Alternative Energy Sources?

I heard it mentioned a while that wind power will be making its return in PA, from Neutrino I think (I may be wrong on this account). After that I heard that PA won't have a "weather" system, which confused me. Are we getting all of the alternative energy sources TA had?

You know, wind power, solar power, tidal power, fusion power (this one's a given)... It would all be more interesting and strategic in a game with infinite possibilities for unique eco-strategic scenarios. Heck, there could be more power sources, we could have LAVA power or true Geothermal power.

In addition, you could plan beautifully orchestrated attacks solely from observation; If your enemy's planet is eclipsed, and he only uses solar power because he is close to the sun, you can thrash him without any ressistance.

But I'm getting nitty gritty here, the idea of having multiple power sources kinda goes against macro>micro in that you have to decide between vaguely different power sources.

I'd be cool with solar collectors... IN SPACE(aka satellites).

But yeah, I'd like all of the alternate power-sources from TA to make a return as well, perhaps with some tied to specific biomes. Wonder if thermal geysers/plants will make a return?

My favourite was the Tidal Generator. Under sea energy farm.

Also the carriers wither their +300 energy, moving power plants

I think Neutrino already confirmed the H3 mines on gas giants.

how does that work?

Vacuum pumps and Very long hoses

Vacuums only work with atmosphere. On earth the most we can suck water is ~34' at sea level, but we can pump it an unlimited distance as long as the tubes hold up to the pressure.

Oil rigs have pumps located at the bottom and they pressurize it enough to force it up to the surface. The H3 mines would work the same way.

Must you take what are essentially giant vacuum cleaners in space so seriously?

In the same vein you can say that humans breathing isn't "sucking" in air, but rather air being forced down our oesophagus by the reduction of pressure in our lungs when they expand...

But we still SAY that we're sucking in air as though it's an active suction process that we're controlling, even when we're doing no such thing... the air is moving itself based on pressure equilibrium.

So I will SAY that it's a giant vacuum cleaner in space... even though I'm fully aware that it's not.

But breathing in is sucking air in

If we increased pressure in one area (say a bag), and allowed the air flow into our lungs we would then be pumping it in.


But yes, the idea of sucking from a giant straw is much cooler than pumping it into space

Well, that derailed rather quicky...
Having different sources of energy would be cool though, I especially like the satellite idea

Solar power is my favorite. Damn, i wanna see how night is falling on enemy base and his energy generation goes down.

Just as you take out his storage you mean?

Nope, i just hoping for energy generation dependend from enviroment. Solar power obviously should work only half time, as planet spins. Then you need to plan your attacks and production so you won't run out of energy stored in a midle of night and would need to wait for dawn.

lol, that's just evil.

I can just see it now, someone building a slew solar panels on the sunny side just before dark, not knowing that the planet takes an hour or two of game time to revolve.

Or, someone building solar panels on the dark side of a planet, not knowing that it is tidally locked and he'll never see the sun .


Ya, so with solar panels you cant let the planets turn too slow. Oh, and the axis cant be pointing at the sun as well.

Wouldn't that be something good to learn? I'm certainly not interested in handholding the player making sure everything he does can't lead him to failure.

With no risk of failure there is no satisfaction in success.

Maybe Solar Arrays could be T2, a "specialised" way to gather resources. Solar Panels could be cheap to build, but have an output that can potentially flux.

I think it'd be a cool thing if this audience was the same that plays Kerbal Space Program, otherwise I'd be worried that it would turn off too many players with technical details.

I like that. Describes my attitude to competition. Don't get me wrong, I love winning -almost as much as I hate losing - but it's not satisfying if it's guaranteed.

On topic: Jon did answer a question about this on reddit
http://www.reddit.com/r/planetaryannihi ... e/#ca07lxt

Well, i hope Uber will look over that once more. Solar panels looks like great gameplay implementation to me, they might be cheap but powerfull source of energy, but in a same time player can't build his whole resource system on those, or he could, but then he need to control south-north pole to gather energy during polar day, in this case he also need to spend lots of resources for defending his solar farm as it would be far away from base.
This add just so much variables, and possibilities compare to usual: "Spend X resources, to build generator for N energy" methods. It's just awesome.
P.S. And they have to be T2 units for reasons of game balance, so one person won't have a chance of boosting his resource base in early game before first day-night cycle.

I dunno man, I would love to see T1 Solar Collectors. That way, you COULD boost your resources early-game before the first night cycle, and get a big advantage. Afterwards, you could either spring off of that advantage into a powerplay, or you might be forced to hunker down and defend with minimal energy until the next day cycle.

And while you're hunkered down, you could have sent out engineers and built an expansion base in the sunlight, and surprise your enemy with a strike from both directions!

Oh, I can't wait for this game to be complete. There are just so many strategic possibilities, it's like TA but with inherently good map design.

Yep, but if you are able to use it before first day/night cycle, then it's pretty much mean that your enemy can't, as he probably would start on the other side of globe, unless he picked his starting point waaaayyyy to close to yours.