Are fusion cells worth it? What am I missing?

[Kmordain]

Ok so at first glance, the fuel density looks good, twice as much power in one item.

But before we even get into the extra production costs, let's look at the ACTUAL density of the fuel.

For 2x the power, you have more than 2x the storage space and that's where I give up on it. Even if the production costs make it not worth the extra power, the density might be worth it if it prolonged the need to stop and mine for fuel, you know?

My thought process was that if I could stock a container of fusion cells and get further without having to stop and mine than if I stocked a container of large promethium packs, then it would be worth the extra production costs because I could drop a base down to produce them on a planet while I'm off exploring the solar system, pick them up on my way out to move on, rinse and repeat.

Seems more worthwhile not to even worry about it though if the density is not TRULY 2x. You have to consider storage space in the equation right? It also takes more fuel to lift the heavier load etc. and right now 2x Large packs out performs 1x Fusion in terms of space. The ONLY benefit seems to be a lower promethium cost on the surface which honestly could end up being a deficit when you take into consideration the production cost and weight/space of the new fuel.

I'd say the prognosis is that IF they are better, it's barely marginal at best.

Am I missing something here?

[Luke]

Isn't it 10x the power at 2x the mass?

Not sure how important volume is, that looks like 5x but it still gives a good ratio vs power. Volume isn't super important to me except in the very early game.

I'm just checking the wiki, maybe it's out of date.

In my limited experience, the limiting factor is the resource mining time per power unit. All refining happens in the background while you're doing other stuff, so I used to make choices based on how to reduce time spent harvesting.

[The Big Brzezinski]

Based on numbers from ItemsConfig, large cells are slightly more energy dense for their mass (60) and volume (9) than fusion cells (75, 10.5). Fusion cells take half as much promethium for the same fuel value. Not a big different, but worth considering if you really want to maximize your ship's range.

Fuel cells can be made in a station using free solar power, and water is really cheap to produce even at scale, so that's not a big factor.

[margalus]

Hydrogen is infinite and easy to get, promethium not so much.

[TwitchyJ]

If you throw the fusion cells in a fuel tank you can pull them back out as small fuel packs, and then store them as the smalls.
I'm not at my computer so can't say if the small cells are better in storage or not.

One thing is for sure, it is definitely worth crafting the fusion cells.
Same amount of promethium, just with the addition of some water and small amount of iron, and you get way more fuel.
It would be stupid NOT to craft them over the large packs.

And yes, nearly nothing is balanced correctly in vanilla still. Mass and volume numbers being the worst offenders.

[Jalore]

Once reach a certain point i use exclusively fusion cells. promethium are nice early one but keep my fusion cells at my main base and top off my vessels there. used to split a stack and carry extra's for long missions if i'm afraid of getting low on fuel or need to fuel something else. bu now i add extra fuel tanks to a large carrier cv and pull out promethium packs for a hv or sv if need be when away from my main base.

edit:i do the same with O2 pull out what i need for hv or sv's from time to time.

suppose could build a gas station base with underground tanks to keep them safe. to save on weight and volume and pull out what you need from time to time.

[TwitchyJ]

I will say the places where the fusion cells REALLY shine are in the powered terrain placeables.
Things like water generators, auto miners, etc, still use the old fuel system that was slot based instead of volume based.
This means you get extremely long run times by filling them up with fusion cells instead of other fuel types.

For those that don't know, fuel tanks used to be slot based. They each had X number of slots and you had to open them one by one and fill them up individually.

^This is the original reason we had the different tiers of fuel types. You got exponentially longer run times in your structures by upgrading what type of fuel packs you filled your tanks with.
Later on down the road the devs decided to make fuel tanks all count as one volume based system, for convenience reasons among other things, and now it doesn't matter what fuel type you put in.

So now the only advantage to fusion cells is extending your promethium stash (except for terrain placeables).

[VulcanTourist]

Originally posted by TwitchyJ:

For those that don't know, fuel tanks used to be slot based. They each had X number of slots and you had to open them one by one and fill them up individually.

I think there's only three of us in this thread who've been around long enough to remember that... and I had forgotten (because amnesia is my superpower).

[Jalore]

Originally posted by TwitchyJ:

I will say the places where the fusion cells REALLY shine are in the powered terrain placeables.
Things like water generators, auto miners, etc, still use the old fuel system that was slot based instead of volume based.
This means you get extremely long run times by filling them up with fusion cells instead of other fuel types..

yeah fusion cells are better for the miners and water purifiers for sure.

but didn't know that was the old system before the tank linkage. imagine that required a bit of tedious maintenance before you could do anything.

[Kmordain]

Thanks everyone, I think I understand the benefits now. I figured promethium was in plentiful supply at some point, but even so, it's used in ammunition and fuel which are both very exhaustible consumables.

Definitely thanks for the tip on the water generators @TwitchyJ, that is definitely a useful tip. Funny enough though, that's where I spend most of my biofuel, saving the other fuel for my ships.

Do bases still run and construct things when you're off planet or even in another solar system?

[dragonbornzyra]

Stuff a Portable O2/Water condensor with fusion cells and see what it makes you.

@OP Technically yes it still works while you're gone. Technically. More like when you return ot calculates all the work it should have been doing, then does it all at once to "catch up".

[mrx]

I usually never bother making them because raiding bases you get a lot of pre made ones and the large size promethium packs.

[margalus]

Originally posted by mrx:

I usually never bother making them because raiding bases you get a lot of pre made ones and the large size promethium packs.

Never enough... I've made a little over 7000 fusion cells in the last few days...

[dragonbornzyra]

It'd be cool if we had an ammo type that used Fusion Cells, or a T2 Explosive Charge that did. Sticky grenade or bouncing one. Or instead of a placeable timed charge, a placeable remote detonation charge.

[VulcanTourist]

Originally posted by mrx:

I usually never bother making them because raiding bases you get a lot of pre made ones and the large size promethium packs.

You can mod the recipes for the Large and Fusion cells to use the previous tier as input, rather than raw materials. This means that even the Small cells that are looted continue to have value in the endgame, without having to use a Deconstructor to break them down only to use the same materials to make a higher tiered cell.

[crumpy108]

You can always do what I do, craft fusion cells for auto miners/portable devices. Craft large cells for ships/bases etc. I have over 200k prometheum after making about 50000 large.