Ships Overcharged power plant - but why?

Esteban

E
Greetings, CMDRs.
I have just engineered my PvE-intended Chieftain's 6A power plant to grade 5 overcharged and, while traveling to my home system, began wondering why I did that. My thoughts went something like this:
If the power plant has enough power to do its job, why do this? Wouldn't this engineering mod be better in a situation where you'd perhaps like to use a smaller power plant to improve jump range (due to lower mass)? The mod would then allow you to squeeze more power out of what might nominally be an undersized power plant to make it sufficient.
In a PvE build, wouldn't a different engineering mod be better? Armoured comes to mind pretty readily.

What do you think? Are there other benefits of the overcharged mod that I'm missing, or am I going to be traveling back to see Hera Tani again?
Speaking of, I had been satisfied with low-grade mod on my PP until now (different ship). Unlocking this engineer was really not a lot of fun. 50 cigars sounds like nothing - until you find out that you can only get 15 at a time in your not-super-long-jump-range-ship! Ugh!
 
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Kyle Stryker

Kyle Stryker
As a PVEr, I tend to go one size lower A-rated, engineered as Armored with Monstered Special effect. I only engineer it enough to get required power to keep the weight gain to a minimum. It gives a good compromise between weight, power, and heat dissipation.
 

GeoJase

GeoJase
For exploration its a toss up between weight and thermal efficiency. No point in have a super long jump range (ie min weight) if your overheating charging the FSD or scooping.

Some ships just flat out require Overcharged, like the Vulture which suffers from a suboptimal PP. Others, like the Kraits have a overoptimal PP, so a lot of builds can get away with a lower grade armoured PP.
 

Sir Ganksalot

Sir Ganksalot
Esteban said:
Greetings, CMDRs.
I have just engineered my PvE-intended Chieftain's 6A power plant to grade 5 overcharged and, while traveling to my home system, began wondering why I did that. My thoughts went something like this:
If the power plant has enough power to do its job, why do this? Wouldn't this engineering mod be better in a situation where you'd perhaps like to use a smaller power plant to improve jump range (due to lower mass)? The mod would then allow you to squeeze more power out of what might nominally be an undersized power plant to make it sufficient.
In a PvE build, wouldn't a different engineering mod be better? Armoured comes to mind pretty readily.

What do you think? Are there other benefits of the overcharged mod that I'm missing, or am I going to be traveling back to see Hera Tani again?
Speaking of, I had been satisfied with low-grade mod on my PP until now (different ship). Unlocking this engineer was really not a lot of fun. 50 cigars sounds like nothing - until you find out that you can only get 15 at a time in your not-super-long-jump-range-ship! Ugh!
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You should never overcharge your powerplant unless you absolutely have to.
You should always engineer your powerplants, armored with thermal spread. A G5 armored plant increases power to roughly the same as G3 overcharged while also decreasing heat, and increasing integrity obviously.
 
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Ydiss

Ydiss
I've only used it once with my corvette but that's because she needs it in "spec op killer" mode. I don't actually need it most of the time so an alternative is buying another pp to swap out but that's a bit excessive.

I could sacrifice x, y and z to go for armoured instead but it's PvE; why should I? That's the good thing about ED, many different ways to skin a cat. I tend to use a single thermal vent efficient beam for small target tagging and bagging or to directly counter scb heat (in spec op mode, I don't need them otherwise) so heat is rarely an issue.

That said... shuffles off to Coriolis to have a play
 
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Bigmaec

Bigmaec
Ydiss said:
I've only used it once with my corvette but that's because she needs it in "spec op killer" mode. I don't actually need it most of the time so an alternative is buying another pp to swap out but that's a bit excessive.

I could sacrifice x, y and z to go for armoured instead but it's PvE; why should I? That's the good thing about ED, many different ways to skin a cat. I tend to use a single thermal vent efficient beam for small target tagging and bagging or to directly counter scb heat (in spec op mode, I don't need them otherwise) so heat is rarely an issue.

That said... shuffles off to Coriolis to have a play
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In PvE you can use a turreted Type 10 and still propably win combat zones, so it doesn't matter except for convenience issues (even a CZ corvette has to jump sometimes, and then an overcharged pp is annoying) But if you are in open, under fire from spec ops in your third CZ, and you have no banks left,
the last thing you want is an enemy CMDR dropping in on you and blow up your FSD/PP because they aren't armored (yes, my CZ Corvette uses a shielded FSD...)
 

F4fred

F4fred
Bigmaec said:
It's amazing how fast a triple superpen rail FdL can shoot out your powerplant (@TEBORI :LOL:)

(just a clarification edit: he shot out mine, sadly not the other way 'round :eek:)
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How much module reinforcement did you have? Having an armoured PP alone won’t save you from triple super pen rails.
 

Vetinari

V
@OP better minds than mine have spoken.....Im going to follow some advice from the PVPers where possible and change mine to armoured with Thermal - thanks SG.

Overcharged is good for dropping down a size (weight) as you say or essential for my overpowered hot builds with the larger size....but I dont care if Im having fun so dont copy me,

Dunno if you know but you can 'pin' 1 Blueprint per Engineer, no experimental effects just the basic up to G5, saves going back all the time....until you want or need the experimental....Can the use Remote Workshop when available in Stations to access these BPs on any ship youre currently in.
 

