Pilot Archive
Thread: Word of advice, always use a tiny reactor + RO4.
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Atreus47
Fri Mar 11, 2005 11:36 am
#1
I've been a pilot since beta. I've mastered Rebel, Privateer, and now I'm working on Imperial. I've seen a lot of threads where people discuss load outs and I'm suprised that not everyone has caught onto this. One of the most useful droid commands in JTL is Reactoer Overload. If you're not a Privateer, don't worry just ask a Privateer to create a chip for you.
Basically, Reactor Overload adds to the output of your reactor. With RO4, a 10,000 energy reactor will become a 14,000 reactor (40% increase). So when you plan your load outs, go with a small reactor. Don't worry if ( energy used > reactor output ). As soon as you get into space, run RO and everything will power on and be enabled.
Even while flying a Krayt Gunship or B-Wing, the biggest reactor I ever had to use was a high quality Mark III Overcharged Reactor. The mass I saved by using a Mark III/OC reactor instead of a Mark V was enough to put better componets in my ship and I still had enough power to run everything once I got into space and turned on RO. For my A-Wing, I used a tiny custom made Mark I Reactor with a Limiter.
Now for a note on decay. RO will slightly damage your reactor when you use it. The good news is, damage done by RO 1-3 is 100% repairable with no decay. RO 4 isn't however. Still, Mark I-III reactors are cheap and the decay is only 10 per RO level.
In short, use a smll reactor, RO3/4, and plan your load outs to require 30 or 40% more power then your reactor can put out. You'll be able to have a much better set up.
Basically, Reactor Overload adds to the output of your reactor. With RO4, a 10,000 energy reactor will become a 14,000 reactor (40% increase). So when you plan your load outs, go with a small reactor. Don't worry if ( energy used > reactor output ). As soon as you get into space, run RO and everything will power on and be enabled.
Even while flying a Krayt Gunship or B-Wing, the biggest reactor I ever had to use was a high quality Mark III Overcharged Reactor. The mass I saved by using a Mark III/OC reactor instead of a Mark V was enough to put better componets in my ship and I still had enough power to run everything once I got into space and turned on RO. For my A-Wing, I used a tiny custom made Mark I Reactor with a Limiter.
Now for a note on decay. RO will slightly damage your reactor when you use it. The good news is, damage done by RO 1-3 is 100% repairable with no decay. RO 4 isn't however. Still, Mark I-III reactors are cheap and the decay is only 10 per RO level.
In short, use a smll reactor, RO3/4, and plan your load outs to require 30 or 40% more power then your reactor can put out. You'll be able to have a much better set up.
Narrganocca
Fri Mar 11, 2005 12:16 pm
#2
this goes well with what someone (Vegitaa?) said about ship loadouts..."fit your reactor to your loadout, not your loadout to your reactor"
I would have to agree with every point you made in your post. Since low level reactors are still capable of output better than 10k, for around 1.5k mass, it is silly not to use a low level with RO 3/4. It really lets you get the most out of your mass in light fighters like the Awing, Interceptor, and Khiraakx
Alyxian
Fri Mar 11, 2005 3:23 pm
#3
MonsofoLexius wrote:
With the new hight grade poly radio spawn on Scylla I am hitting 10K generation at under 800 mass
Hmm, looks like being coro has resource spawn perks 
/tease
Seriously, that is an impressive reactor
Message Edited by Alyxian on 03-11-2005 02:24 PM
trifidac
Fri Mar 11, 2005 3:49 pm
#4
I went another route to accomplish the same thing. After a couple weeks of flying, I got enough parts to RE a reactor with 15k power and only 3800 mass. The best looted components tend to be the ones where the component level and the RE level don't match at all. When you can combine level 7 stats with lvl 2 mass and power drain, you have a keeper.
1st_Viduus
Fri Mar 11, 2005 5:30 pm
#5
Just an aside -- you may need up to 2k more power than you use, not as you suggested and "don't worry if you use more power".
Depending what Droid Programs you are running, 1200-2000 extra power is required in order to have everything run with no disables.
I run:
RO4
WO3
EO4
WCO4
Without that 2k extra power, EO4 will cause 2 or 3 items to become disabled.
