Can someone explain power to to me?

[Evrett]

I am still not understand how fission generators, energy collectors and fuel cells interact with weapons shields ect.

1) Weapons have this stat : max energy used per second. Does that mean every time it fires it uses that much energy ? So if I have 100 energy storage and my weapons use 50 per second am I out of power after 2 shots ?

2)If my reactor power output is 50 and my weapons energy used is 50 does that mean I can fire indefinitely?

3) Why do bases come with fuel cells ?

4)I have an energy collector generating 24 PE, a Reactor PO of 60, and a static usage of 6. My excess output apparently is 54..seems to me the power collected by the collector isnt being counted ?

5) how do i know how much power my shields need?

6) I have a fuel capacity of 60 ...60 what though? how far is that range-wise? Is that one sector back and forth? With an energy collector on board does that make the range unlimited?

[colonyan]

1) I think you have to look at excess energy instead of energy capacity. I personally am assuming that required energy is per second average.
Maxos Blaster is 12 or so. So if a design has 5 of them and I have excess of 67, I assume it has enough to make them fire constantly.

2)I assume as long as fuel last. More you fire, more you spend energy. More you spend energy more you consume fuel.

3)Given that they all are required to equip a reactor?

4)I read it is counted only when the unit is inside a system AND is not moving. So when they are left idle, they use energy collected by
energy collector, not using reactor thus saving fuel, given that collector capacity exceeds static energy use. Of course ship being not firing.

5)I assume shields don't consume energy given its not written about energy requirement.

6)Range wise, its the reactor and hyper drive/thruster/vector thruster dependent. More reactor is able to output energy with less fuel, better.
Hyper drive/Thruster/Vector Thruster have different output depending on model per energy use.
60 fuel capacity is like bare minimum which dries up really quick if they move/fire. wants 240 and up to be more secure.

[Bingeling]

Some of those questions are hard

1: Max energy usage per seconds of weapons: The energy used when all weapons fire as fast as they can. Imagine a cruiser hammering a spaceport with torpedoes, blasters, and firing its point defense at the spaceport's fighters. That is max energy usage from weapons.

2: Watch the excess energy output. Large number top right. This is the reactor output (and collection, I think) in excess of the static usage. To fire your 50 max energy weapons indefinitely you need 50 of this excess energy. Normallt you want to do this while moving, so add to this the sprint (or cruise) energy use to fire while moving. And add the shield recharge rate (which is small change in this context).

3: So that they can drive weapons with the reactor if necessary. If you have a very high firepower space port, having enough collection to run all weapons at once may be over the top.

4: The static energy collection does only work when standing still. Great for bases, a bit unreliable for warships. For warships you just want to have enough to cover static energy use so that idle ships use no fuel.

5: That is supposed to be the shield recharge rate. One of the numbers in lower right. For a cruiser, the numbers may be 30 cruise power, 200 weapon power, 9 shield power. This number is not much in the big context, but may of course but you over the reactor limit.

6: You have 60 units of fuel, I assume? Maybe things make sense if you start studying the reactor and hyperdrive info, I have never bothered. If your ships have too short range, add more fuel cells.