Power Management for Exploration Ships

[Romeo India Charlie]

I'm kinda nitty-gritty with power management of exploration ships. The idea is that I can lower the power plant by just managing what is online and not. However, this raises the question how to prioritise modules. I currently prioritise them like this:

Priority 1: Thrusters, FSD, Life Support and Scoop
Priority 2: Power Distributor, Sensors, FSD Booster, Shield Generator (plus other minor things)
Priority 3: AFMU, Repair Limpet, Vehicle Hangar, etc

The idea is to have on priority 1 the stuff that allows me to survive and move to safety, followed by systems that are always on but not vital. Priority 3 is for things that are switched off and are switched on only when needed. Any thoughts on this?

 

[Deleted member 38366]

Priority 1 is commonly reserved for critical items to fit into the remaining power schedule of a 0% Power Plant and still affording an emergency egress.
Thus, something like a Fuel Scoop has no business in Prio 1. You need to be able to HiWake to safely in such an occasion, not Fuel Scoop.

Thrusters + FSD must be Prio 1.
If power and consumption permits, Power Dist, Sensors and Defenses (Chaff, Heat Sink, PD, ECM) are useful to retain in such an emergency - but can also be placed into Prio 2, provided all unessential Equipment is securely at Prio 3 or lower.

In General, a good Exploration Ship doesn't require any Power Management by default, as it won't exceed 100% consumption with all Equipment turned on and Hardpoints deployed.
Doing so acts negatively on the Heat Management, which Explorers commonly try to keep in good shape.

Only record-seekers undersize Equipment to such a degree, in order to achieve maximum possible JumpRanges.
However, those extreme builds commonly don't carry things like a Shield Generator or Repair Limpet controller in the 1st place.

If anything, I'd recommend to move back to a Power Plant size which does not enforce any such considerations into your build and no power shortage remains under default conditions.

 

[Romeo India Charlie]

Thanks, FalconFly, some good food for thought. The reason why I created this topic is that I've been having these discussions with myself lately. Power management and not min/maxing jump range is one of those discussions and power management fits the discussion for sure.

Is it fair to say that even if you have a power plant that is able to handle everything your exploration ship has, priorities should be set to prevent other problems?

 

[Deleted member 38366]

Yes, Power Priorities really are meant to save you from unexpectedly losing critical Equipment at the wrong time, such as Thrusters or FSD.
That's the most critical role of Power Management, followed by the inherent ability to squeeze more Equipment in than the raw output of the Power Plant could handle.

Thrusters/FSD are the absolute min. requirement to get out of a bad place - such as a hostile Player sniping i.e. your Power Plant or simply egressing from a Neutron/White Dwarf's deadly cone after an accident.

Hence, those are Prio 1 at all times basically - in case the Power Plant gets badly damaged and power output is reduced. That's the worst-case scenario of Equipment failure more or less, as that'll leave you as a sitting duck.

The remaining (2 - 5) depend on the build, the exact Power output and consumption.
My personal aim is to keep

• Prio 1 Equipment running at all times (even with a 0% Power Plant) = Thrusters and FSD
• Prio 2 to utilize any remaining headroom of a dead 0% Power Plant (50% total output AFAIK), typically with focus on Life Support, Sensors and Defenses like Chaff/PD/ECM is feasible
• Prio 3 - 5 is then from "most important remaining to least important", i.e. Shields at Prio 3 whereas the SRV Bay would be at Prio 5 most likely.

 

[Orvidius]

I'd recommend against putting the SRV on priority 5, but rather use that for things like the AFMUs and repair limpets, and then maybe put the fuel scoop, cargo hatch, and FSD booster on priority 4, with the SRV on priority 3.

Here's my thinking: This makes it OK to have weapons, scanners, or whatever that deploy with the hard points and go over the power budget a little bit. The things you don't need while flying (repairs), and then the things that you don't need while on thrusters (supercruise and hyperjump only) are the first to turn off.

The SRV hangar should never power off in flight, simply because there are situations where you might be driving the SRV, get stuck in a ravine, and the ship can't find a place to land when you recall it. In this case, the ship will hover, and you can get back in, as long as the hangar is powered on simultaneously with the thrusters.

 

[LifesAJourney]

I have no weapons, no shields, no heat sinks and my settings are as follows:

• Priority 1: FSD, thrusters, life support
• Priority 1 but off while flying: SRV hangar
• Priority 2: scoop
• Priority 3: FSD booster, sensors
• all other stuff: off while flying

I have to switch thrusters off to start AFMU but I'm ok with that. I use it in 99.9% of cases to fix my FSD so it's better to do it fully stopped anyway.

 

[Romeo India Charlie]

I have no weapons, no shields, no heat sinks

I hit the floor too hard to neglect shields. Mind sharing what you are flying? I'm curious.

 

[LifesAJourney]

I hit the floor too hard to neglect shields. Mind sharing what you are flying? I'm curious.

Now DBX. AspX and Phantom before. All shieldless. Never lost more than 3 or 4% of hull during high-G landings. Except once I destroyed my yet-shielded AspX on 2G body because I forgot to switch back from reverse thrusters.

 

[marx]

Exploration builds don't tend to consume lots of power, and so, you can scale up your plant nicely to meet the demand nicely. The jump range difference is often less than 1 ly. I like to make sure that the essentials to jump out are always powered, even during a brown-out: that might save your bacon in case you drop out into a jet cone. About the only time when this required a considerably heavier plant was when I had plenty of shield boosters on.

Speaking of shields, to those who fly without one: be extra careful if you take a look at some NSPs, don't collide with anything in there!

 

[CMDR CHIGGY VONRICTOFEN]

Speaking of shields, to those who fly without one: be extra careful if you take a look at some NSPs, don't collide with anything in there!

I will attest to that one...one bump took down shields and over half my hull....ooopsie

 

[LifesAJourney]

Speaking of shields, to those who fly without one: be extra careful if you take a look at some NSPs, don't collide with anything in there!

Several days ago I found my first non-explored NSP ever. There were lots of crystal structures and one screaming and running Gourd Mollusc. Although I did not dare to crash at crystals, I did some wrestling with the Mollusc. No harm done to both competitors.