Compact Energy Plants Look Stupid

Title says it really.

The previous state of energy plants was reminiscent of the Total Annihilation solar panels and Total Annihilation balance, which I thought was cool. (Second to actually having solar panels -- rather than generators which run on magic.) It was also somewhat believable the fact basic power generation requires at least 4x the footprint of the commander unit.

What's wrong with energy infrastructure requiring space? I want to see space matter in base planning and something to fight over. Energy can be built anywhere, so it absolutely deserves to be counterweighted by being space inefficient. Space inefficiency, and being hard to defend and move around was an actual balancing point against building wind farms, and a reason to tech to fusion reactors. Planets right now are already pretty big and can support large bases -- changes like this only serve to make space inconsequential.

Expect us to change the sizes of lots of things and do lots of experiments. In fact expect us to overshoot on experiments sometimes as well. Saying something is stupid makes it harder to take your feedback seriously.

Perfect, cause I was thinking that the energy and metal storage is too big, but good to know that you will experimenting with it ^^

Well put!

I hope the Uber team knows that even worst troll here is trolling so hard because they are so excited. (not calling you a troll ayceeem!)

We need to remember that Uber is not a big faceless corporation. These guys know what they're doing and they're probably just as excited as we are, but to help them best we need to keep the feedback constructive. Having this level of contract with the developers is a huge privilege, one that deserves respect.

^^^
lol, assumes I was asserting Uber Entertainment were face and heartless, like that has to do with anything.

I believed the change was a response to community feedback. (And the most active requests being used to the balance in Supreme Commander.) Since Uber Entertainment want to shape the development of the game on community feedback.

Combination of feedback and our own internal thoughts. It just felt a tad too big.

Don't worry though, there will be other energy generation structures and tradeoffs to be made.

i would like to foist the idea of solar plants.
seeing as we are in a solar system it could make for some interesting ideas.
more power while in the sun? more or less the closer or further from the sun you are ?
power usage/ storage would be tactical. i guess it could lead to stalls and other not fun issues but man would it add to the immersion.

ah well its alpha guess this is the time to at least try for ideas.

ayceeem, I specifically said that not all of that was aimed at you. Just saying that there should be respect on both sides, and calling things "stupid" doesn't help.

I liked how the new size of the T1's fit better when making a cluster of Mex and power generators. They look nice side by side, almost as if one facility.
And then it is more fitting when the T2's are both larger. I think the size of the t1 power generators was deceptive when it was larger. It felt like it was doing far more than the Mex was. (i know that mex vs power in number values is like 1/100 but their "relevant value" is still rather equal)

Keep experimenting.

Then what was your mini-rant for? It has nothing to do with my thread subject. -- Yet you felt it was worth posting it here for a reason.

stupid

Lacking in intelligence or exhibiting the quality of having been done by someone lacking in intelligence.

Which is what the cheapest power infrastructure (which has to power industrial grade 3d printing of 4-8 metre tall war engines) happening within a 10 metre square area (assuming the early unit scale shots are gospel) looks like -- and is half of the point I am making across here. So yes, it is helpful. Although in retrospect, goofy is probably more accurate.

One of these is not scaled like the other.

Neither of those are applicable to science fiction either.

But please, do continue.

I currently reed a whole bunch of the current PP's to fund my bases.

So I feel the amount of space you need for PP is proportional to your engineer count.

Of course more PP variety would be cool....as would a explanation of how the current power-plants actually work.

I dont even know where your point begins and the amount of time wasted on it ends.
A solar power plant requires surface area to receive light. When compared to futuristic robots that use a spinning [insert sci-fi plot device] to power a statistic for game mechanics in a convenient way; its very easy to make a point by slapping the two images of what would be in the games sense, a historically repugnant example. Making the two devices the same size was a no-brainer.

/thread

Ayceeem did raise a good point about how energy in TA was ballanced between early and late game sprawl vs space and defenceability. Something which Supcom could be sketchy with.

Okay, looking at other power sources then:




What remains consistent over technological development and industrial scale is the generally large floorspace the necessary aparatus for generating power requires -- compared to a surface drill (the only thing comparable with these games), which only needs vertical space.

It's stuff like this I genuinely hate.

Yes, we permit some leeway in our fiction so we can have interstellar travel, bipedal and sentient robots and engines on asteroids; which are thematic elements of this game. But science fiction for the most part is supposed to be about the application of scientific theories... in fiction. They very much need to be grounded in practical concepts that we can relate to, because only that creates endearment for the fictional.

The energy plants in Total Annihilation are neat because in-lore they are practical and self-explanatory; it allowed me to connect to the game's universe. At least the plot device reactors were saved for the expensive, late-game tiers.

To be frank I actually like the size speaking from a game play perspective.

Becuse theres no theories of power generation that would take up like 1/10 of the current used space and be thousands of times more effective...

Ohh wait theres several such theories...


I mean, seriously there's rather small nuclear reactors already (in subs for example), the problem isn't that small power plants are unrealistic, its that you for some reason feel them to be.

Just look at this for example (A project that may not be reality yet, but its currently being designed): http://phys.org/news145561984.html
(its a nuclear reactor "no bigger then a hot tub" that can power 20,000 homes).

Some more resent info: http://dddusmma.wordpress.com/2013/04/1 ... -reactors/

China has already begun implementing small reactors for factory complexes.
They are using the Liquid Fluoride Thorium reactors and other similar micro reactors just like mentioned above. Also, all of these facilities are requiring space for people to move about inside. The game reactors look pretty much open topped because the robots really dont give a damn about the safety of its surrounding environment. I still think the Teir 2 reactors should be massive as they are or bigger, but the little ones are good for the early game play.

Most of a power plant's footprint is to accommodate storage, transformers, and cooling apparatus. The actual generator, while impressive, is not terribly large compared to the rest of the facility.

Fusion isn't magic.