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  1. Posted to the correct forum this time Clearly, with NQ at least talking of energy management it's something that is coming but we have no idea how this will work and it appears nether has NQ yet really as they have pretty much said it's still in the "thinking about it" phase. Here's how I could see power and energy work in DU: Territory unit: Has a built in power generator which is extremely efficient and can run a long time on a relative limited fuel supply. Once fuel runs out, it will be able to stay active for some time before it starts to decay. Once it decays below 50% the protective impact to static constructs on the tile will end and those can be attacked without the need to destroy the Territory unit. When power drops below 25% it becomes relatively simple to destroy the unit. Once destroyed, a 24H window/timer will provided a means for defenders to arrange such defense on a tile. Static Constructs: The core has a limited power supply relative to it's size which runs relatively efficient buit not as efficient as a TU will. As long as the core has power reserves it will boost the constructs HP value making it (very) hard to breach a construct which can only be done to begin with if the TU on the tile is destroyed or below 50% power. Players can place batteries to increase the constructs power capacity and use fuel or solar power to recharge the batteries which in turn recharge the core if it runs out of fuel (or is not fueled at all). As long as the core has power it will prevent dynamic constructs docked to (as permitted through RDMS) it from being vulnerable to attack. Space cores will have a similar mechanic but obviously without he dependency on a TU Dynamic constructs: The core has a more limited power supply relative to it's size which runs less efficient than a static core of the same size. It has limited capacity for additional power capacity through batteries, which can be recharged trough the engines on the construct being used. By itself the power supply on a dynamic core offers no protection like a static core does. What does the above achieve: TU upkeep and maintenance with a decay timer Protection for territory and constructs placed on it Timers for attacks (a vulnerability window like EVE citadels have could be considered on Static constructs) Limit what can be placed on a construct depending on power capacity and more I have no doubt..
  2. I'm going to dive into several topics here. In addition to organizing this post like a book. Use CTRL + F to find the topic you're interested in reading. Note: Some carebears are going to complain about it but yes, this is going to go down the route of PVP and will touch a little on how this can help the markets in game so deal with it: Energy Management Concept, taking a page from another game (because this game took pages from multiple games already) Armored Core How energy management works on the fly Parts Weapons Energy Consumption The RedZone Cooldowns, Boosters and backups How it can apply to PVP ship combat in DU The Core XS ships Small Ships Medium ships Large Ships XL ships when? XXL ships... probably never at this rate. Batteries Generators Magnetic Nuclear Advanced Magnetic (slightly made up) Fusion Fission Cold Fusion Gravatron (this is made up ... it's a game) Thoramine (Finally a use for it??) Tachyon Zero Point Energy Backup Generators Overdrive Generators/Engines/Components Coolant Elements Auxiliary Coolant Elements Weapon application Instantaneous Usage over time How it can be applied to Buildings in DU The Core The introduction of game built Power plants Coal Hydro Nuclear Fusion Fission Cold Fusion Zero Point Energy Backup Generators Batteries/Power provisions for Base turrets Tiles How it applies to the markets The Starting Value The Starting Price How may change over time The limitations that would make ACTUAL sense Usage over time Instantaneous usage Red Zone awareness Coolant Mechanics Regeneration mechanics Auxiliary mechanics Additional elements to help balance energy management from the start Generators Primary and Auxiliary Generators Backup Generators Coolant pumps & Injectors Water Coolant Rods Emergency kill/cutoff switches (lua) Other ways that basically will hurt/push DU to dwindling Excessive limitation examples Not listening until AFTER the fact Pride Listening to carebears (yes, I hate them because they kill games that have tons of potential) ===================================================================================================================================================================== 1. Energy Management Concept, taking a page from another game (because this game took pages from multiple games already) Out of all the games I've ever played, this one, Armored Core executed Energy Management and power consumption flawlessly on playerstation 1 and into future games on Playerstation 4, Xbox and CPU. Their approach should act as a halmark and in fact, flavors of it are seen in other games such as Halo and Mech Warrior just to name a few. Armored Core Description: The game Armored Core is multi-series multi-console game that started on PlayStation. Set way into the future where corporations control everything. You are called a Raven who will embark on your journey through various sorties (missions) to take down some evil corp or antagonist Raven pilot. It features a mechanised robot you control and manage and fully customize thus sending the player down a route of awareness for how they wish to build their AC (Armored Core). How energy management works on the fly Parts As you've seen in the video the game features numerous parts for the AC which allows for full customization. Each part offers their own list of benefits and natural drawbacks that the player needs to consider in their playstyle. All parts consume some sort of energy when in use or passively. For example Light arms for a quick sniper focused AC would consume a small amount of energy passively and have good accuracy for sniper/singleshot weapons. However, would be horrible when taking a direct hit or attempting to use rapid fire weapons like machine guns that are too heavy for it to manage or carry. Weapons Similar to arms, legs, tank chassis, core/chests ect. Weapons also have the different types of energy consumption. Passive, Instantaneous and none. Passive would be for things like laser swords that are active and out. Or a high range/high sensitivity scanner to search for cloaked targets when active and in use. Instantaneous would be when a handheld laser cannon, or shoulder mounted laser/railgun is charging and/or fired. None would be for when a regular mechanical bolt-action rifle or machine gun (requiring NO energy) is fired. Energy Consumption For Armored Core Energy is typically indicated via your bar shown above. Where the green and red are your available energy but the red is known as your red zone. The RedZone The redzone, as previously mentioned, is your avialable energy remaining however when you exhaust all of it then you need to wait for your core and generators and coolant to all work together to regenerate your energy. While your suit is regenerating energy your suit draws power from the auxillery generators to keep you moving, however you're unable to attack, fly/boost in any direction or do anything outside of walking around to avoid getting hit. Cooldowns, Boosters and backups The game features a number of boosters backups and cooldowns ect. or other ways to assist with your power management to ensure you're able to stay active in the fight for as long as possible. 