A simple question abour boosting , distirbutors and power plants
- Thread starter Ben Ryder
- Start date
yes.
the downer limit for powerplant is that you can power thrusters and FSD at the same time ;-) (i personally would add life support, sensors, point defense and chaff to that list, though)
you can even unpower the powerdistributor, because it keeps its pips setting while unpowered (e.g. you assign 1 to sys for your utilities, 4 to eng, and 1 to weapons if you fit any, and power it off)
Yes, I have done builds on medium pad ships with a tiny 3A power plant. They didn't have to power any weapons or large shields.
As long as the overall ship power load doesn't exceed the Power Plant, you are good to use it.
One thing to consider, is the 50% power drop point. IIRC, in combat when a power plant is targeted and drops to 0%, it's power output will reduce to 50%. So it's key to use the power management groups (1,2,3, etc.) to make certain that your core modules (Group 1) will have power if your Power Plant is at 50% output. Anything above that should be in Group 2, 3, etc., and those would go offline in case the Power Plant goes down.
I keep these modules in Group 1:
Thrusters - Gotta keep mobility
Distributor - To recharge for boosting away
Chaffe/Point Defense - Maintain defenses
FSD - Critical, my escape hope.
Then in Group 2:
Shields/Boosters - If the Power Plant is sniped, the shields are already offline. Worthless.
Life Suppport - With an A rated module I'm good for 25 minutes, other builds might reconsider this being in Group 1.
Weapons
Cargo Hatch
...
The point regarding Power Plants and this is... This 50% balancing act might be hard on a ship with super small Power Plant and large module power draw. The boosted/engineered thrusters alone might take up 45% of the full power output, leaving little room for critical stuff like FSD.
If anybody sees that I'm doing something wrong above, please post. Certainly worth knowing and considering.
As long as the overall ship power load doesn't exceed the Power Plant, you are good to use it.
One thing to consider, is the 50% power drop point. IIRC, in combat when a power plant is targeted and drops to 0%, it's power output will reduce to 50%. So it's key to use the power management groups (1,2,3, etc.) to make certain that your core modules (Group 1) will have power if your Power Plant is at 50% output. Anything above that should be in Group 2, 3, etc., and those would go offline in case the Power Plant goes down.
I keep these modules in Group 1:
Thrusters - Gotta keep mobility
Distributor - To recharge for boosting away
Chaffe/Point Defense - Maintain defenses
FSD - Critical, my escape hope.
Then in Group 2:
Shields/Boosters - If the Power Plant is sniped, the shields are already offline. Worthless.
Life Suppport - With an A rated module I'm good for 25 minutes, other builds might reconsider this being in Group 1.
Weapons
Cargo Hatch
...
The point regarding Power Plants and this is... This 50% balancing act might be hard on a ship with super small Power Plant and large module power draw. The boosted/engineered thrusters alone might take up 45% of the full power output, leaving little room for critical stuff like FSD.
If anybody sees that I'm doing something wrong above, please post. Certainly worth knowing and considering.
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Then take the ship to The Dweller and have him modify the distro with an ENG focus - faster recharge, more boosts.
Im building a lightweight shieldless craft and was wondering which is it that places the limit on boosting ability Power Plant or Power Distributor?
In a way both do.
The power plant has heat efficiency to cool off the heat,
so you'd might want for a low-emission one.
My grade 1 pp has 8% more power and 20% better heat efficiency.
The power distributor limits the times you be able to boost,
by capacity and recharge. To my liking it doesn't need change.
The third factor is based on the ship you fly:
Some ships have a very short boost active time (DBS),
thus needing more often the power to boost from distributor
to keep perma boost (capacity seems to be better as power dist. there, tested by Kornelius Briedis).
abc
First, you need a Power Distributor of sufficient class to be able to boost at all. Additionally the power distributor is also the single most important factor in determining how quickly the boost (ENG) capacitor charges. The better your Power Distributor, the faster and more frequently you can boost, helpful when being interdicted/chased. The Power PLANT mostly affects a ship's MASS (they're heavy) power CAPACITY (how many guns, etc. you can use) and HEAT DISSIPATION (helps the ship run cooler).
Mount D-rated everything except for your A-rated FSD and A-rated Power Distributor. Then, once you know all your power "draws"/drains you can choose your smallest indicated Power Plant based on your "deployed" power draw. Depending on how you manage module priorities you might even be able to go a size smaller on the Power Plant.
Im building a lightweight shieldless craft and was wondering which is it that places the limit on boosting ability Power Plant or Power Distributor?
