TerraTech Geocorp Gluon Mega Battery. A must use? Or situational.

"This battery doesn't explode, it implodes to cause no damage to nearby blocks."
Quite handy that can be! Is there really a downside to using the Mega Battery? That is what this guide is here to clarify!
Should we all use the Mega Battery as much as possible or use it in certain situations?

Key:
HP: Hull Point/Hit Point
EP: Energy Points (HP for shields)
RCE: Roditic Chemical Explosion (A word play of Thermal Nuclear Explosion for batteries).
GMB: Gluon Mega Battery.

Corporation acronyms for new comers: (just in case)
GSO: Galactic Survey Organization
Ven: Venture
GC: GeoCorp
BF: Better Future
HE: Hawk-Eye
RR: Reticule Research

===WARNING! I have a habit of being super explanatory, this is going to be a long one so buckle up and get your knowledge hats on.===

RCEs, the punishment of old battery spam.

An RCE is a chain reaction of exploding batteries, causing critical damage to the tech. When one battery goes critical nearby hoards of batteries, it can cause a chain reaction to reduce the insides of the tech into a hollow hull or completely annihilate the tech.


Most techs that experience RCEs are poorly made, the only instances of exceptions are:

1) The builder is aware of RCEs and was taking a calculated risk of an RCE.
2) The tech is very small and wants a large EP pool.
3) The tech relies on anti-gravity.
4) The tech is not built for combat.
**5) The tech is using GMBs to create energy storage spines and cores.**

Otherwise, if an RCE occurs and the situation does not apply to any of the five exceptions, it is clear as day that the tech was not built properly (sorry if this sounds a bit offensive). A fight should not end when a tech sustains any damage, it should end when it sustains too much damage, shields negate damage and are merely a shield, not the tech's hull and life.

Generally, battery spam is an indicator of inexperience unless applied to the first four exceptions, but with the GMB, is it truly a rookie mistake now? RCEs punish the inexperienced battery and shield spammers, the GMBs can't have an RCE. So if it can't have an RCE, is there any reason to not use other batteries besides size and storage density? Well clearly, not being susceptible to RCEs is a big benefit, such a large benefit in fact that I have noted in my guides to ignore the GMBs as it is such a game changer in the tanky 101 series.

No RCE, no risk. At least upon going critical compared to other batteries.

Mega Batteries are delicate.

GMBs implode spectacularly, it's very obvious when one implodes. In fact, what got me making this was when I had a fortress using GMBs and once a light volley of missiles hit it (the fortress), a GMB imploded in a situation I have never seen even a block explode! In my eyes, no block, even a venture block, should of been completely destroyed in that situation.
I even had the explosion penetration nerf mod!



As it turns out, GMBs are sensitive equipment (which is quite understandable). If you were to spam them as hull, they are more likely to fall apart than normal GC batteries!
For reference, it takes 4 BF laser rifle hits to implode a GMB yet 10 to explode 4 GC batteries in the same volume, (first two batteries took 3 shots, last two took 2 shots due to nearby battery detonations).
Taking the DPS of the laser rifle, 150. We can assume the GMB has 600 HP in the 4x2x4 volume (X,Y,Z), applying this to 4 GC batteries, we have a total of 1800 HP! That's TRIPLE the HPs! If we take battery detonation in consideration, we have 1500 HP, still over double the GMB's HP!

GMBs are best not to be exposed, it would be wise to insert them internally, allowing the battery to store its power for use until its fully discharged, and when the hull is compromised after shields are down, the GMB imploding is not much of a concern, it has fulfilled its purpose and even upon destruction, doesn't harm the tech.

Miscellaneous data. (Crafting and mass.)

Here's a list of the mass (or "weight" for you planet localists) of batteries occupying a single GMB volume. (4x2x4, X,Y,Z)

This is using the R&D labs mass scale.

Battery type and quantity	Total mass
GC G.M.B	80.0
GC Battery Pack x4	96.0
HE Ion Battery x16	104.0
BF Battery x16	86.4
Ven Battery x32	32.0
GSO Small Battery Cell x32	96.00

This makes the GMB have the 2nd lowest mass-volume ratio by a significant margin in this scale! (Also, wow Venture is light weight)...
Don't forget to take this with a dose of meaninglessness however. Reasons why are explained in the giga-wall of text, extra-mini physics-lesson, below.
Feel free to skip to the next double white line if the giga-wall of text is a lot. If there was a way to create a text tab to hide all of this I would of used it on the triple. Same goes for changing the text size, color, and line height.

