I can't say that I've noticed from watching streams but does the Solar farms lose effectiveness in dust storms or just get hit hard? It seems to me they should get reduced effectiveness.
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You'd want to close them to prevent the dust from sandpapering all the plastic/glass to the point you'd have to polish them for hours to get them clear enough that you aren't just absorbing all the sunlight in the refraction material above the photosensitive material.
All your suggestions kind of remind me of the changes Offworld Trading Company did with the Jupiters Forge DLC.
So it is probably possible we will see something similar in the future given the setting is quite similar.
So it is probably possible we will see something similar in the future given the setting is quite similar.
Anyone notice changes in sunlight with regards to planet location? Does latitude affect solar or food production?
It only seems to be affected by water and sufficient workers with a little variation in crop size. I've played at the equator and around the north by Viking 2's landing area, and haven't seen a difference.
Concurring. You get the flat rates plus tech no matter the latitude/elevation/shadows.
As to builds, ironically, what stopped me from really considering solar farms over wind-powered ones is resource availability. Metal can get scarce while bridging the gap until you have decent production to maintain the solar farms, and you still have to make a choice between accumulators and shutting down part of your production during night cycles (it is possible even for automated vehicles). Either way, the number of resources spent on maintaining the solar panels is going to be much higher - with decent elevation bonuses, wind power easily produces three times the daily output of solar power, with regularity of output (it can matter during cold waves), for one half the number of maintenance materials.
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Yeah a lot of people seem to think that wind is superior to solar - but i disagree with that.
Wind is strong if you have high evalation to grab the bonus, if you don't have that on your map the effectivness is greatly reduced. In addition i think the streamers go way to heavy on batteries which results in an inflated polymer maintaince cost.
Wind turbines produce 5 base power and require 0.5 machine parts maintaince. So you get 10 power out of 1 machine part in maintaince. A full battery can supply 20 power for the whole night for just 1 polymer maintance. In addition if feel polymer is cheaper to produce locally than machine parts (it requires less power, less man-power (if the machine factory is supplied via mine) and no in-dome spot (which are at a premium).
One battery has the same output as 4 large solar panels. You need 12,5 additional power during the day to fully charge the battery so in maintaince it is 6.5 metal and 1 polymer vs 2 machine parts. However there is tech to reduce the interval of maintaince on the solar panels. (Not to mention the breakthrough that increases solar power by a flat 100%)
Not to mention that not all buildings need power during the night - especially the high demanding machine factory does not need power when nobody is working.
Dust storms do in fact decrease the output of a solar panel. My large sonar panels only produce 2 power per hour during a dust storm - no idea of the output of a smaller panel.
And from midgame onward stirling generators and fusion power is available which feel a lot stronger than solar or wind.
In my first game i went with wind power but was shortly overwhelmed with the machine parts required for maintaince (even with a factory). Second game i went solar with batteries and zero problems satisfiying the polymer demand, even after my colony got bigger than the one in my first game. (In my current game i'm running on stirling generators, but that is only viable with Europe i think).
Since i'm thinking about writing a guide about power production - does anyone know if there is a upper limit on the evalation bonus the wind turbines get? And does it stack mutliplicative oder additive with the 33%-tech bonus?
Wind is strong if you have high evalation to grab the bonus, if you don't have that on your map the effectivness is greatly reduced. In addition i think the streamers go way to heavy on batteries which results in an inflated polymer maintaince cost.
Wind turbines produce 5 base power and require 0.5 machine parts maintaince. So you get 10 power out of 1 machine part in maintaince. A full battery can supply 20 power for the whole night for just 1 polymer maintance. In addition if feel polymer is cheaper to produce locally than machine parts (it requires less power, less man-power (if the machine factory is supplied via mine) and no in-dome spot (which are at a premium).
One battery has the same output as 4 large solar panels. You need 12,5 additional power during the day to fully charge the battery so in maintaince it is 6.5 metal and 1 polymer vs 2 machine parts. However there is tech to reduce the interval of maintaince on the solar panels. (Not to mention the breakthrough that increases solar power by a flat 100%)
Not to mention that not all buildings need power during the night - especially the high demanding machine factory does not need power when nobody is working.
Dust storms do in fact decrease the output of a solar panel. My large sonar panels only produce 2 power per hour during a dust storm - no idea of the output of a smaller panel.
And from midgame onward stirling generators and fusion power is available which feel a lot stronger than solar or wind.
In my first game i went with wind power but was shortly overwhelmed with the machine parts required for maintaince (even with a factory). Second game i went solar with batteries and zero problems satisfiying the polymer demand, even after my colony got bigger than the one in my first game. (In my current game i'm running on stirling generators, but that is only viable with Europe i think).
