fuel cells on space ports

[GHerr]

what are their purpose?

[zgrssd]

To run the reactor under combat load.

[Luzario]

As post above stated, they don't do much in normal base operation but power collectors can usually not supply enough power when your weapons are firing and your shields need to be recharged. At that time the fuel from fuel cells gets used and its advisable to have enough to last trough a short defensive combat at least.

[zgrssd]

As post above stated, they don't do much in normal base operation but power collectors can usually not supply enough power when your weapons are firing and your shields need to be recharged. At that time the fuel from fuel cells gets used and its advisable to have enough to last trough a short defensive combat at least.

Actually I am pretty sure Solar can't supply power for Weapons - I think they can only cover static load.
But the slot amounts will also be a deterrent against trying.

[Nightskies]

Solar will power up reactors' energy storage, which can be used to fire weapons, charge shields, etc. Energy collectors continue to function in combat. The problem arises when a base only has enough collectors to cover static energy. Bases should be built with enough energy collectors to power the station in combat.

[Jorgen_CAB]

Solar will power up reactors' energy storage, which can be used to fire weapons, charge shields, etc. Energy collectors continue to function in combat. The problem arises when a base only has enough collectors to cover static energy. Bases should be built with enough energy collectors to power the station in combat.

Are you really sure about that... that is at least not how it worked in DW:U and I'm fairly sure it does not work like this here either... but I could be wrong.

Is it also not so that they have temporarily removed fuel from stations so stations can fire without fuel currently, or have they reactivated fuel on stations again?
Or was that only mining stations?

I have not really kept an eye on this.

[Nightskies]

Yep, 100% sure~ though this may only be a temporary fix while stations are set to 0 caslon. I never tried relying on energy collectors before that change.

Its for all stations, though spaceports and other stations in orbit of colonies will automatically refuel themselves if the colony has any caslon in stock. Same for mining bases that mine caslon. You can also manually refuel other stations by controlling their target stock or refueling them with tankers.

[Jorgen_CAB]

I'm fairly sure I saw a station loosing some miniscule amount of fuel in battle just yesterday (who had collectors to cover everything)... but again I can be wrong.

Anyway, I never put more than one fuel cell and never any expensive ones on any station. The same with cargo bays for space station, they only need a basic cargo bay as they share resources with the planet, they never need anymore than that, or so it seems.

[zgrssd]

I'm fairly sure I saw a station loosing some miniscule amount of fuel in battle just yesterday (who had collectors to cover everything)... but again I can be wrong.

There is a bunch of quest stations that definitely loose power while in combat. You can actually siege them down by engaging them with longrange weapons - sooner or later they run out of fuel and then their weapons have power issues.

[Schatten]

The Stations need the Fuel Cells to power their Reactors in Combat (higher power need with weapon firing).

Since the devloper could not make working AI for Freighter to devlop the necessary caslon to all stations (it was a endless mess with freighter flying from one side of empire to other, with few units caslon etc cc) they deactivated it atm completly.

Stations (and spaceports) over Caslon Mining locations (and Planets) go still refulled automaticly. All other need atm extra energy collectors to cover the extra combat power need.

Till it works again with the delivery (however i would suggest to skip the whole idea and make it different with power as it dont looks like you could make the AI working with transports, its still a mess in every area), than you dont need those extra collectors anymore.

[frankycl]

Sorry, just had to answer, in order to update this damn forum program (because otherwise the thread is always marked as "unread", independent of how often I read the posts. )

Just keep on the nice discussion.

[Nightskies]

I'm fairly sure I saw a station loosing some miniscule amount of fuel in battle just yesterday (who had collectors to cover everything)... but again I can be wrong.

Yeah, it appears the AI does not put on enough energy collectors to cover combat energy expenditure. Also, for some reason, they may not fire on enemies until they get in close. I'm trying to figure out what's going on with that, but the station will fire and charge its shields. Also, when the station fires its weapons, the energy is immediately used, and while the energy isn't at maximum, the reactors activate to rapidly recharge to full energy capacity. However, when fuel runs out, if the energy collectors generates enough energy, the station will operate at full capacity without fuel.

[zgrssd]

I'm fairly sure I saw a station loosing some miniscule amount of fuel in battle just yesterday (who had collectors to cover everything)... but again I can be wrong.

