Electromagnetic Generator to base PC guide

[Groovaholic]

Hi guys I just wonted to share this with anyone that's having problems with getting power to their base when using Electromagnetic Generator, I'v seen loads of other people asking how do I get my base to use these things and powered up? I was one of them until now.

After many temps of trying this way and then that way none of which worked I finally got mine to work.

First of all you are going to need The Analysis Visor which i'm taking you have already got, so this is how I got mine working from over 700u apart:

With your analysis visor find your Electromagnetic Power Hotspot and place a marker in that place ( this will help later)

Now this will most likely be outside of your base bounders so you cant just build there so go back to your base and the idea is to increase the boundary of your base.

To do this open up the building mode and say use the arch way (or what ever you like) and start walking towards that marker that you placed down, you will notice that after a short time that you are unable to place anything down (apart from the portable stuff) so just walk back a bit until you can see all building parts again in the menu and place your first item down ( this will now increase your boundary limit.)

Now all you need to do is repeat this same method walk forward till you see just the basic items go back a bit and place a building part of your chose, carry on doing this until you have to get where your Hotspot is and then place your Electromagnetic Generator down.

All that's left is to run a wire from the Electromagnetic Generator back to your own base I'v done this in 6/7 sections and just join each wire together so if I made a mistake all i had to do is delete one part of it and not the whole wire from base to the hotspot.


My base is now powered day and night and i can remove all these solar panels and batteries.

Hope this helps anyone that is having trouble if you need any more help just let me know.

[Killer Ammo]

Good tips - I used light boxes to extend the base then run wires between them, the base and the generator. I actually deployed 3 generators because my base draws way too much power for just one.

[Groovaholic]

Yeah iv only just started to expand my base and i now have to add another generator has my hotspot is only a class B i think 22k or something like that

[Xhodan]

Is "extending" the base an intended game mechanic? I don't want to do this and end up having a lot of things breaking due to glitches and whatever else.

[^^o^^ BatCat]

Originally posted by Xhodan:

Is "extending" the base an intended game mechanic? I don't want to do this and end up having a lot of things breaking due to glitches and whatever else.

Yes. ..because of the power / resource Hot Spots.

Just use Wire to extend your base.. free and can run non-stop. Just tap it to ground as you run.
2 or 3 panel size segments.

[Rexxer]

You forgot to mention the most important time-saving features for pulling wire though:

(1) place a short range teleport down in the base first, (powered with a carbon generator or small scale power source), then after extending your base to your hotspot, build another teleport. Now wire up the generators to the nearby teleport.
Return fast. This is particularly important if wiring up mineral resources as you always have to pull TWO items, power wire and supply lines. You can pull both wire and supply lines through the teleport to make hooking everything up really fast and easy. So always put the teleports in FIRST. In theory, you could temporarily set up a teleport at a site with just a solar panel or battery or carbon generator to facilitate even the first wire pull, esp. useful if your first hotspot is at 1300 u from the base.

(2) Supply Depots have a proximity feature that may bug out your industrial site: if you place supply depots sufficiently close, (you'll have to play around with this to find out how close), they automatically interconnect WITHOUT supply line tubes. This feature is a PAIN though if you want to have separate rows of depots for different resources as they will automatically interconnect and sense different resource inputs and bug out, giving you the dreaded "DEPLETED ... Supply pipe capacity Reached".... not working bug. To avoid this separate depots of different resources by at least 1 floor panel width, maybe even farther. This feature kicks in even if you specifically tube up the depots separately.....the proximity feature is always active so beware of it.

(3) The base extension method is minimal.... each base "item" you plop down only creates about a 25-50 u sphere of base influence around it. The method listed by Groovaholic is probably the safest way as you only go as far as the limit of each anchor or control point, but that means you have a lot of overlap which is safest. But if you don't want to waste resources, you can usually place the next anchor about 25-50 u further away from the point at which your build menu minimizes rather than right where it minimizes.

This is an important point for pulling wire too, since you will always have to pull the wire once manually to a site, (unless you temporarily power a teleport with a carbon generator). If you place the anchors too far off course, when pulling the wire you will likely stray outside the base-influence-corridor you established.... and have to start over. This is why you can't actually place anchors at the extreme limit of your construction camera range as you build your corridor....there won't be enough overlap and you will always hit a dead spot, foiling your wire pulling effort.