Since i'm thinking about writing a guide about power production - does anyone know if there is a upper limit on the evalation bonus the wind turbines get? And does it stack mutliplicative oder additive with the 33%-tech bonus?
Tried early wind, had huge problems with maintenance. Tried early solar - quickly ran out of metals for maintance.
Then I tried starting out with mostly stirling, and while expensive to set up, maintance was no longer a problem. By midgame if made sense to convert to wind, but that was mostly as maintance was less of a problem, and breaktroughs gave 100% boost. (Also, by then I had a tunnel to grab the higher ground - which we know is a autowin
)
Then I tried starting out with mostly stirling, and while expensive to set up, maintance was no longer a problem. By midgame if made sense to convert to wind, but that was mostly as maintance was less of a problem, and breaktroughs gave 100% boost. (Also, by then I had a tunnel to grab the higher ground - which we know is a autowin
)
I used solar at first and shut off some things during the night (no need to extract concrete all night) and then later supplemented with wind power only when I started getting domes. You are right in the expensive maintenance part. Soooo easy to just use the transport to collect metals for the solar power. The only issue is finding the right number of accumulators to match the batteries and keep the polymer maintenance as low as possible.
Solar power use!
-> Mines, Factorys, etc that don´t work at night!
-> Extra power + batteries you turn on to prepare for a Cold Wave. (Turn everything off to stop any upkeep and only turn on when its about to hit you).
-> with +100% breaktrough it can help to power domes after you unlock atomic batteries.
For more info below.
breakin down the cost of upkeep. While earlygame your choice need to be calculated by the amount of resources available (And funding) after the first dome and factories you can choose better the route.
Maintance = X resource every 150h = 5 days.
im gonna place the cost in Millions/Day. No matter if you are importing or making on house.
Manpower is also something you need to take into account. As a Machine Parts factory does demand people and your first dome need to survive 10 days with only 12 of them. (And rare minerals export being a priority).
cost of resoures (importing from earth) .
5 Metal = 50M = 10M each
5 Polymers = 70M = 14M each
5 M. Parts = 90M = 18M each
5 Eletronics = 100M = 20M each
PS: going to ignore concrete and metal for importing prices. rarely someone imports them.
Starting with the most easy of all.
Stirling Reactor.
Cost: 12 polymers / 6 eletronics or 240M if you import resources, 400M prefab
Maintance: 0 (closed) , 1 polymer (open).
Upkeep = 0 (closed) or 2,8M /day (open).
Output : 10 (Closed) / 20 (open).
Wind Turbine.
Cost: 4 Concrete +1 machine part = 18M to build 1. no prefab
Maintance: 1,8 Million/day
Output: 5 (0% wind bonus) to 10 (100% wind bonus).
Solar power. (only going to calculate the large one).
Cost: 4 metal
Maintance = 2 Million/day
Output = 5 (normal ) / 2 (dust storm).
Now things get interesting. I can´t take those costs without adding both batteries.
Battery = 3 Concrete + 2 polymers = 28M to build.
Maintance = 1 polymer = 2.8M / day
Night time = 8 hours.
That means for every 2 solar panels (10 energy). I need 1 extra to gather energy for the night.
Battery can hold 200 energy = 20 Energy output for 1 night.
That means the ratio is 6 Solar panels for 1 Battery on normal.
During a 57Hours duststorm. ( 2 days / 9 hours)
57 Hour energy demand = 20 Energy x 57 Hours = 1140 total energy needed to keep things working.
6 solar panels x 2 Energy for 45 Horus (Daytime) = 540 Energy.
1140 - 540 = 600Energy missing.
That means for every 6 Solar panels you need 3 Batterys to become Immune to almost any duststorm.
Now maintance price to produce 20 Energy with all buildings.
Stirling reactor = 0 (2 stirlings) or 2.8M/day.
Wind Turbine = 3,6M (2 wind full bonus) to 7,2M (4 turbines 0% bonus) / day.
Solar + batteries = 10.8M (no duststorm) or 16,4M to protect yourself from duststorms.
PS: Solar does become much more competitive once you unlock Atomic Acumulators as they can hold 2000 Energy each and cost very little to keep.
PS2: not counting fusion reactor, no contest here.
PS3: A breaktrough that give +100% solar power production does make solar > wind on normal circunstances.
but wind too have a +100% technology. (And if you add altitude the production is amazing).
-> Mines, Factorys, etc that don´t work at night!
