Solarpanels and NPC attacks

[['w']]

So I'm constantly running out of fuel and every day all the food spoils.

Even want to grow some plants and don't want to kill the crops by my bad power management.

1:
I'm in a mountainbase, if I building some solarpanels outside and lead the wires underground, will drones attack those panels, if they are like 1km away of the base or even up close.

2:
And googling it now, but what's the power consumption to fueltank ratio?

[djinnxy]

I'll see your wires and raise you an entire solar panel. (btw there are no wires.All electrical is just assumed to have wires as long as it's connected to the base blocks.)

You can actually put it all underground. Solar panels work even underground.

[djinnxy]

I agree that solar panels are at best a level 1-3 base starter item. They can remain viable and contribute to consumption later in the game if well protected though.

On the fooling the AI thing: It's certainly not a bad idea to put a door there, but if they got that far or even close enough to hack you put your turrets in the wrong place, ran out of ammo, or ran out of power to run the turrets/sentry guns (sentry guns is empyrion lingo for what would otherwise be called small turrets.) You would need to improve on those 3 things if you want to keep your base in tact and where it is.

[djinnxy]

I'll add that the smartest thing you could do is put off building on to a base till you have the capability to make a small drill HV with at least 2-4 turrets. With that you can disable the drone base and any of the other Zirax POI and live free.

[soulphreak]

i like to put solar panels on support bases like turret defence towers or a solar furnace/deconstructor/repair/teleport base.

sure, bio fuel is dirt cheap and later on even the amount of fusion cells number in the thousends. nonetheless, i like that i can just spawn them in and don' t have to worry about fuel.

i like base attacks. even to the point that i build a few bases close together to get more of them :)

[shdwdrvr83]

I'm going to disagree with the above recommendation about solar being only for starter levels - there's no reason you can't run a fully functional mid-late game base on Solar, if you're on a temperate/arid/desert planet. The only real caveat is that you won't be able to run your constructors indefinitely, you'll just need to ration their use (use them to make a few items, then turn them off and go on a raid while the batteries recharge etc. I usually rely on solar power entirely until I'm travelling in interstellar space living on a CV instead and mining asteroids for fuel.

The biggest effects on solar panels (besides planet type), are where/how you place them. If you're located near the equator and place them for maximum efficiency, you should be able to generate several hundred PU at least on a full set of 15 large panels. Don't mess with the small panels, and get to a full set of 15 as soon as you can.

Each capacitor holds up to 1500 units of energy in its battery, but you can add as many as you need. I've generally found that I never end up needing more than 4 unless I'm going away for a LONG time and want to really take advantage of them charging up while I'm gone. Usually 2 is fine if this is my home base that I'm in/out of frequently.

Note that solar is also affected by a couple other things, including weather, which can make generation a little unpredictable, so I usually build a small conventional power system with a little bit of fuel as a backup just in case the batteries run out, so my plants won't die.

When building underground, I usually build some towers of concrete up to the surface, and then build my solar array on the surface around those. I additionally build turrets for defense, so that they'll shoot down the drones before the drones get more than a few shots in.

Drones target various devices in priority order based on what they can see/reach. Mostly, they'll be shooting at your weapons and your core. If you bury the core and your other devices (capacitors generator, fuel tank, etc) deep underground, the rocket drones will often fire harmlessly into the dirt trying to hit them, despite dozens of meters of terrain in the way. For the same reason, build your defense turrets a few blocks in height above your solar panels, so that splash damage from the occasional rocket against them won't hit the panels. Assuming you didn't accidentally place a panel on a direct line between where the drones come in and where your core is buried, you shouldn't see them get damaged very often if at all.

[['w']]

Are those Capacitors when charging, visually charging?

thx for the replies so far

[piddlefoot]

If you place the solar panels NOT between you and the direction the drones come from, so they dont run into the solar panels first, they should not attack them.

I dunno the fuel ratio, never worked it out to a finite point.

[mrx]

I jacked up the solar panel numbers in my config file so they put out a lot more juice. Also with panels is they don't generate power unless you're in the vicinity. so if you're off planet they do nothing.

[Aristacah]

Originally posted by Scooby:

First off ditch the solar panel if you are at a point where you have a garden. They are not meant to maintain a base past the first few levels of the game. Trees and the HV harvester attachment are your fuel source. Use this. Small generators are dirty cheap and more reliable.
I do not understand for the life of me why people even bother with solar as even in reality it is unreliable power source. By the time I think about a base I have small gen and tank. More than enough mats to make those.
Oh and pro tip even for a surface base. You can put Generator and fuel tank under the center of the base for added protection with the core. High suggest though that you put a door over an access to the area. Reason is then the AI will come inside and go into that door instead of hacking from outside.

1. Bad idea putting your generator and fuel tank next to your core. Just don't. Remeber: fuel tanks and cargo boxes explode taking out everything around them.
2. Solor power is indeed useful and to be used for powering your base. Use it. 15 panels is the max.
3. Small generators are not as good at the larger ones and what do you mean by "reliable"?
4. Make sure you have enough solar batteries to store the power generated by your panels
5. Fuel tanks.....have many and fill them.

I see some great suggestions here but not using solar power is a terrible one. Use it! Sorry to hear that your food is spoiling.

I really think they screwed up the power system in this release. I hope they get it sorted but not counting on it. There are so many bugs they need to address. It would have been nice if they had tested this build before releasing it. oh well.......can't have everything.