Geothermal power from craters?

Discussion in 'Planetary Annihilation General Discussion' started by igncom1, March 24, 2013.

  1. igncom1

    igncom1 Post Master General

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    From the livestream it was said that asteroid impacts that go deep enough could even revel some of the magma deep into the planet.

    So what of the idea of truing this bad situation into an advantage by allowing players to build geothermal power-plants over these now exposed lava flows?
  2. seniorpino

    seniorpino New Member

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    In the original TA you even had geothermal pgens.

    That's what I liked about TA, even for energy you had multiple options. Would also fit in with PA really nicely with all the different planettypes. On some planets or systems certain pgens would be a lot more viable.

    So I'm all for it, but it shouldn't be limited to craters and geothermal pgens, this could be bigger. geothermal on hot/lava planets, windturbines on icyplanets, solarpanels on planets near a star and whatnot.
  3. drsinistar

    drsinistar Member

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    I like this, because it would give a value to craters. Players could fight over them for the abundance in thermal power.
  4. dosbag

    dosbag Member

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    How would a geothermal plant provide more power than whatever power supply they readily have available?

    Building over a crater would happen late game I assume if its a collision so youll already have super mega fusion generators.
  5. igncom1

    igncom1 Post Master General

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    Well maps will spawn with craters, as I see from the live stream.

    And the idea isn't that they would replace other power methods, but add to them.

    Really your comment is highly confusing, that's like saying once you get fusion power plants there is no reason to ever build solar power plants.
  6. yogurt312

    yogurt312 New Member

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    Correction, maps CAN spawn with craters, however the livestream was demonstrating the look and capability of the system more than standard game models.
  7. igncom1

    igncom1 Post Master General

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    [​IMG]
  8. dosbag

    dosbag Member

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    Its not confusing at all really. Anything less than fusion in this game is tacky, solar or geothermal will never be able to match it. All we need for energy are different size fusion generators.


    Also from a lore perspective a machine AI that is going for efficiency isn't going to use 2 inefficient power generation methods. You could even say the power supplies of the machines themselves would generate more power than those 2 methods.
  9. LordQ

    LordQ Active Member

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    You would use geothermal power because it provides more energy per unit cost than other power generators that can be placed anywhere. There's already been talk of special fusion power generators that can only be built in orbit of a gas giant but are obviously much more efficient than normal power.
  10. dosbag

    dosbag Member

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    Then I look forward to my windmill powered death army.
  11. drsinistar

    drsinistar Member

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    Who gives two shits about lore excuses? Claiming that the robots must do x "because they learned bots!" brings nothing to gameplay. As an Uber employee has said before, "why not just have one cube unit that flies?" 'Smart robots' would all be self-powered, self-replicating, cube powerhouses.

    Having two levels of fusion generators is not interesting nor does it bring anything to gameplays. Solar is a steady, and cheap method for attaining little power. Wind power varies with the wind speed or lack thereof on a planet. Tidal is also variable, and needs water to be built. Geothermal is just a powerful solar plant that can only be built in certain locations. Fusion is an extremely powerful, but explosive answer to attaining great amounts of energy. Everything else is not "tacky", it's just making the game more damn interesting.


    .
  12. bobucles

    bobucles Post Master General

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    Because flying is expensive, cubes aren't aerodynamic, and any one cube that specializes against its opponent's weaknesses is going to win.
  13. dosbag

    dosbag Member

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    Calm down tiger, you can have your silicon wafers. What the hell is with every poster on video game forums exploding into rage.

    Solar isnt steady, it depends on sun exposure which is fine since I assume the planets will somehow be constantly bright, wind that fluctuates would just be annoying.

    You say it adds to gameplay, no I don't want to worry about what methods of power produce what. I want to focus on moving my armies and winning the game. I still stand behind my idea of just having simple fusion generators I don't need a sun dependent power supply for "steady" energy, I don't need a windmill, I don't need a geothermal plant. I need a simple structure.
    Last edited: March 25, 2013
  14. igncom1

    igncom1 Post Master General

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    You assume that was rage?
  15. dosbag

    dosbag Member

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    Generally people react violently when their ideas and beliefs are challenged, hence why you felt the need to reply to me just now.
  16. igncom1

    igncom1 Post Master General

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    Believe what you will I guess, unless you were being ironic?
  17. seniorpino

    seniorpino New Member

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    Pretty much what I, but you worded it better. If a 16 year old game could implement it well, why shouldn't its successor?
    It would add a lot of awesome game decisions. Solarpanels only give power half of the time, but maybe in a system with 2 stars or stars nearby it will give more power. All the pgens will have their ups and downs and it shall be glorious.
    Also this sounds a lot more reasonable than the other suggestions being done lately, since this was pretty much part of TA already and isn't that hard to implement and will not be considered gamebreaking. It will just enrich the game by simple means.
  18. rabbit9000

    rabbit9000 Member

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    What about sucking matter directly from these bore holes, sucking the lava right up to churn out fresh super dense metals!
  19. vohjiin

    vohjiin New Member

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    Solar, Wind and Geothermal power are cheap fast options. They are your backup's for when your expensive and build time consuming fusion reactor goes down or is blown up.

    Never rely on only 1 thing, If your operating on 1 or 2 fusion reactors and either or both gets blown up, your energy economy goes with it. You are not going to immediately start building another fusion reactor that takes time and energy which of course you no longer have. You will build solar/geo/wind turbines to get a flow of energy going once more so you can lead up to building that reactor once again.

    Trust me if your going to play against human opponents I will tell you now I specifically target your economy and if I see your working off one reactor just one target that I can kamikaze a small or medium air force on I will take that hit to watch you scramble and all your buildings shut down. Even if you have another reactor its going to hurt your energy economy and now I can target the next one and keep pressure one you, not letting you get another started or finished. (obviously we could bat the logistics of the fight back and forth is just an example of someone who will aggressively hit your wallet more then your army, which won't be massive if you can't afford it)


    And as far as the futuristic robots with the cubed flying powerhouse and why would they use solar/wind if they can just pump out fusion plants? If a futuristic robot can push out a fusion reactor that makes huge amounts of energy in due time, imagine how quickly and efficiently they could build something so simple as a solar panel and I imagine its not some run of the mill one either probably a highly developed, effective structure that they literally can throw out anywhere if they want and achieve vast amounts of energy from for practically no costs.


    I'm sure every general in history wants a "simple structure" that did one thing and was steady and never failed or varied in its function. Doesn't work that way and honestly shouldn't work that way regardless. You want 3 structures, Something to make your army, something to give you metal and finally something to give you energy you don't wanna worry about anything else and I won't knock you on it. A lot of times its so much simpler if you didn't have to worry about that kinda stuff but its an RTS its a strategy game it is SUPPOSE to make you think, how do I place my units what resources and structures do I use and how do I use them together.



    Honestly I always saw big fusion reactors in TA as oh look my primary target, it just screams come at me bro, and often when I did they made a big boom when I got their and that's their trade off immense power, but at the cost of obliterating your base if it got destroyed. You can't build it away from stuff because you have to protect it and wheres the safest place? your base. Free nuke in my opinion so you better guard it well >:).
  20. superouman

    superouman Post Master General

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    I back this idea of thermal vents appearing at the bottom of a crater. As it was said, it would give a value of that area even if at this point of the game, players already have fusion reactors.
    What could be done is placing a consequent number (5 to 10 or more) of vents so players can get a real value out of this area and compete with the high numbers of nuclear plants.

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