-> Extra power + batteries you turn on to prepare for a Cold Wave. (Turn everything off to stop any upkeep and only turn on when its about to hit you).
-> with +100% breaktrough it can help to power domes after you unlock atomic batteries.
For more info below.
breakin down the cost of upkeep. While earlygame your choice need to be calculated by the amount of resources available (And funding) after the first dome and factories you can choose better the route.
Maintance = X resource every 150h = 5 days.
im gonna place the cost in Millions/Day. No matter if you are importing or making on house.
Manpower is also something you need to take into account. As a Machine Parts factory does demand people and your first dome need to survive 10 days with only 12 of them. (And rare minerals export being a priority).
cost of resoures (importing from earth) .
5 Metal = 50M = 10M each
5 Polymers = 70M = 14M each
5 M. Parts = 90M = 18M each
5 Eletronics = 100M = 20M each
PS: going to ignore concrete and metal for importing prices. rarely someone imports them.
Starting with the most easy of all.
Stirling Reactor.
Cost: 12 polymers / 6 eletronics or 240M if you import resources, 400M prefab
Maintance: 0 (closed) , 1 polymer (open).
Upkeep = 0 (closed) or 2,8M /day (open).
Output : 10 (Closed) / 20 (open).
Wind Turbine.
Cost: 4 Concrete +1 machine part = 18M to build 1. no prefab
Maintance: 1,8 Million/day
Output: 5 (0% wind bonus) to 10 (100% wind bonus).
Solar power. (only going to calculate the large one).
Cost: 4 metal
Maintance = 2 Million/day
Output = 5 (normal ) / 2 (dust storm).
Now things get interesting. I can´t take those costs without adding both batteries.
Battery = 3 Concrete + 2 polymers = 28M to build.
Maintance = 1 polymer = 2.8M / day
Night time = 8 hours.
That means for every 2 solar panels (10 energy). I need 1 extra to gather energy for the night.
Battery can hold 200 energy = 20 Energy output for 1 night.
That means the ratio is 6 Solar panels for 1 Battery on normal.
During a 57Hours duststorm. ( 2 days / 9 hours)
57 Hour energy demand = 20 Energy x 57 Hours = 1140 total energy needed to keep things working.
6 solar panels x 2 Energy for 45 Horus (Daytime) = 540 Energy.
1140 - 540 = 600Energy missing.
That means for every 6 Solar panels you need 3 Batterys to become Immune to almost any duststorm.
Now maintance price to produce 20 Energy with all buildings.
Stirling reactor = 0 (2 stirlings) or 2.8M/day.
Wind Turbine = 3,6M (2 wind full bonus) to 7,2M (4 turbines 0% bonus) / day.
Solar + batteries = 10.8M (no duststorm) or 16,4M to protect yourself from duststorms.
PS: Solar does become much more competitive once you unlock Atomic Acumulators as they can hold 2000 Energy each and cost very little to keep.
PS2: not counting fusion reactor, no contest here.
PS3: A breaktrough that give +100% solar power production does make solar > wind on normal circunstances.
but wind too have a +100% technology. (And if you add altitude the production is amazing).
I am thinking of making a realism mod with wind power to 2 base power, and stirling generators to 5 base. Lower the maintenance on solar and batteries.
Do you think this would still be playable or would realism break the game? Even solar is overpowered since you only get an average of 10 hours of usable daylight on mars as opposed to 13 on Earth. Diffusion baby.
Do you think this would still be playable or would realism break the game? Even solar is overpowered since you only get an average of 10 hours of usable daylight on mars as opposed to 13 on Earth. Diffusion baby.
Not sure why I would use anything else besides Solar for Factories.
Lategame when you can pop Stirling everywhere I guess it falls out of favor.
But until then for everything worked by colonists it's the best option.
I'm not sure how Quill is playing lately but last time I watched him he wasn't exactly the most efficient manager of things.
Lategame when you can pop Stirling everywhere I guess it falls out of favor.
But until then for everything worked by colonists it's the best option.
I'm not sure how Quill is playing lately but last time I watched him he wasn't exactly the most efficient manager of things.
The mountains and rocks of Titan are made of water-ice, plenty of water on the surface of Titan if you take a heat source with you. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huygens_(spacecraft)
that's what i am afraid of; too difficult with the way the game is set up.
Thanks for answering.
Thanks for answering.
If you bias your facilities to work more during the day, you can use solar+wind for your higher daytime needs and just wind for nighttime needs, without worrying about batteries at all.
the strongest thing in the game is the triboelectric scrubber. put 2 in to even reduce its own maintaince if you want.