Energy sources in Asteroids dimension

[stark]

Greetings to you.

Can you tell me what energy source is designed to be used by players in the Asteroids dimension? Solar panels are unable to catch the Sun. Coal generator works only on coal (not even charcoal) which is not naturally present here. Battery is only enouph to fill you rocket with fuel for travelling back.

Without energy none of galacticraft machinery can be used and only short-duration missions possible.

Thanks.

 

[radfast]

Hmm good points. The Astro Miner needs a source of power. For the future, some form of nuclear battery is needed, and meanwile we should also make it so that the solars make more than zero power. Other players have also suggested this.

 

[stark]

Thanks again. As I undestood the answer is "power sources unavailable now in the Asteroids dimension". Ok. It would be nice if you add any.

It is realistic proposition to make solar panels produce some energy. NASA have sent Juno spacecraft powered by solars even as far as Jupiter . But... we had solars on the Moon, on Mars, on Space Station...
I'd like to suggest a 'cheap' fix - make Coal Generator accept charcoal. We have trees here. It would be interesting to grow wood to produce some energy, especially because in other places solars are unrivalled.

It is not very realistic to burn coal on the outskirts of the solar system, but if other means fails

 

[radfast]

It is not very realistic to burn coal where there is no oxygen (but we deliberately did not disable that, because it would make the game too hard ... hmm, maybe an idea for Hard Mode).

For now, I think you should set up a solar panel power plant in orbit or on the Moon, and have a system of cargo rockets + launch controllers to bring charged batteries to the Asteroids dimension. Launch controllers act as chunk loaders, so keep the solar panels + wires in the same chunk as the Launch Controller and you should be golden.

I don't like the idea of players only having one option to do something. In the short term, we will be looking at:

1. charcoal in Coal Generators - I though that was already accepted, as charcoal is just a different form of coal in vanilla Minecraft (look at the item IDs, its the same) - if not, then it's an oversight

2. adding a higher capacity "Tier 2" battery or other energy storage system which Cargo Rockets can carry

3. adding back some generating power for Solar Panels in the Asteroids dimension, indeed in all dimensions based on existing in-game data which gives the distance from the sun - solar panels in the Asteroids should actually be a good source of power because, like the Overworld orbit, they have constant sunlight and no weather or atmosphere to get in the way.

In the longer term, we will look at:

4. some form of nuclear power generator in a block, likely to be long life + low power (but a rich player can have lots of these blocks)

5. a special "space" version of solar panels, also for use on space stations - probably not until Galacticraft 4.

6. possibly, an inter-dimensional power beaming system, but definitely not until Galacticraft 4

It is not likely that we will ever have, in Galacticraft, systems for complex nuclear reactors, or for burning biofuels. There are other mods for that. And like I already said, burning chemical fuel of any kind is not a good idea in a space environment where oxygen comes from tanks or has to be made. Maybe in Galacticraft 5/6/7 whatever we will have things like antimatter or power generated from black holes etc, but don't expect anything like that any time soon, the science of Galacticraft is not so advanced.

 

[stark]

In depth answer. Very much appreciated. Thanks a lot.

Never tried cargo rockets, so may be it's time to give them a chance.

I absolutely agree that to make things in a best way there should be more than one option to do the same thing.

but we deliberately did not disable that, because it would make the game too hard ... hmm, maybe an idea for Hard Mode

Actually always relied on Electric Furnance and Electric Compressor for missions on the Moon and Mars. So ready for Hard Mode But in that occassion when solars failed tried Coal Generator as a last resort.

1. charcoal in Coal Generators - I though that was already accepted, as charcoal is just a different form of coal in vanilla Minecraft (look at the item IDs, its the same) - if not, then it's an oversight

3.0.11 r306 Yes, just checked this - Coal Generator accepts only coal, while Compressor works on a variety of fuels, even on buckets of lava.

but don't expect anything like that any time soon

At the moment I'll be happy to have Coal Generator that works by burning charcoal

 

[Ezer'Arch]

For the future, some form of nuclear battery is needed, and meanwile we should also make it so that the solars make more than zero power. Other players have also suggested this.

Yes please: http://forum.micdoodle8.com/index.php?threads/turning-solar-energy-boost-to-sunlight-intensity.4540/

I think the asteroids dim is "too inner" in the solar system to have near zero sunlight intensity. I know all stuff about the inverse square law, but I suppose the players would expect some sunlight in the asteroids dim before heading to the other planets farther in the solar system.

 

[Codym2405]

The inverse square law dosent state that you get zero energy on the Asteroids, just a lot less. And a space solar panel would be a really good idea, my space station looks retarded with the current panels. I just used Ic2's RTG fuel to power my astroid base, but I do think we need a form of power for people who just want Galacticraft.

 

[Ezer'Arch]

The inverse square law dosent state that you get zero energy on the Asteroids, just a lot less.

This is what I meant by "I think the asteroids dim is 'too inner' in the solar system to have near zero sunlight intensity" followed by "I know all stuff about the inverse square law" as if I was implying I was aware Asteroids may have too little sunlight due to that law, however the game should focus on players' expectations, despite that law of physics.

 

[Codym2405]

This is what I meant by "I think the asteroids dim is 'too inner' in the solar system to have near zero sunlight intensity" followed by "I know all stuff about the inverse square law" as if I was implying I was aware Asteroids may have too little sunlight due to that law, however the game should focus on players' expectations, despite that law of physics.

Sorry, I thought you said that there shouldn't be any energy in the asteroid dimension

 

[radfast]

Galacticraft 3.0.12 has solar panels working in the Asteroids dimension. Here's how they work precisely:

* The sunlight intensity is lower - it's around 38% of what it is at the Overworld because the Asteroids is 61% further away and I used an inverse square law here*
* The "Space Station Solar Energy Multiplier" from the config (default 2.0) is applied, because in the Asteroids, like on a Space Station, there is no atmosphere to reduce the effectiveness of solar panels, so no dust in the air, no clouds, no scattering
* The panels work all the time on the Asteroids because there is no time when the sun is concealed. In contrast: on the Moon panels do not work in the lunar night, on Space Stations the sun will be behind the Overworld around 15% of the time

* The celestial body positions in Galacticraft do not exactly follow the real Solar System or the Titius Bode law: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titius–Bode_law