if I don't need that much power fuel is probably better because I believe it uses less materials total. also, you don't have to carry the refinery with you. even if you do you can just make a super tanky brick of metal on wheels with all your explosives in it (most of your ammo and/or refineries and fuel storage)

what I like doing for something like that is having a super tanky part (more blocks away from the more important stuff) and just spam a few heat decoys there to mess with missiles and the AI card that aims for hot things.

there is no AI card that aims for hot things, just IR missiles

[Terran Guard]

Originally posted by xchrisx88:

Originally posted by MNIMissingno:

actually fuel engines can make electricity so electric engines do not require steam.

I personally use steam because it gives so much engine power and electricity but if I don't need that much power fuel is probably better because I believe it uses less materials total. also, you don't have to carry the refinery with you. even if you do you can just make a super tanky brick of metal on wheels with all your explosives in it (most of your ammo and/or refineries and fuel storage)

what I like doing for something like that is having a super tanky part (more blocks away from the more important stuff) and just spam a few heat decoys there to mess with missiles and the AI card that aims for hot things.

there is no AI card that aims for hot things, just IR missiles

the card that aims for important things is what I meant but I guess it's not IR.

[Jack Bright]

Steam can generate a massive amount of power but its more complex and its easier to break. Blowing a chunk off of a fuel engine diminishes its performance, blowing a hole in a steam engine causes it to shut down entirely as all the steam vents out. They burn material instead of fuel, which is partially good considering it prevents fuel tank explosions but also consumes your reserves of repair materials.

Steam also needs a short period of time to warm up and build pressure before it operates at its peak performance. The consumption of material is constant throughout the operation, whether the engine runs at its maximum pressure and heat built up or its just starting, it burns material at the same rate.

Basically its complex and delicate but it has an extremely high power density.

[Woah]

the reason for steam engines using alot of resources on startup is because you need to get the boilers hot like irl so you need alot of resources to get it rly hot