Power Groups

[Nightwolf]

So ive been reading quite a bit about power groups and what i have seen seems to fall 50/50. some say its a great thing some say its terrible. i am pretty new and on the surface i would think it to be useful to keep from wasting 1.21 gw of power on a system that only needs 2w on the other i do see it being easier to just keep the whole thing in one default group. So i have a few noob questions.

1) do power groups really matter enough to do the work? would i be able to save noticeable amounts of power with them as opposed to a reactor powering an entire ship including systems that are only on some of the time like extractors?

2) do i need a power generator in the same power group to function? like if i have 2 power groups both have batteries. do i need a generator in both power groups to charge the batteries? or do batteries auto draw from all the generators regardless of being in a power group?

my impression of a power group is i could set a power group for things that need to be on all of the time, engines, life support, etc. and then i could set a power group for things that only need to be on when i use them, mining extractors for instance, then turn off that power group when i dont need them. But then i would need to make sure there are enough batteries in that power group to handle the demand. is that correct?

[Johnno]

1) Hydrogen generators only use fuel when required, they scale their usage depending on their output, so you can't save hydrogen by using power groups. I suppose you could hook everything up to powergroups so that you switch off every little thing that draws even the tiniest of power, like consoles and holotables, Or you could simply power them on solar.

Nuclear reactors produce power whenever they're online. You can either burn your cores nonstop, or keep an eye on when your batteries are full, thus running back and forth to turn your reactor on/off when need be. Too much of a hassle for me, I personally get to Pu-241 and just run nonstop. As such you wouldn't need power groups there either, you can't save the power in any way, unless you have vast amounts of batteries, and that in the end becomes prohibitive.

2) Batteries do need to be in a group with generation, or draw from a group with generation by use of a power transfer box. Again it'd just be a hassle moving those batteries around, but in the same way you could separate them to have them as backup, so you know you'll always have X amount of power tucked away. Problem would be if your ship takes damage, and those batteries end up draining because of it.

There are few things in the game that use power even when not actually used. Like weapons drawn whenever they're turned on (even if you don't fire them). Same with sensors, they draw power even if you're not actively scanning signatures or such.

Holotables and consoles draw power nonstop, also the cyber warfare suite draws power if there are chipsets in it, no matter if they're activated or not.

Extractors, refineries, salvagers, assemblers, 3D printers, basically anything you'd normally "use" don't use any power when idle. As such there's no real need to turn them off nonstop.

[NathanTheZealot]

Read this:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1697683699


Short answer, don't use power groups right away.

[Yokom]

Ok if you want to use solar and batteries for ship systems and either Nuke or Hydrogen for main ships systems you need power groups. I put Weapons, Shields, Engines in a group with the Gens. Then I use one transfer panel to pull some power from the battery plant but most from gens. I put all solar panels and batteries in one group and all other subsystems in a group that can pull from the bat plant. This way I can deep cycle the batteries and not waste fuel.

The problem with all in one group is yes power surges pull from the battery but the hydrogen gens put the power back before the solar panels have time to charge the bats. So you waste most of the solar power.

[Johnno]

Originally posted by Yokom:

The problem with all in one group is yes power surges pull from the battery but the hydrogen gens put the power back before the solar panels have time to charge the bats. So you waste most of the solar power.

Assuming you have 100 solar panels (50 power), you're wasting 19 hydrogen per minute whenever those solar panels aren't being utilised. That's one hour and 45 minutes of playtime before you've lost a box of hydrogen.

The downsides of splitting up your power in power groups can be catastrophic if your ship takes damage. If you're willing to accept that, because you're saving a box of hydrogen per 1h45m of playtime, have at it. I personally will continue 'wasting' my solar, and keeping it as a 100% backup for critical systems.

[Nightwolf]

i do use power groups now to some extent. I use a nuke reactor for nearly every ship i have and all my main systems are lumped onto that. generally whats worked for me is using solar panels to meet passive demand, doors life support etc. then only having to use the reactor to charge batteries back up after a super heavy demand on them which isnt often so i stack plenty of battery power. I use power groups to contain my engines and thursters along with some gens and fuel tanks packed with improved fuel, that usually last forever with me so takes the load off the reactors. I then use additional power groups to isolate rooms or systems i wont necessarily have on frequently, like a manufacturing room with all its life support and lights lopped onto a power group.

are they overwhelmingly useful? eh they help me rein in the power hogs, aside from that they really do need heavy amounts of love to be as effective as they reasonably should be.

[Tenryuta]

if you have a full factory on your ship, then put all resource related minus salvage, dispo, scoop on one and turn it on/off as needed(dont know if you can though)

theres almost no reason to, nukes or not, as by the time you can plop a nuke in a ship, you can more easily put a bunch of large batteries in and 1-2 gen and a large/xl tank, fill it and wait a few minutes, and/or have 8 t3 portables ready to go, and you probably have upgrade carts for engines/etc so whip those out on the DTs(expans are kinda meh, just put DTs all around the ship for those 6 upgrades, the bridge DT with trade data, the rest research)

[LittleShade]

The reason you need a power group has to do with automation.
If you don't group extractors, you'll have to run around to turn them on and off individually.

Also, if you are not grouping ACTRs, you will have to run to turn off power in case of fire.
In case of fire, it is better to turn off the power of the device and extinguish the fire.

Automating resource extraction requires about 70 ACTRs.
If you want to automate ammunition production, you need more ACTRs.

After all, the bigger the ship, the more you will feel the need for automation and the group to control it.