Put two gas tanks in your vehicle, fill them up at a station, and you can drive for ages. If you happen to need more, it’s there for the taking from cars and stations in any city. And with an alternator, you’re even getting electricity out of the deal. Fuel has been absolutely zero concern for me. Zero.
But an electric vehicle? Between darkness, weather, and the reality bubble, solar panels seem to spend the vast majority of the time doing nothing, unless you go out of your way to sleep or otherwise dither near them when the sun is out. Sure you could put in a minireactor and use some plutonium, but jeez, how many gallons of easy gasoline are you going to pass up for each unit of plutonium you find?
My current character is absolutely flush with skills and resources, and even under these ideal circumstances, switching my vehicle over to electricity felt like a serious downgrade. It’s not easier. It’s not more convenient. It’s not anything.
my huge cars with 10+ solarpannels always have enough power just from solarpannels.
But i never plan to use it right away i set up a frame with pannels and batteries and add parts as i finde them / have time and by the time its complete its filled to the hilt with tons of energy usualy .
In the meantime i just get normal vehicles into operatable shape n drive them arround (although because of the huge explosions that can be caused by gasoline driven vehicles i usualy drive with almost empty tanks) and use my solar “car” for welding and such as a non mobile selfsufficient crafting station till its done and i can start roaming the world.
By that time i usualy have looted most interesting places in my vicinity as well … time to get cruising
my solar car what have only 9 solar panels when fully charged run for 56 days when i need to quickly recharge batteries i set up a small generator and connect it to car with cable only reason why use electric over gasoline is that electric is more silent than walking (8 walking agaist 7 at 64 km/h) key of creating a good solar vehicle is not big amout of solar panels (but that help) its instaling batteries if you need to charge it quickly create basic gasoline generator and connect it with cable (you can make multiple generators if it take too long for me i need 4 days to fully charge with just one)
I think I’m a bit of an expert on solar power, having built six custom solar cars over three, almost four versions, each greater than the last.
It used to be that solar panels were extremely overpowered, to the point where an RV-sized car could have 4 solars and never have need of power. But then they got nerfed to about 10% of their original power production. Upgraded and quantum solar panels were added at the same time. I started needing more solars, and I still kept running into power problems.
The Solar Roller VI has 15 quantum solar panels, hard won after 6 years of driving around. They keep 10 large storage batteries above 90% most of the time, despite having 3 large electric engines. However, I’m still hoping for a minireactor or fusion engine, even though I haven’t seen either since 0.9. I’m never very far from my car, so my solar panels are always charging my batteries. On top of that, I rarely go above 50mph, so speed or power is not a priority.
My car is my base, my transportation, my storage, my crafting area, my safe haven, my weapon, and my life. I FEAR NO EVIL FROM THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH, FOR I DRIVE THE BADDEST THING IN THE VALLEY.
[quote=“TheFlame52, post:7, topic:7749”]I think I’m a bit of an expert on solar power, having built six custom solar cars over three, almost four versions, each greater than the last.
It used to be that solar panels were extremely overpowered, to the point where an RV-sized car could have 4 solars and never have need of power. But then they got nerfed to about 10% of their original power production. Upgraded and quantum solar panels were added at the same time. I started needing more solars, and I still kept running into power problems.
The Solar Roller VI has 15 quantum solar panels, hard won after 6 years of driving around. They keep 10 large storage batteries above 90% most of the time, despite having 3 large electric engines. However, I’m still hoping for a minireactor or fusion engine, even though I haven’t seen either since 0.9. I’m never very far from my car, so my solar panels are always charging my batteries. On top of that, I rarely go above 50mph, so speed or power is not a priority.
My car is my base, my transportation, my storage, my crafting area, my safe haven, my weapon, and my life. I FEAR NO EVIL FROM THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH, FOR I DRIVE THE BADDEST THING IN THE VALLEY.[/quote]
Random-ass idea I’m just going to throw out there:
Attach a variable to individual solar panels that tracks the current turn number.
If a panel exists within the reality bubble, that variable will always increment by 1.
If that variable increments by >1, then the game knows that the panel is re-entering the reality bubble, as well as how long it’s been absent.
At that point the game can calculate how much power any attached batteries are “owed” based on whatever criteria we like. Obviously night hours shouldn’t count, and the value should be modified by the weather as much as is practical.
Since when has solar power been the “easier more convenient” option?
It’s sustainable, that’s the only benefit it’s ever had, if you have a ready supply of petroleum, it’s hands down better, but if you don’t, solar is pretty nice.
I don’t expect them to be convenient to set up, but if having them doesn’t make things more convenient then why did I bother? One trades the nuisance of very infrequent siphoning stops for the nuisance of having to treat the amount of time your car spends “in the reality bubble” as a game mechanic. It seems like sort of a wash, at best.
Then again whatever, the ability to toggle engines coming up means it’ll probably be optimal to run “all of the above”.
in minecraft in IC2 solar panels worked only on loaded chunks, some mod makers being anyoyed by that created chunk loader what make some chunks allways loaded
so why do not allow us to set few map squares to be allways in reality bubble? it will be probaly hard but everybody will be happy for this
[quote=“Arek_PL, post:15, topic:7749”]in minecraft in IC2 solar panels worked only on loaded chunks, some mod makers being anyoyed by that created chunk loader what make some chunks allways loaded
so why do not allow us to set few map squares to be allways in reality bubble? it will be probaly hard but everybody will be happy for this[/quote]
Wasn’t there also a separate update with the various power mods that allowed them to generate outside of the MC reality bubble? Sort of a background thing “Player has been away for x period of time, apply x time worth of charge upon their return.”
I did not know about the reality bubble thing. Missed it somehow.
I guess I know now why my Solar Car remained at 1% of charge, despite literally standing beneath the sun for many days.
Currently cars don’t exactly need to be in the reality bubble to be processed, but they still need to be loaded somehow.
I tested it when fixing cars smoking outside their z-level: standing a z-level below and ~5 tiles from the car doesn’t stop it from processing. So if you can sleep nearly directly under your solar car (for example, you wrecked a house that has a basement or even better - found one that has both a garage and basement), I think it should charge while you sleep despite being “far” from you.
Since when has solar power been the “easier more convenient” option?
It’s sustainable, that’s the only benefit it’s ever had, if you have a ready supply of petroleum, it’s hands down better, but if you don’t, solar is pretty nice.
Oh, and it does have one benefit, noise level.[/quote]
Since 0.A I still think that foot crank is the most reliable and sustainable source of power for vehicles. =]
Solar panel is juz for my minifridge, FOODCO, forge and welding rig at home.
Cranks are slow, but are still very good beginning engines.
I just wish I could have both cranks and other engines installed. Now that individual engine control is implemented, this should be doable.
