Architect Archive

This is something I wrote up to send to customers new to the resource game. Thought I'd post it here since it gets asked about from time to time. Comments are welcome.

* A Brief Discussion Of Power *

Harvesters must have money and power in order to function. Money is simple Power can be a bit confusing at first.A personal harvester uses 600 power per day, a medium harvester uses 1200, and a heavy uses 1800. Three types of power can be used by harvesters. They are Wind, Solar and Radioactive. These power types are harvested using Wind Generators, Solar Generators, and Fusion Generators respectively.To find power, use a Wind Survey Tool, Solar Survey Tool, or Mineral Survey Tool. These types of power can be used interchangably, and even used in the same harvester at the same time, but there are differences which I'll explain here.

Solar and Wind power are generally 500 Potential Energy (PE) or lower. 500 or less PE means that when you put 1 unit of that resource in a harvester, it provides 1 unit of power. Therefore, 600 units of 500 PE Solar power would keep a personal harvester running for 1 day. Radioactive can have anywhere from a 500 to a 1000 PE rating. A rating of 1000 PE means that for every unit of that resource put into a harvesterit will count as 2 units of power. This means that on that same personal harvester, it would only require 300 units of 1000 PE radioactive to power it for a day. Anything in between those PE ratings counts as a partial unit. The forumla to figure out how much actual power a given stack of power resources has isPower = (PE / 500) * Units.

The other difference is in concentrations and Base Extraction Rates (BER) of the power when extracted. The most obvious of thesetwo differences is BER. The BER rating specifies how many units per minute a power harvester will gather, given a 100% concentration. A BER 10 harvester will gather 10 units per minute on a 100% concentration, or 4 units per minute on a 40% concentration. Wind harvesters currently have a top rating of BER 9, Solar maxes out at 8, and Fusion Generators have a max of 14. In addition to far superior BER, radioactive resources can be found in greater concentrations than the other two types of power. While Solar and Wind concentrations are considered high at 60%. Radioactives can routinely be found at concentrations of 80% or more. One caveat, while there is almost always a wind or solar resource available, Radioactive may disappear for periods of time. Also, Solar and Wind are generally more abundant in large areas, while radioactive power may be concentrated in smaller geographical areas and may take more work to locate.

When taking into consideration the higher BER, the higher concentrations, and the the higher PE, Fusion is by far the preferred choice. The only time I recommend Wind is for static energy farms. For a large group of harvesters that never moves, Wind harvesters will more often have resources available to them. I currently do not recommend Solar due to a higher maintenance cost than Wind while having a lower BER and roughly the same PE and concentration.

Good guide. One for the FAQ ?

Great writeup - very clear.

Some comments:
1. I thought that all generators required the same amount of credits per day to operate? You say "I currently do not recommend Solar due to a higher maintenance cost than Wind while having a lower BER and roughly the same PE and concentration." I agree with the recommendation but I think that the only difference is the capital investment, not the operating costs.

2. Besides the facts, you are also offering a bit of advice. That's a great idea, but you might want to separate them out a bit. That is, have the first part be strictly "the facts". Then have a section saying "given those facts, here is some advice on choosing them."

3. Since you are giving them advice, you might mention the economic tradeoff involved in generating your own energy vs buying energy from a power company. Since you have finite lots, every generator you place means one less harvester pumping up resources for you. Depending on the cost of power on your server, and the sale price of the resource that you are gathering, it *might* be more economical to buy your power and put out an extra harvester instead.

Message Edited by ZenDragonMLS on 03-10-2004 09:05 AM

Thanks ZenDragon, I'll put together a second draft.

I had thought about a short bit on purchasing power, because that's what I do myself. I'd rather buy power, because while power is power is power,it's harder and more costly to buy the exact resources I want. My lots are better used to gather exactly to my specifications. The only reason I didn't was because of the differences from one server to another. The cost of harvesting power is the same everyone but the cost and availability of purchaseable power is different everywhere.