[MOD 0.13] Electric Void

[binbinhfr]

Infos

• Type: Mod
• Name: ElectricVoid
• Description: Adds 3 objects, to test the capacity of your electrical network : a huge consumer, a huge producer and an equalizer.
• Tested-With-Factorio-Version: 0.13.0
• Locale: english, french
• Multiplayer compatible: tested on a headless server...
• Tags: Electricity, Power plant
• License: You are free to use and distribute this mod and also to modify it for personal use, but not to release a modified version without permission (unless visibly not maintained anymore).
• Portal download : https://mods.factorio.com/mods/binbinhfr/ElectricVoid

electricvoid-screencopy1.jpg (44.79 KiB) Viewed 16803 times

Description

Description
Adds 3 objects, to test the capacity of your electrical network :
- an electric consumer, which consumes a huge amount of electricity and will put your network on its knees (to make every energy producer work at its maximum output, and also stop any assembly machine or furnace power supply).
- an electric equalizer, which just consumes electricity and tends to equilibrate production and consumption (it's a huge accumulator).
- an electric producer, which produces a huge amount of electricity (to see what happens if all your factory needs are fullfilled).
As these objects are for testing purpose, they are free to build and their recipes are available since the very beginning of any game.

Download
For Factorio 0.13.X :
Please now use the portal for downloads (see link above or use ingame mod install/update), as I won't update both downloads links here anymore.

[apcnc]

german locale

Code: Select all

[item-name]
electric-void = Elektrizitätsvernichter

[recipe-name]
electric-void = Elektrizitätsvernichter

[entity-name]
electric-void = Elektrizitätsvernichter

[Qon]

The electric void doesn't suck your base dry at night. Is this a bug (as an effect of being a modded capacitor) or by design? If it doesn't work at night then I can't use it to test my energy supply at night.

Also it seems to have higher priority than my accumulators which means that if I leave this on the ground then my capacitors won't get refilled fast enough. I think it would be better if the EV had even lower priority than capacitors so that your base functions as normal while testing. Not sure if the API would allow lower priority though.

Other than that, nice item. Maybe you should link to it in your sig?

[binbinhfr]

You're right, it is not a bug, it is just the fault of its simple design : it is just a big accumulator, that works the same way as your other smaller accumulators but that empty itself regularly, so that it won't stop sucking energy from power plants.

So at night, as other accus, it tries to give back energy on the network and do not suck anymore.

It is here to test power plants in the day, in order to make them produce the max output they can, not less, not more, so that classical energy consumer won't be under-electrified.

Otherwise, it has the same "priority" as other accus, BUT it has a higher possible consumption in MW, in order to suck a max energy from power plants with one single EV. So I suppose that Factorio balance energy between accus in fonction of their consumption, that's why your classical accus are not charging a lot... For accus, as far as I know, there is only one priority called "terciary".

And for my sig, I was surpised, but the sig can only contain 5 URLs.... And I already wrote more than 5 mods

I'll try to have a look and see if I can create another EV that works differently, but I'm not sure what you're looking for exactly. What should it do in the day, and in the night ? I'd like to have an EV that always fill the difference between production and consumption, but it's not easy to do in realtime, because I don't know how to access global production/consumption variables...

[Qon]

Well it's one thing to test what happens during full load but not more (and count accumulator output as nothing more available). Then you get the current EV.

Another thing would be to test what happens if you drain the system with no restrictions at all, more like laser turrets that have highest priority. And it would be nice to be able to test that too. Lets say all my laser turrets start firing at once for the entire night, what will happen then? It will surely drain my capacitors if I use tens of GW for an entire night. Will my backup power work? Need a night time EV to test that.

Since my current solar field can produce 1.4GW I wonder why the EV doesn't take a PW as input instead. 1 entity should be enough for testing so that I don't have to place/mine several to turn testing on/off. Though it takes 1.1GW in testing (the rest is my factory) so I haven't touched it's limits yet.
Maybe an entity that has a drain of 1 PW or a modded radar that uses 1 PW in use would work as a good energy sink. Or a 1 PW beacon, so you can turn it on/off with smart inserters in a circuit network on conditions. Not that I need that though.

[binbinhfr]

One EV can absorb 1000GW = 1PW. But it won't absorb more than what your factory does not consume. It absorb the difference between production and consumption when you look at the electrical graph.

But I'll think about another way to deal with this tomorrow. I'll try to design an object that really consumes the difference, as a furnace, but adjusting in realtime.

I could also create an object that consumes 1PW. But if your network does not provide 1PW, then every other consumer will be restricted in proportion...

[Qon]

One EV can absorb 1000GW = 1PW.