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Total mass is no more meaningful than being an inconvenience for only making planes with wings. Technically, when not using wings, mass means nothing as hills don't exist in TT, and what TT calls a hill are: sheer edges (an incline from 45* to 65*, "hills" 53% of the time), cliffs (more than 65* inclines, "hills" 32% of the time), crevasses ("hills" 8% of the time), trenches ("hills" 4% of the time), and pits ("hills" 2% of the time). If you somehow find a procedurally generated incline of terrain that isn't any of the previous, doesn't change incline angle by more than 5* for more than 1 meter, and has no involvement with the salt flats biome, you just found a bit of terrain that I have encountered less than 10 times in my 1,800+ hours of TT.

PHYSICS!!

If you can go over all of the "hills" as TT seemingly expects you to, this would be because your tech can fly better than drive on an incline as beyond 45*, objects fall more than slide down an incline. Since the issue is more falling than sliding, the real problem is center of mass, not total mass/weight. You would fall down a slope because of tipping more than from sliding. When was the last time you couldn't go up a slope not because you tipped over and had to use the build beam? Because of all this, total mass means nothing until you build VERY large. All you would need for any mass-related problem is enough sources of force like hovers or Thrusters.
One of the most significant times total mass is important is when trying to go at speeds where drag becomes impossible to ignore (100+mph or ~160.9+ kmph). But TT physics royally screws everyone from going over "100mph" since TT has no aerodynamics (the best way to get faster easier) and the atmosphere density of Venus in terms of dr. When moving a bit faster than "100mph", the amount of atmospheric drag in TT is apparently so high that if a real-life modern Fighter Jet going at standard Fighter Jet speeds (some 600mph or 965.6km/h, give or take as you wish) was to suddenly be in TT atmosphere, it would quickly be indistinguishable from a Meteor experiencing reentry on Earth or more likely; act like it hit an immovable object over 1,000,000x stiffer than a brick wall, aka neutronium (what neutron stars are made of). This apparent level of drag is not just the idea of drag alone, but also because half of the law of inertia is violated/broken by the laws of TT. Apparently, in the world of TT; mass, (insert all other violations of physics, which is probably every other known law of physics left, that isn't explicit to the law of inertia), creates an opposing and invisible force that acts against any and all motion of ONLY techs with the exception to the gravity magnifier engine from BF... Because apparently the concept of gravity as a force (probably provided by Unity) is not what Payload Studios thinks is a force in general and made their own for forces like drag and what ever new form of physics the other half of the law of inertia which was violated became... The half of our law of inertia that wasn't violated included the idea of conservation of momentum and acceleration. Lets say this violated half is still part of "the law of inertia" as a concept but only for the context of being in TT. Our law of inertia is now different to TT's law of inertia.
The half of our law of inertia that was violated included Newton's 3rd law: any exerted force onto something generates an opposite and opposing force of a magnitude proportionate to the "thing's" inertia. The outcome from of this violation that influences our techs today in TT still acts like Newton's 3rd law but without any form of interaction with anything and that an opposing force is created not by an acting force, but from the motion of mass, (re-mention of previously inserted violations of physics, at this rate I can make a physics article about the physics of TT), and this would explain why more mass = less maximum velocity in both space and atmosphere. This part of TT's law of inertia states that the more total mass a tech has, the greater the opposing force whenever the tech enters motion. At the end, this all acts identically to the force of drag except that it would apply in space and is separate to actual drag, meaning there are two sources of drag in TT: Drag, and mass. The more mass, the more drag from TT's law of inertia. The faster a tech, the more drag from the law of aerodynamics.
Hope you casually enjoyed this extra-mini physics lesson that was started by a rant about TT's unreasonable speed limit and spiraled out of control due to my habit of being overly descriptive and having deeply rooted issues with TT as a veteran of the game. By the time I realized I was being overly descriptive it was too late and I was already too committed. Whoops.
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I know nothing of over committing.

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The GMB is EXTREMELY easy to craft. Requiring parts that can easily be obtained through scraping salvaged blocks, I will explain this process in detail:

Gluon Mega Battery: Unobtainable salvage. (Wild vanilla-flavored techs never posses this block).

Resource needed to make a GMB	How said resource is obtained swiftly
Proxima Dark x1	Directly recycled from Megaton Cannons (MTCs).
Dervish Cell x1	Easily crafted using the Carbite and Blast Caps from the weapons already recycled for the other components. The heating coil needs to be provided by the base.
Z4 Explosives x4	Crafted using directly recycled Blast Caps and Carbite.
Blast Caps x3	Directly recycled from MTCs and GSO Mortars. Can be crafted using the surplus Carbite from recycling said weapons but Rodite will need to be provided.

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Megaton cannon: Common salvage.

Resource from scrapping	Use of said resource in making a GMB
Proxima Dark x1	Directly inputted.
Blast Caps x1	Directly inputted. Can be used to create Z4 Explosives w/ recycled Carbite.
Carbius Brick x1	Can be used to make more explosives.
Plumbite x1	Waste

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GSO 8-Barrel Fixed Mini-Mortar: Very common salvage.

