a question about ship design and energy/fuel

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a question about ship design and energy/fuel - 12/10/2013 8:31:54 PM

hardcoregamer

Posts: 58
Joined: 5/13/2013
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I am trying to understand how much fuel/energy I should put on my ships.

On the ship design screen this is this thing that says "excess energy output". Is it enough to just make sure this number is a green positive number to make sure my ships will never run out of fuel? I am trying to understand what the min requirments are for makign sure your ships won't just suddenly become stranded in space because they lack fuel or energy. Then there are also weapons to take into account which I hear use fuel and or energy.

Anyone?

Post #: 1

RE: a question about ship design and energy/fuel - 12/10/2013 8:49:07 PM

zenkmander

Posts: 62
Joined: 3/26/2012
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The reactor (which shows 'excess energy output') consumes fuel to function, so there's really no way to make your ships never run out of fuel. You can see in the reactor detail in the design screen how much fuel = energy with that particular reactor (ie 2.49 fuel units = 1000 energy).

It would be quite lengthy to explain every detail, so base your design thinking on this:

Fuel -> Reactor -> Energy -> Components

So your fuel cells feed into the reactor, which generates energy, which powers the components on your ship (weapons, hyperdrive, thrusters, etc).

When you add fuel cells, reactor, hyperdrive, and thrusters onto your design, you'll see the fuel range of that design (ie 2 sectors). That's the farthest it can travel before running out of fuel and being 'stranded' (ships can still warp without fuel, just much slower).

So you designed a ship that can travel 2 sectors. Now you need to look at your reactor's excess energy output before you put on weapons. If excess energy is 100, static energy usage is 10, and cruise speed on your ship uses 20 energy, that leaves you with 70 excess energy available to power your weapons.

Of course you can add Energy Collectors to negate the static energy usage, but keep in mind that Energy Collectors only function when 1) the ship is not moving, and 2) it's near a star. The further your ship is from a star, the less energy will be collected (since collectors are basically solar panels).

Since your military ships will be moving during combat, it might be a good idea to keep the static energy usage included in the equation when figuring out how many weapons to add based on their energy usage.

Like I said, this will seem complicated at first, but if you look at the details on the design screen it will come to you. It's fairly intuitive.

(in reply to hardcoregamer)

Post #: 2

RE: a question about ship design and energy/fuel - 12/10/2013 9:12:35 PM

Darkspire

Posts: 1986
Joined: 6/12/2003
From: My Own Private Hell
Status: offline

This might help.

A guide to Energy

The "excess energy output" you mention is what is left over after everything is taken into account with the energy from your reactors. Each to there own but for me I design by the 'Sprint Method', this basically means that I balance the power output needed from adding 'Maximum Weapons Energy use per second' to the energy needed for the speed setting 'Sprint'.

For example I have a weapons output of 131 and a Sprint energy usage of 70, added together makes 201, so I need to add reactors to equal 201 or more. When adding the reactors it is the second value in that column you need to notice, 'Reactor Power Output' that is the total power output with nothing taken off, in my example I could use two base level Quantum Reactors giving an output of 240, that will ensure that there is enough energy to fire the weapons when chasing a target at full speed.

The Top of that column has Energy Collection, that is very important, it is amassed from the energy collectors, get those on ships as soon as you can as they will not use so much fuel when sitting there waiting for missions or just in defense of a colony, its used for things like Life Support, Scanners etc, if you add those keep an eye on the usage total. Energy Collectors are also very useful on bases for the same reason and even more so on mines as they need fuel to work. Always make sure that you add enough collectors to cover for the third item, 'Static Energy Usage', as you progress on the energy tech levels the power output can be increased for the collectors so that you will not need more than one, most ships can get away with one, only constructors and colony ships may need two.

If your worried about the ships running out of fuel, don't. There have been many discussions on the matter, have a look in the second box below the power columns, 'Movement', Below Acceleration is the fuel range for the ship, as an example 6 standard fuel cells, base level, will be enough for 17.40 sectors, no chance of running out, my fighter classes all have 5 cells, explorer, transports, colony and constructors all have 10.

Darkspire

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(in reply to hardcoregamer)

Post #: 3

RE: a question about ship design and energy/fuel - 12/11/2013 8:03:27 PM

Aeson

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Joined: 8/30/2013
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Just a slight note on what Darkspire said: your excess reactor energy is the amount of energy you have to play with for weapons and engines and maybe a few other things. Reactor energy storage will allow you to fire weapons as long as you still have enough energy stored to fire them, but if you do not have at least as much excess energy production as you have energy requirements for your weapons and whatever movement speed your ships happen to be using (typically cruising during combat, though during approach and escape it may sprint), then at some point your weapons will not be able to fire at their maximum rate, or you may have to order your ship to stop moving (to free up reactor power for the use of weapons), because you'll have depleted your energy storage and don't have sufficient energy production to both meet current demand and refill the storage.

