Nuclear Power: Why Bother?
MaxAstro
Join Date: 2005-07-07 Member: 55451Members
Join Date: 2005-07-07 Member: 55451Members
Okay, for starters I understand that in some cases it's the only option - like you are so far away from a thermal vent that you can't possibly string together enough power transmitters even though gold is ironically the one of the most common resources in the game.
However: It's hugely inconvenient, requires constant maintenance/farming of a rare resource, and - this is the big one - doesn't even produce that much power comparatively. Actually, no, the constant maintenance is the big one. Ironically from its description, the only time nuclear power feels worth it is if you have a base with an unusually low power yield, such that it will functionally never burn through the yield of a set of four rods. In any other situation, renewable power is a better choice.
Also, I don't feel like there are many places in the world that you would WANT a base where neither solar nor thermal is an option. The blood kelp? Maybe? Is there enough stuff there to be worth making a permanent base?
tl;dr: Does anyone ever use nuclear as their main source of power?
However: It's hugely inconvenient, requires constant maintenance/farming of a rare resource, and - this is the big one - doesn't even produce that much power comparatively. Actually, no, the constant maintenance is the big one. Ironically from its description, the only time nuclear power feels worth it is if you have a base with an unusually low power yield, such that it will functionally never burn through the yield of a set of four rods. In any other situation, renewable power is a better choice.
Also, I don't feel like there are many places in the world that you would WANT a base where neither solar nor thermal is an option. The blood kelp? Maybe? Is there enough stuff there to be worth making a permanent base?
tl;dr: Does anyone ever use nuclear as their main source of power?
Comments
But you are right, 100% - keeping a nuclear reactor fed and operating is a serious time-sink. Even so...it is kinda cool...
(PS: Nice quote in your sigblock, mate.)
Energy in Subnautica
Nuclear reactors aren't mentioned (I haven't used them much myself), but there is definitely some wonky physics with the energy usage in this game.
Would be nice if you could see that somewhere or even determine which order what gets used. More good arguments for a Seabase Control Room.
Yeah, I built my base next to the QEP and built the solar panels on the back end above the moonpool.
As I mentioned in various other threads before, I still think the nuclear reactor should not remain our "top tier" option. I still hope for a self-sustaining fusion reactor or something SciFi-ish like Antimatter/Darkmatter reactors or so...as our end game power source. Something that puts out and stores enough power to keep a big base running AND recharge a Cyclops once docking gets implemented. That would be awesome.
But you can't use bulkhead doors then and underwater it feels weird not to have them
Ive powered it on... never.
There are simply so many other power options, I havent found a need for one yet.
Easiest logical fix would be to come up with a building we need with absolutely devastating power needs & boosting the reactors power creation by a large factor also.
I don't really understand what you mean...
After v1.0 when they implement reverse-engineered portals?
LOL, he's right you know. I once spitballed the math to figure out how much electricity it would take to create the mass of a typical ham sandwich (cheese, lettuce, tomato, mustard, on a paper plate, no napkin) - by direct matter-to-energy magical conversion, at 100% efficiency, of course. It ended up being several years' worth of 1990's-era Earth's total electricity consumption...
On top of that, despite being called a reactor, the in-game device functions a lot more like a nuclear battery - a mass of decaying nuclear material that gives off light and heat that is directly converted into electricity. If it were a real reactor you'd need at least one turbine somewhere to actually generate the electricity.
As power is drawn randomly parallel instead drawing from recharging ones first, or at least if the drain exceeds the recharging rate, the nuclear plants massively loose rods and in future with reworked power loose even more.
The rods just don't have enough power to make it feel comfortable, even if you have a bunch of scanner stations near massive uranite wells to refill them in time. And the nuclear plant also looses as a quick startup reactor against the bioreactor.
It would be different if the devs decided that only the Precursors have the thermal plant tech inside their TPG and you need to get to this late game point to be able to get the best reactors. And thus the nuclear reactors could be a mid game option.
Another possibility would be to increase the nuclear reactor power massively, but compensate this overpowered solution with instability and blowing up your bases if you don't repair them in time if an incident happens.
Or the possiblity to upgrade nuclear rods to ion rods once you get the tech.
I'm pretty sure the renewables are tapped first for the base power needs. I built a main seabase in the shallows not too long ago with a TON of solar panels and a bioreactor. The bioreactor was hardly using fuel at all, despite the base having four water purifiers and a pair of moonpools. So far as I could tell, during the day the power was coming almost exclusively from the solar panels. Only at night was the bioreactor contributing to keep the charge at 100%.
I'm not certain, mind...just pretty sure.
So you could build several Thermal plants for example and one or two nuclear reactors and slowly fill up the big energy pool you have created. Once you reach say 25% (A value we should be able to choose) of the pool the Bio-/Nuclearreactors kick in and add their production to the total energy per second income until you fill up beyond the set percentage again. Would work nicely, reduce the reactor maintenance to a minimum as long as you have enough renewable energy income to have a positive energy income per second. Spikes would be covered by the fueled reactors if you recharge your Cyclops for example but would not drain as long as you keep your pool above the set percentage.
Considering bio reactor produces 1 energy every 12 seconds. Good luck with that. You would need about 30 to power 1 alien containment tank. God forbid you turn on that coffee machine.
I only use a big powered base for energy hungry things and otherwise use smaller bases for minor stuff like scanning outposts. For small outposts the bio reactor is ideal. A moonpool recharching outpost would either run with solar panels or bioreactors. The big bases are best with thermal plants. Never said that I'd use the bioreactor for energy hungry tasks. And you don't need the energy hungry tasks in the small bases. Unless of course the devs increase the power consumption of things like the scanner room or moonpool.
But I forgot one good thing about the nuclear reactor: It would be safe from external damage through creature attacks. But creature attacks aren't implemented. Just imagine what happens if attacking creatures destroy your thermal plants or the power lines to your base ...