[Groovaholic]

I like the idea of the short range teleporter and to be honest I would have never even thought of that even being a thing, and thank you Rexxer for all the other info as its something I haven't even tried yet im still a newbie to all the new stuff .

[Rexxer]

Originally posted by Groovaholic:

I like the idea of the short range teleporter and to be honest I would have never even thought of that even being a thing, and thank you Rexxer for all the other info as its something I haven't even tried yet im still a newbie to all the new stuff .

If you want to wire the electromagnetic hotspot with the teleporter method, you'll have to power the first short-range transporter at the base before you run off to the hotspot, though. A portable generator will be enough until you hook up the permanent power.

(Oct 5, 2020 Note: this is necro information from 2019. This is no longer the case as teleporter pads no longer require any power...just the teleport cable)

[Tom7i]

I just spent 1 hour struggling with electronics and hotspots, not knowing that different bases don't share electricity.
After that, i googled a bit and found your answer which helped me to power up my base, so thanks for that :) Also bump for visibility, in case any new players don't know how to increase your base radius.

[MyProfile]

Thanks Rex, haven't tried that yet or even considered it until all the heavy lifting was already done.

[SoanoS]

This hotspot surveying mechanic is incredibly frustrating Also the guide never tells you that you need to "extend" base area to reach the areas. I found one power hotspot from 700u from my base, but I gave up after half an hour trying to figure out why I can't place the stupid generator and feeling really aggravated because of it. I could not search for another hotspot either because the scanner got "stuck" on that hotspot and refused to scan for a new one.

I guess I'll have to try it out again but seriously now...

[Verios44]

I got very lucky that my main base happened to have a class B electro hotspot only 200m from the base computer.

It has now been fully integrated. :)

[^^o^^ BatCat]

Originally posted by SoanoS:

This hotspot surveying mechanic is incredibly frustrating Also the guide never tells you that you need to "extend" base area to reach the areas. I found one power hotspot from 700u from my base, but I gave up after half an hour trying to figure out why I can't place the stupid generator and feeling really aggravated because of it. I could not search for another hotspot either because the scanner got "stuck" on that hotspot and refused to scan for a new one.

I guess I'll have to try it out again but seriously now...

"Stuck" is just a question of being too close to the original..
Power spots are pretty far apart.

From any power spot you should be able to "reach" all the other resource type spots for that planet. Providing, of cource, you put "mini/dumby" base there.

The other way is extend base out to power, but stretch base out to the other resources.

By far the very simplest way to stretch base is to just RUN, place wire on the ground as you go...

Run "pretty wires" after your hooked up.

[Rexxer]

Short Range Teleporter pads keep changing with updates:

• In 2019 when introduced, you used power wires only and there was *NO* 200 u limit, and you could pull pipes through a teleport. It was great, you could just use two pads 1000 u apart rather than 10, ie. 5 waypoints.
  
• In 2020, it was switched to teleport cable only, no power needed, but there was a 200 u limit, and you could pull other wires and cables through a teleport.
  
• In 2021, you then needed both power and teleport cables, there was a 200 u limit, and you could pull other wires and pipes through a teleport.
  
• In 2022, you still need both power and teleport cables, there still is a 200 u limit, and you CANNOT pull other wires and pipes through a teleport.

The basic trend seems to be making short range teleport pads less functional with every update.

[Groovaholic]

Hi Rexxer yes unfortunately that is a problem and what worked wayyyyy back then doesn't work now, but if you are ok with using mods there are some that will help with power limits, right from : a basic help right up to having full unlimited power ( which isn't for me) thats a bit to much cheating.

[Rexxer]

Originally posted by Groovaholic:

Hi Rexxer yes unfortunately that is a problem and what worked wayyyyy back then doesn't work now, but if you are ok with using mods there are some that will help with power limits, right from : a basic help right up to having full unlimited power ( which isn't for me) thats a bit to much cheating.

I was talking about range limits on wire segment lengths, not power limits in my last post. My understanding is that you can use the save editor to bypass the 200 u limit though, but it sounds like a hassle as I think you have to calculate the endpoint yourself. Typically for that reason, I only work with the vanilla version of the game. Whatever is automatic.

Never had a problem with power issues though, as most of my bases can be powered with just one C-grade electromagnetic hotspot. Also if you know how to stack and group generators to maximize power generation at a hotspot, power really shouldn't be much of an issue at all even with large industrial mining operations.