Pre-word: I am well aware that much, if not all, of the information below is probably already available on the forums and other corners of the internet. However I wrote this guide for a couple of newer players, and they felt it clarifies things enough that others would find it useful.
In all fairness a quick search does reveal some confusion around power distributors, and a couple of unclear areas. If I’ve made an error or omission, then just quote the section with a correction, explanation and source if possible.
Without further ado…
Power distributors (from here on just "distributors") take energy from a power plant, store it in three different capacitors (visible to the right of your ship model on the HUD), and when the ship uses energy from one of the capacitors the distributor then recharges energy in that capacitor. The power taken by the distributor is represented by its power consumption.
The distributor also has six "pips", which indicate how you are diverting energy to recharge these three capacitors. Your distributor by default assigns two pips to each bank and will distribute energy to them accordingly (please note this does not equate to an equal actual recharge rate, as weapons receive more power from distributors than the other areas).
Using the correct bound key can change your pip designation, for instance increasing the amount of power you divert to weapons, at the cost of less energy going to systems and engines. You may set from 0 to 4 pips to each area but will retain a total of 6 pips.
When damaged, your distributor may malfunction. While malfunctioning, it will rapidly designate your pips completely at random.
The three capacitors are for three distinct areas of function on ship. These are detailed below:
SYSTEMS:
ENGINES:
WEAPONS:
It is absolutely 100% worth observing the capacitor on your HUD during combat to become familiar with it. Knowing how distributors/pip designation works, and knowing how they work in relationship to your ship specifically in different situations, will increase your combat aptitude dramatically.
In all fairness a quick search does reveal some confusion around power distributors, and a couple of unclear areas. If I’ve made an error or omission, then just quote the section with a correction, explanation and source if possible.
Without further ado…
Power distributors (from here on just "distributors") take energy from a power plant, store it in three different capacitors (visible to the right of your ship model on the HUD), and when the ship uses energy from one of the capacitors the distributor then recharges energy in that capacitor. The power taken by the distributor is represented by its power consumption.
The distributor also has six "pips", which indicate how you are diverting energy to recharge these three capacitors. Your distributor by default assigns two pips to each bank and will distribute energy to them accordingly (please note this does not equate to an equal actual recharge rate, as weapons receive more power from distributors than the other areas).
Using the correct bound key can change your pip designation, for instance increasing the amount of power you divert to weapons, at the cost of less energy going to systems and engines. You may set from 0 to 4 pips to each area but will retain a total of 6 pips.
When damaged, your distributor may malfunction. While malfunctioning, it will rapidly designate your pips completely at random.
The three capacitors are for three distinct areas of function on ship. These are detailed below:
SYSTEMS:
Systems is, in effect, anything defensive - shields and defensive countermeasures.
The mechanics of counter measures here are straightforward. Using a counter measure such as chaff launcher/ECM drains systems energy, though in many cases by a very small amount. Having no energy in your systems capacitor will put a “low power” message next to your counter measure, and will prevent their use.
Systems capacity is mostly about the shields though, and where most of the confusion seems to be. To clear it up, shield/systems capacity works as follows.
When hit, your shield loses strength. First and foremost, the amount of damage it takes is modified by the number of pips you have to systems. Increasing the number of pips to systems mean your shield takes less damage, and with no pips to systems your shield will be taken down much faster.
A few seconds after your shield has taken damage, it starts to draw energy from your systems capacitor to recharge it. In turn your distributor recharges the systems capacitor. Provided there is energy at all in the capacitor, the shield should recharge at the same rate, and is independent of the number of pips to systems. Once your systems capacitor has been drained however, your shield will stop regenerating outright. Bi-weave shields have slightly less strength but recharge 50% faster, with the respective increase to capacitor drain.
Once your shields are depleted, power is taken from the systems capacitor at a considerably increased rate until you have powered the equivalent of half your shield, at which point they’ll return online at 50% strength.
As shield boosters/prismatic shields increase your shield strength but not your recharge rate, boosted shields will take longer to recharge fully and when offline you will be waiting longer to charge to 50% strength and see them online again.
The mechanics of counter measures here are straightforward. Using a counter measure such as chaff launcher/ECM drains systems energy, though in many cases by a very small amount. Having no energy in your systems capacitor will put a “low power” message next to your counter measure, and will prevent their use.
Systems capacity is mostly about the shields though, and where most of the confusion seems to be. To clear it up, shield/systems capacity works as follows.
When hit, your shield loses strength. First and foremost, the amount of damage it takes is modified by the number of pips you have to systems. Increasing the number of pips to systems mean your shield takes less damage, and with no pips to systems your shield will be taken down much faster.
