Why is Base Power still so annoying?

[maestro]

It still takes us several hundred solar panels to get enough power for just a few rooms, and Electromagnetic Hotspots are still almost impossible to find, and stuff just takes way too much power, and we STILL don't have any new power options.

Somehow, in a world of flying spaceships, FTL travel, etc, we can't think of any way to provide power other than Solar, Bio Fuels and Electromagnetism. No Nuclear Power? No Fusion Reactors? Or, heck, maybe an upgraded solar panel that does more than 50kw (which powers what, 2 rooms at best?) only during the day (and of course you need a crapton of batteries, and 2x more power than you actually use to power those batteries).

I think the focus of the next update should be making the Power system not so freaking annoying to work with. I shouldn't have to build huge solar farms or be constantly dumping carbon into what is basically combustion engines to get power.

[Mr. Bufferlow]

Ok, you are extremely exaggerating.

I put in 10 panels on my base and have more than double the power I need. Five batteries ensures that I have power all night. Play creative if you do not like the challenge.

Hotspots can be a bit annoying to find...but that is generally because I have a general idea where I want my base and it seems, as often as not, the nearest hotspot is just a little bit further away than I would prefer.

I am guessing they made hotspots a little harder to encourage people to use the solar panels. If hotspots were easy...guess how many solar panels would be used in game.

I wish they would allow EMG anywhere, just halve the output if not on a hotspot. It would take twice as many but be a valid option for folks who do not like the look of panels and batteries.

[Syndicake ☠]

I can run 3 rooms and a portal with just 4 solar panels and 2 batteries.

[RustyNail]

Originally posted by Mr. Bufferlow:

Ok, you are extremely exaggerating.

I put in 10 panels on my base and have more than double the power I need. Five batteries ensures that I have power all night. Play creative if you do not like the challenge.

Hotspots can be a bit annoying to find...but that is generally because I have a general idea where I want my base and it seems, as often as not, the nearest hotspot is just a little bit further away than I would prefer.

I am guessing they made hotspots a little harder to encourage people to use the solar panels. If hotspots were easy...guess how many solar panels would be used in game.

I wish they would allow EMG anywhere, just halve the output if not on a hotspot. It would take twice as many but be a valid option for folks who do not like the look of panels and batteries.

I was thinking the same; both about what you'd like to see in the game, and the OP's hyperbole.

[maestro]

3 rooms with "just" 4 panels and 2 batteries.

Well, each room takes 10 units of energy.
A solar panel produces 50, but only works half of the time, so it's effective output is 25.
A portal alone uses 20, as a trade network node uses 15
This isn't even mention hydro trays, biodomes, etc.

What if I wanted to set up, say, a basic Circuit Board farm... I'd need...

-1 Star Bulb Room
-3 Solar Vine Rooms
-1 Echinocactus Room
-1 Frostwort Room
-1 Teleporter
-1 Trade Node (so I don't have to spend 5 minutes warping to a space station and back)

This is a total power consumption of 60 per biodome room, for a total of 6 of them, which is 360 units of power + 20 for the teleporter +15 for the Trade Network.

So you're looking at a bare minimum of 400 kP.

This is 16 Panels and 8 Batteries just to run a bare-bones crop farm.

And yeah, allowing us to use the EMG generators anywhere would be nice, even halved would be far better than dozens of panels and batteries laying around everywhere taking up room for a base of any size.

And/or like I said, mining and gas hotspots are absolutely everywhere, but EMG hotspots....? Oi. I've looked on several planets, nearly every time I land my ship on a planet that would be halfway decent for a base, I've yet to see one single hotspot in this playthrough. So it'd be a little nicer if they were somewhat less rare.

[Bimdur]

Originally posted by maestro:

3 rooms with "just" 4 panels and 2 batteries.

Well, each room takes 10 units of energy.
A solar panel produces 50, but only works half of the time, so it's effective output is 25.
A portal alone uses 20, as a trade network node uses 15
This isn't even mention hydro trays, biodomes, etc.

What if I wanted to set up, say, a basic Circuit Board farm... I'd need...

-1 Star Bulb Room
-3 Solar Vine Rooms
-1 Echinocactus Room
-1 Frostwort Room
-1 Teleporter
-1 Trade Node (so I don't have to spend 5 minutes warping to a space station and back)

This is a total power consumption of 60 per biodome room, for a total of 6 of them, which is 360 units of power + 20 for the teleporter +15 for the Trade Network.

So you're looking at a bare minimum of 400 kP.

This is 16 Panels and 8 Batteries just to run a bare-bones crop farm.

And yeah, allowing us to use the EMG generators anywhere would be nice, even halved would be far better than dozens of panels and batteries laying around everywhere taking up room for a base of any size.

And/or like I said, mining and gas hotspots are absolutely everywhere, but EMG hotspots....? Oi. I've looked on several planets, nearly every time I land my ship on a planet that would be halfway decent for a base, I've yet to see one single hotspot in this playthrough. So it'd be a little nicer if they were somewhat less rare.