2. How it can apply to PVP ship combat in DU The Core - It should be known that the Core of a vessel is what provides the main source of power. With that the various sized ships can pull energy and use it to however it was designed. XS ships All ships should be able to produce enough power to allow them to function in a minimal capacity. For extra small ships they should be able to do more than enough work so that new players can still build themselves up on Alioth or even on Sanctuary. For the more experienced players and PVPers we should be able to add in batteries and even an XS generator to power the ship and have enough energy regeneration for the ship to do scouting, or long hauling runs or even dog-fight. However, they should also have a built in issue where sometimes the redzone may be just a bit to much on their meter and may sometimes require assitance in some way. Small Ships This is typically where the novice level solo player ends up. Small core ships should be able to produce a healthy supply of power for w/e the ship is built for. The use of backup generators or batteries should help aid the ship both passively and instantaneously when weapons or boosters are required to get out of hairy situations. For PVPers these are typically known as gunboats, however since small sized ships cannot use medium sized weapons. This ship is practically pointless for PVP. Even with the silhouette mechanics. Medium ships... getting tired A more thorough outline is mentioned in the Part 2 for Energy Management. Just search for the respective section. It's been recently updated. Large Ships ... getting tired A more thorough outline is mentioned in the Part 2 for Energy Management. Just search for the respective section. It's been recently updated. XL ships when?... A more thorough outline is mentioned in the Part 2 for Energy Management. Just search for the respective section. It's been recently updated. XXL ships... probably never at this rate.... I've given up hope... Batteries Batteries would be a way to store power for the ship meant as either for backups when all else fails or for temporary overdrive to fatten your ship's max energy. The additional energy batteries would provide would be temporary and once used the canister can be widthdrawn from it's battery outlet (new element alert) and placed in a separate outlet to be recharged. One time use batteries should NOT be a thing because this is the freakin future... let's make it make sense here. Renewable energy sources SHOULD BE INVOLVED BY NOW. If a Sink needs to be added then you can create T1 through T5 batteries. Each tier featuring a set number of recharges before needing to be recycled for parts used to make the batteries. The higher the Tier goes the higher their max energy storage. In addition the tier would also be able to be buffed by talents to increase their number of recharges and max storage. Generators would be able to recharge batteries only when the ship is not being piloted so that way it creates an ability for the ship to somehow sustain itself. Generators - There are a plethora of different kinds of generators real and fake that can be added to the game from T1 to T5 Magnetic - Generator that takes advantage of the Electromagnetic field to create motion and thus energy for the ship. It's much more advanced than your combustable coal engines used in powerplants but still for more efficient and better for the environment. Nuclear - We already know about this... Extremely high amounts of energy, dangerous if pushed too deep into the redzone and can cause a meltdown destroying half the ship, has a decent energy regen rate. Advanced Magnetic (slightly made up) - A more advanced version of Magnetic Gens. with a higher max energy cap but a slower regen. rate and a larger redzone Fusion - Generator type that features a moderate energy cap., low red zone but slow regen rate. Fission - Cousin Gen. Type that features higher energy cap., slightly higher red zone but much better regen rate of energy. Cold Fusion - The best of the Fusion/Fission style gens that has highest energy cap, lowest red zone, but fast yet fidgety regen. rate. (meaning there's times when it will stop recharging for 2 - 5 seconds) Gravatron (this is made up ... it's a game) This Generator is a T3 and T4 generator that takes advantage of the gravitational field of nearby celestial bodies to boost its regenerative abilities. It features an insanely high energy cap. 15 times the cap of nuclear and a very small red zone. However it's regen. is extremely low. This feature would make the generator useful for really long voyages to new systems or hidden pockets of space. (Think Exploration cruisers) Thoramine (Finally a use for it??) - T-5 level generator Tachyon - T-5 level generator Zero Point Energy - T-5 level generator that has almost infinite energy or the highest energy cap, Lowest red zone but no energy regeneration. The Zero Point Energy Gen would instead have a feature that allows the maintainer to "pull" energy from no-where. The maintainer would be able to do this X number of times per hour. Backup Generators As the name suggests these generators would be brought up online when something catastrophic goes wrong to maintain small amounts of power for the ship while it fixes it. Overdrive Generators/Engines/Components Overdrive generators would act as boosters for engines or to increase max energy cap temporarily. Using them would cause wear/damage to the engines but would result in the ship GTFO of a bad situation. Coolant Elements Coolant Pumps ... to cool the generators and the core Coolant Rods... well you get it Auxiliary Coolant Elements For when you need to be more chilled Weapon application Instantaneous All weapons would use a varying amount of instantaneous energy when in use. The cannons, being mostly mechanical, would use the least amount of energy. Missiles would be the 2nd least instantaneous use. Where as Railguns would use the most per volley. Enough for the usage to be noticable but not so much to where the ship can barely function. When we get harpoons and Interdiction.... This would be where they'd get applied as well Usage over time This is mostly applied to lasers, and tractor beams. The larger the laser or tractor beam the larger the usage over time. For tractor beams, the Longer the hold, the more energy is used. The more massive the tethered target, the more energy consumed. This can be slowed down by overdriving your system with