Solar panels on ships

[HsojVvad]

Well I tried the solar panel on all my ships. What I did, was told them to stop, and they don't use up any fuel. They dont need to be fallowing planets since if there is pirates in the sytem ( I only battled pirates so far) they get there in time. And they don't use up an fuel waiting for them.

So if you get tired of your ships wasting fuel just orbiting or fallowing a planet or star base, but solar panels on them and tell them to stop. If you don't have solar panels on your ships, and tell them to stop they still use up fuel to power up the reactors. This make less micro managing them and when you really need them, they will have almos full fuel unless you tell them move and no refuel at a star base. Once they are refuel and then stop after wards they will not be using up any fuel.

Later on when I am able to buy bigger ships, I will see if they can gather their own fuel source from a star without using a refueling base or what ever they are called. ( me brain dead again, can't remember what anything is called tonight.)

Well I hope this works for some of you, so if you don't like wasting fuel, put solar panels on your ships. By that go into the desgin screen, click on a ship you want to redesing and select copy as new. Then all you have to do is put solar panels in, one should be enough since it's the only static usage you need, and then click on your name, delete the "copy of" in the ship name and either rename it, or what I do is put the "II" at the end of the name if I don't change anythign else.

[mllange]

April Fools!

[lordxorn]

No this really does work.

[HsojVvad]

ORIGINAL: nim8or

April Fools!

It's April 2nd when I posted this. I am not trying to fool anyone. Ah thanks lordxorn, thanks for confirming it for me.

[mllange]

Doesn't make sense then. How would solar energy replace Hydrogen or Caslon as elemental fuel? Oh well, I suppose all is fair in love and SF games.

[HsojVvad]

Well there is a thing called static energy use. This is the life support and habitat housing and stuff like that, that needs to use power to run. Since your reactors produce this power to use to power up those things, it uses fuel to do so, even though you are not moving. If you have solar panels on a ship, it will produce this power if the ship is standing still. Since the ship is standing still, it will use the solar power panels instead of your reactor.

This to me makes sense. After hours of reading the forums and peoples tidbits, i caught this from somewhere. I tried it myself, and now can verify that it does work. I am slowly getting the grasp of how this game works. Very awsome job. They take the small things that make the difference. Just wish it was explained more better.

But as soon as you move, your solar panels stop working and the reactor kicks in using fuel. Yes you don't get a lot of power from the solar panels, but all it's for is to keep you alive while not moving. Just like running the car in winter. If the car is not moving but you have it on to keep the car warm you use up fuel. Now say you have a candal or portable heater, you just found a different way of keeping the car warm without using the engine and wasting gas. Know what I mean? I know I am not good at explaining things, but hope this helps.

[lordxorn]

Basically it is enough to keep the life support running, and electronics warm. Which I bet Apollo 13 wish they had, when they had their mishap. [:D]

I have also tested whether the ship had to be next to the sun or on the fringe of the solar system, and it didn't matter.

[HsojVvad]

Well from reading the pedia, if there is no sun, then it won't work like in the middle of nowhere and no sun, you will be out of luck then.

[Fishman]

Heh, I did this all the time on my ships, saves a lot of fuel, and your ships are always ready to go, as opposed to if they have been sitting somewhere, and cooked off all their fuel while you weren't watching, and need to now refuel before they get going to the place they needed to be yesterday.

[Flaviusx]

[left]I'm going to start doing this, good call.[/left][left] [/left][left] [/left]

[Duckfang]

This does indeed work, I posted a thread about it a few days ago.

tm.asp?m=2421754

Your ships won't refuel, but they'll stop using fuel just to keep people alive in their giant pressurised coffins. [:'(]

[HsojVvad]

ORIGINAL: Duckfang

This does indeed work, I posted a thread about it a few days ago.

tm.asp?m=2421754

Your ships won't refuel, but they'll stop using fuel just to keep people alive in their giant pressurised coffins. [:'(]

Yes, that is where I read it from. All credit goes to Duckfang. I forgot where I read it from. I just wanted to make shure people knew about this, and since I couldn't remember what thread I read it in, I made a new post. It was like 1 or 2am when I made this post and was ready to go to bed. Sorry I forgot to give you credit. [:)]

[taltamir]

ORIGINAL: nim8or

Doesn't make sense then. How would solar energy replace Hydrogen or Caslon as elemental fuel? Oh well, I suppose all is fair in love and SF games.

solar panels produce energy, energy is consumed by using your engines OR just by standing around (there is a "passive energy consumption" value to a lot of components), your reactor converts fuel to energy, it does not directly fuel your engines.