And just what you explained is the reason why I like the power system. Before you did't even have to think just build. Now you need to have a plan, not only for your farms but all types of larger operations.

I can't wait until power generation for freighters are implemented. Only wish there was a way to hide the cables.

[Phobos]

Originally posted by maestro:

It still takes us several hundred solar panels to get enough power for just a few rooms

Originally posted by maestro:

This is 16 Panels and 8 Batteries just to run a bare-bones crop farm.

With applied internet logic: 700 panels === 16 Panels and 8 Batteries

Totally legit as:

As one of my activated metal farms runs on 36x panels and 36x batteries with a yield of 25k items every 6 hours. Of course I added in extra for a bit of headroom..

[maestro]

Some obvious exaggeration, but still. Having all of those panels and batteries laying around just makes things look messy. When you need 2 of them + batteries, it creates quite the clutter. With your above example, 36 panels and 36 batteries (wouldn't it be 72 panels and 32 batteries...?) sounds quite messy, and not to mention, isn't there a cap on the number of items you can place in a base? I wouldn't mind a few EMP towers here-and-there, you'd only need 2-3 of them depending on good the hotspot was.

Or, again, how about upgradeable solar panels?

[Kal]

I quit playing (was a base builder). Wiring drove me away fast

[Bimdur]

Originally posted by Kal:

I quit playing (was a base builder). Wiring drove me away fast

But if you are a base builder why not switch to creative?

[maestro]

Originally posted by Bimdurian:

Originally posted by Kal:

I quit playing (was a base builder). Wiring drove me away fast

But if you are a base builder why not switch to creative?

Maybe because they wanted to actually play through the game, to gather materials and such to build the base?

I mean, being able to just plunk down anything you want, anytime you want would get boring, fast, if you didn't have to at least work a little to achieve it.

Neither he, nor myself is asking for everything to just get handed to us, I'm not asking for infinite power, or power generators that give 1,000 kP or anything like that, we just want something a little better than needing 20 some panels and 10 some batteries for a decent sized base, and/or find EMP hotspots a little easier or something. That doesn't mean I want Creative Mode, because that kinda removes most of the gameplay.

Surely there can be something in-between?

[Bimdur]

Originally posted by maestro:

Originally posted by Bimdurian:

But if you are a base builder why not switch to creative?

Maybe because they wanted to actually play through the game, to gather materials and such to build the base?

I mean, being able to just plunk down anything you want, anytime you want would get boring, fast, if you didn't have to at least work a little to achieve it.

Neither he, nor myself is asking for everything to just get handed to us, I'm not asking for infinite power, or power generators that give 1,000 kP or anything like that, we just want something a little better than needing 20 some panels and 10 some batteries for a decent sized base, and/or find EMP hotspots a little easier or something. That doesn't mean I want Creative Mode, because that kinda removes most of the gameplay.

Surely there can be something in-between?

Or this is perhaps the "in-between"? I personally would like to see even harder energy requirement. 20 or so solar panels for a large base are way to few for my taste, specially considering how small and how few resources they demand.

[maestro]

Originally posted by Bimdurian:

Or this is perhaps the "in-between"? I personally would like to see even harder energy requirement. 20 or so solar panels for a large base are way to few for my taste, specially considering how small and how few resources they demand.

Usually, most games that have stuff like this, what they will do is give you the cheap and easy solution that produces very low power. That's what our Solar Panels do now.

They will offer a *large* solar panel that takes far more materials, or harder-to-get materials, but they will produce more power, significantly so.

For example, Solar Panels take 2x Metal Plating, 75x Chromatic Metal, and 50x Gold and produces 50kP.

We could have, say, a Large Solar Panel that is roughly twice the size, and it would take 6x Metal Plating, 300x Chromatic Metal, and 100x Cadmium and produce 150 kP.

[MockTwo61]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1928261143

That's a truck load of solar panels. That is a massive Circuit board farm bringing in 60mil. That central tower is the power tower with all the batteries inside it. They are full except the bottom. The bottom has a trade terminal and an extra battery inside to know the power level. I built it near the station because it looks like the solar panels power that as well, it did bug out the ships No one lands on the trade station above because the central tower is to tall. But it did make a nice parking spot for all my ships

[MockTwo61]

I also placed windows inside the main farming towers... so you can look out. There are no batteries in those towers although I could have put them in and removed the central tower all together.

[katiem]

not sure what you're talking about, i have a pretty big base which is being powered by 6 solar panels & 3 batteries. i usually do 1 battery per 2 solar panels. not sure if my ratio is right but it seems to be working for me so.

https://steamcommunity.com/id/thepostalgril/screenshot/792001098163285753

i've moved things around since then. i've now made a sort of 'solar panel farm' in the empty field next to my base, and moved all the wiring and batteries underground in a power basement. you can't even see the wiring or batteries, except for a little bit of wiring where they come up to connect.