Expansive Empire

[balto]

At first, I was creating my Empires like it was Sid Meir's Civilization where spreading out early is important because it gives you access to resources and you can occupy land that no one can enter.

But I think I am seeing that in DW you should intitially keep your empire as close together as you can because you can generally trade and find your luxuries and somewhat share resources with others around you. And the early military ships have no long range capabilities. When you have a solid close together empire (about 8), then reach out to far away places and maybe attack some stuff.

Is this a correct observation on my part? Any input is appreciated.

[Data]

You are correct.

[Bingeling]

Remote colonies are not very desirable, no. But you may discover that once remote colonies become more central as time passes.

The remote colony gets no trade. So it does not develop well. If it is in an area with bigger colonies of other empires, it can get its development resources. But if there are other big colonies in the area you may find massive immigration and a population which is not "yours". Which may make them prone to rebel during war.

So, is that remote colony in distant lands good or bad? Bad if it can't develop and you can't afford to defend it properly. Possibly good if probable enemies are near, and you can load up with fuel sources. This can be common in a clustered or ring galaxy. Base a good battle fleet and some raiders there to kill off enemy mining bases, fleets, space ports in case of war. Also, even if the population is foreign, the rebellions won't succeed as long as you have a good garrison. A garrison that would be recommended anyways, since the AI for sure would like to invade the place.

[balto]

Thank you both. PS - I still am trying to understand how the FUEL works and Energy Collectors, but I will save that for another day.

[Nedrear]

Fuel is only consumed in a Reactor, which as a matter of fact got an efficiency. It uses X.XX Fuel per 100 Energy offered to the ship systems. You can read it as a main information of your ship as well as the energy cost per second of the Hyperdrive in the engine panel.

Now we get everything we want!

dV = E(h) * V(H) : E(00)
t = V(max) : dV
s = t * v

dV is the used Fuel per Hyperdrive second.
E(h) is the Energy Consumption of the Hyperdrive
V(H) is the Amount of Fuel it eats per 100 Energy
E(00) is 100 Energy
t is the time the Fuel will last when you only use the Hyperdrive
V(max) is your Fuel Cell Capacity
s is the Range you can reach
v is the Speed of the Hyperdrive

2) Solar collectors apply when stationary INSIDE a star system and can take over the demand of stationary energy costs. Don't use them in gas clouds or on permanently moving ships. They can not sustain weapons and shieds. Get a reactor for that!

[Bingeling]

There are two ways to get energy, burn fuel, or collect by energy collector.

If you look top right, you see the static fuel cost. This is fuel that is always spent. In addition you can poke around seeing the fuel used by the engines, hyper drive, and all weapons firing.

In general, you want enough reactor output to do all things at once, except the hyper drive. Cover static cost, sprint at full speeds, add a little bit for shield recharge, and fire all weapons at full.

Where does energy collectors come in for a ship? In not spending fuel while sitting idle. So on a military ship (or civilian) it is a good idea to have enough energy collector to cover the static cost. This means that the fleet you parked in your home system with full fuel tanks will still have full fuel tanks when you need them.

Bases are a bit different, you typically want to cover the daily life and then some with energy collectors.

But Nedrear: Are you sure there is no energy to collect in gas clouds? I am pretty sure I don't run fuel transports to keep bases in those alive, or that military ships parked in a gas cloud uses fuel (with energy collectors).

[Sithuk]

Nedrear:

Solar collectors apply when stationary INSIDE a star system and can take over the demand of stationary energy costs. Don't use them in gas clouds or on permanently moving ships. They can not sustain weapons and shieds. Get a reactor for that

My understanding is that solar collectors can power everything including weapons and shields. My starbases seem to work fine with only the minimum single reactor (forced on me by the design screen) and more than enough solar collectors to cover peak energy use.

Why do you think solar collectors don't power weapons or shields? Are you mistakenly extrapolating the feature that solar collectors do not function when on a moving hull to mean that solar collectors cannot power weapons?

[Nedrear]

Your solar collectors in your base most likely help your static energy consumption, therefore offering the !1! reactor power to the weapons.
You may try it. Build two times the weapons the reactor can 'support' in a station and try to cover it with solar collectors after that. Use only as much as needed after you count the weapon energy and the static use. Now let pirates spawn and count the blasters that are firing at the same time. Are all in sync? Are they shooting in the right time inteval?
BEcause now your collector should need to get the energy permanently and has to puffer the weapon 'spike' of consumption when shooting. This station should not run well when under attack. Though that might not be the plan and it can return back to work after that.

[feelotraveller]

Solar collectors definitely charge the shields. If you build your ships/bases with the right component order their shields will begin to charge before even having fuel cells installed (and yes that means before the ship/base finishes building). I have not tested but had heard and assumed it was the same with weapons. Though the fact that there is energy stored in the reactor makes me feel certain that the weapons can fire.

[Kayoz]

I think the collectors can power the weapons if you're not moving - so that means only bases (mining stations, ports, etc), but ships need fuel to power their weapons.

Or so that's what I remember - mining stations without fuel seem to charge their shields and return fire on pirates - so it equally might be a bug in the program (only checking for fuel w. ships, not bases)... though that might be intentional given the problems with civilian ships getting fuel around...

[Nedrear]

If - by whatever reason - the solar collector is able to produce energy as quick as needed and with energy spikes of the shots included, it is completly possible. The system of energy "storage" is not well explained in the game either which makes "guessing" the right amount of energy always harder. Though the smart guy than recalculates the energy usage for recharging shields too or the station will stop mining while under attack. In the end it doesnt matter that much if it stops mining while it gets destroyed or not. It can resume later.
Ships need solar collectors. A tactical fleet needs them to stay "hidden" in position or a building ship to spare fuel when building in system. It doesn't move in that moment.

Though our nasty reality tells us, that moving objects still use solar power. I will mod this technology to give less energy but anytime - where there is a sun - in a mod later if possible.