Energy Loss Over Distance

[Baron-of-hell]

If computing is too taxing than an easier solution can be devised:

It always bothered me how stupid the biters are, if they were to attack the power lines from time to time than that would encourage building power closer to outposts.

[Yoshifizzle]

Joined, cause identical -- ssilk

I would love to see a greater differentiation between power distribution items (wooden poles, medium and large poles, substations) than just the distance they can connect to neighboring power items and the distribution area. It would be great if they also affected the efficiency of power distribution and/or the maximum power capacity. In real life, you cannot transfer infinite electric power through a single copper wire on a wooden pole. There is a hierarchical arrangement of power distribution equipment to get the power from the generators to the consumers. Voltage from the generators is stepped up to a high voltage transmission line to more efficiently transfer power over long distances because it reduces joule heating loss (Power loss = Current^2 * Resistance....lower current, higher voltage for the same resistance will yield lower distribution losses). Then at the point of use, the voltage is stepped down at substations to provide consumers with a usable voltage at their outlets. The parameters that may be fun to play around with to optimize the power distribution network in your factory are listed below (the power network should have to be just as well designed as the factory itself to truly maximize the factory's output).

* Electrical resistance of the different tiers of power distribution items (maybe you can research better conductors that have lower resistance, thus you make your power delivery more efficient and emit less pollution)

* Voltage level of the different tiers of power distribution items (the higher the voltage, the more efficient at transmitting over long distances it is)

* Capacity of the power distribution item (right now everything in the game can transmit infinite energy, when in reality they would melt because of joule heating)

The first two suggestions above could be combined into a single efficiency metric which could be from 0 to 1 and just multiply the incoming wattage by a constant factor to reduce it due to heating losses. This would obviously step up to be near unity for the large electric pole and decrease to a value at wooden poles that balances realism, in-game advancement rewards, and being fun. Some or all of these ideas could be incorporated into the game, but what I'd really like from this post is a discussion on how to get more gameplay value out of the power network. For me personally, I ignore it and it is a messy amalgamation of wooden poles and medium and large poles, without ever bothering to implement substations because medium poles are so easy.

[johanwanderer]

I just assumed that we already have superconducting wires by the time we established a beach head on an alien planet.

[kiba]

Sounds like a mod, rather than something that would be implemented by developers.

[Yoshifizzle]

Good point, but if we had the tech for that why would we need to research anything at all in the game?

[ssilk]

Please look back into this thread: this will cost too much CPU and a realistic behavior will not be added per sure.

[bobucles]

At these scales energy loss doesn't mean much. The distances are just not that great, and it's no challenge to pump a high enough voltage to keep losses at a minimum. Besides, it's simple enough to assume that ANY such losses are absorbed into a machine's running cost.

In the best case, you can assume that power lines are the energy consumers.

[kiba]

Please look back into this thread: this will cost too much CPU and a realistic behavior will not be added per sure.

If only we can shrink chip features below 1 nm or something.

[bobucles]

As fun as emulating a screen mesh made entirely out of 1 ohm resistors would be, there's no gameplay value to it. There are far better ways to make energy management stronger or more difficult.

Such as giving players a battery threshold to turn steam engines off.

Or including cloudy days.