Administrators eqsanctum 1,636 Administrators Share Posted April 3, 2016 [glow=red]How Power Works[/glow] [glow=green]Use[/glow] Energy is needed for power factories and harvesters. While every structure consumes credits in maintenance, power is only consumed while the factory or harvester is operating The stat that matters for power generation is Potential Energy or PE [glow=green]What is NOT power[/glow] “Solid Petrochem Fuel” Weaponsmiths and Droid Engineers have use for it “Liquid Petrochem Fuel” is not power. Combat Medics use this for poisons, and Class 2/4 are used by Doctors for buffs The Bazaar adds to the confusion since Gas is listed as a form of ‘energy’ though nothing in the title of reactive or non-reactive gas suggests they are power.Wind and Solar are actually listed as a “liquid” energy… which I suppose from a role-playing aspect we can say they are stored in their resource containers in liquid form. [glow=green]Converting PE into energy[/glow] Each unit of a resource will become at least one unit of power. There are two formulas If the PE is 500 or less: 1 unit resource = 1 unit power If the PE is 501 or more: 1 unit of resource = the PE / 500 [glow=green]Power Resources[/glow] There are three general classes Wind energy (PE 1-400) Solar energy (PE 1-600) and Radioactive energy (PE 1-1000) In each of these three there are sub-classes Wind is located using a wind survey tool and each planet spawns a wind Wind is collected either by sampling or through a personal wind power generator (max BER 9). Solar is found with an ambient solar survey tool and each planet has its own. Solar is collected by sampling or by a medium solar power generator (max BER 12) Radioactive is a special case since it is used in schematics to craft as well as for power generation Radioactive is surveyed with a mineral survey tool You 'can' sample radioactive, but it will inflict wounds if you do You can collect radioactive with a mineral harvester (personal, medium, or heavy), You can collect radioactive with a heavy fusion power generator (max BER 15) [glow=green]Radioactive Types[/glow] Radioactive has nine types which are not planet specific (Class 1-7, high grade polymetric, and unknown). We are only interested in the PE stat, but when you collect radioactive you should bear in mind the other two stats matter to crafters (see below on what to look for). Generally the higher the class the better the PE ranges. There is overlap as you can see in this table of ranges: [td]Type[/td] [td]PE[/td] [td]DR[/td] [td]Class 1[/td] [td]500 - 0593[/td] [td]400 - 0474[/td] [td]Class 2[/td] [td]550 - 0664[/td] [td]440 - 0531[/td] [td]Class 3[/td] [td]621 - 0736[/td] [td]497 - 0589[/td] [td]Class 4[/td] [td]693 - 0807[/td] [td]554 - 0646[/td] [td]Class 5[/td] [td]764 - 0879[/td] [td]611 - 0703[/td] [td]Class 6[/td] [td]836 - 0950[/td] [td]669 - 0760[/td] [td]Class 7[/td] [td]907 - 1000[/td] [td]726 - 0800[/td] [td]HG Poly[/td] [td]001 - 1000[/td] [td]001 - 1000[/td] [td]Unknown[/td] [td]001 - 1000[/td] [td]001 - 0800[/td] OQ is 1-1000 for all types. The overlap is fairly tight - so while a great class 1 could beat out a weak class 2, a class 1 is no match for anything 2 classes higher or more. [glow=green]Crafting with radioactive[/glow] Combat medics need class 1 radioactive to make Advanced Resilience Compound Shipwrights need HG poly Everyone else needs just "any" radioactive Weaponsmiths it is usually DR/OQ that they are looking for and the stats are weighted equally [glow=green]Collecting energy resources[/glow] All energy generators cost the same: 1440 credits per day. This makes them an efficient single purpose device Wind is collected by personals and solar is collected by mediums. They both spawn in the lower range of concentrations… which means they will spawn into the 70s but you may often have to settle for a spawn in the 40s or 50s. [glow=green]Calculating BER[/glow] The formula for Base Extraction Rate (BER) is [bER of harv] x [Conc. %] per minute. Multiplying the minutes BER x Conc. x minutes will give you the amount for that time So a BER 9 wind generator on a 70% spawn can be calculated like this: 9 x 1440 x .7 = 9072 per day. And since all wind is PE 1-400 that means 9k units of power I use 70% to demonstrate the quick harvesting formula – a 70% spawn will pull BER x 1,000 per day Solars have a medium harvester footprint and require about 4 times the surface area to place Higher BER is countered by requiring more area In a narrow concentration this can be a factor – especially if the concentration drops off a cliff! I have seen spawns that shoot up to 75% but only have room for 2 generators. The row around them got 40% and then a third row only single digits… and by-the-way resource spawns do have fractional concentrations so collectors planted side-by-side will not deliver the same exact amount of resources. But to truly confirm the best use of your power