your batteries and backup generators for greater output and better effect. However, doing so will severely hinder your ship for a while when you need to regen your energy stores for both the main and backup generators and batteries. None No energy is used when the ship is not being piloted 3. How it can be applied to Buildings in DU The Core - Produces it's own baseline energy for the entire Construct Requires other elements (generators) to boost it's max power for more elements on the construct The introduction of game built Power plants - These power types can help offset the demand for the core on static and space constructs Coal T - 1 Hydro T - 1 & T-2 Nuclear T-2 & T-3 Fusion T-2 & T-3 Fission T3 & T-4 Cold Fusion T4 -T5 Thoramine T5 only Zero Point Energy T5 only Backup Generators For if you mess up somewhere and the power gets knocked out via your own stupidity or via PVP engagements Batteries/Power provisions for Base turrets Batteries can be used to help offset the base's already existing power consumption during combat/defense. Where the turrets will draw from the batteries or side- generators. When the turret's designated power supply is drained it will begin to drain from the primary core just to protect the construct. Tiles Tiles on a planet or moon or asteroid would affect the three basic characteristics of the static cores placed. Max Energy (This would only be an addition) Larger Increase for barren planets Larger increase for Asteroids or moons Smaller increase for Cold planets Smaller Increase for Hotter Planets Energy Regeneration (This could be a +/- to the energy regeneration) Larger regeneration for Hotter planets (This gives hot planets like Sicarri, Sinnon or Madis an increase in land value) Smaller Regeneration for Colder planets Redzone Larger redzones for hotter planets Smaller redzones for colder planets (this gives ice planets an increase in interest value) 4. How it applies to the markets The Starting Value This will help add value to Coal, Hydrogen and Oxygen and create a solid use for Thoramine well before Warp gates are even on the drawing board. Coal would have a relatively low value but it and Hydro and Oxy would begin to gain better uses as well. Thoramine would be worth fighting over on asteroids and selling on the markets. The Starting Price Set the price for T-1 schematics lower but also allow for bots to buy coal to further stir the economy How may change over time People will see reason to engage the markets more on this front because you've created a sound way of doing so for PVE and PVPers 5. The limitations that would make ACTUAL sense Usage over time Start the balance off Low. Don't go setting it on holy shit mode then walking the numbers back because everyone hates the mechanic and claims it doesn't make sense. Start small and work your numbers up. Setting the consumption and limitations excessively high will only curb your community towards playing Starbase and StarCitizen more. Instantaneous usage Most of this has already been explained. but Again, start small. Then adjust from there. Red Zone awareness Coolant Mechanics allow your construct (static and dynamic) to slow the decent towards the redzone. The name of the game is the keep in the green. It's a simple yet complicated balancing act that the player has to manage. Because of this properly executed challenge the player has fun actually trying to balance stuff out on their own. Being aware of your redzone's level will only help with immersion. Regeneration mechanics This literally adds a brand new job for someone on the ship. Where they'd hang out in the power room for most of the ship's trip to ensure everything stays running at the right levels. Think of Scottie on the Enterprise "I'm given her all she's Got Captain!" Auxiliary mechanics This would be on the "Scottie" of the ship to maintain and implement on the ship to ensure the ship can at least be marginally functional when it takes on catastrophic damage or experiences a catastrophic event from space. (Hint Hint: some random waves from a start that sucks out power from the ship or something ridiculous) 6. Additional elements to help balance energy management from the start Generators Primary and Auxiliary Generators Backup Generators - While Generators can be used as backup, these units would be unique and have a considerable advantage over regular generators but will only work if Regular generators are down. Coolant pumps & Injectors Water Coolant Rods Air Emergency kill/cutoff switches (lua) Used through lua to kill the power to a ship 7. Other ways that basically will hurt/push DU to dwindling Excessive limitation examples 0.23 execution. Yes I'm bringing it up again. Because 0.23 should serve as a valuable lesson of what not do to or how NOT to do something... ever again. Overdoing the power consumption - This will limit creativity and drive people away from the game. Again, start small with easy numbers people can work with so they can get used to the idea of power consumption. Limiting the number of weapons on a ship - You've already limited the size of weapons on a ship by core size to curb cubes... which did and didn't work. Setting hard limits on the number of USABLE weapons on a ship through power management will only piss off your community more than needed. AGAIN, start small and work your way up to something that's balanced. Like for example, I'm going to only allow 5 weapons on a Large core ship or 3 weapons on a small or medium core... sorry but I will change my credit card number in a heartbeat if this game takes that route and say good luck. Then pick up Starbase or spend money needlessly on star citizen and encourage all of BOO and even the AC to jump ship. Just FYI, DSI is already hitting us up about playing other games and saying goodbye to DU. Let's not even talk about Youtube and Twitter ect. Not listening until AFTER the fact ATV are full of very knowledgeable intellects. Their input is based on their perspective and from that of your community. Taking their word with a grain of salt will only hurt you vs. taking them seriously. You built the ATV for a reason. Pay attention to it to ensure your success. Pride - "Pride commeth before the fall" This one is mainly for JC. You are highly intelligent and very knowledgeable in many things and have garnered much respect from people, however being too prideful or too hardstanced (overzealous) in any one belief and unwilling to change WILL cause you to lose people. You have a team that have 2nd thoughts about the direction and a community with even more resentment about what you're building here. The question is, are you trying to build a simulator that will see 10-20k ACTIVE people after 10 years time? or one that will see that number 2 years after launch? Listening to carebears (yes, I hate them because they kill games that have tons of potential) The definition of a carebear varies from one PVPer to another. However, at it's core, a carebear is an individual who sees any one game mechanic that doesn't fit their personal narrative of a game (usually PVP focused) and does or says anything they can to cause devs to ruin it for the many.