S-1-l2-H-C
Fri Mar 11, 2005 8:27 pm
#6
i dont think the 40% increase for ro4 is acurate, since im still able to use engine overload 4 on my light fighters with a tiny lvl1 reactor.
my advanced for example has a 12000 output reactor, a 1300 drain engine, and about 8000 drain in other parts. with eo4, my engine chews 13000 power, bringing total needed to 21k. using ro4, im able to get somewhere north of 21k output with that 12k reactor, so i think its closer to double the output from ro4.
mabee one of these day ill test some lower power reactors and see where the breaking point is to derive the real ro4 multiplier.
EDIT: also, for master pilots decay is a non-issue since you can visit deep space for decayless repairs. the only real problem is that a lvl1 reactor only has enough armor to run ro4 2-3 times before you have to get it repaired. i made it a habit to hit deep space every time i launch right before i land.
my advanced for example has a 12000 output reactor, a 1300 drain engine, and about 8000 drain in other parts. with eo4, my engine chews 13000 power, bringing total needed to 21k. using ro4, im able to get somewhere north of 21k output with that 12k reactor, so i think its closer to double the output from ro4.
mabee one of these day ill test some lower power reactors and see where the breaking point is to derive the real ro4 multiplier.
EDIT: also, for master pilots decay is a non-issue since you can visit deep space for decayless repairs. the only real problem is that a lvl1 reactor only has enough armor to run ro4 2-3 times before you have to get it repaired. i made it a habit to hit deep space every time i launch right before i land.
Message Edited by S-1-l2-H-C on 03-11-2005 07:30 PM
newwb
Sat Mar 12, 2005 1:04 am
#7
the one thing to worry about here is you need to have enough power to power the DI, because if you dont have enough energy, thats one of the first systems to go offline
Loki_Ashaman
Sat Mar 12, 2005 1:59 am
#8
I had a pilot come to me for a custom reactor earlier this week. He wanted a 20K mass (or lighter) with 18K generation. He was a privateer, but just to be safe I had to ask if he was using RO at all, and he said he uses RO4!! Best I could make was 16.8K generation with my most uber resources, he was happy to have it willing to pay good. I'd love to see what he had loaded into his Krayt to need that much power, maybe he was using WO4 too.
MonsofoLexius
Sat Mar 12, 2005 1:59 am
#9
Narrganocca wrote:
this goes well with what someone (Vegitaa?) said about ship loadouts..."fit your reactor to your loadout, not your loadout to your reactor"
I would have to agree with every point you made in your post. Since low level reactors are still capable of output better than 10k, for around 1.5k mass, it is silly not to use a low level with RO 3/4. It really lets you get the most out of your mass in light fighters like the Awing, Interceptor, and Khiraakx
With the new hight grade poly radio spawn on Scylla I am hitting 10K generation at under 800 mass
trifidac
Sun Mar 13, 2005 3:23 pm
#10
Does that work for all pilots, or are rebel pilots the only ones who can repair things in space?
EDIT: also, for master pilots decay is a non-issue since you can visit deep space for decayless repairs. the only real problem is that a lvl1 reactor only has enough armor to run ro4 2-3 times before you have to get it repaired. i made it a habit to hit deep space every time i launch right before i land.
Message Edited by S-1-l2-H-C on 03-11-2005 07:30 PM
Zanholo
Sun Mar 13, 2005 6:03 pm
#11
Everyone gets full, free and decayless repairs when leaving deep space. Sadly, since I don't want to redeed my ship all the time to cure perma overt faction bugs, my CorSec pilot can't really take advantage of that, so I only run overload 3's.
I looted a lvl 8 reactor last night with 25k mass and a measily 9k power gen.....a friend suggested I /bug it and tell them the stats need to be switched.
Envoy3113
Sun Mar 13, 2005 6:50 pm
#12
1st_Viduus wrote:
Just an aside -- you may need up to 2k more power than you use, not as you suggested and "don't worry if you use more power".
Depending what Droid Programs you are running, 1200-2000 extra power is required in order to have everything run with no disables.
I run:
RO4
WO3
EO4
WCO4
Without that 2k extra power, EO4 will cause 2 or 3 items to become disabled.
Check the energy use on your engine, I had the same problems and went to an engine that used about 800 less energy, EO4 really cranks up your engines power usage, so lower usage the better when using EO4.
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