Powering Your Base (For Frustrated Interlopers) :: No Man's Sky General Discussion

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Zero Sum

Aug 15, 2019 @ 11:24am

Powering Your Base (For Frustrated Interlopers)

Hello, fellow interlopers! I see a few of you are frustrated with the new base power mechanic! Fortunately for you, the chances are that it isn't quite as complicated as you may think (although it certainly allows for some pretty complex creations I will say.)

First things first, that pesky generator...
It is clear to me that the BASIC GENERATOR IS NOT MEANT TO BE A BASE POWER SUPPLY!!! It is simply meant to be used in cases of emergency or to power something for a short period of time. The idea is to get away from this method of powering your base ASAP.

Once you have learned the solar panel & battery blueprints, you're pretty much golden. Simply place a few panels down, connect them to an outlet on the side of your base, and watch as all the rooms connected to that "Mother room" lets call it, are powered and ready to be utilized! You only need to wire up 1 room for your whole base to be powered, as long as any other rooms are connected to the one you initially powered. This does not mean that any devices inside those rooms that require a wire are powered, simply wireless things such as lights.

In order to power devices that require a wire, I have found the cleanest and simplest way to power them is to plug them in to a base outlet. If the device is inside a room, you can select the wire on the device and walk outside with it, then connect it to the outlet there. Do not bother connecting every single device to a battery or solar panel unless it is isolated from the base and you dont want a long wire (although I would still personally try and use a wire over a second battery, one less thing to worry about.)

Now comes the fun part: logic gates. The "switches" menu is where you can place a switch anywhere on or around your base and use them to control the flow of electricity from your base to a device. A perfect example is a door. There are a few ways to control them, the simplest being a wall switch, the more advanced (but more convenient) way is through a proximity switch. Place a wall switch near the door (it can technically be wherever you want, but near the door is easiest.) Once placed, connect a wire from one end of the switch to a power outlet on your base. You can place multiple wires so the wire doesnt travel in diagonals, resulting in a cleaner looking setup. Next, connect the other end of the switch to either one of the sockets on the door, and presto! You now have a fully functioning door handle! Of course you will need to repeat this on the inside of the door if you want to be able to open/close it from the inside, but the idea is the exact same.

For a bit of added complexity, let's introduce the proximity switch & power inverter to power the door. This will remove the need to manually open/close the door entirely as you simply walk up to it and it opens. To do this, Place a proximity sensor somewhere close to the door, then connect one end of it to your base power. Then place the power inverter next to sensor. Connect THE SAME node of the sensor as the one you connected the power 2 (so now there are 2 wires coming out of the same end) to the red side of the inverter. This will tell the inverter when to close the door. Next, connect the other end of the sensor to the middle socket (the one that is perpendicular to the red/green sockets). This will power the inverter when the sensor detects a body nearby. Lastly, connect the green end of the inverter to one of the door sockets, and presto! You now have a fully automatic door!

You may find that you run out of available kP to power your base; You can alleviate insufficient power by simply adding more solar panels/batteries. In order to have a panel powering the base AND charging a battery, you must connect a wire from the panel to a base socket as well as the battery, using the same "walk outside with the wire" method i mention earlier. I would personally recommend implementing a dedicated room full of batteries, all connected to solar panels placed right outside that room. If needed, add a second room full of batteries. This will take a bit of grinding to get going, but it will be worth it. I understand this may be a little hard to follow so here's a link to a labeled circuit diagram: https://imgur.com/1mm2w9e

An electromagnetic generator is the superior way to power a base or power grid, although you need to install the survey technology in your analysis visor to find a strong magnetic field in order to install the generator and have it produce power. I have yet to find such a strong field so if anyone has any insight on this particular module that would be great.

Hopefully this helped with giving a basic guide to powering your base, obviously feel free to ask questions

Last edited by Zero Sum; Aug 15, 2019 @ 10:36pm

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Originally posted by Mr. Bufferlow:

I finally got my home base powered. It went a lot easier after I tore down and rebuilt my storage containers. I actually just ran a wire to one of them-attached to the base via cube room. I used a solar gen attached to a battery.

If you check the battery, it will tell you how much power you need. Just keep building solar arrays until you surpass that requirement. I hook them all up feeding back to main one hooked to the battery.

I am not sure if I will need more batteries...probably so. I was just so happy to have everything working in daylight I have not worried about the nighttime yet.

I think it is going to be a fun addition, and once I sorted my storage containers, it was pretty straight forward. I used to just keep them outside but had the mats so they are encased in cube rooms with windows. Nice.

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Showing 1-15 of 123 comments

Arson

Aug 15, 2019 @ 11:26am

Thanks for the info!

Drywink

Aug 15, 2019 @ 11:32am

i have encounter a magnetic field, it was in an activated indium planet, i'm not sure tho if the chance are higher on dangerous weather.

TZODnmr2K5 Aug 15, 2019 @ 11:33am

Excellent post, but I would love to see this as a video or have graphics to complement your well thought out presentation!

Lucid

Aug 15, 2019 @ 11:35am

https://i.imgur.com/zd53iPA.jpg

Zero Sum

Aug 15, 2019 @ 11:36am

Originally posted by Lucid:
https://i.imgur.com/zd53iPA.jpg

That's a neat looking setup!

TZODnmr2K5 Aug 15, 2019 @ 11:38am

Originally posted by Lucid:
https://i.imgur.com/zd53iPA.jpg

Nice base ya got goin' on there!

SUDTIN

Aug 15, 2019 @ 11:40am

Yeah... You never mention wood stone or metal building pieces.

Zero Sum

Aug 15, 2019 @ 11:44am

Originally posted by FocusBoxHero:
Yeah... You never mention wood stone or metal building pieces.

Wood, stone and metal building pieces are not meant to be used as a power grid, more of a shelter. That is why there is only 1 piece (2 if you count the large version) of those materials that actually supports the use of power. Base power as a mechanic is not meant to be an early game mechanic, this is why those materials dont even support it. The consistent usage of electricity is meant for players who have unlocked the larger base building blueprints and can actually have space to place all these components, like the power sockets and generator/battery docks on the inside of them.

Lucid

Aug 15, 2019 @ 11:47am

Originally posted by Clout Snout:
Originally posted by Lucid:
https://i.imgur.com/zd53iPA.jpg
That's a neat looking setup!

You can hang lights along the wires!

TheStrang3me has No Man's Sky

Aug 15, 2019 @ 11:51am

To all of us that have medium to large bases, with lots of rooms and things inside and outside, focus directly to solar panels and batteries. The basic generator is for very basic things for example to activate the teleporter for some seconds, or to access the storage boxes. So we have lots of things ahead to do.

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