Suggestion for different power grids

[Eviscerae]

My apologies if this was suggested before or is covered in a different topic.  A cursory search through the suggestions thread didn't yield anything.

First, the background:
As i worked my way through several games last night, I noticed that once I got established and got things fairly under control, that power became a concern for me.  Not that I didn't have enough, but that the rainy planet I was on wasn't providing enough solar energy to charge the bank of batteries i had nestled in the mountain-side , away from all the rain (Brilliant idea to have them blow up when exposed to things like lightning, btw).

Anyway, my batteries wouldn't charge fully and I found that if i destroyed walls such that certain portions of the "Grid" were cut off from others, that things ran more efficiently.

This brings me to my suggestion.

I'd like to see a way of separating power grids for a colony.  Maybe taking the solar panels and batteries you have set up and putting them on one grid so the drain isn't as heavy on the batteries while another grid ran off the geothermic generator.

I think a very simple solution to this would be to provide "non-conductive" walls, or walls with no wires in them that completed a room, but didn't have wires in them such that a grid could remain isolated.

A deeper dive could go so far as to have different color-coded or otherwise represented grids so you can limit the amount of draw you have on given sources, the ability to direct power to only batteries while running on other forms of power so you have a reliable backup, and putting in AI that would (as my father would say) "TURN OFF THE DAMN LIGHTS!". 

I think the power grid is a wonderful meta-game with the colony and fleshing it out would go a long way to adding even more depth to this wonderful game.

[GC13]

How do things run more efficiently when some power can only be used by certain items, which in turn cannot draw power from a second power source if their grid gets unloaded? The only reason your batteries would have charged more quickly is because there was less that they are allowed to feed into. You can get the same effect by turning off unnecessary machines.

Anyway, clearly you're able to separate the grids already, as you said that you did. Maybe you're asking for a way to share limited amounts of power between them? Grid A can donate up to X amount of its power across this connection so long as its stuff is already fully powered?

[Eviscerae]

thanks for the reply.

I wasn't aware that certain items can only draw from certain power sources.  But even with this being the case, I think there's still room for thought about adding an ability to direct some of the power, or at least have a bit more control over it.

I'd like to drive several banks of batteries with a farm of solar panels and be able to dole out the energy of each bank to certain places.  With the geothermal generator providing power to, say, living quarters, it would be nice to simply put other areas on grids maintained by banks of batteries, or other power sources.

Granted, I could simply just disconnect them.  I concede that.  My problem may be that the DF player in me starts carving into the mountain almost immediately, striving to make efficient areas of interconnected tunnels and passages. This often leads to sprawl that can't be supported by the power I'm generating.

Maybe prioritize the power distribution in this case.  Living quarters are most important, and should have highest priority along with prisons, hospitals, etc.

Then you get into transfer.  If grid A is under heavy load, you can shift some of the draw to grid B that has extra power.

This was basically what I was trying to do.  Charge up a ton of batteries with a Solar Panel farm and lessen the load on other power sources.  It didn't work out that well, though.


The American power grid structure is extremely complex and very hard to manipulate.  I'm not looking to complicate things in this manner.  I'm suggesting that with different power sources, comes different means of storage and ways of transfering power during times when portions of the grid are under heavy load.

I think it would make for a great addition to the game, personally.

[GC13]

I wasn't aware that certain items can only draw from certain power sources.  But even with this being the case, I think there's still room for thought about adding an ability to direct some of the power, or at least have a bit more control over it.

I haven't tried it, but I assumed that you had got it working that way. If that's not why your situation improved, it might be a bug regarding power transmission.

[Eviscerae]

I was assuming that since there was an almost constant rain, that my solar panels were unable to keep up with the drain, but that just leads to topics of more alternative energy sources like wind power, fossil fuels, etc.

I have the game saved.  I'll have to load it up when I get home and play with it some more.