Horizons SRVs should be SOLAR powered

Bartizan

Bartizan
Fyrd Judge said:
What has this comment to do with my OP, Please stop waffling and remain on topic :)

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Again you go off on one, why do you assume because you have no problems, every one else shouldn't. May be there is a game issue with planets 1000ly years off. Did this thought ever come into your thinking when you decided to reply to my OP?
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I am assuming nothing, I am using actual experience as evidence not "may be" or "shouldn't". I am not sure what you mean by worrying about a planet 1000ly off....I was explaining about exploring planets 30k ly away from Sol.....distance from anything in the game has no bearing on whether or not you find materials or not. I am making nothing up nor assuming anything. Everyone is playing the same game, it's all out there, go and actually see for yourself. Solar doesn't make sense from a practical or conceptual point of view. That is my only opinion on this. Fuel not being an issue with incredibly reasonable effort is fact.
 
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Fyrd Judge

Fyrd Judge
Bartizan said:
I am assuming nothing, I am using actual experience as evidence not "may be" or "shouldn't". I am not sure what you mean by worrying about a planet 1000ly off....I was explaining about exploring planets 30k ly away from Sol.....distance from anything in the game has no bearing on whether or not you find materials or not. I am making nothing up nor assuming anything. Everyone is playing the same game, it's all out there, go and actually see for yourself. Solar doesn't make sense from a practical or conceptual point of view. That is my only opinion on this. Fuel not being an issue with incredibly reasonable effort is fact.
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You obviously have not being playing long, there has always been game issues where players got no problems while other players did. This is a recognised fact that can be searched in the Forums. As A Beta player who has played Elite for over a year now i would again say, don't think because you have no issues then there are no issues.
 
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Fyrd Judge

Fyrd Judge
Shadowdancer said:
What you're proposing here is even stupider that what you're trying to avoid. Where are you going with this? Are we now carrying a huge array of solar cells AND a massive battery bank that we can't recharge once the lights go out?
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LOL... This is a fiction game they don't have to provide realism for Solar array in size or the power it can supply. Just as they are far fetched to suggest breaking a few rocks will provide enough fuel for SRVs, they can be far fetched to suggest we don't need big Solar arrays :). OMG we have Fuel scoops, fiction space ships, Plasma weapons, people landing on planets 4000ly years away from Earth, is this realism :) ? Please, i am begging you, please stop making me laugh.
 
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Shadowdancer

Shadowdancer
Fyrd Judge said:
LOL... This is a fiction game they don't have to provide realism for Solar array in size, Just as they are far fetched to suggest breaking a few rocks will provide enough fuel for SRVs they can be far fetched to suggest we don't need big Solar arrays :). We have Fuel scoops for fiction space ships, where is realism in Elite, please, i am begging you please stop making me laugh.
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So your suggestion is that, because you fail to use the existing gameplay elements, a wizard did it. OK.
 

Micha

Micha
Fyrd Judge said:
If it was realistic then they would be SOlAR powered, like all other things running around on Mars. Lets not forget Fuel scooping Suns is Fiction, this is after all a game.
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Solar power for SRV's is silly. Yes, it -may- work on the sunlit side of planets close to bright stars, but nowhere else. An SRV uses a LOT more power than our little toy rovers on Mars do (which carefully crawl along at a few meters per hour instead of being the all-terrain rally-cars of ED) quite apart from how you'd power the jumpjets with just electricity.

HOWEVER, the core argument is good - the SRV's should be powered by either a small fusion plant like the ships are, or fuel cells, as well as a gas thruster. In both cases based on Hydrogen, which can be scooped and processed by the ship. And hence yes, the SRV should refuel when it docks with the ship.

The current setup of mining magic rocks makes zero sense from an immersion or plausibility perspective. It's purely a gameplay gimmick. Does it enhance gameplay? That's a subjective question and we have people on both sides of the argument on that.
 

schizrade

S
Fyrd Judge said:
What has this comment to do with my OP, Please stop waffling and remain on topic :)

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Again you go off on one, why do you assume because you have no problems, every one else shouldn't. May be there is a game issue with planets 1000ly years off. Did this thought ever come into your thinking when you decided to reply to my OP?
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I am 15Kly out and have to pass SRV refuel material by constantly in search of jump rares.
 

Earthshine

Earthshine
Fyrd Judge said:
LOL... This is a fiction game they don't have to provide realism for Solar array in size or the power it can supply. Just as they are far fetched to suggest breaking a few rocks will provide enough fuel for SRVs, they can be far fetched to suggest we don't need big Solar arrays :). OMG we have Fuel scoops, fiction space ships, Plasma weapons, people landing on planets 4000ly years away from Earth, is this realism :) ? Please, i am begging you, please stop making me laugh.
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Seems an odd angle to being coming from.

Solar panels are coming from a kind of realism angle, and yet you're suggesting that the realism component isn't important?

Personally I think SRV fueling is OK as it is, a bit "gamey" but OK (as in, the "shoot rocks, drive over chunks" aspect...it could be better). I've never had trouble finding materials for fuel and when you find a world with some you can spend some time stocking up there and then. I think that's quite appropriate explorer-esque behaviour, don't you?
 

