Do fuel cells determine how much fuel a gas mining base can store or only cargo bays and gas extractors? What about energy collectors? What is the optimum design for refueling your fleets from these?
Are fuel cells only for moving objects and not immobile bases? Are energy collectors only for immobile bases and not moving objects?
Fuel
RE: Fuel Storage
No. Fuel and energy collectors are two different ways of getting "energy" to power equipment.
Energy Collectors collect energy from light when a ship or base is not in combat (fact check please).
Fuel is burned by reactors to provide energy under any circumstance.
Most bases and ships will have some "static" energy cost which is really just a minimum rest-state energy consumption. Your reactors will burn fuel very slowly over time to fill this need. Or you can add an energy collector and it should fill this power consumption provided a source of photons.
You might think you can just forego fuel cells and reactors and make stuff powered exclusively by energy collectors, but you can't. Max energy capacity is determined exclusively by the number and type of reactors (fact check). Energy collectors cannot store any energy. And, as I mentioned, they don't appear to work in combat, and they certainly don't function in deep space or hyperspace.
edit: typo
Energy Collectors collect energy from light when a ship or base is not in combat (fact check please).
Fuel is burned by reactors to provide energy under any circumstance.
Most bases and ships will have some "static" energy cost which is really just a minimum rest-state energy consumption. Your reactors will burn fuel very slowly over time to fill this need. Or you can add an energy collector and it should fill this power consumption provided a source of photons.
You might think you can just forego fuel cells and reactors and make stuff powered exclusively by energy collectors, but you can't. Max energy capacity is determined exclusively by the number and type of reactors (fact check). Energy collectors cannot store any energy. And, as I mentioned, they don't appear to work in combat, and they certainly don't function in deep space or hyperspace.
edit: typo
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ehsumrell1
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RE: Fuel Storage
ORIGINAL: Tanaka
Do fuel cells determine how much fuel a gas mining base can store or only cargo bays and gas extractors?
Cargo bays dictate how much storage an ore mining or gas mining station holds. For Gas Mining Bases,
optimize storage capacity by adding Cargo bays. Optimize how quickly the base mines gases by adding
more than one gas extractor. To increase ship refueling speed & capacity, add more docking bays.
Do the same for Ore Mining Bases.
[:)]
Shields are useless in "The Briar Patch"...
RE: Fuel Storage
ORIGINAL: ehsumrell1
ORIGINAL: Tanaka
Do fuel cells determine how much fuel a gas mining base can store or only cargo bays and gas extractors?
Cargo bays dictate how much storage an ore mining or gas mining station holds. For Gas Mining Bases,
optimize storage capacity by adding Cargo bays. Optimize how quickly the base mines gases by adding
more than one gas extractor. To increase ship refueling speed & capacity, add more docking bays.
Do the same for Ore Mining Bases.
[:)]
Got it thanks!
RE: Fuel Storage
ORIGINAL: jpwrunyan
No. Fuel and energy collectors are two different ways of getting "energy" to power equipment.
Energy Collectors collect energy from light when a ship or base is not in combat (fact check please).
Fuel is burned by reactors to provide energy under any circumstance.
Most bases and ships will have some "static" energy cost which is really just a minimum rest-state energy consumption. Your reactors will burn fuel very slowly over time to fill this need. Or you can add an energy collector and it should fill this power consumption provided a source of photons.
You might think you can just forego fuel cells and reactors and make stuff powered exclusively by energy collectors, but you can't. Max energy capacity is determined exclusively by the number and type of reactors (fact check). Energy collectors cannot store any energy. And, as I mentioned, they don't appear to work in combat, and they certainly don't function in deep space or hyperspace.
edit: typo
Understood thanks! My next question is how do you figure out how many fuel cells and energy collectors is optimal for a base? Energy collectors do not function in deep space over energy sources?
RE: Fuel Storage
And a little question: energy collectors will work on TOTALLY immobile base (without any, even orbital motion) or it's ok with just turned off engines?
RE: Fuel Storage
They shouldn't but they do work very well at deep space. At my endgames i design and deploy Monitor bases at deep space. They just got minimal nesesary modules, Ultra long range scanner, and the scanner works even without fuelEnergy collectors do not function in deep space over energy sources?
At the Design screen, you got top right you got "Energy Collectors" this value should same or greater then "Static energy usage". At this way Ships/bases don't use Fuel while they don't move or use weapons.Understood thanks! My next question is how do you figure out how many fuel cells and energy collectors is optimal for a base?
For Bases, the "Excess Energy output" should be same or greater then the "Maximum Energy use per second" locate at the Middle down above the weapons. If the Energy output is lower, not all your weapons got enough energy to fire at the same time.
