Hi all! I've just a question related to the topic in the subject: I'm asking the following question because I like too much this game to change something that I don't fully understand. Instead I would like to play as intended by the Devs so... that's it. I've seen that solar panels has a block limit, I've already found how to change it in SP so no issue there. My question is: changing it is some sort of cheating or as reported in some forums in the Internet leaving it to 15 it's just for the MP and nothing else such as, for example, maybe the Devs wanted to encourage any player to use also fuel generators? Thank you very much for any answer. Kind regards.
I believe it's both for balance and performance reasons.. The calculations for solar power can add up and potentially cause lag. Also it might not be intended to fully power large bases. I'm not a dev though I'm just going off what I think.
Thank you ravien: to me it doesn't matter if you're an Empyrion dev or not, what's important is your opinion It turned out anyway that my conscience cannot accept any modification so I've set it up to 50 but I already feel guilty... I guess I will not use solar panels for good. In open space in front of the star the best 4 yellow lights output with 15 panels is 1.5kpu so on planets... Well anyway 1.5kpu is far more than my standard stand-by generator powered base requirements and a lot less of my full production line: if I need to grind to maintain a generator I guess spending time to build panels for just a 1.5kpu addition - which cannot even sustain a furnace - it's not so useful from my point of view. Too bad: I believe in green energy but I guess in Empyrion it's better to follow other paths
You can add a bunch of solar capacitors and then put your base in low power standby mode when you leave. When you come back to your base you should have plenty of solar power stored up to make use of a furnace.
Hmmm that's a wonderful idea: thank you and now that you made me think at it... I guess I could plan a double circuit: one as you said for stand-by mode where I'll switch off the generator and another one where I'll switch off almost everything to recharge capacitors. Yeah makes sense that's the idea of optimization maybe you had just given a sense to this 15 limit Thank you again... and happy Easter!
This is generally absurd when there is a base, there are several bases throughout the galaxy and you, like an idiot, have to work for days getting fuel for them, + do not forget to refuel the ship yet !!! As I think, and also based on the great practice of playing on servers, I believe that the number of solar panels for BA needs to be increased to 30. For example, simple math. 1 spaceport, 1 space docks, 20-30 defense towers, a trap base, 2-3 transshipment bases, a repair base. It's all scattered in different places. Autonomous operation of each base, taking into account the minimum consumption = 2 kw and the volume of tanks for 300-400k, is about a week. + the ship itself, which requires a lot of fuel in total = 80% of the time is spent collecting fuel for the bases, which, in theory, should be completely autonomous and powered by solar energy where there is the sun...
Or, make the defense towers a self-contained base, including it's own solar array and stuff, take them out of the calculations for the main base. Design the tower in creative, save it as a blueprint, then bring them in as needed.
Woa mr. Mech you're indeed a CPU controlled machine how much math have you done Joking apart: of course from a math/science point of view you're right after all numbers are on your side. In my opinion anyway here it's not a matter of maths or science anyway: it's more a matter of game logic. Of course in the game the Devs have not designed the solar panels to self sustain a base. It's just a choice: we may accept it or not and in the latter anyone can change as he/she prefers the config file. I like to play vanilla games and from a personal point of view ravien's solution for me is both challenging and smart enough to put in place to persuade me to do it and even like it but I cannot say of course it's THE right or wrong thing to do: it's just one very smart alternative that Empyrion offers to everyone of us
The developers stated many times that they wanted to keep players "on the move" and avoid the "base spamming" on all playfields. This causes problems on servers, it makes players angry when they wipe all playfields but honestly the game was not meant to have players build huge bases everywhere, so they made it hard to accomplish, to put things simply. Not impossible, but less desireable.
I never meant single player, where it's easy to throw out all the restrictions. And also I did not mean any third-party configurations, because building something hundreds of hours for one configuration working only on 1-2 servers is absurd, a waste of time and = building on houses on the sand. This should be a standard rule, the basic one for a normal configuration that has not been changed by someone else. BA is such a thing that it should be autonomous at level 25+ and not require a lot of attention, especially when there are a lot of such bases. And you can understand this only when you collect a huge spaceport 10.50 in size with 8 factories, and 10-12 storage facilities of 320k each + turrets + light + a small farm with 56 garden. All this will want 1.5-2 times more than solar panels can produce at maximum output. Of course, all this is in economy mode with the factory turned off. Even a space dock base of size 10.50 with the same number of storage facilities and factories located near the sun is not capable of generating more than 1.8 or 2 kw and forces it to be constantly refueled. And if you start to think with your head and analyze, then the question arises - why do you need BA at all, if: 1. It is not autonomous, or it does not have a lot of storages and factories. 2. It requires an extended kernel. factories + storage + defense + concrete blocks consume more than 2kk CPU. While with the same success you can supply a square CV consisting of 20 factories, 20-30 storages and 1kkk of fuel and all this will fit in 10kk CPU and just like BA will constantly want to be fueled. Why BA then? And by the way, protective heads that fit into 1,200,000 CPUs with a fuel supply of 300k + and 4x320k ammunition storage facilities are also not capable of being autonomous... It's probably fun to play a single player game where you are surrounded by kind aliens, pink elephants, dragons and hearts, and in general you only need 1 death star with 1451420450 turrets, but for playing on servers, different servers, such a balance is not suitable. And relying on third-party configurations of local administrators is a deliberately erroneous decision leading to the emptying of servers in the end, because it creates more chaos and confusion. Look at the current situation, when there are only servers with Eden + reforged that are 99% PVE ... And sooner or later it will end up with a complete emptying of the servers, because PVE quickly gets bored and the game loses its meaning and purpose of development (including the long construction of projects for PVP).