Resource from scrapping	Use of said resource in making a GMB
Blast Caps x2	Directly inputted. Can be used to create Z4 Explosives w/ recycled Carbite.
Plubonic Greebles x2	Waste
Carbius Brick x2	Can be used to make more explosives.

Energy capacity.

The new Tesla coil from RR was used to calculate the energy storage of batteries in a 4x2x4 volume, same as the GMB! Honestly, if there are batteries with less than a Tesla shot difference in energy storage, it can be considered insignificant. This should give us a great idea on the battery capacities of not only the GMB, but all other batteries occupying the same volume!

Battery type and quantity	Discharged Tesla Bolts
GMB	25
GC Battery Pack x4	24
HE Ion Battery x16	24
BF Battery x16	28
Ven Battery x32	20
GSO Small Battery Cell x32	20
RR Pioneer Cab x4	[APROX] A whopping 5 bolts (derived from how 2 cabs can barely launch 3).

Better future is indeed good at making batteries. The only issue for combat is there HPs compared to a GC battery pack and HE Ion batteries is rather low and they are still all explosive.
The GMB has the 2nd most capacity among all batteries and is the 2nd lightest when occupying the same 4x2x4 space, and considering it implodes instead of exploding... that's a really good deal!!
Just be sure to keep it safe in the hull as it is still quite frail!

Assessment and tech design applications.

The GMB is excellent for building large techs, such as shown to the left. Easy to craft and is only a single block, it can be quite a no-brainer for airships when choosing what battery to use, especially for its rather low density which is a bonus! (Even if total mass is essentially meaningless). I recommend creating reinforced GMB spines and GMB cores, the rule of thumb is having the GMBs deep inside the tech's hull at all times.

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I highly recommend the battery for all situations, as long as its nicely INSIDE the tech and never exposed. With the battery being a single, large, and frail block, the energy stored inside can easily be lost prematurely, protect the battery from direct damage until its empty, then its not a concern if destroyed due to its easy combat crafting recipe. If you fight a lot, you should have over 500 mortars and over 100 Megaton cannons. Much easier than amassing thousands and thousands of Titania!
Besides. You should be keeping batteries safe inside in the first place but this one especially even if it doesn't explode as it's quite expensive, frail, easy to hit when exposed, and stores a lot of energy on it's own.

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I highly DETER using this block for small and medium techs, it inflates the volume of techs greatly, you must protect it with hull otherwise its like glass in an under water submarine, a structural weak point! Making a small tech that has a safe GMB is an impressive accomplishment though.
Use HE Ion batteries or a single GC battery pack instead of a GMB! Small techs won't be massive, so weight is not a primary issue (not that it can really ever be), and you don't need to spam Ion batteries to get decent EP storage. This is highly complimented by the use of energy efficient bubbles from Ven and GSO.
The GMB is best for large techs with lots of shields, hull, and armor to protect it.

-End-

This guide is updated to V1.5.0 stable.
If there is any more detail which is desired here, ask me! I am very prone to replying and editing.
The GMB is very unique, being more complex than most blocks in how it should be used and why. I hope this guide clarifies when and how to use the GMB in TerraTech!

This guide was made in TT version 1.4.0 stable.
The used black and purple skin used can be found here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2140872378&searchtext=

[G-18]

So what you're saying is that I can store even more energy if I just use the BF batteries? More energy means more shields

[[6-4] Kek~]

Ok so yes or no, can't be asked to read all that

[Fooper]

mods basically never follow vanilla balance fyi

[AnonaCraffter]

me got bigger batteries thx to mods

[Fooper]

gluon battery is based(for techs on the larger side ofc), though it is the most frail one(density)

[Vertu]

Added tables. They look much nicer.
Also accidentally made an entire extra-mini physics-lesson that slightly covered the physics of TT and why the physics of TT make the concept of a tech's total mass, basically meaningless.

What wasn't included in that however was; why bother going through the trouble that is TT's hostile terrain when you can just float above it using Fortress Hovers in the first place? Well that's another reason why total mass is meaningless and also the reason my biggest techs are only airships.

[LegoTrainDriver]

Im quite happy that the mega batteries dont end in a nuclear explosion

[Vertu]

Actually, GMB implode so they don't have chain reactors. So unfortunately, no dramatic death in a massive explosion. Rather it will be it falling down while engulfed in flames from all the things that slammed into it.

[GamerGuy]

Ah yes, I am starting to build a mothership that drops tanks and has an airstrip for planes. Likely will have a GMB core for a dramatic death.

[Vertu]

Maybe slap a ven shield next to them as it sounds like they get hit directly in the face by a 1 meter cannon shell. They are actually quite sturdy but they still go boom if directly hit, Also have a GSO bubble heal them, not VEN for repair rate.