[2.1.7] Laser turret inconsistent behavior: power consumption, double beam

[FasterJump]

Update: this also happens in 2.0.76. The power consumption increases with the shooting speed. However, it doesn't explain why the power spikes are not matching the turret's attack, and the double/triple beam when attacking large asteroids.

What did you do?
Space plateform cruising just after Solar System Edge
I wanted to investigate why laser turrets had such inconsistant power consumption. My ship was fine before 2.1, but in 2.1 I saw occasional "no power" flashes on my machines, corresponding to railguns and (I assumed) laser turrets shooting.
Typed /c gamespeed=0.03
Replaced a laser turret at the front by a legendary one
Changed the ennemy filters to focus on huge & big asteroids, so I can observe power consumption while it's shooting

What happened?
Legendary laser turret doesn't appear to be consuming power while shooting.
Also, an additional laser beam appeared! This additional beam stayed for at least 4 game ticks, maybe 10.
Screenshot attached below.

What did you expect to happen instead? It might be obvious to you, but do it anyway!
I expected the laser turret to consume a steady, continuous amount of power while shooting continuously, rather than huge spikes of 24MW intermittently.
I expected only 1 laser beam
(also, I didn't expect that my other machines would occasionally starve power for a tick or 2)

Does it happen always, once, or sometimes?
The power thing seems to be happening always.
The double laser beam seem to be happening rarely.

please contact me via MP for save and/or log file.

06-24-2026, 20-07-29.png (1.32 MiB) Viewed 419 times

[Rseding91]

Thanks for the report however this is all working correctly. The laser will draw power as it internally runs the "shoot" logic however this does not always match how long the laser beam visual stays in the world. This is also why you may see multiple beams - if the previous one has not timed out yet before the next one fires.

[vemusa]

However, it doesn't explain why the power spikes are not matching the turret's attack,

I just discovered this power spike issue. Here is how it spikes:

• Every machine that consumes power has an internal buffer for it, and can only consume power from it's internal buffer, not from the power grid directly.
• If a machine's internal buffer is not full, it will request power from the power grid to fill it's internal buffer, and every machine has a maximum power request.
• When a laser turret shoots something, it will instantly consume 800 kJ from it's internal buffer, rendering it almost empty.
• With an almost empty internal buffer, the laser turret will request power from the grid with it's maximum power request of 9.6 MW .
• Maximum power request scales with quality, so a legendary laser turret will cause a power spike of 24 MW .
• With maximum shooting speed upgrade, a laser turret shoots 4.8 times per second, causing 4.8 power spikes per second, which is the case in your consumption graph.
• Tesla turret has a maximum request of 7 MW , so quality tesla turret can also cause power spikes for the same reason.