New controls options

[rubikscube]

i've been thinking, mostly when i build stuff, i can wait for more than 20 minutes than get all my stuff together to strike something, at this time, it's using a lot of energy.

If we can make a auto control of our power plants to shut off when not needed and turn on when we are getting low on energy, that can save us a LOT of metal and crystal.

We know that mk 1 power plants are the most efficient, and the least generating power too.

So, if we have a excess of 6500 energy ( mk 1 generates 5000, mk 2 generate 40,000 mk 80,000), it will auto turn off our mk 1 power plant, and generating it back online INSTANTLY when we get new ships or something, that will also mean that our energy balance should always be under 5000. i know that -2 metal and crystal is not a lot, but count a lot of them plus a lot of time, you could save a lot of metal and crystal without doing anything else.

Let's say we have a excess of 11000 energy, turns of at most 2 of your mk energy reactors and only one if you have only one

If we have 38500 energy but you already turned off 1 mk 1 power plant, it will automaticaly turn on the mk1, and turning off the mk 2, CAUSE mk 2 isn't as efficient as mk 1s

so on..... it will choose the most efficient way











Low power mode, everything that isn't doing anything will be turned to low power mode automatically, and will save you energy and thus, saving you a lot of metal.  it will of course turn on when it's gonna build , fight or anything, and anything that you can't afford t o turn off at any given time , well you can program it not to,get a nice energy boost and get a extra 2, or even 50 metal PER SECOND

[RCIX]

This feels like something a control node could do for a fair knowledge cost.

[Fleet]

The most efficient is the Mk II (do the math, figuring out how much energy you are getting per resource unit)

If anything like this were to be implemented, several issues would need to be addressed. Do power plants turn on when being gifted/reclaiming ships as well, to meet the new energy demands? At least, I would want this to be an *option*, since sometimes I have situations where my ally is going to gift me a few science vessels, so in the mean time I want to keep that energy "open", not being taken up accidentally. Perhaps a per-power plant setting would work, where you can set each power plant to either auto turn on/off, or manual, with the general rule that you turn on in order mk II then I then III.

[I-KP]

I think this is a rather sharp idea that could be relatively simple to implement and would take a load (of irksome micro) off the player.  The devil will of course dwell in the detail.  (Also, this thread is in the wrong place - it should be in Development Discussion - and it likely won’t attract the kind of attention it probably deserves being sat here.)

The Generator shutdown priority, based on Generator resource efficiency, should be as follows:-
1st  MkIII Gens
2nd  MkI Gens
3rd  MkII Gens
4th  Zenith Gens

Example:  You have 180’000 maximum Energy generation provided by 1*MkIII, 2*MkIIs and 4*MkIs, and you currently have 110’000 Energy going to waste.  By following the above priority list the most efficient combination of generators would be shut down to release the maximum amount of Resources per Energy point saved.  In this example the following Generators would be shut down: 1*MkIII and 4*MkIs, leaving only 10’000 Energy going to waste.  For the duration of this Power regulation mechanic the player would cease burning 48M&C/s!

When power demands need to tap into off-line potential power, Generators are put back online in reverse priority order, i.e., don’t turn on a MkIII when there are still two MkIIs off-line.

The way that Energy is currently reported would need to be adjusted in order to properly inform the player as to the state of his/her true Energy capacity.  Quite simply: “UnusedEnergy(Reserves)”.  UnusedEnergy reports the amount of on-line Energy that you are not using (the current method).  Reserves is the total Energy output of all Generators currently put on standby by the Power regulation mechanic.

Example (continuation of above):  Before the Power regulation mechanic kicks in: “110’000(0)”.  After the mechanic kicks in: “10’000(100’000)”.

A Control Node to govern this mechanic sounds like an ideal solution.

The Power regulation algorithm will need to display a goodly amount of canny elegance in juggling the best possible combinations as power demands fluctuate during play but my guess is that the mathematically minded (of which I am not one) will find the logic fairly simple to define.

Concerns:-
- Are there situations where you would not want a specific Generator to be subject to Power regulation?
- Would the algorithm be able to keep up with rapidly changing power demands?  It would be a disaster if things started to shutdown before it was able to reconfigure all Generators.

[Fleet]

Concerns:-
- Are there situations where you would not want a specific Generator to be subject to Power regulation?
- Would the algorithm be able to keep up with rapidly changing power demands?  It would be a disaster if things started to shutdown before it was able to reconfigure all Generators.

I think for these situations, perhaps the option to put a power generator in manual mode would be sufficient. That way I know I have, say, 40,000 energy at my command for when I want it available. I could see games with parasites being a situation where, at least when energy is low and game is early, you don't want to take over every enemy ship. For example, I usually make a MkIII energy reactor in the early game. Do I use it? Heck no, I don't even use Mk I usually. But, its there, and every once in a while I turn it on for a special purpose. I would not want it turning on just because I captured a ton of weak enemy ships, however.

For this, perhaps there could be some buffer energy. Think of the ship overkill mechanic, overshooting the mark a bit to make sure the job gets done. I can't imagine the algorithm being too slow, but maybe it could maintain a minimum energy (that the user could specify, of course). That way, the other generators have time to come online. Either that, or when capturing new units/buildings, and they would take you over your current energy limit, don't automatically put them into "online" mode until the power generator comes online. Or, they just have energy for the few seconds it may take the gen. to come online (I'm just throwing out ideas here, I have no idea which ones would be easiest to implement)

[I-KP]

Well, firstly I'd suggest moving this thread into areas where it will see some attention.  The idea looks nifty to me, perhaps it will appeal to others also.

[Kordy]

This feels like something a control node could do for a fair knowledge cost.

Good idea. Energy Rebalance Modulator or something spiffy named control node, maybe? And costing at least 2250 K. Why 250 excess? Because I never use FRD military, but always use FRD engies so that 250 irks me

[vonduus]

Great suggestion, I am spending a lot of time turning power plants on and off all the time. A control node would be a good solution.

[Excession]

Yeh +1 for getting rid of late game micro-management...