A few seconds after your shield has taken damage, it starts to draw energy from your systems capacitor to recharge it. In turn your distributor recharges the systems capacitor. Provided there is energy at all in the capacitor, the shield should recharge at the same rate, and is independent of the number of pips to systems. Once your systems capacitor has been drained however, your shield will stop regenerating outright. Bi-weave shields have slightly less strength but recharge 50% faster, with the respective increase to capacitor drain.
Once your shields are depleted, power is taken from the systems capacitor at a considerably increased rate until you have powered the equivalent of half your shield, at which point they’ll return online at 50% strength.
As shield boosters/prismatic shields increase your shield strength but not your recharge rate, boosted shields will take longer to recharge fully and when offline you will be waiting longer to charge to 50% strength and see them online again.
ENGINES:
Provides additional power to your thrusters. The engines capacitor itself is used to store boost power; using boost drains an amount of energy from this capacitor to give you your temporary speed increase (temporary in ED logic anyway). As the distributor charges the capacitor, no pips to engines means if you don’t have the energy to boost you will be unable to do so until you assign some pips here and give it time to recharge enough.
As an additional effect, more pips to engines passively increases your current speed and agility. Four pips will give you a faster, more agile ship than the default two pips, and no pips at all will leave you feeling sluggish. However, how much energy is left in your engines capacitor doesn’t change speed/agility at all.
With the best distributor your ship can utilise, a boost will consume around 70% of the energy in the engines capacitor (NOTE: not necessarily true post 2.1 on an engineered distributor). It is entirely possible however to use a distributor that is small enough its capacitor cannot power a single boost in your ship-you will be warned about this in outfitting should you try fit a distributor this small, and in the Coriolis ship builder these distributors are indicated in red.
As an additional effect, more pips to engines passively increases your current speed and agility. Four pips will give you a faster, more agile ship than the default two pips, and no pips at all will leave you feeling sluggish. However, how much energy is left in your engines capacitor doesn’t change speed/agility at all.
With the best distributor your ship can utilise, a boost will consume around 70% of the energy in the engines capacitor (NOTE: not necessarily true post 2.1 on an engineered distributor). It is entirely possible however to use a distributor that is small enough its capacitor cannot power a single boost in your ship-you will be warned about this in outfitting should you try fit a distributor this small, and in the Coriolis ship builder these distributors are indicated in red.
WEAPONS:
This is for your weapons. For clarity, they don’t provide energy directly to your weapons – they have their own power consumption for that. The capacitor actually powers the cooling system, hence the “thermal overload” message received when the weapons bank runs dry.
The more powerful your distributor, the longer you will be able to fire your weapons before the capacitor runs dry. More pips to weapons increases its recharge rate. This recharge rate is active unless the bank is full, so will recharge even while weapons are being fired. For this reason it largely isn’t viable to set pips to other areas, fire until dry and then recharge the weapons energy; with no pips to weapons, and therefore no recharge, your weapons capacitor will be drained very fast.
If the weapons capacitor is dry, has pips in it to recharge but you are holding fire, you will see the capacitor stay effectively drained and you will fire shots at a reduced rate to match what your recharge can sustain.
Thermal/thermal-kinetic weapons consume varying levels of energy from your capacitor, but will generally consume it at a medium to high rate. On the other hand, pure kinetic weapons utilise very little. Though kinetic weapons will still be forced to stop firing when the weapons capacitor is completely empty, provided you have pips to weapons and aren’t firing any thermal weapons at the same time you will usually see the weapons capacitor recharge faster than you use the energy.
IF I remember correctly, missiles follow rules slightly differently and retain the ability to fire even when the capacitor is dry – with the consequence that without being cooled, the heat ends up in your ship.
The more powerful your distributor, the longer you will be able to fire your weapons before the capacitor runs dry. More pips to weapons increases its recharge rate. This recharge rate is active unless the bank is full, so will recharge even while weapons are being fired. For this reason it largely isn’t viable to set pips to other areas, fire until dry and then recharge the weapons energy; with no pips to weapons, and therefore no recharge, your weapons capacitor will be drained very fast.
If the weapons capacitor is dry, has pips in it to recharge but you are holding fire, you will see the capacitor stay effectively drained and you will fire shots at a reduced rate to match what your recharge can sustain.
Thermal/thermal-kinetic weapons consume varying levels of energy from your capacitor, but will generally consume it at a medium to high rate. On the other hand, pure kinetic weapons utilise very little. Though kinetic weapons will still be forced to stop firing when the weapons capacitor is completely empty, provided you have pips to weapons and aren’t firing any thermal weapons at the same time you will usually see the weapons capacitor recharge faster than you use the energy.
IF I remember correctly, missiles follow rules slightly differently and retain the ability to fire even when the capacitor is dry – with the consequence that without being cooled, the heat ends up in your ship.
It is absolutely 100% worth observing the capacitor on your HUD during combat to become familiar with it. Knowing how distributors/pip designation works, and knowing how they work in relationship to your ship specifically in different situations, will increase your combat aptitude dramatically.
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