Reading Energy Consumption

[Mctittles]

In this shot here:

http://cloud-3.steampowered.com/ugc/469 ... C2E2E91DC/

The consumption has a small green bar and the production is a full green bar. Both say 510 kW after the bar. Is this how much out of 510 I'm using or?

[ssilk]

Fast answer: hover a power pole and look at the info.

(I can never remember, what means what)

[SilverWarior]

Wait you are powering your whole base with just one steam engine?
I beat all your inserters move realy realy slow as your base is extremly underpowered.

Whenever electric comsumption bar is smaller than electric production bar it means that you are not producing enough power to fully power up your base.

[Dakkanor]

what its saying is that your energy is running as hard as it can but is only providing a tiny amount of what you need.

the top bar shows how much of the max energy usage is being provided (simplt put you want this 100% green)
the bottom bar shows how much of your energy production ability is being used. (at most you want it 3/4 green in general usage)

at a guess i would say you need 10-20 steam engines, i would go 20 to leave room for expansion

[BurnHard]

What you are doing with your single steam engine with your base is like trying to lift of a big airplane with a hairdryer...

[dusho]

Info from that panel was confusing for me as well.. only by observing my current situation and reading the statuses I understood how to read it.
The window says Electric network info, so I thought production stands for how much energy is produced (supplied), but it actually is how much is drained by your production.. or I don't know again
Those progresses are confusing - that number behind bar represents max, I guess, not actual value, so number should be like 40kW/510kW or 12% of max. 510kW, or just max. 510kW would do if you don't want to show dynamically number as well as progress bar

[Mctittles]

Thanks guys, I fixed my electricity and it's like a whole new game! It feels like I'm watching my factories in fast forward....then bad guys came for the first time as well.

As far as one engine for my whole base, I think it would be common for new players to do this. You don't get any warnings and nothing stops working and if it's your first time playing you don't know how fast or slow the animations should be going.
Then you figure out how to check electricity and it looks like your "consumption" is just a tiny bit and your "production" is maxed out.

[FishSandwich]

Indeed that screen is very confusing and not user friendly.

[ssilk]

This is relative good documentednd can be found with the first search:

https://forums.factorio.com/wiki/inde ... rk_info.3F

[Rogo]

I've been playing this game since a few days now and that screen confused me also.

What really helped me understand the power resource panel was when i hovered over a factory and looked at the electricity bar.
When that bar is not full then you are not producing enough power.

[ssilk]

I've been playing this game since a few days now and that screen confused me also.

I didn't say it's perfect, but as long, as nobody changes this wiki-entry, it will stay as it is now, because it is much better than nothing. Or in other words: I'm sure this stuff will change at any time and then it can be changed in the wiki.

What really helped me understand the power resource panel was when i hovered over a factory and looked at the electricity bar.
When that bar is not full then you are not producing enough power.

Yes, that's how I do that also, because I cannot remember, what is what.

[Robik]

I think the info screen should be cleared out.

It was very confusing to me and it is confusing to others as well, like in new Arumba let's play... he looks at the screen, see under-filled green bar with consumption and says "Perfect, I am only using fraction of energy I am producing." (meaning I am not the only dumb kid on the planet).

At least, change the color of the under-filled bar to red or something.

Edit:
Relevant thread with suggestions: https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... ion#p12993

[GewaltSam]

What you are doing with your single steam engine with your base is like trying to lift of a big airplane with a hairdryer...

You would get my like, good sir, if such a thing was possible.