For ships, you need to add the "Cruise energy need" to add to the "Maximum Energy use per second"
RE: Fuel Storage
Woops, I misunderstood the OP and didn't realize he was wondering about storing fuel gathered from resources. Thanks for clearing that up, guys.
BTW, many components acually do work without any energy supplied to them even though they tack on "static energy" requirements. I have noticed this with mining stations. They begin to harvest the instant they have a mining comp (and a storage bay). Even if there is no functioning reactor or energy collector. Likewise, I have noticed that deep space stations I discover in the story line events still have functional LR scanning even after they burn their last drop of fuel. This is sort of a bug, I think...
BTW, many components acually do work without any energy supplied to them even though they tack on "static energy" requirements. I have noticed this with mining stations. They begin to harvest the instant they have a mining comp (and a storage bay). Even if there is no functioning reactor or energy collector. Likewise, I have noticed that deep space stations I discover in the story line events still have functional LR scanning even after they burn their last drop of fuel. This is sort of a bug, I think...
RE: Fuel Storage
Ok thanks is this how I should understand it?
Needed Energy Collectors for Ships and Bases: At the Design screen, you got top right you got "Energy Collectors" this value should same or greater then "Static energy usage". At this way Ships/bases don't use Fuel while they don't move or use weapons.
Needed Fuel Cells Bases: For Bases, the "Excess Energy output" should be same or greater then the "Maximum Energy use per second" locate at the Middle down above the weapons. If the Energy output is lower, not all your weapons got enough energy to fire at the same time.
Needed Fuel Cells Ships: For ships, you need to add the "Cruise energy need" to add to the "Maximum Energy use per second"
Needed Energy Collectors for Ships and Bases: At the Design screen, you got top right you got "Energy Collectors" this value should same or greater then "Static energy usage". At this way Ships/bases don't use Fuel while they don't move or use weapons.
Needed Fuel Cells Bases: For Bases, the "Excess Energy output" should be same or greater then the "Maximum Energy use per second" locate at the Middle down above the weapons. If the Energy output is lower, not all your weapons got enough energy to fire at the same time.
Needed Fuel Cells Ships: For ships, you need to add the "Cruise energy need" to add to the "Maximum Energy use per second"
RE: Fuel Storage
ORIGINAL: Tanaka
Needed Fuel Cells Bases: For Bases, the "Excess Energy output" should be same or greater then the "Maximum Energy use per second" locate at the Middle down above the weapons. If the Energy output is lower, not all your weapons got enough energy to fire at the same time.
When I increase the fuel cells on a base it only increases the "fuel capacity" so I am assuming it should be "fuel capacity" should be greater than "maximum energy used per second" so that all weapons can fire at the same time?
RE: Fuel Storage
Or should I increase reactors instead of fuel cells?
more reactors = more Energy, if you don't got enough Energy, your ship can't flight at max. speed and/or can't shoot all weapons at the same time.
more fuel cell = longer time the reactors can work = more flight range or combat duration.
RE: Fuel Storage
ORIGINAL: Canute
Or should I increase reactors instead of fuel cells?
more reactors = more Energy, if you don't got enough Energy, your ship can't flight at max. speed and/or can't shoot all weapons at the same time.
more fuel cell = longer time the reactors can work = more flight range or combat duration.
Got it so what am I looking at to make sure I have the optimal amount for each?
Is this right?
Reactors: "Excess Energy output" should be same or greater then the "Maximum Energy use per second"
Fuel Cells: "Fuel Capacity" should be same or greater then the "Maximum Energy use per second" + "Cruise energy need"
RE: Fuel Storage
Fuel cells should be whatever number you want them to be. They are just fuel cells.
Reactor energy output MUST be in excess of minimum energy requirements (static energy) or the game will not validate your design. You MAY add energy collectors to mitigate any amount of fuel cost during actual operation, but the game DEMANDS your design be able to power itself with sufficient power from reactors, solar collectors or no. That's a shame. During operation, a base/ship will use energy from the energy collector before requesting energy from the reactor (and thus burning fuel). Note that even then, your reactors still shouldn't start to burn until the stored energy (which is also determined by your reactors) runs out, due to solar collectors not being able to replenish it quickly enough.
This may cause some confusion, so at the risk of sounding pedantic, I will further explain energy capacity. There is no capacitor component in Distant Worlds. The capacitor is essentially part of the reactor. In the real world, a capacitor is what stores energy (no, not a battery... batteries produce energy). If you put a super weapon on a base or ship, you will see what I mean. The super weapon may not require a per/second output equal to that of 10 reactors, but it may require the energy capacity provided by 10 reactors. Also, the per/second consumption is an average. Weapons use their required energy instantly, not drawn out over 1 second. Again, super weapons use a huge amount of energy when they fire, so you need to be able to store that huge amount of energy somewhere in the first place.
