Factorio Forums

a power pole that can be socketed into power armor allowing its reactor and battery storage to be used to power things around the player

Could be practical for setting up outposts in the endgame.

I see a minor issue with the power units. The Portable Fusion Reactor, which is by far the most powerful portable energy source, produces up to 750 watts. Buildings' power consumption is given in kilo watts, so for example you'd need about 17 Portable Fusion Reactors to power a single normal inserter (13kW).
You could of course just change the units of power suite modules to kW. Portable Fusion Reactors would produce enough power for a handful of assemblers. However doing so would defeat the point of having sort-of realistic units in the game. Walking around with something that is conducting several hundred kilo watts is very firmly beyond the realm of “safe”.

For that reason (and also because hooking up cables to the player would be kinda weird) I'd rather have a simple power-producing building, like a non-portable version of the Fusion Reactor, that you can plant down anywhere. Make it ridiculously expensive and only available in the end game so it'll only be useful as a make-shift power source.

Wi-El sounds like a good solution here.

It's completely safe, incredibly lossy, (over 80% loss if I recall) and would follow the logic of power transmission more efficiently.

It would be easy enough to set up. Just place a Wi-El charging station which transmits its power over a distance, and if a receiver gets close enough, you'll start getting power. The closer you are the less of a loss you get, and having a building between you and the charger will incur massive losses.

This would allow a balanced way of charging your power armor while still making you have to put a lot of effort in keeping it online.

@omega_haxors He wants to use his armor as a power source for other stuff, not the other way round.

Gandalf wrote:@omega_haxors He wants to use his armor as a power source for other stuff, not the other way round.

Why would you anybody want that? The armor provides almost no power, even with the portable fusion reactor.