Multi-block form of solar panels?

abculatter_2 · Jun 18th 2015

So, with the introduction of the kinetic windmill, and the in-progress addition of the kinetic watermill, it feels like solar panels should also get a similar overhaul to remain useful. Are there any plans for this? If not, I would suggest adding a solar boiler tower, which produces HU and is scale-able. (And preferably also without laggy tile entity spam)

EDIT: Thinking about this a bit, I figured I'd post some more specifics for my own ideas of the above. I know none of this is probably particularly new or creative but this kinda thing doesn't really need to be innovative anyway, so;

The tower would be based on two separate blocks, solar mirrors (which would just be dumb blocks that don't do anything by themselves) and solar towers, which do the calculations. Tower blocks are intended to be stacked on top of eachother, and the height of the tower determines how many blocks away the tower will search for mirrors, with every additional tower block increasing the radius by one. Additionally, these towers can be set to either output up or down, with every tower block in the tower having to face the same direction in order for it to work. This, of course, determines if the tower outputs HU from the top or the bottom.
Every mirror found by the tower increases the amount of HU produced by the tower during the day by two to four, depending on which the IC2 team deems more balanced, with a possible buff in output if the tower/mirror is in a desert biome. There could also be a gradual warm-up and cool-down period at the beginning and end of the day. It should, of course, also do occasional checks on each mirror block, to determine whether that mirror is blocked by an opaque block or not, and invalidate that mirror if it is.

mementh · Jun 18th 2015

good idea.. but make it use molten salt or such.. which i understand is used in real life. this could be stored in tanks for all night power access if someone wanted?

pump up to top heat and pump down to cool...

use sterling generators or a steam turbine setup to make power

this should be a middle to late tier product... IE it requires something special to go above 3-4 high ? and over 10 requires irridium for supports?

Chocohead · Jun 18th 2015

Why not turn it into a giant mutli-block heater, so you warm a steam generator using the tower, then can choose to use a stirling generator, steam setup or biogas to get power out of it and with it being scaleable, you could get buckets a tick of steam, rather than the current limit of 400mb/t.

Natesky9 · Jul 22nd 2015

I feel this would fit right in with the new implementations of the new power generation. However, much like the new wind mills and the soon-to-be water mills, the prior counterpart would probably vanish, which would be a shame.

On that note, I feel that hu/t should have a slight advantage, much like reactors benefit from heat mode vs eu mode. I was kinda disappointed to see that the generator (stirling and eu) did the same exact thing, with the exception of the heat generator producing ashes.

I think that hu/t machines should be the higher tier, much like kinetic generators and steam are. It makes them fit into late game better by being more expensive, complex, but also more rewarding.

Point is, this is a very interesting concept, and I like it. Coolant can even be used for this purpose. I mean, crushed lapis is the only heat conducting liquid besides steam. My only concern is how big this thing is going to be

Chocohead · Jul 23rd 2015

Quote from Natesky9

the soon-to-be water mills

They're pretty much done at this point, the old water mills have their recipe disabled after all.

Quote from Natesky9

I think that hu/t machines should be the higher tier

The heat machines were going to replace their EU counterparts, but that was only an idea for the long term.

Zanoab · Jul 25th 2015

I think multi-block solar panels would be a really great idea if balanced.

I'm thinking placing solar panels in a 1 block height cuboid shape should multiply efficiency. A solar panel could have a base efficiency of 20% and every (working) solar panel in the multi-block adds 1% efficiency. If the multi-block isn't cuboid, the multi-block won't form and every solar panel will be stuck at 20% efficiency.

The solar panels will require maintenance in the form of solar modules. If a solar panel is missing a solar module, the solar module is broken, or there is no direct sunlight, it won't produce power and there will be a 2% efficiency reduction. The solar modules won't break over time but anything walking on the solar panel or rain will cause damage. This will make solar panels expensive to maintain in most biomes and players will need to find ways to keep mobs from spawning on the multi-block.

The reductions don't seem like much but when you have a solar grid of 80 solar panels for 100% efficiency, a single mob or griefer could easily slash the power produced and leave you to check each and every solar panel until all the broken solar modules are replaced. Just 10 broken solar modules can reduce power production down to 61%.

Of course the numbers can be tweaked for balance depending on the recipe costs for the components. Hopefully encouraging the use of solar panels en masse as a multi-block will count down on lag (instead of 80 individual solar panels spitting out power, it would just be the multi-block and some simple math).

Chocohead · Jul 25th 2015

Because making griefing easier is definitely a feature. I don't get why mutiblocks are the new thing to add for everything, having each solar panel checking if it's in a valid formation isn't going to improve performance of them ticking anyway. And mob spawning could be really easily stopped by putting glass on the top of them.

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