Reduce Belt Immunity power draw and/or make it cost power only when on a belt

[macdjord]

Belt Immunity Equipment draws 100kW of power constantly, whether on a belt or not. This makes it entirely impractical to use until you have at least a Portable Fission Reactor - which is really annoying, because the early Modular Armour era is exactly when being immune to belts would be most useful.

To put that power draw into context: A portable solar panel produces 30 kW in full sunlight. Thus you need at least 4 to run BIE at all. But their average power output across a full Nauvis day-cycle is just 21 kW, meaning you'd need 5 of them to power it all the time. More that 6 of a Modular Armour's 25 equipment grid squares just for the BEI and its power! But far worse, covering that 100kW draw through Nauvis's night would demand 226kJ of battery capacity - more than 11 Mk1 personal batteries.

The two solutions I see are:

• Substantially reduce the BEI's power drain. A 10kW drain would mean a single solar cell and two batteries would be enough to run it, and with ~ half the solar cell and 3/4 the battery left over to help with other functionality.
• Make the BEI only cost power when actually standing on a belt.

[Tinyboss]

+1, agree completely. 10kW, at most, would be good. Just a token amount to keep it from being free, which might be jarring. But it should not be any amount that calls for sacrifices of more functional equipment like roboports, legs, and defenses.

[Drundia]

But far worse, covering that 100kW draw through Nauvis's night would demand 226kJ of battery capacity - more than 11 Mk1 personal batteries.

Battery is 20 MJ which is 200 seconds of 100 kW draw. Certainly longer than Nauvis night.

[macdjord]

But far worse, covering that 100kW draw through Nauvis's night would demand 226kJ of battery capacity - more than 11 Mk1 personal batteries.

Battery is 20 MJ which is 200 seconds of 100 kW draw. Certainly longer than Nauvis night.

Huh. You're right. I think I misread the battery capacity as 20 kJ instead of MJ.

Also, Nauvis's night is 84 seconds of dusk, 42 seconds of full dark, and 84 seconds of dawn. Since dusk and dawn have the light level change linearly between 0 and full sun, this is equivalent to 136 seconds of full dark.

Still, while this means running Belt Immunity in a modular armour isn't [literally impossible[/i], I think my point still holds: needing 5 solar panels and 2/3rds of a battery just to power one item is a bit much.

[Vulkandrache]

Im always amazed that people use this thing at all.

[Byrnorthil]

+1

Perhaps not necessarily a 10x reduction, but something to make it worth using at green tier. Right away when you unlock it, it's the only thing you can spend power on at all, but as soon as you unlock roboports it's in your interests not to use it until power armor.

[macdjord]

+1

Perhaps not necessarily a 10x reduction, but something to make it worth using at green tier. Right away when you unlock it, it's the only thing you can spend power on at all, but as soon as you unlock roboports it's in your interests not to use it until power armor.

I'd say 10kW makes sense, actually. That's what nightvision costs - and nightvision only drains power when its actually night.

[Drundia]

The sad part about Belt Immunity is that you can't disable it. Exoskeleton doesn't use energy when not moving and can be disabled at any time, but somehow Belt Immunity is always active.

[feng]

I would like to see a belt immunity mk2 that only activates when running AGAINST a belt direction or standing on a belt and is disabled when running along belt direction

[Tinyboss]

I would like to see a belt immunity mk2 that only activates when running AGAINST a belt direction or standing on a belt and is disabled when running along belt direction

That is so obviously right, I can't believe nobody has suggested it. Yes!