Aeson
Posts: 784
Joined: 8/30/2013
Status: offline
|
One of the reasons why it's suggested that you split the fuel supply up is that, as Tehlongone says, it increases the total available fuel, which reduces the likelihood of significant shortages, especially when you have moderate access to both fuel types. A second advantage is that fusion reactors are typically more efficient but less powerful than quantum reactors, which makes fusion reactors relatively good for civilians (as they provide better range on the same fuel supply, and civilian ships and stations typically don't need that much power anyways), while quantum reactors are relatively good for military purposes as they provide more power per unit size but pay for it with decreased fuel efficiency. NovaCore Reactors are an exception to this, but they're the Quameno racial tech and racial techs have a tendency to be superior in general to equivalently easily researched technologies.
Quick reactor overview:
Reactor Size Output Storage Fuel per 1000 Energy Output/Size Storage/Size
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Basic Space Reactor 18 46 90 4.11 Caslon 2.56 5.00
Fission 1 22 60 105 3.81 Caslon 2.73 4.77
Fission 2 22 72 125 3.84 Caslon 3.27 5.68
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fission 3 22 86 150 3.83 Caslon 3.91 6.82
Quantum 1 18 120 230 3.48 Caslon 6.67 12.8
Fusion 1 15 84 180 2.89 Hydrogen 5.60 12.0
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quantum 2 18 145 275 3.49 Caslon 8.06 15.3
Fusion 2 15 100 215 2.79 Hydrogen 6.67 14.3
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quantum 3 18 175 330 3.48 Caslon 9.72 18.3
Fusion 3 15 120 260 2.69 Hydrogen 8.00 17.3
HyperFusion 1 16 180 350 2.79 Hydrogen 11.3 21.8
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HyperFusion 2 16 215 440 2.67 Hydrogen 13.4 27.5
HyperFusion 3 16 260 540 2.52 Hydrogen 16.3 33.8
NovaCore 1 20 120 240 2.00 Hydrogen 6.00 12.0
NovaCore 2 20 155 300 2.00 Hydrogen 7.75 15.0
NovaCore 3 20 192 375 2.00 Hydrogen 9.60 18.8
Grouping is by roughly equivalent location in the tech tree. NovaCore Reactors are separated out because they're the Quameno special reactor and so somewhat easier to research the higher tech versions than the position in the tech tree would imply; regardless, NovaCore 1 comes out roughly with Fission 2, NovaCore 2 comes out roughly with Fusion 2 or Quantum 2, and NovaCore 3 comes out roughly with HyperFusion 2. As can be seen in the chart, Caslon reactors outperform equivalent-tech Hydrogen reactors in terms of output per unit size and energy storage per unit size, both of which are important considerations for military ships attempting to fit as much firepower/shields/speed as possible within size limits, while Hydrogen reactors are more fuel efficient and are somewhat smaller. NovaCore Reactors are an exception to this rule and are quite simply the best reactor you can get until HyperFusion Reactors come into play, and even when HyperFusion does come into play the NovaCores are still better where fuel efficiency is more useful than power density (such as on civilian vessels or many space stations).
This is not to say that you must use one reactor or the other for some purposes, or that you must divide your fuel supply when you can. Quantum Reactors are better than Fusion Reactors only when you actually need the output or if you have more than enough Caslon but relatively little hydrogen, and may be overkill for smaller military vessels, most space stations, and probably all civilian vessels. Moreover, if you have a situation where you have access to a great number of sources of one fuel type but little access to sources of the other fuel type, it is rather likely that you'll be better off keeping the military and private sector running on the same fuel. Another case where it's probably better to keep to a single fuel supply is when you have access to reactors that use one fuel type which are better in all categories than your available alternatives that use the other fuel type, such as when you have access to either NovaCore Reactors or HyperFusion Reactors.
One last thing - it is possible to mix reactors on a ship. However, we cannot set the amounts of the different types of fuel the ship will carry, and we cannot easily control what types of fuel the ship picks up or how it balances the fuel load, so it isn't possible to create a ship that uses Fusion reactors for normal travel purposes and fires up the Quantum reactors when it gets into combat. Mixing reactors furthermore makes your ships vulnerable to running out of one or the other type of fuel before running completely out of fuel, which shuts down the reactors that run off that type of fuel. This can greatly reduce a ship's combat capabilities, especially if it runs out of the fuel that most of the reactor power comes from.
< Message edited by Aeson -- 6/13/2014 5:50:02 AM >
|
Printable Version
What is the best strategy for dual fuel supplies? - 
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread