Question about power plant malfunctions

[ColdFish]

Hello fellow CMDRs.

Two question:

1. At which % do I have to expect powerplant malfunctions to start?
2. Will a PP failure cut all power from the ship or just reduce it for a certain ammount of time? I would really love to keep life support online if I set it as the sole priority 1 system.

Background: I am out on a prolonged exploration trip at the moment and have run into an unfortunate series of "killer binaries" today which yanked me out of SC right after the jump.
Due to this ordeal, my powerplant is now at 94% and I am wondering when I need to expect the PP to fail randomly. As a PP outage will most likely affect life support, and I am still over 20kly out at the moment, I don't want to run the risk of suffocating because of multiple PP failures.

Cheers!

Well, I found this in the manual...

Power priority is used to determine which modules are automatically turned off should your available power draw be reduced (for example if you fit a smaller power plant, or suffer a power plant malfunction).

I still feel a bit uneasy though, can anyone confirm this behaviour and maybe even knows the % or MW of the power loss?

 

[ColdFish]

Nobody? Really?
I would even have settled for a little anecdotal evidence in this case...


How come those opinion threads gain hundreds of replys, but questions concerning game mechanics get almost none?

Oh, I think I get it:
Knowledge and opinions are like witt and buttholes.
Not everybody is in posession of the former, but everybody has the latter.

Though I don't understand why people are so keen on showing them around so much. Especially since most of them stink anyway.

 

[Mr_Zeno]

Or people don't know the answer to your question. I didn't even know you could have a power plant malfunction.

 

[theEmohawk]

My PP is currently at 88% and I've seen no problems yet. I thought a PP would keep going until it hits zero - then kaboom. Given that it can't be repaired it would be a bit harsh for it to start giving problems before it is right on its last legs.

I'm using a fraction of the power available though because I have everything other than life support, thrusters, FSD, scoop and scanners turned off. It reduces power draw and hence less heat while scooping.

 

[777Driver]

If it's anything like FSD and thruster malfunctions, you are looking at glitches from below 80% increasing as more damage is taken.

Edit - pretty sure I had a thruster malfunction at around 90% once. Curious as to why the devs don't explain these things in a little more detail, the thruster malfunction really took me by surprise

 

[ColdFish]

My PP is currently at 88% and I've seen no problems yet. I thought a PP would keep going until it hits zero - then kaboom. Given that it can't be repaired it would be a bit harsh for it to start giving problems before it is right on its last legs.
I'm using a fraction of the power available though because I have everything other than life support, thrusters, FSD, scoop and scanners turned off. It reduces power draw and hence less heat while scooping.

If it's anything like FSD and thruster malfunctions, you are looking at glitches from below 80% increasing as more damage is taken.
Edit - pretty sure I had a thruster malfunction at around 90% once. Curious as to why the devs don't explain these things in a little more detail, the thruster malfunction really took me by surprise

Thanks guys. This makes me feel at ease a lot more.
And yes, I would actually guess the malfunctions start at the same % for all modules. Don't want to risk a bet if the propability/min operation for a malfunction is the same for all mods though.

Oh well, if worse comes to worst I will be able to roll back to inhabited space with a 40% power loss if necessary... though this means no shield and that makes me giddy when thinking about the last few ly...

Cheers & repped!

Or people don't know the answer to your question.

You understand that this is exactly my point, yes?
This forum is so chock full of opinion posts that are mostly lacking any useful information or proper arguments/facts. But we get so few posts with some actual substance.
So I conclude that most people here seem to have an opinion (like anybody else) but lack useful knowledge about ED.
And that makes me a sad panda, because then I see no difference between a forum for a game that prouds itself to be the home of the "older/mature generation" of gamers (ED) and any other out there (steam, CoD, whatever).

 

[theEmohawk]

You understand that this is exactly my point, yes?
This forum is so chock full of opinion posts that are mostly lacking any useful information or proper arguments/facts. But we get so few posts with some actual substance.
So I conclude that most people here seem to have an opinion (like anybody else) but lack useful knowledge about ED.
And that makes me a sad panda, because then I see no difference between a forum for a game that prouds itself to be the home of the "older/mature generation" of gamers (ED) and any other out there (steam, CoD, whatever).

