Engineers Power vs Distributor Draw

Witcher 7

Witcher 7
I have read this archived thread - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/277316-Mismatch-between-recharge-and-distributor-draw which explains Power Draw is just the power to turn on a weapon and maintain its usage where as Distributor Draw is the power used for shots per second.

I would think the 2 powers are inter-dependent b/c the weapon cannot fire until it's switched on. So why is it when I apply an Experiment Effect like Flow Control that reduces Power Draw by 10%, Distributor Draw is not reduced?
 

Witcher 7

Witcher 7
I know they are separate but Distributor Power depends on Power Draw, hence if the weapon unit has been engineered to use less power, why won't it draw less too?
 

Ceekay

Ceekay
I reckon the power aspect is the power required to energise the various weapon components that create the beam, moves the gimbal, feed the next round for firing........., the power dist capacitor is the energy source for the laser pulse/burst/beam or the energy for the magnets that accelerate the railgun projectile.
 

Nero Tacitus

Nero Tacitus
It's a reasonable point, it's logical to expect "mounting power" and "firing power" to be the same thing when they come from the same source. I can only offer two explanations:

A) For high powered weapons (Railguns, PAs, Lasers etc), while the power source may be sufficient to prime the weapon, it's unlikely to continuously produce the necessary power to actually discharge the weapon. To counter this, you'd use capacitors to build up and store the necessary charge; this also ensures the power supplied to the platform is reliable, stable and isolated. This setup is pretty common today; lasers, radar, particle accelerators etc. If ED ships follow the same design, it would explain the different power metrics. Flow Control lowers the idle power needed to boot/maintain the basic system(s), but doesn't really alter the massive power needed from the capacitors to discharge the weapon. Tuning your engine may increase its fuel efficiency, but that doesn't mean you can put a smaller battery in to start it.

B) Game balance. Things don't have to make sense if it balances out an aspect of a game. Why does a ship in a vacuum slow down after a boost, let alone have a top speed at all?

Ceekay said:
energy for the magnets that accelerate the railgun projectile.
Click to expand...

Kind of pedantic, but railguns don't technically use magnets, they use electromagnetic fields (that's right, I'm that guy).
 
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