Yeah, it appears the AI does not put on enough energy collectors to cover combat energy expenditure. Also, for some reason, they may not fire on enemies until they get in close. I'm trying to figure out what's going on with that, but the station will fire and charge its shields. Also, when the station fires its weapons, the energy is immediately used, and while the energy isn't at maximum, the reactors activate to rapidly recharge to full energy capacity. However, when fuel runs out, if the energy collectors generates enough energy, the station will operate at full capacity without fuel.

Station guns still have firing arcs and range limitations. So most of them might be at poor angles or distances.

As for collectors providing enough - maybe the station should wait for the energy trend to go negative before turning on the generators? Solar panels might be enough to cover all the weapons that actually fire.

[Jorgen_CAB]

I think that energy collectors work exactly like in Universe... they only cover static energy draw. Once you start using weapons or anything else that cost energy it start depleting the reactor. The reactor can only recharge this energy depletion with using fuel.

All of my tests in the game seem to confirm this.

However, once fuel is gone, the reactor can still operate at a minimum capacity which means weapons can still fire, it depends on how much energy they need, so they can fire more slowly or not, that depends. This is why it can look like some station still can fire as before, they have rather little weapons so there is rally no diminishing fire rate.

A station with Caslon in it can also refuel itself, so you might not notice that fuel is reduced.

You don't need more than one fuel cell on space ports and the like, but on bastions you might want two as they might not hold allot of Caslon if any at all.

[Nightskies]

Try using the editor to put a spaceport or defense bastion somewhere away from a colony, and some pirates next to it, and remove the fuel in the station. It should operate at full capacity. That's what I'm seeing.

[Jorgen_CAB]

Try using the editor to put a spaceport or defense bastion somewhere away from a colony, and some pirates next to it, and remove the fuel in the station. It should operate at full capacity. That's what I'm seeing.

I think there is something odd going on as the energy collectors does not seem to change that behaviour one bit as long as it covers the static. I think this is more linked to the mining stations having fuel removed which impact the behaviour of all stations. So I don't think it works as intended.

Otherwise ships would work the same way and never needing fuel if you had enough energy collectors on them.

[zgrssd]

Try using the editor to put a spaceport or defense bastion somewhere away from a colony, and some pirates next to it, and remove the fuel in the station. It should operate at full capacity. That's what I'm seeing.

I think there is something odd going on as the energy collectors does not seem to change that behaviour one bit as long as it covers the static. I think this is more linked to the mining stations having fuel removed which impact the behaviour of all stations. So I don't think it works as intended.

Otherwise ships would work the same way and never needing fuel if you had enough energy collectors on them.

Ships should run out of slots long before you got enough energy collectors.

Plus at least 1 reactor is needed as power Storage, IIRC.

[Jorgen_CAB]

Try using the editor to put a spaceport or defense bastion somewhere away from a colony, and some pirates next to it, and remove the fuel in the station. It should operate at full capacity. That's what I'm seeing.

I think there is something odd going on as the energy collectors does not seem to change that behaviour one bit as long as it covers the static. I think this is more linked to the mining stations having fuel removed which impact the behaviour of all stations. So I don't think it works as intended.

Otherwise ships would work the same way and never needing fuel if you had enough energy collectors on them.

Ships should run out of slots long before you got enough energy collectors.

Plus at least 1 reactor is needed as power Storage, IIRC.

But it does not work on ships even if you try, that is why I say it is not working as intended. If it did you are better using energy collectors rather than fuel cells. Should work really well on an explorer ship... infinite range...

[Nightskies]

I never checked whether ships benefit from energy collectors while not moving in combat. It would take a frame-by-frame analysis to check the rate that energy is built up after firing. However... there is a trick I learned ...

When a ship is out of fuel but is in combat, you can tell it to stop. For a moment, the energy collectors will function, before the ship begins automatic behavior (the automatic behavior is unavoidable). And, in that moment, if it collected enough energy to fire a shot...

IT WILL FIRE. Though of course, it won't keep using the collectors because they only work when the ship isn't moving- and works all the time on a station.

So yeah I'm 100% sure

[Jorgen_CAB]

No... I think what you are seeing is that reactors can still work without fuel, just at a really diminishing capacity. I think that is what you are seeing.

Remove the energy capacitors from the ship and it probably act exactly the same when the fuel is gone.

I could be wrong though...