Why is there never enough power?
- Thread starter Dandare71
- Start date
you can 'over load' your ship by manually off-lining non essentials when using High-Draw modules. the whole point of this is for balance. better stuff uses more power. you can't have it all.. at least you cant have it all online at once. If you want to be tanky you have to give a little on speed/handling or firepower.
This is by design. The player is faced with decisions and trade-offs.
Also, with experience, players can squeeze more out of their ship.
Not only do ships have roles to which they are suited, but their loadout usually has to be slanted towards specific uses. Pros and cons, give and take.
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My TV uses power when it's on standby.
this is one of FD's balancing tools, I agree it is frustrating though.
Edit: I'd like to see power profiles where I could set different power patterns on the fly.
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I agree with what you say, the mechanics don't make much sense. Surely the KWS only draws full power when you trigger it?
But then if you could have everything there wouldn't be much to learn! I've found with the Vulture loadout particularly that you can have pretty much what you want for very specific requirements but you just have to be right on top of the power management.
Don't be seduced by A rating thrusters on the Vulture - you just don't need them.
So in all, clever programming/balancing from FD.
But then if you could have everything there wouldn't be much to learn! I've found with the Vulture loadout particularly that you can have pretty much what you want for very specific requirements but you just have to be right on top of the power management.
Don't be seduced by A rating thrusters on the Vulture - you just don't need them.
So in all, clever programming/balancing from FD.
I'm kinda with you to an extent. I think there should be compromises to incentivize diverse loadouts (at least when weapons are added/balanced)
But I do think, at least for hardpoints, guns/utilities should only be powered when in the active firegroup. You can already do this manually but it's frustrating and micro intensive. I think it should just be automatic for that at least. That way your KWS/PA/Rails won't eat up your juice when not being used unless you need it which enables you to squeeze out even more power and loadout options.
Example, I occasionally slap 3 C3 PAs on my Python for big game hunting, but when I'm taking down small fry I switch to a firegroup that only has the center one but I'm still putting in power to the other 2 I'm not using. Power I could put towards other things like a better KWS or something.
Just my $0.02
But I do think, at least for hardpoints, guns/utilities should only be powered when in the active firegroup. You can already do this manually but it's frustrating and micro intensive. I think it should just be automatic for that at least. That way your KWS/PA/Rails won't eat up your juice when not being used unless you need it which enables you to squeeze out even more power and loadout options.
Example, I occasionally slap 3 C3 PAs on my Python for big game hunting, but when I'm taking down small fry I switch to a firegroup that only has the center one but I'm still putting in power to the other 2 I'm not using. Power I could put towards other things like a better KWS or something.
Just my $0.02
So what you're saying is, you want to PLAY with POWER.
Frontier should come up with a snappy name for that...
This. The compromise you need to make when choosing how to equip your ship brings a lot of complexity to the game.
Yeah that's the point. The point of having micro intensive things in videogames is to have a higher skill ceiling to the game. High skill ceiling games tend to have a better longevity.
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I too felt like I had no power in my first seven ships (including Clipper) until finally
[video=youtube;_BRv9wGf5pk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BRv9wGf5pk[/video]
in my Python with its ... 51 MILLION Credit 7A Power Plant!
Yes, that one component is more than the price of an entire well configured Clipper!
But hey, that's true to life. Power takes money!
But, to be honest, I can even run out of power in the Python or more likely over heat if I'm not careful. I have to burn through several Clippers to do it though.
[video=youtube;_BRv9wGf5pk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BRv9wGf5pk[/video]
in my Python with its ... 51 MILLION Credit 7A Power Plant!
Yes, that one component is more than the price of an entire well configured Clipper!
But hey, that's true to life. Power takes money!
But, to be honest, I can even run out of power in the Python or more likely over heat if I'm not careful. I have to burn through several Clippers to do it though.
B
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This is by design, this also prevents there from being any real "best" setup, there are different setups that can be great, all of them with great potential, sure there might be a specific setup per ship that generally might be 'best' but doing it this way limits it.
I think this is a good thing, and helps balance the game.
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I'm using a gamepad, as I'm sure many people will in the future, as well as the devs themselves. The less micro I have to do the better. It's annoying enough to switch a shield booster to a battery in the middle of a fight. There is no skill in this, just wasting time.
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You don't have to switch anything if you set priorities, unless you want to tank shield cells that is, but then that's the price you pay for the extra protection. There is a trade off to everything.
Creating unique loadouts and squeezing the very last drop of power out of my ships is one of my favourite parts of owning them. It should be applauded not criticised.
It would be nice to have something along the lines of fire groups where you could enable/disable groups of modules by pressing a single button. For example being able to disable the weapons and enable the KWS in a single button press would be much easier than scrolling through the modules list. (As you can tell I run my ship pretty close to the limit)
Its the one truly great bit of design in the load out mechanics. A lot of tinkering and personal preference to be done in many ships.
Have to say I am loving my recently acquired 7A PD in my python. So many options and can't settle on the weapons at the moment.
Have to say I am loving my recently acquired 7A PD in my python. So many options and can't settle on the weapons at the moment.
I don't agree with the OP on the whole idea of being able to have all A-class fits and not have to engage in power management.
That said, one thing that does bug me about the power management system is why hardpoints don't deploy based on your weapon groupings. That is, if I have my beams in one grouping, and my multicannons in another grouping, why both sets will draw power when only one set is being used at a time? If I've got them all open at once then sure, but if I'm not using them...
Where that idea falls apart is items like chaff/shield cells, which can have keys bound so they can activate without being bound to a fire group; a fix for that would be to add a setting as to whether they are "always online when weapons online" or "activate in groupings only".
Thinking about it, there's no reason that couldn't be an option for all modules in the power menu (with basic power management consisting of pulling your weapons into grouping only mode).
I get that you can manually switch power around, but I think about various sci-fi settings, and the only time manual power management seems to come into play is in non-optimal situations e.g you're under attack, and have taken damage to power systems. *That* makes sense to me, responding to situations outside your control.
Maybe damaging someones powerplant could affect their power output, rather than kill them. That'd kinda be crippling enough... that or introduce emp style weaponry.
That said, one thing that does bug me about the power management system is why hardpoints don't deploy based on your weapon groupings. That is, if I have my beams in one grouping, and my multicannons in another grouping, why both sets will draw power when only one set is being used at a time? If I've got them all open at once then sure, but if I'm not using them...
Where that idea falls apart is items like chaff/shield cells, which can have keys bound so they can activate without being bound to a fire group; a fix for that would be to add a setting as to whether they are "always online when weapons online" or "activate in groupings only".
Thinking about it, there's no reason that couldn't be an option for all modules in the power menu (with basic power management consisting of pulling your weapons into grouping only mode).
I get that you can manually switch power around, but I think about various sci-fi settings, and the only time manual power management seems to come into play is in non-optimal situations e.g you're under attack, and have taken damage to power systems. *That* makes sense to me, responding to situations outside your control.
Maybe damaging someones powerplant could affect their power output, rather than kill them. That'd kinda be crippling enough... that or introduce emp style weaponry.
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