Are Batteries just pointless now?

[BlackDragon]

I recently hit Tier 8 tech in my new save. Accessed Drones, accessed the Blender and so forth, and sighed as I remembered what an *utter pain* Battery-production is. Started looking around for a place to set up a Battery-plant - you need Bauxite, Sulfur and water, the former two being somewhat rare - and if you don't have the Sloppy Alumina / Pure Aluminum Ingots alternate recipes, you also need Quartz and Coal.

Then I realized... why even bother? They're not needed for any tech-unlocks, or any buildings, or any crafting beyond a pointlessly overcomplicated alternate recipe for the Supercomputer. Used to be their only purpose was powering Drones, but now you can do that with Turbofuel at a slight penalty to their speed, or just use ROCKETFUEL which is unlocked around the same time and is actually BETTER than Batteries, while being way easier to make.

It's nice that the Drones are more flexible now, but it seems a bit sad that Batteries are now in the same situation that Beacons once were. You can MAKE them... but why would you want to? >_>

[Freeman]

Yep, literally zero reason to make them to the point im not sure why they left them in the game

[Drib]

Yeah, i noticed that too. Drones used to be battery only, now that you can use fuel there's zero reason to deal with all the faff of batteries. I think they're used in a couple random alt recipies for things, but given what a hassle they are I doubt it's ever worth using.

[TH3R4BB!T]

They are part of some alt recipes..... but I never made them in EA and in release

[Zylo]

I already had batts being made when I started my aluminum factory, played around with just using fuel in drones but batts seem to last much longer so .. i'll keep using them.

[GAMING_Alligator]

As a player that only started with 1.0, when I got drones, I looked at the recipe for batteries and din't touch them. I already had plenty of fuel, so why bother.

[Evilsod]

Well, I would assume that's because Rocket Fuel is better put to use in a fuel generator, maybe with a very small amount kept as surplus for packaging into personal jetpack fuel.

I'd be more likely to consider using the byproduct from rocket fuel production (compacted coal) to make turbofuel and use that for drone/jetpack fuel. Batteries are a hell of a lot better than plain fuel/turbofuel though.

It does feel like the recipe is too demanding now for how limited its applications are. Having to funnel aluminium to it in fairly large quantities is a major point of contention for me. Seems to me like the Supercomputer alt recipe is kinda ♥♥♥♥ for the same reason, but I've not looked in much detail.

[kLuns]

Packaged rocket fuel is compressed and provides twice the energy per item of the gas.
Batteries are still stronger than turbo fuel.
The blender recipe can be annoying but there is a manufacturer alternate.
So get some hard drives :)

[BlackDragon]

Originally posted by kLuns:

Packaged rocket fuel is compressed and provides twice the energy per item of the gas.
Batteries are still stronger than turbo fuel.
The blender recipe can be annoying but there is a manufacturer alternate.
So get some hard drives :)

The 'Alternate Recipe' for Batteries isn't much better. You still need Aluminum, just for Sheets now instead of Casings+Alumina, and you still need Sulfur, just 'plain' instead of Sulfuric Acid... and now you also need Copper and Plastic. So arguably, it's even MORE complicated to produce.

And while Batteries ARE better than Turbofuel, it really isn't by as much as people are making it out to be. Comparing the two, Turbofuel gives you a speed of 30 m/s compared to 37 from Batteries, and you need 3 times as much of it... but at this point, you're probably producing OODLES of Turbofuel for power-generation, and should be looking into switching to *Rocket* Fuel for your plants - either that, or Nuclear. Either way, that'll free up plenty of Turbofuel for the Drones, so long as you can live with that teeny drop in speed.

If you can't, well, Rocket Fuel has exactly the same speed as Batteries, and you actually need *less of it*. If you can unlock the Alternate Recipe for Rocket Fuel, you can start making it as soon as you've researched Advanced Aluminum Production, and considering how big a boost it is to your power-generation, it's really not hard to redirect a pittance of it into Packaged Rocket Fuel for drone-usage. Also, while mileage might vary, I personally don't find Rocket Fuel worth using in the Jetpack, beyond maybe an initial joyride. If you need to go up fast, Turbofuel generally suffices, and for all other purposes, Liquid Biofuel reigns supreme...

(Oh, and in case I wasn't clear before - there is only ONE alternate recipe that requires Batteries - the Super-State Computer. And it is *extremely* not worth it. :P )

[BIT Bear]

Batteries are great for the supercomputer alt recipe.

Edit: Other than that... idk

[BIT Bear]

Originally posted by kLuns:

Packaged rocket fuel is compressed and provides twice the energy per item of the gas.
Batteries are still stronger than turbo fuel.
The blender recipe can be annoying but there is a manufacturer alternate.
So get some hard drives :)

Rocket Fuel is the way

[Jack Sparrow]

Considering how strong fuel generation is for power, it makes more sense to just set up packaged jet fuel as a small part of your fuel generator plant and use that. You have one Drone port set as Jet fuel supplier, and then whenever you need drones in a remote area, just put down 2 drone ports, one will be the fuel runner and its output will feed in to the fuel port of itself and the other drone port, which will transport whatever part/material you need. This way way the fuel will just back up in the fuel supplier drone port and it acts as a buffer.

[Splutty]

There's an alternative recipe for batteries you can research that just uses a 4 port assembler and common materials.

Saw you already figured that one out. I use drones to deliver stuff. Well. I did until all my drones broke.

[Porked!]

I have a factory in the double pure quartz/pure coal/normal sulfur cave that I've been using to export all the silica and crystals. I find it to be slightly easier to go with battery than fuel there so, eh, I guess that's the only place where I use batteries as they are intended.

[Schobbob]

I made some batteries for my drones so I can use all the fuel for power, was going to make superstate computers but after building since release my game is getting too choppy to finish that.