First, you need a Power Distributor of sufficient class to be able to boost at all. Additionally the power distributor is also the single most important factor in determining how quickly the boost (ENG) capacitor charges. The better your Power Distributor, the faster and more frequently you can boost, helpful when being interdicted/chased. The Power PLANT mostly affects a ship's MASS (they're heavy) power CAPACITY (how many guns, etc. you can use) and HEAT DISSIPATION (helps the ship run cooler).
Mount D-rated everything except for your A-rated FSD and A-rated Power Distributor. Then, once you know all your power "draws"/drains you can choose your smallest indicated Power Plant based on your "deployed" power draw. Depending on how you manage module priorities you might even be able to go a size smaller on the Power Plant.
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So how does this sound
1) Check if I can get a smaller A class distributor wth enough juice to do a jump otherwise stick with a slightly bigger D class
2) Get an engine focus upgrade from an engineer
3) Switch all pips to engines and switch it off the distributor (I dont use shields or weapons). Will the engineer upgrade still work with the distrib off?
4) Switch off stuff I dont use (like senors because when interdicted I plan to boost and run and I have a docking computer and a pair of eyes for landing)
5) Get the lightest / smallest power plant I can fit and assign module priorites
Is there an engineer thing that I can use to reduce the weight of the power plant?
1) Check if I can get a smaller A class distributor wth enough juice to do a jump otherwise stick with a slightly bigger D class
2) Get an engine focus upgrade from an engineer
3) Switch all pips to engines and switch it off the distributor (I dont use shields or weapons). Will the engineer upgrade still work with the distrib off?
4) Switch off stuff I dont use (like senors because when interdicted I plan to boost and run and I have a docking computer and a pair of eyes for landing)
5) Get the lightest / smallest power plant I can fit and assign module priorites
Is there an engineer thing that I can use to reduce the weight of the power plant?
Nothing to reduce the weight of the powerplant, no.
But, here's a link to info about all the blueprints. I find it useful.
http://inara.cz/galaxy-blueprints
But, here's a link to info about all the blueprints. I find it useful.
http://inara.cz/galaxy-blueprints
1) the first time, where a smaller a-class trumps a bigger d-class is 4A/5D - below that, it is always better to take the larger d-class.
3) yes, will work.
"Is there an engineer thing that I can use to reduce the weight of the power plant?" - no, but you can maybe use a smaller class and make an overcharged mod L1 - only needs sulphur, adds up to 11% power, and you can roll often so you don't get a hit on heat efficiency?
have in mind, that you still need sensors to request docking (and the docking computer needs power to work).
Just need the one boost really for my style of flying. Enough to get me up to and over max normal speed quickly. By the time its slowed to normal top speed Im ready to jump.
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Thanks I'll be fitting a A4 then.
Is that a problem you run into? When fighting NPCs I'm 1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000% more likely to get killed by cockpit break than any damage to my power plant.
Or, if you have good reputation with the relevant engineers and sufficient materials, keep your weapons but use the light weapons upgrade to reduce their mass. My 4 small multicannons and 2 medium pulse lasers on my Asp now have a grand total of 4.43 tons mass, as opposed to 16 tons before. Better to have and not need, than to need and not have. Needless to say I also carry shields (size 3 prismatic) that I have upgraded with thermal resists. Also got a mass-reduction by way of secondary modifiers on those.
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Or, use the recipe for a level 1 low-emissions power plant - which usually reduces your power output. But, since this recipe only requires Iron (http://inara.cz/galaxy-blueprint/14) which you can get a lot of in very little time, nothing stops you from rerolling until you get a good result and a power upgrade as a secondary modifier, giving you less heat *and* more power as a bonus.
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Or, use the recipe for a level 1 low-emissions power plant - which usually reduces your power output. But, since this recipe only requires Iron (http://inara.cz/galaxy-blueprint/14) which you can get a lot of in very little time, nothing stops you from rerolling until you get a good result and a power upgrade as a secondary modifier, giving you less heat *and* more power as a bonus.
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Hey Ben,
You might want to get engineered hull armor reinforcement if you are flying shieldless- weight is zero if you use the normal lightweight alloy stock hull. It's good protection.
If you are using just ONE boost ever, you could look onto getting a higher charge capacity on the small distributor, rather than the Engine focused one. You won't need a faster refill rate.
Low weight, shieldless, one boost... What's this profile for?
You might want to get engineered hull armor reinforcement if you are flying shieldless- weight is zero if you use the normal lightweight alloy stock hull. It's good protection.
If you are using just ONE boost ever, you could look onto getting a higher charge capacity on the small distributor, rather than the Engine focused one. You won't need a faster refill rate.
Low weight, shieldless, one boost... What's this profile for?