Quantum Reactors

[Suicide Junkie]

Actually, the solar collectors already provide more than you're suggesting there.

1 engine's fuel for 1 mp = 10 supplies.

Of course, 6 engines going 1 mp use 60 supplies,
and 6 engines going 6 mp use 360 supplies.

For P&N PBW, I've gone with making the quantum reactor a giant supply storage bay.
3x the supplies per KT compared to the best "standard" supply tank, but 3x the cost, and its BIG so it needs to be on a dedicated supplyship until you get the really big hulls.

[Gryphin]

SJ,
Correct which is how I use them in the Gryphn Mod.
I don't think Fyr on wants that strong of a power source. I sence he wants it to be more limited.
Perhaps he will contradict me.

[tbontob]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
QR's remove a major strategic element from the game for very little cost. That is the crux of the problem. 1 QR keeps a 5000 ship fleet supplied each turn. This is extremely unrealistic.

Yes, I agree.

Limiting the QR to the ship it is installed on is a solution. That would be analogous to the reactors on US Carriers.

Or, as has been suggested, limit its production of supplies to a set amount.

I too dislike the micromanagement in the middle and end game. And at first I thought it would increase it significantly. Uggggg!!!!

But putting a QR on each ship would actually reduce it a bit, since one would no longer have to produce supply ships (a ship with a QR) and make sure there is a supply ship with each fleet.

[Suicide Junkie]

But even so, the reactors on those carriers don't produce food, ammo, and other consumables required by the ship, just electrical power.

Personally, I'd separate that power requirement out into a rads maintenance cost, and leave supplies to be the physical resources needed

[Slick]

The reactors also provide heat to make drinking water and provide for propulsion. But isn't the idea similar to the "replicator" on Star Trek? i.e. you can make most "supplies" if you have enough energy to convert?

Slick.

[dogscoff]

Perhaps he will contradict me.

Who? Fyron? Contradict someone? Surely not...

[Hotfoot]

Also, as far as propulsion is concerned, you need some sort of reaction mass to push the ships forward, unless you're using some sort of photonic or gravitic drive.

I happen to think that the Solar Panels are terribly misnamed. You can't generate fuel just by having photoelectric cells gathering energy. If anything, they most represent hydrogen ramscoops, which still would allow them to function as described in the game. However, they should be even more efficient when passing through nebulae, since hydrogen is abundantly available in such systems.

Maybe nebulae systems should hide 10 stars or so to help represent that, so that when you destroy a nebula, you have a bunch of protostars that were condensing (which you just helped along).