Cmdr Nemo

Cmdr Nemo
Esteban said:
Greetings, CMDRs.
I have just engineered my PvE-intended Chieftain's 6A power plant to grade 5 overcharged and, while traveling to my home system, began wondering why I did that. My thoughts went something like this:
If the power plant has enough power to do its job, why do this? Wouldn't this engineering mod be better in a situation where you'd perhaps like to use a smaller power plant to improve jump range (due to lower mass)? The mod would then allow you to squeeze more power out of what might nominally be an undersized power plant to make it sufficient.
In a PvE build, wouldn't a different engineering mod be better? Armoured comes to mind pretty readily.

What do you think? Are there other benefits of the overcharged mod that I'm missing, or am I going to be traveling back to see Hera Tani again?
Speaking of, I had been satisfied with low-grade mod on my PP until now (different ship). Unlocking this engineer was really not a lot of fun. 50 cigars sounds like nothing - until you find out that you can only get 15 at a time in your not-super-long-jump-range-ship! Ugh!
Click to expand...
Just because one can, doesn't mean one should. Depending on it's purpose and in some cases the pilots ability, not all ships nor all their mods have to be engineered to the max. An conda can be loaded out and engineered to go an extremely long distance, how ever, if that's all it's capable of doing, what good is it when you get somewhere. My truck can haul a large amount of stuff and when doing so, sucks gas, my economy car can't haul but one or two passengers and gets considerably better gas mileage. Thus I personally choose a ship, load it out, engineer it for specific purposes. The advent of the FC allows me to have the any of my ships available on demand rather than go all the way to my previous home base to switch ships. Until the advent of FC's my home base was Jameson Memorial. Since the advent of FC's, I haven't been back to Jameson Memorial.
 

Esteban

E
Vetinari said:
@OP better minds than mine have spoken.....Im going to follow some advice from the PVPers where possible and change mine to armoured with Thermal - thanks SG.

Overcharged is good for dropping down a size (weight) as you say or essential for my overpowered hot builds with the larger size....but I dont care if Im having fun so dont copy me,

Dunno if you know but you can 'pin' 1 Blueprint per Engineer, no experimental effects just the basic up to G5, saves going back all the time....until you want or need the experimental....Can the use Remote Workshop when available in Stations to access these BPs on any ship youre currently in.
Click to expand...

Yes, thank you, I did know. I have a blueprint pinned (from before*), but I would like to get the experimental effect. The trip isn't all that long. It's just that, well, I'm a busy CMDR! ;)

* This was just a brain-f@rt on my part. It really doesn't make much sense to add power when you don't need it. I've been flying my multi-purpose Python for ages with a low-grade PP mod and picked the armored blueprint at the time, when I was less experienced. (I picked the stripped down experimental effect for it at the time. That's a minor change albeit fine for a non-specialized ship.)
On top of that, I went to Hera Tani in my Python to upgrade the PP armored mod to Gr 5, then stored it and bought a 6A PP for the Chieftain and modded it to ship back 'home' after swapping back to my size-7 PP for the Python. Talk about not thinking! It's ok, though, I can sell the extra PP that I now have (installed in the Chief) for no loss before heading out there. Nothing like carto-data!

Incidentally, the Python ran fine on the size-6 PP, which had to be purchased nearby, not at Hera Tani's.

Cheers on having fun. That's #1...
 
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Sir Ganksalot

Sir Ganksalot
Vetinari said:
@OP better minds than mine have spoken.....Im going to follow some advice from the PVPers where possible and change mine to armoured with Thermal - thanks SG.

Overcharged is good for dropping down a size (weight) as you say or essential for my overpowered hot builds with the larger size....but I dont care if Im having fun so dont copy me,

Dunno if you know but you can 'pin' 1 Blueprint per Engineer, no experimental effects just the basic up to G5, saves going back all the time....until you want or need the experimental....Can the use Remote Workshop when available in Stations to access these BPs on any ship youre currently in.
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Just adding to your pinned blueprint comment.

I have Armored pinned from Hera Tani and Overcharged pinned from Marco Qwent because when I do overcharge a powerplant it's rarely ever to G5. When you do need to overcharge, make sure you only engineer it to the amount of power you need. The only ships I've ever had to G5 overcharge are the Vette and Vulture.

I've seen so many builds posted the are G5 overcharged and have like 20mjs of unused power, which is just a waste of materials and all you're doing is overheating your ship.
 

Slange Lands

Slange Lands
I fly FDLs in PvP and usually engineer them 6A armored and thermal spread. However, since I do mostly organized PvP in the rocks, and since I sort of suck at it, I almost always end up dying anyway. Yes the rocks usually take me out faster than pp snipes. So I had these overcharged grade 5 power plants lying around, changed them to thermal spread and swapped out the armored 6s. Voila, instant speed boost. Love speed.
 

Viscera

Viscera
I have an overcharged lightweight size 3A powerplant on my Dolphin.

Why: not such a thing as heat in the dolphin, but it is a power hungry beast with my set up...
 

Rubbernuke

Rubbernuke
F4fred said:
How much module reinforcement did you have? Having an armoured PP alone won’t save you from triple super pen rails.
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I tend to have two guardian MRPs (that have more points than human versions)- normally a medium sized one and a small one so you get the cumulative bonus.
 
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