Do Space Ports need fuel cells?

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Do Space Ports need fuel cells?

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Do Space Ports need fuel cells? - 8/31/2014 9:42:10 AM

Skunkpuppy

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Or can they supply ships with fuel from their cargo bays / planetary storage?

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RE: Do Space Ports need fuel cells? - 8/31/2014 10:48:26 AM

Hikikomori

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I don't believe ships docked can access the fuel cells, but without one the station should not be able to generate any power, so i believe you need at least one at any rate. I don't think the need of the own reactor can be satisfied from cargo bays alone.

< Message edited by Hikikomori -- 8/31/2014 11:49:08 AM >

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RE: Do Space Ports need fuel cells? - 8/31/2014 11:19:33 AM

Skunkpuppy

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Thanks! Maybe I'll try doing with one and see.

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RE: Do Space Ports need fuel cells? - 8/31/2014 12:31:29 PM

Aeson

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Remember that if you do use only a single fuel cell on your space station that any time the Energy Collectors are unable to keep up with the station's power requirements, your station will drain fuel, and a station, especially a large station, in combat can drain a single fuel cell dry with great rapidity, especially if the station's energy collection was not designed with the intent of being capable of powering the station's weapon systems and shields.

I would further point out that reactors are a much more space-efficient method of powering the weapons than energy collectors are, and unlike the collectors are not variable depending on where in the system the station happens to be built. Feel free to experiment with it, just know that there are pitfalls that you may run into.

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RE: Do Space Ports need fuel cells? - 8/31/2014 1:05:22 PM

Nanaki

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I would say space ports do need some minor fuel cells, incase the planet has a fuel shortage you have to be absolutly sure that your station has enough fuel to last it in a fight. You also only want enough energy collectors to handle static energy needs, so your station will not use any of its fuel unless it gets in a fight. However, you can get away with removing all cargo bays on your spaceports. Unless your a pirate, spaceports built at a planet will share cargo with planets which have unlimited cargo storage, thus making cargo bays completely unnecessary.

PS: Note that this only applies to planets you own, mining stations and such still need cargo bays.

< Message edited by Nanaki -- 8/31/2014 2:06:42 PM >

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RE: Do Space Ports need fuel cells? - 8/31/2014 7:40:26 PM

Tanaka

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So whats a good general rule for number of fuel cells and energy collectors recommended on bases?

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RE: Do Space Ports need fuel cells? - 8/31/2014 8:40:31 PM

Aeson

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quote:

So whats a good general rule for number of fuel cells and energy collectors recommended on bases?

Enough energy collectors to cover static requirements, enough fuel cells for however much combat time you think you'll need. If you have, for example, a reactor that uses 3 fuel per thousand energy and your weapons drain 200 energy per second, you'll drain 3 fuel every 5 seconds to power the weapons while in combat and so a standard fuel cell with 300 fuel capacity is worth about 500 seconds of combat time at normal game speed. How many fuel cells is enough? Well, that depends on a lot of things - how often is your station in combat? How long do the engagements last? How much power do its weapons draw? How efficient is the reactor? How often does its fuel supply get renewed by freighters? The greater the reactor efficiency, the less often the station is in combat, the shorter the engagements are, the lower its weapon power requirements, the more often its fuel supply is renewed, the lower the adequate number of fuel cells becomes.

Regarding the number of energy collectors required to cover static requirements:
Based on the chart in the A Guide to Energy thread, having energy collection equal to static requirements will fully cover a station's static energy requirements if it's built anywhere not more than about 90% of the system radius away from the system center in most systems. Doubling the amount of energy collection will extend this to about 95% of the system radius, tripling it will boost that to about 97%. If you want to, you can create designs specifically for the point in the system that you're going to build the station at, but I would personally not bother; it's much easier to manage a single design than the dozens that you might require if you try to optimize for where you build the station. Regardless, it's a decent rule of thumb that energy collection greater than or equal to the static energy requirement is good enough. You can buy yourself a little leeway on where within the system the station gets built by building in a bit of extra energy collection, or you can optimize designs for how far from the system center they get built to save a bit on resources, but in general a design with the static energy requirements equal to the energy collection is adequate.