Part of the problem is that there is a void when it comes to concrete knowledge of the underlying game mechanics. FD don't tell us how damage works, so anything we know is based on observations and is largely anecdotal.
Personally, I think FD are playing the secrecy around core mechanics a little too closely. If you wanted to know more about your Asp's modules you'd have a chat with the mechanic fitting them and he'd tell you what you needed to know. But it seems the mechanics are sworn to secrecy by Lakon Industries.

 

[ColdFish]

Part of the problem is that there is a void when it comes to concrete knowledge of the underlying game mechanics. FD don't tell us how damage works, so anything we know is based on observations and is largely anecdotal.
Personally, I think FD are playing the secrecy around core mechanics a little too closely. If you wanted to know more about your Asp's modules you'd have a chat with the mechanic fitting them and he'd tell you what you needed to know. But it seems the mechanics are sworn to secrecy by Lakon Industries.

True and I feel the same way. Maybe FD is scared of people starting to "game" ED, but let's be honest: They are already doing it anyway.

 

[Darkwolf]

Here's a suggestion. Instead of adding to the excess of opinions with your own vitriol, grab a sidewinder, go out and do some testing, and report back with some knowledge. Stunning, eh?

There's a very good chance that nobody really knows exactly what happens. Now's your chance to shine.

 

[Obtuse]

I can add a little bit to this, recently RES farming I had my thrusters go down to 76% and they started malfunctioning, and one of my c2 pulse lasers was at 83% when it started malfunctioning. I'm assuming that after 90% dmg to a module a rng factor takes places as to whether or not the module is now malfunctioning.

 

[Aussiedroid]

Just curious, does the ship give you notification if a module fails? Does it give a text message or audio response?

I have had some pretty damaged modules before and don't recall ever seeing a malfunction. Maybe I just missed it or perhaps was lucky?

 

[Obtuse]

Just curious, does the ship give you notification if a module fails? Does it give a text message or audio response?

I have had some pretty damaged modules before and don't recall ever seeing a malfunction. Maybe I just missed it or perhaps was lucky?

You get an audio warning from your ships computer when a module malfunctions, and I do believe its a rng thing after a certain dmg% is met. Like i stated before I've had modules malfunction above and below 80%

 

[hort_wort]

The only malfunctions I've had are with thrusters and weapon jams. I had my shield generator down to 11% earlier and even it seemed to be doing okay (somehow).

 

[Obtuse]

The only malfunctions I've had are with thrusters and weapon jams. I had my shield generator down to 11% earlier and even it seemed to be doing okay (somehow).

Thats weird for my laser malfunction it kept firing 3 bursts for a shortwhile then would start up again when I fired it.

 

[Distance]

Powerplant malfunctions shut off modules backwards.

Priority 5 first all the way down to 1.

For my ships (not exploring) :
Cargo hatch 5
Fuelscoop, fsd 4
Shield cells and boosters 3
Scanners and life support 2
Weapons and everything else 1

That means in combat I can keep fighting til the last moment if my powerplant is being targeted. If you want to test, set up your power structure like the above and get a friend to shoot your powerplant slowly whilst you watch the module panel. You'll see things "red out" in that order.

 

[ColdFish]

So it is actually working like advertised on the tin (or in this case, the manual).

Thanks a bunch people, appreciate it.
This way I can stay out another week as planned without fear and without having to get annoyingly careful.

 

[Kloothufter]

I'm on my way back from the core, pp is at 81%, no problems yet. I'm more worried about my canopy, its cracked for a large part, flew into to many black holes, neutron stars and other things

 

[Distance]

I'm on my way back from the core, pp is at 81%, no problems yet. I'm more worried about my canopy, its cracked for a large part, flew into to many black holes, neutron stars and other things

We should petition FD for a duct tape module