False.
1000 GW = 1 TW.
1000 TW = 1 PW.
But yes I did qonfuse GW and TW, but not in my writing. Well not explicitly...
1 EV absorbs 1 TW. Which I'm far from reaching. So I won't need a PW absorber yet. q:

[binbinhfr]

False.
1000 GW = 1 TW.
But yes I did qonfuse GW and TW, but not in my writing. Well not explicitly...
1 EV absorbs 1 TW. Which I'm far from reaching. So I won't need a PW absorber yet. q:

Yes it was a little bit late in the night for me too 1000GW=1TW.
Note that, on Earth, the average electrical worldwide consumption is around 2.3TW . So If you reach this king of level in your factory, it's time to make energy restricitions !!!!

[binbinhfr]

here is v1.0.1
Improves multiplayer compatibility.

[binbinhfr]

0.13 update !

[Qon]

0.13 update !

But does it work with multi-GW power production now?
I had to build a bunch of them to max out my production because their buffer fills up so fast when shoving several GW into them that they can't empty themselves fast enough. Think they fill up slower once they are closer to max capacity also.

[binbinhfr]

0.13 update !

But does it work with multi-GW power production now?
I had to build a bunch of them to max out my production because their buffer fills up so fast when shoving several GW into them that they can't empty themselves fast enough. Think they fill up slower once they are closer to max capacity also.

Well, load the very last version : in the config.lua, you have now :

Code: Select all

electric_void_capacity = 1000 -- in GJ
electric_void_max_input = 1000 -- in GW

So it should absorb quite a power (in daytime only of course, as an accumulator).
Test it and tell me if it suits your needs.

[Qon]

Well, load the very last version : in the config.lua, you have now :

Code: Select all

electric_void_capacity = 1000 -- in GJ
electric_void_max_input = 1000 -- in GW

So it should absorb quite a power (in daytime only of course, as an accumulator).
Test it and tell me if it suits your needs.

0.13 doesn't work with several of my power generation mods. The only power mod that was updated is based on accumulators, so your electric void can't be used to test it. The "useful space" mod which gives you the power of those solar panels on the satellites you launched beamed down to special accumulators. Since I have launched 4.5k satellites in my test setup I get more than 40GW.

As I've said before, your electric void can't test power production in all cases. I managed to get those 40GW by using the fusion power mods "Security zone" which is a modded radar that uses 500MW. But it is not updated for 0.13. Maybe it's time for you to make a electric void entity that can actually test how your power system handles overdraw and works at night? The accumulator is fine for some uses but it never tries to use more than you have so you can't black out your base with it :/
Then you could also see if your steam engines will go into the power death spiral when more power is used than can be supplied which is vital information.

[binbinhfr]

With 0.13 changes, I modified the mod : look at the description. Tell me if it's closer to what you need. The consumer can absorb 1TW, day or night !
It will max out your power plants, but also stop all your assembly machines...

Well it's still not precise, because the new prototypes they designed do not seem to consume or produce what it should be (it goes further than its fixed limits...).

[Qon]

With 0.13 changes, I modified the mod : look at the description. Tell me if it's closer to what you need. The consumer can absorb 1TW, day or night !
It will max out your power plants, but also stop all your assembly machines...

Well it's still not precise, because the new prototypes they designed do not seem to consume or produce what it should be (it goes further than its fixed limits...).

From the description it sounds like it does everything I want it too. :]
And the producer is a nice addition. Test Mode has a 1TW solar panel, but that only works during the day and in 0.12.
And having both the equalizer and the consumer is nice. They test your system in different ways, both useful.

[Stonn]

Do you plan to update to 0.15 ?

[binbinhfr]

updated to 0.15

[regedit2000]

The use of global.tick in different modes simultaneously leads to braking and crashing the game (for example, 4-5 fps / ups). I recommend to use global[MOD_NAME].tick

This applies not only to the "tick", but also to any other variables

[Nexela]

The use of global.tick in different modes simultaneously leads to braking and crashing the game (for example, 4-5 fps / ups). I recommend to use global[MOD_NAME].tick

This applies not only to the "tick", but also to any other variables

Each mod is sand-boxed in its own environment and each "global" is completely separate.

[binbinhfr]

The use of global.tick in different modes simultaneously leads to braking and crashing the game (for example, 4-5 fps / ups). I recommend to use global[MOD_NAME].tick

This applies not only to the "tick", but also to any other variables

Each mod is sand-boxed in its own environment and each "global" is completely separate.

Yes that's what I thought.
I do not understand why this guy is posting this. He also posted this on my "mining tools" mod, and even send me a PM with the same request...