[2.0.69] Reactor entity with electric energy_source always working

[powdergamefreak]

I am trying to create a mod that adds a reactor akin to the heating-tower, except it consumes energy instead of fuel.

I have textures in working_light_animations that always display, no matter the state of the reactor.

I expected that, when the reactor had no power, it would register as not working, and would not display the working_light_animations.

This always happens, without exception. There is no way for me to get this reactor to stop displaying its working_light_animations, even if i give it power and then let its power deplete.

I have attached the entity.lua of my mod to help with reproducing the issue.

[eugenekay]

You have set promethium_heater_entity.scale_energy_usage = false.

Other mods which provide an Electric Heating Tower set this property to true, which cause it to

stop consuming fuel/energy when the temperature has reached the maximum.

Good Luck!

[powdergamefreak]

You have set promethium_heater_entity.scale_energy_usage = false.

Other mods which provide an Electric Heating Tower set this property to true, which cause it to

stop consuming fuel/energy when the temperature has reached the maximum.

Good Luck!

This problem doesnt have anything to do with the reactor stopping when its temperature has reached the maximum. I have just set that property to true, and it is still displaying working_light_animations when it has no power. This problem seems to be that reactors with electric energy sources dont know when they are not running, and so simply always display working_light_animations.

[eugenekay]

This problem doesnt have anything to do with the reactor stopping when its temperature has reached the maximum. I have just set that property to true, and it is still displaying working_light_animations when it has no power. This problem seems to be that reactors with electric energy sources dont know when they are not running, and so simply always display working_light_animations.

10-18-2025, 22-03-16.png (402.09 KiB) Viewed 59 times

You are correct - I mis-remembered the behaviour from the Electric Boiler portion of the linked Mod (which is what I use, and does work correctly since it uses a Boiler prototype, not a Reactor); and did not test the Electric Heater portion against the latest Stable/Experimental Version. Mea culpa! Interestingly: the Vanilla Heating Tower and Nuclear Reactor also start with the animation graphic active despite having no Fuel; it takes a few Ticks to fade out to the "idle" state.

10-18-2025, 22-06-49.png (425.14 KiB) Viewed 59 times

I would still expect that with scale_energy_usage = false the Electric Heating Tower should show the Animation while power is provided anyway - since that is the same behaviour as the Vanilla Reactor / Heating Tower, which will continuously burn a Fuel Cell / Burner Fuel if it is provided. Setting this value to true (and thereby, stopping them from consuming fuel despite being at max temperature) is the only case where it makes sense that the Animation does not display.

[powdergamefreak]

This problem doesnt have anything to do with the reactor stopping when its temperature has reached the maximum. I have just set that property to true, and it is still displaying working_light_animations when it has no power. This problem seems to be that reactors with electric energy sources dont know when they are not running, and so simply always display working_light_animations.

10-18-2025, 22-03-16.png
You are correct - I mis-remembered the behaviour from the Electric Boiler portion of the linked Mod (which is what I use, and does work correctly since it uses a Boiler prototype, not a Reactor); and did not test the Electric Heater portion against the latest Stable/Experimental Version. Mea culpa! Interestingly: the Vanilla Heating Tower and Nuclear Reactor also start with the animation graphic active despite having no Fuel; it takes a few Ticks to fade out to the "idle" state.

10-18-2025, 22-06-49.png
I would still expect that with scale_energy_usage = false the Electric Heating Tower should show the Animation while power is provided anyway - since that is the same behaviour as the Vanilla Reactor / Heating Tower, which will continuously burn a Fuel Cell / Burner Fuel if it is provided. Setting this value to true (and thereby, stopping them from consuming fuel despite being at max temperature) is the only case where it makes sense that the Animation does not display.

I also noticed this behavior with the heating-tower showing its animation graphic for the first few ticks while in editor mode, something ive never noticed while playing a normal game, because it happens so fast. Its cool to see these little quirks while messing with mods

Ill check out the mod you are mentioning, since maybe its a workaround that I could use for now. Although i see that the boilerprototype doesnt seem to have a heat_radius, which is part of what i was trying to rely on.

Thanks for the help, friend!