generation efforts add the power calculation to your resource extraction formula: BER x Conc. x (PE/500) any PE <500 is calculated at 500, since 500/500 = 1 If your purpose is power – you can easily determine what will yield you the best return. If your goal is to sell what you collect – then you must understand how radioactive is used in crafting to get the best price. [glow=green]Power consumption[/glow]1 [td]Structure[/td] [td]Cost[/td] [td]Power[/td] [td]Personal[/td] [td]720[/td] [td]600[/td] [td]Medium[/td] [td]1440[/td] [td]1200[/td] [td]Heavy[/td] [td]2160[/td] [td]2400[/td] [td]Factory[/td] [td]1200[/td] [td]50/hr **[/td] * Since you can harvest radioactive with mineral harvesters the power consumption results in a 16% loss of resource with a Personal or Heavy and a 13% with a Medium. ** Each time you experiment a schematic – you add complexity to the final build. When using a factory this extra complexity translates to extra build time. If you are making a small item run this is hardly important – but when you are crafting a thousand every second you add results in 16.6 minutes of factory time. All generators (wind, solar, and fusion) require 1440 credits per day for maintenance. Customers and power With higher BER of fusion generators, much higher PE ranges, and the fact that they can be used for more than ‘just’ power - radioactive is the go-to resource when energy mining. The price of energy should be based on power produced – where that price falls is up to the market to decide. If power sells for 1 unit of power = 1 credit … then price your product accordingly. But I say to you again – be aware that radioactive has crafting purposes and high grade radioactive should be priced accordingly. Only after you have exhausted the needs of any crafters should you lower the price of high grade radioactive to the normal power selling price. Along those same lines a word of warning on adding power to a factory or harvester: The command is /addpower [amount] (/addp [amount] also works) Essentially once you issue this command the ‘first’ resource in your bag is grabbed and used. But changing view on your inventory can alter your view of what is first versus what the system thinks is the first power stack. The ONLY way to be sure a resource will not be used is to remove it from your inventory. Running down a line of heavy harvesters dumping a week’s power on each one will EVAPORATE that high OQ radioactive you just spent a cool million on leaving those 2 100k stacks of wind that you got for a bargain off the bazaar. DO NOT RISK IT – ALWAYS CHECK YOUR INVENTORY!! Having maintained large fields of harvesters whatever guild I was in – I often use macros to set up things and even to pay maintenance and add power. But it is just as easy to drive along on a swoop target each harv and add power with the keyboard. If you type /pay 1200;/addp 1440 … you add one day’s maintenance and power to a medium harvester. Glide to the next – target it and press and to recall your last command (you can scroll through to the ‘next’ previous command by pressing the sequence again). Once you are in position – its as easy as 1-2-3: (1) target (2) and (3) Be forewarned harvesters are often similarly named and it is very easy to make a “double” deposit on a harvester – skipping one intended target… Eventually you discover your mistake but usually only after that skipped harv has sat idle for a while. Take the extra few seconds and verify your deposits of maintenance and power. When a heavy is worth the expense A top BER medium is 3 BER less than a top BER heavy - and as an architect I can tell you mediums are easy to craft compared to their heavy counterparts. Most of us will have plenty of lots (unlike live) probably more lots than we are used to dealing with... in 2003-2005 when you had the chance at a decent spawn you threw heavy harvesters on it to grab as much as you could. On Basilisk that isn't necessarily the best option. So you have 10 flagship heavies just waiting to be used - and their combined mining might is 130 BER. Gathering dust is your old BER 10.5 fleet, With it's paltry 105 BER.... But you could run 20 BER 10.5's for the same cost as those 10 BER 13 heavies. Gathering 210 BER for the same cost as 130 the cost being the additional power (an extra 66%). When lots are not the issue and you have a nice open area to plant harvs - running more mediums can make good sense. Remember too that re-deed costs are 50x the hourly maintenance for a structure - which means 20 mediums will cost no more to pick up again than 10 heavies would. On the other hand when space is tight and you can only stack a few harvesters on a spawn - heavies are the way to go since they will gather 25% more resource in the same footprint... As always enjoy the journey - and best of luck to you all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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