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extra reactor designs? - 4/7/2010 6:02:51 AM   
aprezto


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Reactors are large consumers of space. But it appears one of the biggest draw backs to your combat efficiency - especially in a chasing fight - is the lack of energy to fire your weapons.

Haven't actually tried this, just thinking about it. But is adding another reactor an option?

Also, since the only way to find this out (the down to pop-gun firing rates) is when your ships meet the bad guys, is a battle simulator that allows you to pit your designs against enemy designs you've scouted something worth looking into?

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RE: extra reactor designs? - 4/7/2010 6:10:02 AM   
VarekRaith


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Sure, you can add more reactors. The early ones are huge, though.

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RE: extra reactor designs? - 4/7/2010 6:33:31 AM   
HsojVvad

 

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When making your ship, when you add a reactor, it tells you how much extra power you have. I am shure this extra power is what the weapons use when firing.

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RE: extra reactor designs? - 4/7/2010 9:56:30 AM   
YourConscience

 

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In fact, when adding 5 weapons where each requirs 10 energy, then you need 50 excess energy for them to be able to fire continuously. I learned this the hard way: Added 20 weapons to a resupply ship. I though: Cool, what a monstership! Then when meeting the baddies, it fired them all at once ... and ... then proceeded firing only one or two at a time. What a letdown. :)

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RE: extra reactor designs? - 4/7/2010 10:22:25 AM   
sbach2o

 

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quote:

ORIGINAL: aprezto

Reactors are large consumers of space. But it appears one of the biggest draw backs to your combat efficiency - especially in a chasing fight - is the lack of energy to fire your weapons.



I do this all the time. Extra speed in hyperspace is good. More energy in combat is good.

quote:


Also, since the only way to find this out (the down to pop-gun firing rates) is when your ships meet the bad guys, is a battle simulator that allows you to pit your designs against enemy designs you've scouted something worth looking into?


A battle-simulator isn't the only way. You can do a quick calculation: energy consumed during cruise and/or sprint speed (the latter is often relevant in chasing battles) plus energy consumption of all weapons per second when firing constantly plus static energy usage of the ship should come close to the energy production of your reactors or surpass it. As so often it is a trade-off between space used on a ship and behavior in typical vs. extreme cicumstances.

The energy needs of the weapons can roughly be estimated without a calculator, but I'd like it, if the figure were displayed somewhere on the ship design screen. Or is it, and I didn't look closely enough?

Forgot to mention: Engines are also a huge factor in the energy-balance of a ship. Note, how there are models that achieve their thrust levels with different energy drain? Indirectly, but very prominently, it goes into the cruise and sprint speed energy use. Here, you're often forced to balance speed vs. energy drain vs. space.

Ship design is a really well-realized aspect of Distant Worlds.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Davor

When making your ship, when you add a reactor, it tells you how much extra power you have. I am shure this extra power is what the weapons use when firing.


This and the engines, both. Your ships often do not stand still during battle.

quote:

ORIGINAL: YourConscience
In fact, when adding 5 weapons where each requirs 10 energy, then you need 50 excess energy for them to be able to fire continuously.


You also need to adjust for the rate of fire which varies a lot.
Typical values for some early game weapons:
Maxos Blaster SL: ~0.6 secs/shot
Epsilon Torp: (??) ~1.6 secs/shot
Concussion Beam: 1.1 secs/shot


< Message edited by sbach2o -- 4/7/2010 10:36:51 AM >

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RE: extra reactor designs? - 4/7/2010 12:20:30 PM   
tuser

 

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They should add a "maximum power consumption" figure to the design screen, would save us a lot of hassle there..

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RE: extra reactor designs? - 4/7/2010 1:22:41 PM   
taltamir

 

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extra reactors produce more energy faster... but burn more fuel. You run out of fuel, you can't fire anymore!
so you better have lots of fuel tanks...

Reactor tech is one of the most important techs in the game, and very rewarding when you have higher end reactors (higher end ones are more efficient, consuming less fuel per 1000 energy produced. And can produce more energy faster)

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RE: extra reactor designs? - 4/7/2010 9:06:45 PM   
aprezto


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Wow, a lot more to this than I realised. But this seems to make the tools we have at our disposal a little underpowered for figuring out the best configurations.

Still, nice to see such depth. Some real paper, scissors, rock involved.

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