  3. Round 3!..... FIGHT! Hello... After having laid out a fairly thorough and indepth posts about Energy Management much of the feedback was related to how much information overload and extensive walls of texts there were. To that, I understand completely. It was exhausting for me to even write it all out but as you saw, I had a lot to say about the feature that I believe NQ are probably working on. With this forum post I will do 2 things: Summarize Energy Management forum posts Parts 1 and 2 Dive into organizing the final part, which is how to attack this beast from a project management standpoint (this is where it gets heavy) Keep in mind I'm of the assumption that NQ may read this but some managers may or may not look at this and think "This guy has no idea what he's talking about or how we work". Quite frankly, I don't have a single clue about how they operate, the systems they use, the languages they write in, nor the task manager software employed at NQ to organize each featured release. If I did have an understanding then yes I'd have a write-up ready and tailored specifically to how NQ could employ energy management from start to finish just to make their jobs easier. ======================================================================================================================================= Summary of Energy Management: Key Aspects The Rule of Three Almost every aspect of energy management will have 3 key aspects or components to make it all work At the heart of the whole system rests 3 key characteristics Energy Generation (Max Energy) Energy Regeneration The Redzone The above characteristics apply to 3 key sources of energy Cores Generators Batteries The above sources of energy are interconnected by 3 key components Inlets Outlets Purifiers The above interconnecting components allow for 3 key actions introducing batteries recharging batteries cooling various types of generators with cooling rods Quick descriptions and outlines Energy Generation - The combined baseline storage of available energy for the construct provided by the Core and Generators (static and dynamic) Energy Regeneration - The combined rate at which energy is regenerated by the Core and the Generators The Redzone - The combined condensed section of the available energy (typically shown in red at the end of the energy bar) that, when reached, results in a number of negative effects occuring to the lights, engines, adjusters, brakes, weapons, doors, and even radar. The deeper you are in the red, the worse the effects become. Cores - Central primary producer of energy for the construct. Only allowed to have Generators connect to the core Number of available slots vary depending on size of core Generators - 2ndary source of energy for the core Acts as an augmenter to Core's Energy Generation, Regeneration and Redzone. Allows for the connection of Inlets and outlets and containers Number of available in/outlet slots varies based on tier, type (or tech) and size of the generator Can be buffed with talent points Batteries - tertiary source of energy for the construct Only able to interact with generators via in/outlets Provides temporary source of energy No energy regen No redzone Can act as the first source of energy pulled, backup energy or reserve energy when your construct's eng. level is about to hit the redzone. Allows your generators to go into overdrive mode and provides temporary boosters for the engines damages batteries/capacitors/crystals ect. forcing them to be recycled. Has a set number of recharges that varies in type and tier of the battery can be increased with talent points Inlets - Act as connectors to generators for batteries and cooling rods The connection is 1 to 1 (one battery or cooling rod per inlet) Allows for the battery to inject it's energy into the construct's energy store Allows for a cooling rod to be "injected" into Nuclear type generators Outlets - Act as output connectors from generators to batteries Allows you to recharge or energize batteries, crystals and cooling rods. The connection is 1 to 1 The Project... coming soon (Dun dun Duuuuuuun) Place holder because I just started my next batch of physics classes. So this will get updated in pieces daily.
  4. I took a moment to pull out the conclusion from the Energy Management Part 2. Conclusion: Currently the roles on a ship are: Pilot/FC - calls the targets Gunners - Open fire on the target Redshirts - guys who repair the ship With this approach to power management you'll create the new role of "The Scotties" who will have to handle the tasks of: Power management for the weapons Swapping batteries charging batteries making sure the generators don't blow checking the coolant systems Keeping the ship's power out of the redzone With this approach, noted in #7 the game takes on a more natural stance for power consumption and generation. Instead of setting hard numbers to limit players on how many weapons they can put on their ship or even what sizes they can place on their ships this will force players to make more informed decisions on how many to place based on how much energy the ship has and can maintain. This would lead to the ultimate end of borg cubes as some players would try to make min/maxed cubes not realizing that spooling up their own engines while trying to fire massive rail guns or lasers at a distance pushes the core into the redzone too much thus shutting down the ship and making it inoperable for combat. With this in mind, you can remove the core sized limitation of weapons for all sized weapons and cores. Because now an XS core can no longer support Large or too many medium weapons from an energy front! Needless to say the scottie would have a critical and equally important job on the ship. I feel like I'm just screaming into the void and even though NQ confirmed they read these, I know they have their plan of execution and development. In addition I did get hints that what I've already brought up was or at least parts of it are being implemented or thought about or something. I just wish I was able to speak to JC or the development managers and at least understand their mindset... get some kind of communication going here. There may be a handful of people who don't agree with me, but the majority are in the same boat of knowing this game's activity is in the red. We want this ship turned around and with how .23r went people are a little hesitant for the next one. "It's going to get worse before it gets better" is not the stance people wanna know NQ is taking right now. People wanna know that .23 was about as worse as it's ever going to get. Yes... 0.23 was awful lol numbers don't lie and there's no changing my mind on that