CmdrCanine

CmdrCanine
Fyrd Judge said:
Not all suns can be fuel scooped and so what do we do, we move off to the right one that can. This isn't Einstein Maths to work out how to implement them, pick a planet that is near M class sun, Land , take our SRV and point it at sun , for how long ever time they want to set it to power the SRV and then that is how you do it.
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Fair enough, but your OP said you hated spending time looking for materials to refuel your SRV (which by the way is exploration...), so your fix for this is then going to be looking for planets that are close enough to the sun, allow for planetfall, then landing on said planet (which can be quite hazardous in high G situations) and then refuel using solar panels. Personally I would just stick to picking up rocks mate!
 

WR3ND

WR3ND
Yeah... not so much. SRVs should simply refuel from the ship automatically when loaded back on to them and be stranded if they run out of fuel on the surface.

Finding magical fuel rocks seems more like a silly mini game mechanic to me. Might make sense if this game were "Spacecraft" (as in Minecraft), or something, but it isn't.

Being stellar powered (most worlds in the galaxy don't orbit Sol) through photovoltaics doesn't make sense here either. Might as well just have batteries instead of a fuel tank on the SRVs that are again recharged when on the ships. Same difference (for the comprehension impaired who don't care for that terminology, 5-3=2, 3-1=2) in effect as fuel anyway, but at least then it would add some kind of diversity and immersion in the game. But I digress.

Photovoltaic panels would make sense maybe on some charging station outposts, base stations, or similar which are in colonized space, close enough in to their star(s), and don't receive regular fuel shipments.

TL;DR: I don't like how powering SRVs is currently implemented in the game either. They should just recharge/refuel when onboard our ships and be stranded when they run out or perhaps be recharged/refueled by a Fuel Rat's SRV. No need for photovoltaics here either.
 

Bartizan

Bartizan
Earthshine said:
I had to google that :p

I've not read much Stephen Baxter, so didn't realise I'd used the name of an AI.

...or did I?
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Sounds like something a rogue AI might say.

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Fyrd Judge said:
You obviously have not being playing long, there has always been game issues where players got no problems while other players did. This is a recognised fact that can be searched in the Forums. As A Beta player who has played Elite for over a year now i would again say, don't think because you have no issues then there are no issues.
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Been playing as long as you. But as I recognize you aren't interested in anyone else's opinion on the subject, I will no longer entertain you, sir.
 

WR3ND

WR3ND
Ddraig said:
Another thread of "Hi, I want this game to be done by my logic... Now get to it FD"
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While I don't agree with the OP, I do think it is unfortunate how powering and refueling SRVs has been implemented.

At this time it is likely too late for FD to change gears and do something else that makes more sense and doesn't feel like a tacked on game mechanic.

So basically, we'll likely just have to deal with it or ignore it as best we can.

For me, I like flying over and landing on planets well enough, but I don't care to rove around on them in SRVs, partly because of the reasons I've mentioned, but also because I don't want to sacrifice the extra fuel tank on my ship. It's rather disappointing that for the time being avoiding SRVs altogether is the best option, but it is what it is.

I had some fun messing around with them during the Horizons beta at least though.

Give me some retractable tank treads on my Vulture, and we'll call it even. ;)
 
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PiLhEaD

PiLhEaD
I'm not sure solar power apeeals any more than the current method. Having to find a suitably sunny rock to sit on whilst the batteries charge seems every bit as dull as hunting rocks. Sorry.

This is, sad to say, another example of an odd design decision by FDev that they ignored overwhelming user feedback on in beta to implement. Similar to implementing the hanger module, rather than just taking hold space for the buggy, as they originally said they would, so further reducing the appeal of carrying the buggy by consuming a scarce internal slot.

Yes yes I get that they are making the game they want to play, but when do they stop to be concerned if what they are doing is what their customers want to play?

The buggy is plenty enough fun on its own without having to mine rocks to refill its tanks. And for me this rather frustrating element actually reduces the time I spend using it.

Solutions.... allow the hanger to carry a number of refuel packs, that get replenished in station when refuelling, or by actioning synthesis. Or, just change the buggy to run on hydrogen. Or make each additional buggy run on its own unique fuel to 'further enhance gameplay'... not really... but I can imagine someone thinking it sounds like 'fun'...

Moan over. I do think overall Horizons is fab, but it grates that it could have been even more fab if only they'd listened to the feedback from the bate testers. The issue for me being the less they listen the less I'll be bothered to test and feedback. Hey ho.
 
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nexxo

N
This is a dumb conversation about a dumb mechanic. SRVs would logically be either fuelled from the ship fuel store or electrically charged from the ship power plant. Materials would be collected to supply the AFMU for ship repairs and SRV hangar for SRV repair. The SRV would be automatically repaired every time it docks back at the ship --if the materials suffice.

Anything else is mini-game for the sake of mini-game and does not in any way help build a consistent world experience.
 
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popuptoaster

P
Nothing would be solar powered in a galaxy where fusion power generation is cheap, easy and compact unless it was designed to operate for very long periods with low power demands and had direct access to sunlight.

Even now in real life all the long range probes humans send out are nuclear powered as are many of the rovers we build, solar power is extremely limiting for objects that need to be mobile and operate in variable lighting conditions.
 
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