Electric energy

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kovarex
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Electric energy

Post by kovarex »

These are the additions we were discussing the most.

Accumulators
Used to store energy for night, when you are dependent on solar panels.
Used to store energy, when big output is needed from time to time (defending enemy wave with laser turrets)

Oil
I don't want to ripoff the buildcraft oil concept completely (http://minecraftbuildcraft.wikia.com/wiki/Oil), but I like it a lot.
It would add another use to pipes, add new concept, and provide intermediate energy source when coal is not enough.
Processing oil to fuel or other products as in build craft would be nice, and in addition, the fuel could replace coal usage in car, or in flame-thrower recipe and similar places.

Alternative sources
Wind energy.

Nuclear
Uranium would be another minable resource, it would be processed to be used in nuclear power plant. It could be also used to create fuel-like energy sources for machines and atomic bombs.

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Re: Electric energy

Post by MatLaPatate »

I would also like some more energy: here are some description of what I think they should be:
Type - Tier - Good/Bad points
Wood: I-III Renewable/very weak energy production. Is basically the thing that makes you able to smelt your ores without using coal, but thats kind of a waste. At higher Tier, you could be able to process it and to get all sorts of Biofuel from it. You could also use vehicles to automate its production, vehicles you could maybe drive by yourself (cutting a huge array of wood at once, to make it a bit useful ^^)
Coal: Tier II-III Common, can be harvest with the pickaxe. However, while you haven't some more efficient way of burning it, and maybe way of processing it, you shouldn't demand that much energy from it. Even after, it's quite weak compared to other Fuel based power plants.
Oil: III-IV The cool thing with Oil ? Depending on the type (Shale Gas and Heavy bituminous for Tier IV, more classic Oils before), you'll get from it: Plastic, components to create Roads (so your cars could move faster ^^), Fuel for vehicles, fuel to generate electricity, fuel to power advanced things such as missiles ... However, Oil need more advanced machines than Coal does.
Nuclear: IV-VI From Uranium-based reactor to advanced reactor using Thorium, Nuclear Reactors are a very cool source of energy, however they can be quite dangerous: by exploding, but also because some generates Nuclear Waste, wich could have kind of negative effects on everything (makes tree not growing, is a bit poisonous ...). That's why you should really use Thorium one, wich are very efficient, consuming little amount of fuels ... Of course Nuclear Reactors are very expensive, but compared to other generators about the amount of energy they generate, they are quite cheap.

Solar Pannels: IV (Thermals) V(photovoltaics). Thermal Solar Pannels are a good way to get infinite power, as they produce more than photovoltaic one, and are a bit easier to get in the Tech tree, but require Boiler and setup to generate energy.
Windmills: IV-VII [VII= working in high atmosphere] Excellent source of energy, but a bit random. You should also build it on hills, and not surrounded by trees, to get their max efficiency ...
Water Turbine: II-IV (depending on the efficiency) The cool thing with that ? Not only you can generate energy from lake by emptying it, but you can also ... refill the lake using powerfuls electricpumps! That turns lake into huge battery ^^

And then, once you've got a lot of stuff, and very advanced thechnologies, you might be able to build some awesome Thermonuclear Fusion Reactor ... but first, you'll need to destroy a lot of Alien bases, explore a lot of caves etc ... ^^.

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Re: Electric energy

Post by rymn »

This is great. I think making electricity more important would be very nice.

Let's have labs require lots of power when researching, like an entire stream plant worth. After automating lab consumables is easy to just line up a bunch of labs and research very fast.

Without adapting the same energy model, I believe there's a lot of inspiration that can be taken from 'Harvest: Massive Encounter.'

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Re: Electric energy

Post by kovarex »

rymn wrote:This is great. I think making electricity more important would be very nice.

Let's have labs require lots of power when researching, like an entire stream plant worth. After automating lab consumables is easy to just line up a bunch of labs and research very fast.

Without adapting the same energy model, I believe there's a lot of inspiration that can be taken from 'Harvest: Massive Encounter.'
There is easy way to make the electricity more important, without frustrating players in the start.
We could make Tier II lab, that researches several times faster and requires lot of electricity.
More advanced technologies would simply require much bigger amount of time to research, so it would force the player to use those advanced labs later on.

The second option is to have advanced technologies, that requre science pack IV (for example), and just those advanced labs could use this science pack, these labs would consume loads of electricity as well.

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Re: Electric energy

Post by MatLaPatate »

I agree with your way of consuming more energy. I would also suggest processing machines, as for IC² mods for Minecraft :). Not copying, but hey, crusher to turn the ore in dust (+15/30% output if directly smelted), electrolyzer to increase output compared to smelting (+80%), then smelting to get htem usable as ingots. And improved autocrafting machines, to get a chance not to consume items for autocrafting each time.
But, why we haven't electric furnace yet ? Because steel is supposed to contain a bit of coal ? However, iron and copper does not.

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rymn
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Re: Electric energy

Post by rymn »

MatLaPatate wrote:I agree with your way of consuming more energy. I would also suggest processing machines, as for IC² mods for Minecraft :). Not copying, but hey, crusher to turn the ore in dust (+15/30% output if directly smelted), electrolyzer to increase output compared to smelting (+80%), then smelting to get htem usable as ingots. And improved autocrafting machines, to get a chance not to consume items for autocrafting each time.
But, why we haven't electric furnace yet ? Because steel is supposed to contain a bit of coal ? However, iron and copper does not.
Electric furnace.