  5. Me again ...? After I pumped out that gem of a post and have received raving feedback from the DU community I decided to give NQ a break from me for 1 day. But that doesn't mean I wasn't mentally prepping to write the next beast. So brace yourself because I'm far from done with ripping apart this game's current and future gutts and sharing it here. Reference to previous post: https://board.dualthegame.com/index.php?/topic/22000-energy-consumption-and-how-it-can-be-properly-executed/ Disclaimer: If NQ were to actually implement anything from any of my posts I'd assume no ownership of any intellectual property written within anything here. In fact, I encourage them to use as much of it as possible because again, I REALLY want this damn game to blow up... and yes I already know the disclaimer of the game and forums. I'm just reitterating it here, because at least one person has already approached me about this topic. Keep in mind, I'm only doing this because I received confirmation that NQ does in fact read these forums more so than any other platform. If I get confirmation in the next patch (maybe even the one after) that NONE of what's being said from myself and others wasn't even considered, then I'll consider the exit door to Starbase and StarCitizen, with high chance of never returning... and yes I will take others with me... Count on it. The earlier bullet is not a threat nor meant to be taken in any negative light. It's a statement meant to be taken seriously. Because I and many others still around from Alpha 1 deeply care about this game, spent some decent money on it as an investment and really want it to succeed. I also understand that families and friends working at NQ are being fed by this game's development and lives are made easier because it's in operation. So looking at it from a more human perspective, food being put on the table, now and in the future is determined by how successful this game becomes. This may not be true for everyone employed at NQ but there's at least 1 person struggling to ensure they can make it to the next paycheck or dinner plate and they're just not making it public from embarrassment or other personal reasons. Maybe even due to COVID-19 effects on people's finances, who knows... so do consider that JC, if you hadn't already. To all those PVP hating carebears out there, if you don't want to see more posts about stuff related to PVP or PVE or anything with a P in it then just close the tab out. I don't plan on stopping until I see in the next patch(es) that all this was in vain and NQ only hears the community when they realize there's barely a community left. Unless you're going to offer up actual critics on how to help this game get better from a player's EXPERIENCED perspective then I give ZERO F&^*s about what you have to say lmao One final bullet here for ALL OF NQ. I'm well that no one likes hearing that they're fucking up. From the worker bees on up to management and even the great JC himself. It is somewhat natural for everyone to not enjoy rejection or anything negative for that matter. However, it's the intelligent individuals that are able to disect these posts and take the good and silver linings out of them and apply them to be better today than their yesterday's best. I believe that's practically all of NQ employees, intellectuals striving for better. So yes, I'm harsh, I'm a bit unprofessional when not at my actual job (because I'm not getting paid to write this) and my feedback is REALLY raw and real. I'm not a "yes man" and I'm going to tell it to your face that you dun fucked up and how. So please don't take any of this personal, but more as a the community wants better of/from/for you all and while we're VERY disappointed we expect nothing but greatness from each and every one of you (even when you're burnt out) because you're making something that we've been wanting for decades. Now after having laid that heavy load onto people's thoughts I'm going to get into the post itself. (Note: I plan on writing up a full fledged path of execution... sort-of touching on project management level on how each piece of this new feature could be planned, developed, tested, implemented to beta with deadlines and all... I'm not seeking a job, but I will do the whole damn thing if that's what it takes for this game to make it. Because yes, I want this game to succeed lol. I'm not sure if I'll use JIRA or Github or Monday or Trello w/e other system is out there ... Yes we use these at G.E Aviation) Don't worry marketing team, I have something in the works for you too... you aren't getting out of this unscathed lol For this post I'm going to jump into the elements from the previous post and how they would theoretically work if NQ was to actually implement something like this. Again, I'm going to structure this similar to the previous so you get a full understanding of how each element would correspond to the mechanics already in DU. ================================Table of Contents=============================== Power Management The importance How it could work in DU Power usage types New types of Power Coal Hydro Magnetic Nuclear Advanced Magnetic (slightly made up) Fusion Fission Cold Fusion Gravatron (this is made up ... it's a game) Thoramine (Finally a use for it??) Tachyon Zero Point Energy The New Elements Generators Backup Generators Coolant Pumps Rods Air System Batteries Outlets How they work for Ships (hopefully I don't get tired this time) XS Small Medium Large X-Large (I'm going to actually try it this time) How they work for Static/Space Structures XS Small Medium Large X-Large Tiles - Newest Addition Limitations of each power generation & Coolant element Generators Backup Generators Coolant Pumps Rods Air System Batteries Outlets Limitations on Weapons ... yes, PVP for all you carebears out there >=) Cannons Missiles Lasers Rail-guns ==================================The Deep Dive====================================================== (Buckle up) Power Management The importance When it comes to a building or ship properly managing power is extremely critical. In order for a vessel or structure to maintain operation or even life there is typically 3 sources (or faucets) for power: Primary - Something that provides the bulk of the power needed for the vessel, vehicle or structure. Example: The two jet engines on a UH60 - Black-hawk Example: The Nuclear Power Plant on an aircraft Carrier, or Nuclear Submarine Example: The Power Plant(s) that provide(s) power to a whole city Auxiliary - Something that provides power for smaller utilities of the vessel or vehicle or structure. Backup - Something that kicks in when both primary and Auxiliary fail and provides enough power to maintain critical functions of both main and utility functions for vessels, vehicles or structures. How it could work in DU Generation As mentioned in the previous post, the main source of power would come from the core at a set level which would change based on the various sizes of the core. THERE WOULD BE NO TALENTS THAT WOULD BE ABLE TO ModiFY THE MAX POWER CAP OF THE CORE NO MATTER WHAT. The only way to increase the core's maximum power cap would be to use generators and/or batteries. Talents can be applied to only batteries, outlets and generators in order to affect the