Timer power switch

[b0rsuk]

Solar panels are not the perfect solution, but people use it to power sunlamps. It's a stupidly simple solution.

I'm not so much against timer switches, mostly thinking if it's really the most elegant solution. A naive use of timer switches would be 15 steel per work table or lamp to turn it off at night.

Can you come up with an example where you need to turn something on/off on arbitrary hour rather than just at night ? I tried switching my colony to work at nights during a heatwave in rainforest, but it didn't really work. All animals sleep at night so you can't tame them. Prisoners sleep at night, period.

As for energy savings, after playing Rimworld for a few months I've finally discovered the beauty of switches. Now I'm running a 9 person colony at 2 solar panels and 3 batteries. Freezer needs two coolers, occasionally I need to turn turrets on, other than that I sometimes use the crematorium or machining table. It's rainforest, 25*C in January, but your colonists can sleep in heat with no consequences.

It's a bit sad, but light in this game is pretty much decorative. I need to remind myself to light my rooms, because game mechanics don't make light desirable. It's the same with joy - game mechanics don't make you build a joy room, or do anything else about joy. You're going to build colonist rooms and an eating table anyway, then you place a 15 resource horseshoe pin somewhere, and you're completely done with joy.

[Toggle]

The point is to turn on/off things automatically like other switches but so you don't have to bother. Also, if you changed your colonists sleep sched.

[Nebbie]

Solar panels are not the perfect solution, but people use it to power sunlamps. It's a stupidly simple solution.

I'm not so much against timer switches, mostly thinking if it's really the most elegant solution. A naive use of timer switches would be 15 steel per work table or lamp to turn it off at night.

Can you come up with an example where you need to turn something on/off on arbitrary hour rather than just at night ? I tried switching my colony to work at nights during a heatwave in rainforest, but it didn't really work. All animals sleep at night so you can't tame them. Prisoners sleep at night, period.

As for energy savings, after playing Rimworld for a few months I've finally discovered the beauty of switches. Now I'm running a 9 person colony at 2 solar panels and 3 batteries. Freezer needs two coolers, occasionally I need to turn turrets on, other than that I sometimes use the crematorium or machining table. It's rainforest, 25*C in January, but your colonists can sleep in heat with no consequences.

It's a bit sad, but light in this game is pretty much decorative. I need to remind myself to light my rooms, because game mechanics don't make light desirable. It's the same with joy - game mechanics don't make you build a joy room, or do anything else about joy. You're going to build colonist rooms and an eating table anyway, then you place a 15 resource horseshoe pin somewhere, and you're completely done with joy.

The problem is all the wasted surplus from the solar panels; if you connect things to the main power grid, the light will be on at night wasting energy, but if you don't, the solar panels will end up producing more than it needs, wasting energy. Stupidly simple, but also horribly inefficient and impractical to use for colonist bedrooms.
Switches are alright, but they really just add unnecessary micro-management.

"In darkness" is still a mood penalty...just not a very noticible one anymore.

There is actually a point to rec rooms: colonists gain comfortable mood bonuses just from being in the same tile as comfortable furniture, which means that if you place your chairs right, colonists will lounge in them while playing horseshoes or chess or watching TV. Unfortunately, this makes pool tables rather useless since you'd need to completely surround them with furniture and they take up too much space and resources for what they do already.

[Toggle]

I actually just use the community core library's vanilla tweaks, hella less problem with energy as it makes it so if the thing isn't in use, it doesn't use energy. Like the cooking table, if it isn't in use, 0 energy used. I'm pretty sure before I had triple the solar panels I have now and more geothermal generators, and now I need like 1 battery and barely any energy to be produced.

[akiceabear]

I second the CCL tweaks as great! Including on idle power demand.

[Toggle]

For sure needs to be added to core game.

[Simon_The_Space_Engineer]

I agree

[Toggle]

And just... It completely changes gameplay. I have 3 solar panels and 1 geothermal generator, 8 batteries, and before for colonies the size I'd have to basically triple that energy gain to keep it alive, and I often still had problems. I could probably remove a solar panel, even two, and run my colony just fine with 1 geo and solar panel. Currently I can run my colony with 1/8th of a single battery at night if I wanted to, and that's because nothing is on!

[akiceabear]

I agree that it changes gameplay for the better. I also like how CCL puts Xerigium behind a research wall - getting it so early in the game in massive quantities seemed silly to me before. Although I am a Superior Crafting devotee, so generally like limited access to tech at the start.

[Nebbie]

It is really silly that stuff like the tailor's workbench uses power when idle - can't the colonists just unplug the damn sewing machine when they stop using it?
I do think that the cook stove and electric smelter should still use power when idle, but to keep warmed up (can't cook with a cold stove you've just turned on); unfortunately, currently both are just like every other power-using bench in that they just magically hit the right temperature the moment they're turned on.

Xerigium is great because, otherwise, you have to rely on stupidly pricey traders...losing that much silver early on just to keep colonists from dying of infections would really screw the current balance.
There's also a good chance your crops won't make it to harvest and they take a while to grow. I think it's fine.

[Toggle]

I do think that the cook stove and electric smelter should still use power when idle, but to keep warmed up (can't cook with a cold stove you've just turned on); unfortunately, currently both are just like every other power-using bench in that they just magically hit the right temperature the moment they're turned on.

Well, considering rimworlds time compared to ours, it probably does heat up instantly to us, and they won't be cooking the meal the entire time, but just making it too.