Power Management Question

[Loriath]

You Forgot Life Support Gotta Breathe eventually I guess.

[TorTorden]

You Forgot Life Support Gotta Breathe eventually I guess.

Breathing is for women and children, real men just ignore the vacuum of space.

[Roger Wilco Jr]

shutting down the FSD gives you more power available in real-space but it also gives you a delay of about 5 seconds after retracting your weapons before you can enter hyperjump or cruise

I'm sure I've experienced this, but I've never noticed it. I guess I'm usually mass locked by a planet in a RES and spend a lot more than 5 seconds boosting away.

But there's a general problem with PM since 1.4

I haven't done any real combat since 1.4, but I assume this is related to a 0% power plant not killing ships - or your own ship - and apparently you actually have 50% power to work with. That is an interesting twist for PM.

Having more modules disabled will generate less heat.

I think this is the key benefit.

I found that the priority also affect the order in which modules come back online, when you retract your hardpoints.

That's an interesting twist to consider. I'm guessing this is more beneficial in a CZ and the like than when mass locked by a planet in a RES. I haven't done much in CZ's, or compromised NAV points, but I plan to now, and this looks useful.

If you mean, is there any point in going from say 98% used power to say 85% used power, then no. The power distributer determines how much power is available to a given system, all the power plant does is provide the base power. Even if you had 80% free power you still wouldn't get any more through the distributor.

This is what I was getting at, like would you have longer lasting guns and etc. I think TorTorden got it right. The less equipment you have powered the slower the ship will gain heat and the faster it will cool. I haven't confirmed this in combat, but I did run across a related issue last night. Also, I did a quick test this morning measuring how long it takes for lasers to drain the WEP cap and how long it takes to recover, and I didn't notice any difference (no stop watch, just counting in my head).

Anyway, this is one thing I noticed. The other day I was smuggling in an Asp with 3A shields, 2x 0A boosters, and a 3A fuel scoop. I was able to scoop at 160, or 165 if you don't mind a little steam coming from the instrument panel. Then I got killed, so I went to a 5A shield and 3x 0A boosters. This time I was able to take out a Clipper and a Python. On the way to get missions I was only able to scoop at 145, or 150 with the steam. I thought that was strange. After a few scoops I tried disabling various modules and each time I could scoop at a faster rate. With the shields, boosters, and cargo hatch disabled, I was able to scoop at the max of 176 with no heat problems. So on those rare instances where you are traveling long distances, are fuel scooping, and are not carrying cargo (no worries about being blown up), then if you shut down unnecessary equipment, then you can scoop faster.

Now I'm assuming here that in combat if you have more unnecessary equipment shut down then your ship will heat up slower and cool off faster, allowing you to shoot longer w/o taking heat damage, even if the guns themselves don't run any cooler or longer. I suppose that's a hard thing to test in combat, but in anyone has a ship that heats up when firing lasers, it would probably be easy to test in some out of the way corner.

And thanks for the replies and tips.

[TorTorden]

I believe the 5 second delay when retracting guns is because the guns don't power down until after they have been fully retracted and the power consumption decreases.

Doesn't really matter one way or the other since you won't be able to enter cruise until after the guns has been retracting hardpoints.

I tried running a full rack of beams on my conda and with 4 pips to weps I got to around 90% or more before running out of power.

Still have beams on my python so could test the theory next time I'm on.

[LionOfNarnia]

@ Roger Wilco Jr

On a true combat ship, there is no unnecessary equipment:-
Monty, of Course

This baby runs HOT!

[Roger Wilco Jr]

I should add that I don't plan to ever have my own power plant taken down to 0% - it's usually just the hull that goes to zero.

Or are the NPCs now targeting power plants?

[TorTorden]

I should add that I don't plan to ever have my own power plant taken down to 0% - it's usually just the hull that goes to zero.

Or are the NPCs now targeting power plants?

They sure where in 1.3, once they hit a high enough level.

[Xebeth]

I should add that I don't plan to ever have my own power plant taken down to 0% - it's usually just the hull that goes to zero.

Or are the NPCs now targeting power plants?

Not specifically I don't think, but on those occasions when it has gone a bit wrong I've found I have damage to my PP, so I guess there's always a chance, but in reality your hull will probably pop first.

[Xebeth]

I should add that I don't plan to ever have my own power plant taken down to 0% - it's usually just the hull that goes to zero.

Or are the NPCs now targeting power plants?

They sure where in 1.3, once they hit a high enough level.

Really! eeek, I thought I'd read something from Sarah Jane that said they would not be.

Be afraid people, be afraid

[TorTorden]

I have had my thrusters shot out on me and I swear some deadly vipers that power planted my t9.
Or is it normal to go from 95% hull to insurance screen in 0.5 seconds?