following characteristics of the constructs power: Power capacity (permenant and temporary) Power regeneration speed (in MegaWatts/s or GigaWatts/second) Red-zone level Overclock (or Overdrive or Booster numbers... naming convention is debatable) The reason for only being able to place talents on the new elements over the core is because you can pick up and replace those elements on the ship, where as the core cannot be so easily picked up and put down unless you want to start all over at dropping the core from the start... which no one will do for ships already made. Maybe you can add a talent for core placement that will increase it's max power and power regen and lower the red-zone... idk but this is definitely a way to go for talents. Regeneration This would be gauged in MegaWatts/second and if need be you can convert up to Gigawatts/second. Regeneration is only done by The core and the various generators. Batteries would only be used as a source of temporary power and must require recharging when depleted. Batteries would would be interchangeable on ships and there are more than just 1 type of battery (Tier 1 through Tier 5) The Red Zone This is a condensed area of your energy bar Power usage types Instantaneous Instantaneous power usage type is mainly for weapons and a few other elements. All weapons would use some modicome of power. Some very noticable and others barely would make a dent. Power usage of this type would only occur when: a weapon is fired a door is opened or closed Passive Passive power usage applies to numerous other elements and requires far more attention when building/designing the construct and when in flight or combat Passive power usage applies to: While a laser is active (because lasers are suppose to be continuous fire... not instantaneous) While a force field is activated While lights are on (don't worry, these would be drawing power on the KiloWatt/s level and should have near ZERO affect on the ship's power generation While a ship's engines are spooling up and barely a lot while the engines are running. It should take more energy to spool the engines vs. maintaining them at various levels. While the ship is being piloted While a gun is in use... more like when the player attempts to target an enemy ship. WITH WEAPONS ATTACHED to the gunner chair (Not the chair itself) The reason for this is because we have news reporters sitting in gunner chairs using radar to review the action on the battle field and are using just a gunner chair and radar to see what's going on. Having them drain power on the ship would discourage having reporters on the field and streaming entirely. None .... if you don't get what kind of power usage type this is then you shouldn't be working at NQ. New types of Power Description: With the new system should come a variety of different types of power generation. Each with their own unique benefits and drawbacks. This provides a new environment for the player/designer to maintain a new sense of "attention to detail" on how he/she designs their ship. For medium and large core ships and on (we hope) this creates a new role on the ship I like to call "The Scottie" whose sole job is to maintain the power on board larger ships: "I'M GIVEN HER ALL SHE'S GOT CAPTAIN!!!" Coal Coal is well... the most basic form of power generation in the game. As such it's only seen as a T-1 tech. This would be primarily for static constructs as Coal would not possibly be able to produce anything for ships. So you could make up something for ships to use as a power source especially for newbies... it's a game. Not everything has to be 100% real... lol Hydro Another rather basic power gen type that is primarily seen in Static constructs but also can be seen in XS and Small core ships. Using the highly volatile oxygen atoms of water (Oxygen and Hydrogen to make water to stabilize the Oxygen and then using the water as fuel for the T-1 Hydro generator... because it just makes total sense lmao) The drawback is that it produces hydrogen by-product so all hydro generators would require an output container. This would be a T1 and T2 power type... this is progression for power generation tech. Magnetic This generator type would take advantage of the Magnetic field to create electricity... similar to how a stater works in a generator. Copper coils wrapped around a physical cyclindar and around a rod that will spin internally to generate/induce electricity into the rod to be used by the vessel or building... yes that's roughly how it works in real life. There can be more advanced version where you would only use magnets so this has 2 different types, one being more advanced than the other. This type would not require an output container This is seen as only T2 and the Advanced version would also be a T2 & T3 Nuclear (basic) T3 Only This is the basic Nuclear tech. Yes, we're making up a Basic version of Nuclear before going into Fusion and Fission. It's a game, deal with it. This would require an input container and output container. This would also require an Outlet/Inlet hookup... these elements are discussed further down the post The input container would house Water, or Oxygen and Hydrogen The output container would collect waste/radioactive water The player can use "purifier" units to recycle the contaminated water through and back to pure water again for reuse. The purifier is a new element discussed below Advanced Magnetic (slightly made up) Already spoken about but again, you'd use magnets instead of some basic means to generate electricity This would mainly be used for Smaller sized ships that are aiming to have their own power generation and can't take all the extra weight and space that a medium and Large core can for Nuclear applications Fusion (advanced) A T3 generation type and more advanced than pure Nuclear and slightly less wasteful than the basic Nuclear Because it's a slightly more advanced version than the basic Nuclear it would require more elements to be properly applied Would require: Inlet - for the cooling rods Cooling rods Input container Output container Water or Oxygen and Hydrogen Purifier - to recycle, purify and transfer waste water back into the input container Fission (more advanced) A T4 Generation Type Would require: Inlet - for the cooling rods Cooling rods Input container Output container Water or Oxygen and Hydrogen Purifier - to recycle, purify and transfer waste water back into the input container Cold Fusion A T4 Generation Type and more Advanced than Fusion and Fission Would require: Inlet - for the cooling rods Absolute Zero Cooling rods Input container Output container Water or Oxygen and Hydrogen Purifier - to recycle, purify and transfer waste water back into the input container This would be the most efficient out of the Nuclear series of generators. It produces the least waste water and have the highest power output and regeneration. The problem with this type of power is that it will randomly fluctuate the red-zone lol thus forcing the "scottie" to really pay attention otherwise it would