< Message edited by Aeson -- 8/31/2014 9:42:09 PM >

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RE: Do Space Ports need fuel cells? - 8/31/2014 9:16:41 PM

Tanaka

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Aeson

quote:

So whats a good general rule for number of fuel cells and energy collectors recommended on bases?

Enough energy collectors to cover static requirements, enough fuel cells for however much combat time you think you'll need. If you have, for example, a reactor that uses 3 fuel per thousand energy and your weapons drain 200 energy per second, you'll drain 3 fuel every 5 seconds to power the weapons while in combat and so a standard fuel cell with 300 fuel capacity is worth about 500 seconds of combat time at normal game speed. How many fuel cells is enough? Well, that depends on a lot of things - how often is your station in combat? How long do the engagements last? How much power do its weapons draw? How efficient is the reactor? How often does its fuel supply get renewed by freighters? The greater the reactor efficiency, the less often the station is in combat, the shorter the engagements are, the lower its weapon power requirements, the more often its fuel supply is renewed, the lower the adequate number of fuel cells becomes.

Regarding the number of energy collectors required to cover static requirements:
Based on the chart in the A Guide to Energy thread, having energy collection equal to static requirements will fully cover a station's static energy requirements if it's built anywhere not more than about 90% of the system radius away from the system center in most systems. Doubling the amount of energy collection will extend this to about 95% of the system radius, tripling it will boost that to about 97%. If you want to, you can create designs specifically for the point in the system that you're going to build the station at, but I would personally not bother; it's much easier to manage a single design than the dozens that you might require if you try to optimize for where you build the station. Regardless, it's a decent rule of thumb that energy collection greater than or equal to the static energy requirement is good enough. You can buy yourself a little leeway on where within the system the station gets built by building in a bit of extra energy collection, or you can optimize designs for how far from the system center they get built to save a bit on resources, but in general a design with the static energy requirements equal to the energy collection is adequate.

Ok to simplify what would be your standard recommended number of each?

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RE: Do Space Ports need fuel cells? - 9/1/2014 12:30:02 AM

aZmoDen

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There is no standard recommendation of each.
You need to add enough so the numbers add up. You need static energy created to exceed static energy used.
As per fuel cells, it honestly depends on how many weapon systems your station will use. More firepower = more fuel cells needed.
But for purely rhetorical and speculative reasons lets just say you need 5 fuell cells on a defensive base and 10 on a space port. You need 5 on a mining station and 2 on a resort base and 2 on a research station.
those numbers will be meaningless because i dont know how you build your stations but that should give you a resonable chance for your stations to cumple under the weight of attacks. for now.

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RE: Do Space Ports need fuel cells? - 9/1/2014 1:51:35 AM

Aeson

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quote:

Ok to simplify what would be your standard recommended number of each?

I've given you a rule of thumb for energy collectors - energy collection >= static energy requirements, which covers stations built within about 90% of the system radius or within about the inner 81% of the system area. I've given you two other possible rules of thumb for that which guarantee your static requirements are met on somewhat larger fractions of the system - energy collection >= 2*(static energy requirements), which covers stations built within about 95% of the system radius or about the inner 90% of the system area, and energy collection >= 3*(static energy requirements), which covers stations built within about 97% of the system radius or ~94% of the system area. You don't necessarily even need to do any math for this, you just need to add energy collectors until the energy collection term in the energy statistics section of the design screen is greater than the static energy requirement term in the same section (using the second or third rule of thumb does require some math, but multiplication isn't that difficult, and you'll probably be just fine with ballpark figures anyways). This might translate to 5 energy collectors for a small station, or it might translate to well over 100 energy collectors for a huge station. Without knowing how you build your stations, I will not give you anything more specific than a rule of thumb, and the rules of thumb are more useful anyways, because if you change your station designs or your technology improves, the number that I would give changes, while the rules of thumb apply just as well to that size 10,000 colossus over your homeworld as to that size 100 mining station you use on the frontier.

As far as fuel cells go? Whatever feels adequate and doesn't result in the stations running out of fuel in typical combats. A reasonable starting point might be whatever the design templates have, if your designs are not that different from the defaults.

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