Solar Sail ship

[Emelio Lizardo]

I've got one in inventory, how is having a "solar sail" an advantage?

[Krash Megiddo]

Automatic charging of the pulse drive

[Gunther Ultrabolt Novacrunch]

If you hover your cursor over the upgrade in your tech slot it will tell you.

Mine gives 11% maneuverability bonus. 80% pulse drive efficiency bonus. 15% boost, and "Automatic Recharging".

[Jaggid Edje]

Publicado originalmente por Krash Megiddo:

Automatic charging of the pulse drive

That is not what a solar sail does. Solar sails charge the launch thrusters, not the Pulse drive. In that respect they serve the same purpose as the Launch Thruster Recharger (and the latter is useless on a Solar Ship as a result).

They also massively improve the fuel efficiency of the Pulse drive, so you have to refuel it way less often. So I can see why you feel like that's what they are recharging.
And they improve ship maneuverability.

[Gunther Ultrabolt Novacrunch]

From the wiki:

"A high-performance solar sail, deployed automatically during flight. This advanced propulsion device generates an electric field within the sails themselves, allowing the starship to build momentum from the solar wind.

Offers substantial gains in fuel efficiency and boost performance over conventional engine systems, as well as enabling photovoltaic recharge of the starship's launch systems. "

[PeaceMaker]

Yes it saves on fuel. I tested myself. It makes logical sense and is cool. I figured this out just from flying it a while and seeing how much longer my fuel was lasting compared to my old standard ship.

[Dragoncat]

is there any way to remove a solar sail and install it into another ship?

[Jaggid Edje]

Publicado originalmente por Dragoncat:

is there any way to remove a solar sail and install it into another ship?

With mods or by editing the save file.

Other than that, no.

[Dragoncat]

Publicado originalmente por Jaggid Edje:

Publicado originalmente por Dragoncat:

is there any way to remove a solar sail and install it into another ship?

With mods or by editing the save file.

Other than that, no.

Thanks

[Lindy Bomber]

Publicado originalmente por Gunther Ultrabolt Novacrunch:

From the wiki:

"A high-performance solar sail, deployed automatically during flight. This advanced propulsion device generates an electric field within the sails themselves, allowing the starship to build momentum from the solar wind.

Offers substantial gains in fuel efficiency and boost performance over conventional engine systems, as well as enabling photovoltaic recharge of the starship's launch systems. "

Plus they look kinda cool. Most everything in this game is more about appearance than function.

[Sigma Phoenix]

Publicado originalmente por Lindy Bomber:

Publicado originalmente por Gunther Ultrabolt Novacrunch:

From the wiki:

"A high-performance solar sail, deployed automatically during flight. This advanced propulsion device generates an electric field within the sails themselves, allowing the starship to build momentum from the solar wind.

Offers substantial gains in fuel efficiency and boost performance over conventional engine systems, as well as enabling photovoltaic recharge of the starship's launch systems. "

Plus they look kinda cool. Most everything in this game is more about appearance than function.

They remind me of Podracers, especially when they're flying in-atmosphere

[Gunther Ultrabolt Novacrunch]

Definitely a pod racer vibe for sure!

[taniwhat]

Saves on pulse fuel. The docs imply launch but you can get pulse fuel use to close to nothing with appropriate use of supercharge slots.

[Jaggid Edje]

Publicado originalmente por pwalt:

The docs imply launch but you can get pulse fuel use to close to nothing with appropriate use of supercharge slots

The docs indicate both to me, which is exactly what solar sails do.
The Recharge function applies to launch thruster, the fuel efficiency bonus applies to Pulse Engines. Which is pretty clear from just the tooltip description and is exactly what it does.

Supercharging doesn't help the recharge function of the sails at all (makes 0 difference), but provides a decent bonus to the pulse drive fuel efficiency bonus, which is already very good.

[BlackWater]

Publicado originalmente por Dragoncat:

is there any way to remove a solar sail and install it into another ship?

I wish we could manually open and close them, I swear maneuverability improves with them closed.

[Jaggid Edje]

Publicado originalmente por BlackWater:

I wish we could manually open and close them, I swear maneuverability improves with them closed.

+100! Me too. And not just for maneuverability, but also view, and . . . well, because it would be cool.

There's a mod to make them 'always' folded or un-folded, but I don't really want an 'always'.