Exactly. Keep players on the move, prevent base spamming. PvP could have grown in size if server owners had care to set up their game adequately (some do) and stuck to one version / scenario, instead of trying to surf the risky wave of keeping up with the updates with the latest branch. Many did not, and instead they directed their players to the forum blaming Eleon. I came in with V5.0 and it has been like that as far as I can remember. .
I've never had a base that couldn't operate 100% from solar on a server when placed on a planet with decent solar power. And in space you can easily find a sector close to the sun that outputs more solar energy than you'd ever need. If you're running multiple large factories for a faction on a server then you're also going to have that faction to help you fuel your base. I've never needed more than a few furnaces, completely solar powered. If you're doing this for pvp then you need to speak with the admin on the server you play on. It's 100% on them to balance power use for pvp. I do think the max limit for solar should be higher though.
Solar panels would benefit from better power output instead of requiring more of the same weak panels. Could be tiered like weapons in fact. Same applies to all devices and weapons : have better yields/ performance to avoid spamming devices. The point is that devices add up to ship classes and we all know this impacts performance. There's a point where "redundancy" becomes ridiculous if requiring too many objects to be managed by the game causes problems in the end. I know players all wish to be able to put a zillion windows and turrets in their solo game, but then balance issues arise and the AI has to be scaled up accordingly, which in turn adds tons of blocks and devices (read "physics" and "render" calls) that left many players with adequate PCs unable to play without lag at some point during the development. It's not as much the bugs that drove players out of the game, it's also the requirement to have a top PC to run it decently, and not many players can afford a new PC just for one game. Not all players tend to make max grid ships and bases, but because of those who did lots of artificial restrictions were implemented in the game. I think common sense, if optimization is ever to be considered, is to reduce the overall number of performance-costly blocks and items in an average setup. One way to do it is to make devices/ weapons more efficient rather than having to rely on more.
It is sufficient to "drastically" increase the output and the amount of energystorage in order to operate a base with solar collectors. I wouldn't increase the number of panels as it means more processing power for the game.
I just noticed that, based on practice, solar panels cannot provide a base for sleep, if it is not a base for levels 5-10.
The fact is that storage expanders consume a lot of energy and even if you turn off everything on the base (shields, weapons, flashlights, all devices in general), then> 10x320k of storage (not counting 2-4-6 for ammunition), it still will not allow the base to work on solar energy. Even in space.
Storage only? Well, then it is still necessary to build a separate farm for food, a plant for production and then transfer resources from one structure to another, a site for ship repair. This will eventually result in a huge number of vertices from a heap of separate and useless BAs scattered over a large area of space. But the number of vertices = more load on the PC / server. And all this instead of some 10.50 space docks with everything inside at once and 2-3 times smaller. I'm not even talking about protecting all this in PVP space, where, based on practice, there can be no less than 8 space hedgehogs per building. I don’t understand how this will increase performance and security? These realities are not suitable for servers, because it is more profitable from all points of view to build 1 large structure and protect it than to create 3-4 times more. All panels are facing the sun, all devices and protection are completely disabled, oxygen fans are turned off. 8 warehouses for ore and products, 3 workers warehouses for interaction with 8 factories + 2 bakes, and a total of 2 warehouses for BA ammunition. 36 vegetable gardens for food and 36 for medicines. BA is designed for comfortable living and work of only two people, maximum 4. Size class 10.50, material...disgusting - plain steel and plastic instead of the original - weapons-grade and solid steel. The BA is designed for comfortable living and work of only two people, maximum 4. And also for anchorage and repair of one large ship of size 10.50. Vessels in size 7.50 will fit 2-3. If you make the size smaller, then the company will not be able to repair the vessels. If you do not make a landing pad, then other players will be able to enter the parked ship inside its textures and learn military secrets, what and where is located in the ship. And this is not acceptable. If you remove the vegetable garden, why would I BA, even if really little my PVP ship has 18 beds vegetable garden minimally providing me 1 food? If you remove the 8 and 11 factories and warehouses in 320к each, why would I BA really easy if my PVP ship class Corvette 36.5 Ktonn weight, there are 4 factories and warehouse 4x320k + 4x120k more? Why do I need a base then? It doesn't make sense. As I said earlier, it turns out that it is easier to build a towed cube CV with 20 factories and 20-40 warehouses, which is easy to transport if necessary by hitching it to a tractor and turning it on only when production is needed. And produce food and medicine on small farms in the CV and buy on an industrial scale from merchants. Yes, in fact, and to be repaired at the same stations repair of polaris. In general, lead a nomadic lifestyle, in which BA is only defensive towers and traps for other players, but not a home or gathering place for the team. Spoiler: PrintScreens
And this is the minimum protection from players for PVP space, designed for no more than 1-2 PVE enemy ships. Pay attention to the number of vertices, and then imagine that each BA (warehouse, factory, farm, repair docks) will have 30k vertices + the number of vertices from a lot more space hedgehogs... I think PC players and the server will be very happy to get bogged down in lags, when 20-30 buildings start loading at once instead of 9... Spoiler: PrintScreens