Agree!

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Re: Electric energy

Post by orbito »

I posted this in the thread about underground mining, but I think Geothermal power would be really useful.

It's like a more powerful version of coal-based steam-power without the need to use coal at all.

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Re: Electric energy

Post by Xisuma »

Alternative power sources are needed! I think you have to balance there advantages and disadvantages but also make them fir into the technology tree well, then you cant go wrong!

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Re: Electric energy

Post by Blackmoor »

Don't forget about alien power source technology! Alien bases should be able to expand into "factories" like the players.

Then maybe the player could steal the alien technology when they drop their alien science packs.

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Re: Electric energy

Post by Amanite »

Oh dammit, I was already making a nuclear energy mod, I already made the uranium ore etc.
Can we hope for a realistic mod? I mean including isotopes (you'd need the extra rare 235 uranium isotope to make nukes, making them hard to get and justify the ingame power they have), half lives, reactor cooling with control rods etc?
I could lend a hand.

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Re: Electric energy

Post by Nemoder »

Lightning rod harvesters! They can protect you from passing storms AND give your accumulators a quick boost.

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Re: Electric energy

Post by MatLaPatate »

Nemoder wrote:Lightning rod harvesters! They can protect you from passing storms AND give your accumulators a quick boost.
No, that's stupid lol. Just because it's ... wait, you're from the IC² forum ? ^^

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Re: Electric energy

Post by MatLaPatate »

Amanite wrote:Oh dammit, I was already making a nuclear energy mod, I already made the uranium ore etc.
Can we hope for a realistic mod? I mean including isotopes (you'd need the extra rare 235 uranium isotope to make nukes, making them hard to get and justify the ingame power they have), half lives, reactor cooling with control rods etc?
I could lend a hand.
No, do it! ^^
I guess it won't be implemented before a while, so that would be awesome you make it, and maybe that could help devs to implement it after that :)
And if you already played MC with IC² ... think how fun Nuclear Reactor system was. Just add more realism, ore transmutation using nuclear reactions (would be too expensive IRL, but in factorio I think that would be fun ^^), chain reactions ... ^^
That would be EPIC :)

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Re: Electric energy

Post by Blackmoor »

MatLaPatate wrote:
Nemoder wrote:Lightning rod harvesters! They can protect you from passing storms AND give your accumulators a quick boost.
No, that's stupid lol. Just because it's ... wait, you're from the IC² forum ? ^^
I that agree you wouldn't want that much raw power dumped into the grid. But Nikola Tesla believed electricity could just be harvested directly out of the atmosphere and claimed to have invented a method for doing so (unfortunately a warehouse fire destroyed his supposed plans/prototypes). Weather would be an good addition to the game and so would lightning rods. Don't call people stupid for making suggestions, instead the mature thing to do would be to explain your argument.

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Re: Electric energy

Post by MatLaPatate »

Blackmoor wrote:
MatLaPatate wrote:
Nemoder wrote:Lightning rod harvesters! They can protect you from passing storms AND give your accumulators a quick boost.
No, that's stupid lol. Just because it's ... wait, you're from the IC² forum ? ^^
I that agree you wouldn't want that much raw power dumped into the grid. But Nikola Tesla believed electricity could just be harvested directly out of the atmosphere and claimed to have invented a method for doing so (unfortunately a warehouse fire destroyed his supposed plans/prototypes). Weather would be an good addition to the game and so would lightning rods. Don't call people stupid for making suggestions, instead the mature thing to do would be to explain your argument.
Ok lol. But I think windmills would be more appropriate in that case, if you really wanna some weather elements to increase/decrease your energy generation.

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Re: Electric energy

Post by rk84 »

Nemoder wrote:Lightning rod harvesters! They can protect you from passing storms AND give your accumulators a quick boost.
but you would need to drive DeLorean on express transport belt (with electric lines acrossing the belt) to harness that power. And we got the wrong car. :lol:
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Re: Electric energy

Post by Candunc »

Nemoder wrote:Lightning rod harvesters! They can protect you from passing storms AND give your accumulators a quick boost.
You'd want to dump the energy into capacitors and then lower the voltage into the grid. Straight lightning should cause power poles to spark off and break the wires

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Re: Electric energy

Post by Mysteria9 »

Wind power is interesting, here's how I'd like it to be:
•Weakest source of electric energy. Cheap to build, low power output.
•Make steam engines more expensive, they are very cheap at the moment. (so that wind power is not useless)
•Once the proper research is completed, allow tier 2 wind generators. These are much more expensive and they generate more power than tier 1. (useful for field trips)
•Wind strength should of course be varying, sometimes there is no wind at all, sometimes strong winds, sometimes gusts, etc....

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Re: Electric energy

Post by ficolas »

Mods can hardly use electric energy, I think ALL entities should have a configuration for electric energy, even chests, because containers with lua script can be turned into a wood farm, or undergtound mining drill :p

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Re: Electric energy

Post by kovarex »

I don't really thing, that all entities should have access to electricity, (item on ground, smoke, explosion, mining particle ...)
I think that this is not necessary, just wait for the general LuaEntity to be implemented.

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