This means that you can either design a ship to have a good alpha strike but be less able to handle extended combat, or you can design a ship with enough energy production to meet all possible load levels on the reactor for as long as the ship has fuel.

Also be advised that Darkspire's example isn't entirely correct - there's one more aspect to ship energy: some components, like life support, habitat, and sensors, draw some fixed amount of energy from the powerplant continuously. Excess Energy Production = Reactor Energy Production - Static Power Use. Excess Energy Production is the number that you want to equal or exceed weapon energy use + (some movement speed) energy use. Darkspire's example works out fine with the pair of quantum reactors if the ship's static energy requirement can be met by energy collectors or if the static energy requirements of the ship are not greater than 39 energy. If, on the other hand, your ship's static energy requirement exceeds that 39 energy and you either don't have functional energy collectors (maybe you're in deep space, maybe they've been destroyed, maybe you never installed them), or the current energy collection is insufficient to reduce the static energy requirement below that level of 39 energy, then you'll run into the issue described above where your ships will deplete the reactor's energy storage while sprinting and firing weapons, which will eventually prevent your weapons from firing at full rate or force your ship to move at a lower speed. The only absolute requirement with regards to energy is that the excess power generation must be positive, as otherwise your ship will be unable to meet its static energy requirements for such minor crew comforts as Life Support and such worthless components as Long-Range Sensors, rendering such things inoperable. The game will not allow you to save a design with such issues, and a ship which loses enough reactors that its excess energy production becomes negative will probably not be one which can contribute to the fight very well.

I would also recommend that you read A Guide to Energy, as linked in Darkspire's post, if you really want a good handle on how the game deals with energy requirements.

(in reply to Darkspire)

Post #: 4

RE: a question about ship design and energy/fuel - 12/11/2013 8:30:55 PM

Darkspire

Posts: 1986
Joined: 6/12/2003
From: My Own Private Hell
Status: offline

Never really had an issue with static usage, add collectors till the collection exceeds the usage, I quite often have 10 fleets of transports, 5 ships to a fleet, parked just outside a system waiting for the attack fleets to clear the system and the fuel never drops for them, working that way I can decimate a rival empire in a few minutes, I can attack 10 to 15 systems all at the same time, without the collectors working I would be forever relying on the useless resupply class for fuel top ups, maybe the collection code was changed somewhere, but they work for me in deep space or where ever I have ships parked in wait. I did try the various methods for working out the energy reactor energy usage years ago, hence the comment, 'each to there own', the method I use never leaves my ships not being able to fire and as a bonus is very useful early game in a pre warp start, even if you do have to add a few more reactors to get the amounts needed, like having a Kaltor chasing your ship down because it has been to slow to react, it can escape at full speed while still firing and attacking the pursuing Kaltor.

Darkspire

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Post #: 5

RE: a question about ship design and energy/fuel - 12/12/2013 2:25:40 PM

Plant

Posts: 418
Joined: 4/23/2013
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Wow guys, way to turn a simple topic complicated.

(in reply to Darkspire)

Post #: 6

RE: a question about ship design and energy/fuel - 12/14/2013 9:28:39 AM

Timotheus

Posts: 481
Joined: 12/13/2013
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Nothing about this game is simple.

... Perhaps diplomacy.

(in reply to Plant)

Post #: 7

RE: a question about ship design and energy/fuel - 12/14/2013 3:27:01 PM

Plant

Posts: 418
Joined: 4/23/2013
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Understanding energy/fuel is pretty simple. They just made it sound more complicated than it really is. It wasn't as if he asked for every minute detail.

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RE: a question about ship design and energy/fuel - 12/14/2013 5:51:23 PM

Darkspire

Posts: 1986
Joined: 6/12/2003
From: My Own Private Hell
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Plant

Understanding energy/fuel is pretty simple. They just made it sound more complicated than it really is. It wasn't as if he asked for every minute detail.

I never make anything sound complicated as I do not have the lightbulbs. I just explained what the various sections were and tried to give examples to make it easier to understand. Understanding energy/fuel is simple, it is the implementation of it in the ship design screen that is not easy to understand for new folks.

Darkspire

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Post #: 9