#Discussion on power stations for IlV zero.

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

frosty rover
#

Hi everyone, although I stepped back a lot due to family obligations and having a break, I've still been watching and reading everything.

One thing I personally think is difficult about IlV zero is power stations and how they work.

As I understand it power stations have an area of effect, as in the power generated spreads power like wifi.

Some elements I think would be beneficial for discussion.

  • Is the power being used by one building first then spreading at a lower rate to others?

  • What is the purpose of leveling for greater power?

Hear me out on this one.

Within Alpha one of the main issues was the amount of power stations needed.

Leveling power stations was the answer.

So cool we can now level up the power station instead of adding more when our buildings need more Power.

I can't remember if power stations were tied to efficiency back then.
Yet now they do. However it's not clear how. What is actually changed by adding more power stations? An increase in signal? If so wouldn't leveling a power station to emit more power be increasing that signal too?

  • Is there another way?
    As mentioned by others, maybe a cable system is introduced or we use paths as the conduit. Introduce Signal/area of effect boosters? Power controls on your buildings?

  • When a converter is too close to another, what function or system is being affected?

  • Currently with the amount of power stations needed, how will space and efficiency be accounted for, if gyms and other buildings are introduced?
    Will players be forced to only focus on one thing? Or is the team thinking gyms are only for mega cities?

inner karma
#

As far as I've observed, power is drawn by one building until full, then proceeds to the next. You'd want to level up power plants because the higher the level of your productive buildings, the more power they draw.

It makes sense to me generally. Is it confusing because you think there shouldn't be so many power plants filling up the land plot when we could make leveling up a power plant have more significance than just to expand the total amount of power it can supply?

marble zenith
#

im hoping that needing many power plants is just a temporary placeholder until we have more buildings (utility)

patent thorn
#

i though we changed the name of "zero" to "power station or zero"

marble zenith
#

altho wireless power transfer is a real thing, increasing efficiency from multiple power plants is questionable since the load is constant.

frosty rover
frosty rover
frosty rover
#

@marble zenith can you tag the appropriate team member?
Or do you know if there is information coming in regards to Zero?

marble zenith
#

lets not try to rationalize a game

frosty rover
#

Lol I said wifi 😅

frosty rover
stone hollow
# frosty rover Hi everyone, although I stepped back a lot due to family obligations and having ...

Haven't checked it since a while, but as far as i know

  • The power a powerstation can deliver is evenly distributed between all power consuming buildings in the AOE of the powerstation.
  • The purpose of leveling up the powerstation is to deliver enough power to to power-consuming buildings. (on higher levels of the buildings, the powercunsuption is increased.)
  • Powerstations were always tied to efficiency.
  • To learn how the efficiency system works, i would recommend toggle on your efficency filter, then click a powerstation and move it close to a building and then away again. You will realize that the closer a powerstation is to a building the more efficiency said building gets from the powerstations. Repeat that process with for example a converter. As soon as you click the converter, you will see red numbers above other converters because they disturb each others production. The closer a converter is to another converter, the higher the decrease in efficiency. (converter of the same Element/fuel increase this effect.)

I also feel there needs to be another solution to the efficiency system so lateron one can produce diverse stuff or offer diverse services when the game offers many more "ways to earn" in future instead of focusing on 1-2 different products. Like having a power-grid you can level up and deliver the power with upgraded paths, so the paths are able to deliver the power. Where as the efficiency is gained from a techtree you have to "research", no +efficiency feature at all, just negative, getting more efficency out of a powerstation if you upgrade it or a "cosmetical" building, where every kind of building has its own cosmetical building just delivering efficiency for example converters. (like the powerbank does for mat labs) and you can increase the efficiency it provides with upgrading it, other than spaming the building all over the place. There are many possible ways to improve it i guess 🙂

frosty rover
drifting mural
#

Just want to note this previous thread I made on this topic.

https://discordapp.com/channels/760344898200666112/1269811431105236993

IMO the power station spam meta right now is one of the biggest weaknesses of zero. It just makes the strategy of designing your layout so lame.

Not to mention our lands all look like steaming piles of 💩

The team jumped into my thread above and agreed they need a rework. The easiest fix is to max out the number. But there are certainly more creative options that could be really fun and make it a very complicated decision how best to deploy power stations.

#

Read that thread and see what Perry and Nicholas on the team said about the topic.

#

My personal thoughts are that the two biggest fixes needed are:

  1. fixing the fact that power is distributed evenly to all buildings. Think there is a better way to do it. Not sure I'm sure the community/team could come up with something fun.

  2. power station level should impact the efficiency gained

You can avoid #2 if you totally rework the power station mechanic, but I think just doing #2 is much easier for the short term

drifting mural
#

#2 on its own doesn’t solve the problem I agree. I think you need to do both, but #1 is more important for sure.

drifting mural
#

I see that I'm actually missing that point in my list which is funny cause you're right that is clearly the biggest issue lol. I put it in the text above that the easiest solution is to limit the number, but yes 100% agree with you.

IMO better than limiting the number would be something where there is a penalty for powers stations being near each other, kind of like converters.

What about the idea that power stations near each other cause all other power stations in the area to give less power, and efficiency. (assuming they stay tied together). In this scenario it would be essential that increasing power station level boosts the efficiency amount, so you can still reach 150% efficiency, but you do this by getting a high level power station not by placing 50 level 1 stations