Now... maximum energy use per second and its relationship to energy output is a complicated and situational application, in my opinion. I recently wrote an exegesis on the subject in your other thread--although it is limited to space ship combat applications.
Reactor energy output MUST be in excess of minimum energy requirements (static energy) or the game will not validate your design. You MAY add energy collectors to mitigate any amount of fuel cost during actual operation, but the game DEMANDS your design be able to power itself with sufficient power from reactors, solar collectors or no. That's a shame. During operation, a base/ship will use energy from the energy collector before requesting energy from the reactor (and thus burning fuel). Note that even then, your reactors still shouldn't start to burn until the stored energy (which is also determined by your reactors) runs out, due to solar collectors not being able to replenish it quickly enough.
This may cause some confusion, so at the risk of sounding pedantic, I will further explain energy capacity. There is no capacitor component in Distant Worlds. The capacitor is essentially part of the reactor. In the real world, a capacitor is what stores energy (no, not a battery... batteries produce energy). If you put a super weapon on a base or ship, you will see what I mean. The super weapon may not require a per/second output equal to that of 10 reactors, but it may require the energy capacity provided by 10 reactors. Also, the per/second consumption is an average. Weapons use their required energy instantly, not drawn out over 1 second. Again, super weapons use a huge amount of energy when they fire, so you need to be able to store that huge amount of energy somewhere in the first place.
Now... maximum energy use per second and its relationship to energy output is a complicated and situational application, in my opinion. I recently wrote an exegesis on the subject in your other thread--although it is limited to space ship combat applications.
RE: Fuel Storage
ORIGINAL: jpwrunyan
Fuel cells should be whatever number you want them to be. They are just fuel cells.
Reactor energy output MUST be in excess of minimum energy requirements (static energy) or the game will not validate your design. You MAY add energy collectors to mitigate any amount of fuel cost during actual operation, but the game DEMANDS your design be able to power itself with sufficient power from reactors, solar collectors or no. That's a shame. During operation, a base/ship will use energy from the energy collector before requesting energy from the reactor (and thus burning fuel). Note that even then, your reactors still shouldn't start to burn until the stored energy (which is also determined by your reactors) runs out, due to solar collectors not being able to replenish it quickly enough.
This may cause some confusion, so at the risk of sounding pedantic, I will further explain energy capacity. There is no capacitor component in Distant Worlds. The capacitor is essentially part of the reactor. In the real world, a capacitor is what stores energy (no, not a battery... batteries produce energy). If you put a super weapon on a base or ship, you will see what I mean. The super weapon may not require a per/second output equal to that of 10 reactors, but it may require the energy capacity provided by 10 reactors. Also, the per/second consumption is an average. Weapons use their required energy instantly, not drawn out over 1 second. Again, super weapons use a huge amount of energy when they fire, so you need to be able to store that huge amount of energy somewhere in the first place.
Now... maximum energy use per second and its relationship to energy output is a complicated and situational application, in my opinion. I recently wrote an exegesis on the subject in your other thread--although it is limited to space ship combat applications.
So does it just come down to how many reactors you have"Excess Energy output" vs energy used per second or is it too complicated to explain as you say? [&:]
RE: Fuel Storage
Needed reactors is about excess energy vs max usage.
Usage is hyperdrive alone (you usually need 2 reactors for max speed).
Or weapons+engines+shield recharge. The latter is very small compared to the other two. Full weapons+cruise (and then some) is a good idea.
It should not be more difficult than that unless you decide to try to calculate "how many fuel cells are needed for a 5 sector range" or something like that. If you find range too short, add more fuel cells...
Usage is hyperdrive alone (you usually need 2 reactors for max speed).
Or weapons+engines+shield recharge. The latter is very small compared to the other two. Full weapons+cruise (and then some) is a good idea.
It should not be more difficult than that unless you decide to try to calculate "how many fuel cells are needed for a 5 sector range" or something like that. If you find range too short, add more fuel cells...
RE: Fuel Storage
Sorry, it isn't that complicated. If it is confusing, it is probably that my explanation is just not optimal.
Energy output is directly proportional to the number of reactors. Figuring out how much energy you need for different situations is where you have to make some judgment calls. I would like to emphasize that you probably don't need as many engines as the "common wisdom" suggests. If you take away that alone, then you can figure out the rest by trial and error. That is something to look forward to while playing the game, in my opinion.
Energy output is directly proportional to the number of reactors. Figuring out how much energy you need for different situations is where you have to make some judgment calls. I would like to emphasize that you probably don't need as many engines as the "common wisdom" suggests. If you take away that alone, then you can figure out the rest by trial and error. That is something to look forward to while playing the game, in my opinion.