cause a meltdown if the ship suddenly slips into the red-zone and stays there for too long. Gravatron (this is made up ... it's a game) A T4 and T5 Generation Type Would require: Inlet - for Gravatron rods Gravatron rods No input container No output container No need for water or Oxygen/Hydrogen No need for a purifier This type of power generation would have an extremely high power cap and a really low regeneration rate. Thus forcing the crew to put more reliance on the core's ability to regenerate power. The red-zone would mainly come from the core itself. The Generator would produce the most regeneration energy when in orbit around a celestial body. The amount of energy regeneration it would gain per second would increase the higher the gravitational pull the construct has. So this type of generation would be ideal for Static construct but can be used on ships that are planning for an extremely long voyage. The fun and immersion would kick in when a person has to use an L-core and manage a stable orbit around a moon or planet or star to regen the energy of the gravatron generator. The T4 version would be the more basic version of the two tiers. The T5 version would regen more energy at a greater/safer orbital distance. Thoramine (Finally a use for it??) A T5 only Would require: Input Container No output container This type would use like 5-100L of thoramine/hr on passive use. Regardless, the weight of this and thoramine would be the offsetting factor to using this type however, the amount of power output would really make someone considering using it since it would be roughly 1/8th more power than Gravatron. Tachyon A T5 only Would require: Inlet - for something I haven't thought of Container for quantum Magnets This type would be one of the best energy types available in the game. It would use some random BS approach to producing tachyon energy for the base or ship and features the highest energy cap but one of the lowest red-zones. The regen would be insanely fast but the "Scottie" has to use Quantum magnets to ensure the energy doesn't regen too fast or the generator will blow it's own top. In this case, it forces the Scottie to have to play a balancing game of his own during combat. To ensure the Generator doesn't kill itself. Zero Point Energy A T5 only Would require: Container - For Quantum Magnets This generator type would have the highest energy cap of every one of them in the game. It's mainly seen on Bases and few Large ships. This would have zero red-zone This would have Zero energy regeneration This type of generator would be hailed for it's ability to literally pull energy out of nothing. It would feature an ability to do an Energy Pull which would regen a large portion of it's max energy. Each pull damages the element by maybe 5%-10% depending on how much energy is pulled. This would force the Scottie to keep an eye on the unit's health and repair it so it doesn't destroy itself It would have a cap or recharge abilities that would regenerate over time if the unit is left alone for a minute or two. The New Elements Generators Generators are the secondary source of energy and allow for the person or crew of a ship to not rely entirely on the core for a power source. As the ship sizes scale up the reliance for power generation scales linearly with it. Number of outlet/inlet slots scales up with size, tier, tech and type. A Nuclear (Basic, Fusion, Fission, Cold Fusion) generator will have more inlets for rods than it would outlets to recharge batteries. Backup Generators As previously mentioned, these generators are 2ndary generators that will kick on only when the main generators go out from either catastrophic damage, overload, meltdown, or a mismanagement of power allowing the ship to operate too long in the red-zone. They will provide just enough energy for the adjusters to turn the ship, the engines to run at about 10-30%, the core to have a chance to regen the power. The power from the core will not kick back on until the power has been fully restored. Weapons will not be able to fire Doors will not be able to open Elevators will not be accessible/usable Space brakes will only function at about 30-40% Lights will flicker Coolant Coolant is a feature used mainly on Nuclear and other more advanced Generators to help maintain power and keep the generator from ripping itself apart. Purifiers (old name used to be pumps) Purifiers act as transfer units for ships. They only transfer waste water They're only used for Nuclear type Generators Rods Inserted into Inlets Only 1 Rod per Inlet Is used to make Nuclear generators generate power Takes a ridiculously long time to deplete Takes a ridiculously long time to re-enrich Can be re-enriched via Outlets Air System Very basic type of cooling Usually found on bases Batteries Batteries are similar to rods Provides Temporary addition to max power cap on constructs Is the first thing power is drawn from on a ship unless the Scottie sets the generator/core to pull from it's own stores Can be used to Overclock/Overdrive/Boost the constructs power regen. This will damage the battery and force it to be recycled Damaged batteries are a simple True/False status no health points required Can be inserted into an outlet to be recharged Features a set number of recharges before needing to be recycled T1 - 10 T2 - 20 T3 - 30 T4 - 40 T5 - 55 Talent points can boost the number of recharges by 25% when placed into a recharge outlet (5% per tier) One battery can be recharged per 1 outlet Must be placed into an inlet to provide the boosts for the construct's main power system Types of Batteries: Duracell ... lmfao just kidding Basic Capacitor Magnetic Capacitors (made up) Di-lithium Crystals T-3 T4 and T5 Because Scottie needs to say it "The Di-lithium Crystals are breakin' up! She's GONNA BLOW!" Outlets/Inlets Outlets... similar to sockets in the wall of a house are elements used for: Recharging batteries Will draw passive power from the generator when in use Will stop when the battery is fully recharged Inlets are meant to serve as an interacting element for rods and batteries. Allows charged batteries to boost the generators max capacity Allows for charged batteries to overclock the regeneration of the generator's regen ability Allows for the Generator to blow through the batteries when switched into overdrive mode This will blow out the batteries but allows generators to push engines past their max thrust outputs so you can go faster than 30km/hr in space How they work for Ships (hopefully I don't get tired this time) XS .... I'm already tired... So for XS they'd mostly go with Hydro type generators and basic batteries or capacitors for addition power boosts. This direction would take up the least amount of room on the ship and allow the ship to take on long distance space/atmo scouting/hauling runs. Due to the Core having a set number of slots the Generator(s) would follow a similar pattern as well. However, in this case, the number of slots for inlets and outlets would be the 2 variables that would change based