Constant reactor fuel usage/cycling (now a discussion)
Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2017 8:31 pm
*edit* so long as cycling the plant is intended by the devs to be the way to increase efficiency, I've tweaked the subject line and will direct incoming readers towards the later posts in this thread. Mods please move to the relevant forum if desired. *edit*
Reactors consume fuel at a constant 200 seconds per cell regardless of the thermal demand, but the other thermodynamic properties of the system appear to be functioning normally:
- Multiple reactors heat connected systems faster
- When reactors are out of fuel, the system cools down proportional to steam/power demand.
I submitted this as a possible bug and was told this is an intended mechanic, however, this invites the player to invent obscure methods to work around the inefficiencies associated with the physically impossible 100% fuel usage of an otherwise idle reactor. One such method would be to simply build out a large 'thermal battery' by laying down a grid of heat pipes, and adding a single fuel cell to the bank of reactors occasionally - just to keep the temperature above 500C as needed for steam generation. Even without a current method of circuit network thermal monitoring, the player could simply create a timer that only inserted fuel cells into the reactors periodically.
For balancing, reactors really should consume fuel proportionally to the thermal demand (heating up, driving steam turbines, etc). This would eliminate the above acrobatics just to get around an unrealistic inefficiency.
The neighbor bonus does complicate this issue, but there is a simple workaround that actually also eliminates the potential for cheating the system. Implementing proportional fuel usage without correcting the neighbor issue would allow a player to simply build out a large grid of reactors that would have very high fuel efficiency and would, therefore, use fuel at a significantly lower rate. As a solution to that case, I propose that the fuel usage does not receive the neighbor bonus. From an implementation standpoint, this would mean that fuel usage would actually have to be inversely proportional to the effects of the neighbor bonus, meaning that one reactor providing 40MW (100% power) would consume fuel at 2 cells per 400 seconds, while a pair of neighbor bonused reactors providing the same 40MW (now only 25% of their combined 2x bonus of 160MW) would each consume one fuel cell over 400 seconds (2 total). This keeps the fuel usage proportional to the power consumption while still netting the maximum power benefits of the neighbor bonus, and actually, corrects the cheat that can currently take place by using a large bank of reactors to more quickly heat a thermal battery in surges.
Thoughts?
Reactors consume fuel at a constant 200 seconds per cell regardless of the thermal demand, but the other thermodynamic properties of the system appear to be functioning normally:
- Multiple reactors heat connected systems faster
- When reactors are out of fuel, the system cools down proportional to steam/power demand.
I submitted this as a possible bug and was told this is an intended mechanic, however, this invites the player to invent obscure methods to work around the inefficiencies associated with the physically impossible 100% fuel usage of an otherwise idle reactor. One such method would be to simply build out a large 'thermal battery' by laying down a grid of heat pipes, and adding a single fuel cell to the bank of reactors occasionally - just to keep the temperature above 500C as needed for steam generation. Even without a current method of circuit network thermal monitoring, the player could simply create a timer that only inserted fuel cells into the reactors periodically.
For balancing, reactors really should consume fuel proportionally to the thermal demand (heating up, driving steam turbines, etc). This would eliminate the above acrobatics just to get around an unrealistic inefficiency.
The neighbor bonus does complicate this issue, but there is a simple workaround that actually also eliminates the potential for cheating the system. Implementing proportional fuel usage without correcting the neighbor issue would allow a player to simply build out a large grid of reactors that would have very high fuel efficiency and would, therefore, use fuel at a significantly lower rate. As a solution to that case, I propose that the fuel usage does not receive the neighbor bonus. From an implementation standpoint, this would mean that fuel usage would actually have to be inversely proportional to the effects of the neighbor bonus, meaning that one reactor providing 40MW (100% power) would consume fuel at 2 cells per 400 seconds, while a pair of neighbor bonused reactors providing the same 40MW (now only 25% of their combined 2x bonus of 160MW) would each consume one fuel cell over 400 seconds (2 total). This keeps the fuel usage proportional to the power consumption while still netting the maximum power benefits of the neighbor bonus, and actually, corrects the cheat that can currently take place by using a large bank of reactors to more quickly heat a thermal battery in surges.
Thoughts?