What annoys me is that the AI ship designer never puts any of those on my ships.

[taltamir]

ORIGINAL: Davor

Well there is a thing called static energy use. This is the life support and habitat housing and stuff like that, that needs to use power to run. Since your reactors produce this power to use to power up those things, it uses fuel to do so, even though you are not moving. If you have solar panels on a ship, it will produce this power if the ship is standing still. Since the ship is standing still, it will use the solar power panels instead of your reactor.

This to me makes sense. After hours of reading the forums and peoples tidbits, i caught this from somewhere. I tried it myself, and now can verify that it does work. I am slowly getting the grasp of how this game works. Very awsome job. They take the small things that make the difference. Just wish it was explained more better.

But as soon as you move, your solar panels stop working and the reactor kicks in using fuel. Yes you don't get a lot of power from the solar panels, but all it's for is to keep you alive while not moving. Just like running the car in winter. If the car is not moving but you have it on to keep the car warm you use up fuel. Now say you have a candal or portable heater, you just found a different way of keeping the car warm without using the engine and wasting gas. Know what I mean? I know I am not good at explaining things, but hope this helps.

interesting, I guess i was wrong... this way makes more sense anyways.
but still it is annoying the ship designer doesn't put panels on any ships.

[PDiFolco]

A very good news ! Hell we need a tech guide !!! [X(]

[jnpoint]

I'm so bad to ship design - but this sort of information makes me wunder, if I must try again. There is just so many possibilities to produce a ship that does not work, at least for me. Is there not somewhere a guide for lost persons like me? "How to design a killer-ship!"??

[HsojVvad]

ORIGINAL: jnpoint

I'm so bad to ship design - but this sort of information makes me wunder, if I must try again. There is just so many possibilities to produce a ship that does not work, at least for me. Is there not somewhere a guide for lost persons like me? "How to design a killer-ship!"??

Have you tried the AAR of ship design? It explains it pretty good, and now after reading that, I have a better understanding on how ships work.

Go to the AAR page, it is stickied at the top.

[jnpoint]

ORIGINAL: Davor

ORIGINAL: jnpoint

I'm so bad to ship design - but this sort of information makes me wunder, if I must try again. There is just so many possibilities to produce a ship that does not work, at least for me. Is there not somewhere a guide for lost persons like me? "How to design a killer-ship!"??

Have you tried the AAR of ship design? It explains it pretty good, and now after reading that, I have a better understanding on how ships work.

Go to the AAR page, it is stickied at the top.

Yes, thanks - somehow I missed that AAR!

[Siljanus]

A ramscoop would be a nice way for a ship to slowly replenish fuel.  Of course if engines are strictly tied to a particular element this may not work.  And I guess bases actually refine elements into a form usable by ships but I don't know if I need that much realism in my 4X game.  I kind of like the tanker/refinery concept in Sword of the Stars.  Very straightforward way to keep your fleets gassed up and ready to go.

[Duckfang]

ORIGINAL: Siljanus

A ramscoop would be a nice way for a ship to slowly replenish fuel.  Of course if engines are strictly tied to a particular element this may not work.  And I guess bases actually refine elements into a form usable by ships but I don't know if I need that much realism in my 4X game.  I kind of like the tanker/refinery concept in Sword of the Stars.  Very straightforward way to keep your fleets gassed up and ready to go.

I'm inclined to agree with this. I'd like to have some kind of tanker ship instead of being forced to rely on a resupply ship being able to deploy.

All it would need to be is a ship with a large space for cargo and some docking bays. Perhaps we could have it as a kind of super-large fuel cell, specifically designed for fleet tankers.