on generator size. For XS generators: 2 inlet slots 1 outlet slots (to recharge batteries or energize crystals) 10 containers Small This type of ship would stem into the T2 and lower ends of the T3 power gen. Tech. Since there's slightly more room for the components it can comfortably house the needed elements For Small generators: 4 inlet slots 2 outlet slots (to recharge batteries or energize crystals) 10 containers Medium here's where T3 - T4 and T5 start to shine For Medium sized generators: 8 inlet slots 4 outlet slots (to recharge batteries or energize crystals) 10 containers Large Mostly T4 and T5 would be sought after here For Large size generators: 16 inlet slots 8 outlet slots (to recharge batteries or energize crystals) 10 containers X-Large (I'm going to actually try it this time) Only for T5 since it's the only kind of energy gens. that could support such demand How they work for Static/Space Structures As Static and Space constructs are not moving the generators can afford to have far more slots available... unless NQ decides to keep it universal and just use the same slot numbers for both static and dynamic constructs... it might just be easier that way and allow for people to add in more generators per their ship's designed power demands. Either way, you would see more frequent use of nuclear type generators on static constructs vs the dynamics XS - erergae Small erergae Medium erergae Large erergae X-Large Tiles on planets, moons and asteroids (if Asteroids have tiles that is) Tiles on a planet or moon or asteroid would affect the three basic characteristics of the static cores placed. Max Energy (This would only be an addition) Larger Increase for barren planets Larger increase for Asteroids or moons Smaller increase for Cold planets Smaller Increase for Hotter Planets Energy Regeneration (This could be a +/- to the energy regeneration) Larger regeneration for Hotter planets (This gives hot planets like Sicarri, Sinnon or Madis an increase in land value) Smaller Regeneration for Colder planets Red-zone Larger red-zones for hotter planets Smaller red-zones for colder planets (this gives ice planets an increase in interest value) Limitations of each power generation & Coolant element Generators Naturally, generators would come with their own natural limitations: Max power cap The power cap can be modified by placement talent points Regen rate This can be modified by talent points and assisted with Overclocking/Over-driving with batteries Red-zone Level This is a condensed area of the energy of the generators This area can cause damage to the generators if the energy level stays in this zone for too long This can be increased if the generator keeps diving into the red-zone constantly and for extended periods of time Backup Generators These are Generators that are switched over using logic gates Once the power of the primary generators has been knocked out the backups will kick on Backups will only supply enough power for the elements to perform at a substandard level Engines would be 20-30% max output Adjusters at 30-40% brakes at 40-50% Coolant Coolant is used for mainly Nuclear type generator techs and adds a new element for the "Scottie" to pay attention to on board larger ships and large facilities. Purifiers Purifiers can only pump, purify and output a certain amount of water over time. Purifiers can be buffed with placement talents Purifiers can only work on waste water Rods Rods only work with Inlets Take a long time to deplete Take a long time to re-enriched/recharged Become hazardous if not dealt with Primary source of producing waste water Air System Weakest form of cooling... haven't fully figured out a use yet... but I know it's somewhere in my head Batteries/Capacitors Has a set number of recharges Is destroyed or damaged when used for overdrive/overclocking Has to be recycled after recharges are exhausted Has to be recycled if used in an overdrive/overclocking situation Is not a permanent source of power Can be used for weapons Outlets Is a one-to-one element... one outlet for one battery or capacitor. Inlets Is a one-to-one element... one battery/capacitor/rod per inlet. only hooks into generators and weapons as an auxiliary power source Limitations on Weapons and other Elements ... yes, PVP for all you carebears out there >=) Lights Lights will pull a small amount of energy passively on the power source. Small enough to where it's barely noticeable Lights will flicker and dim when the energy level hits the red-zone Cannons Instantaneous power draw when fired Uses the least amount of energy when fired since cannons are more mechanical than they are electrical Missiles Uses instantaneous power when fired Uses a little more power when fired since it requires some electricity to signal and activate the missiles. Lasers Uses passive energy when fired Much more noticeable pull of regeneration energy while firing So when this weapon is active, the regeneration of energy is slowed This will cause the Scottie to kick into action and use batteries to mitigate the draw of power from the ship's main power source Rail-guns Uses instantaneous power when fired Has the highest power pull of all 4 weapon types Noticeable when fired forcing the crew to modulate how often they fire Batteries would probably be used the most on Rail-guns to help mitigate how much power they would pull per shot. This weapon would probably deplete the most batteries forcing the Scottie to run back and forth swapping and recharging batteries constantly while managing the ship's power. Conclusion: Currently the roles on a ship are: Pilot/FC - calls the targets Gunners - Open fire on the target Red-shirts - guys who repair the ship With this approach to power management you'll create the new role of "The Scotties" who will have to handle the tasks of: Power management for the weapons Swapping batteries charging batteries making sure the generators don't blow checking the coolant systems Keeping the ship's power out of the redzone With this approach, noted in #7 the game takes on a more natural stance for power consumption and generation. Instead of setting hard numbers to limit players on how many weapons they can put on their ship or even what sizes they can place on their ships this will force players to make more informed decisions on how many to place based on how much energy the ship has and can maintain. This would lead to the ultimate end of Borg cubes as some players would try to make min/maxed cubes not realizing that spooling up their own engines while trying to fire massive rail guns or lasers at a distance pushes the core into the redzone too much thus shutting down the ship and making it inoperable for combat. With this in mind, you can remove the core sized limitation of weapons for all sized weapons and cores. Because now an XS core can no longer support Large or too many medium weapons from an energy front! Needless to say the Scottie would have a critical and equally important job on the ship.
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