Why does hull block require energy?

[dwc]

And other hull blocks don't. Also, light block is same stat as glow block which requires no energy and weight only 1/3 of hull block at the same amount of HP. Building out of glow block or light block although ugly will give out the most utility in terms of HP/Mass. Not sure if intended or not.

[Ohm is Futile]

I'm pretty sure the idea behind hull blocks is just that they're crewed space. They require power because of life support and such. In fact, I'd need to test, but I'm pretty sure that if you create a new ship and only stick a block of hull in there it's going to show the power requirement as "life support" in the menu.

 

So yeah, I kinda see your point. I would love some "structure" blocks that are neither armor nor hull and tougher than just frames. Kinda like hull but less bad.

[dwc]

Thank you for your reply.

 

I was just spending my entire day checking different block stats and came up with the following observations:

 

1) Only the standard cubic hull and standard cubic blank hull consumes energy, other shapes such as edge, corners don't

 

2) I didn't check to see if the energy consumed belongs to life support, but the hull block that consumes energy do not provide more crew space

 

3) Light block/Glow block of the same material provides *better* HP/Mass ratio. Take iron for example, a 2x2x2 iron hull is 32HP/.41kt, whereas a iron glow block is 32HP/.14kt which is roughly 300% HP/mass ratio.

 

P.S. In fact, light block/glow block have *better* HP/Mass ratio than armor block. 2x2x2 Iron armor is 120HP/0.68kt = 176.47HP/1kt; Light/Glow block is 32HP/.14kt = 228.57HP/1kt

 

I think I need a GM or dev to answer if this is intended or not.

[Splutty]

I'm not sure how you're testing this, since if I replace an trinium armour block by a trinium glow block, I lose tons of hull.

 

If you're going by the 'preview' stats, then those are extremely unreliable.

 

Best thing to test would be to just build a 1 block standard ship, and replace your primary block with different materials, and see what that does.

[dwc]

I tested every block as a one block ship only to see its stat.

 

If you are replacing armor with glow, you will lose HP because I was talking about HP/Mass ratio, not sheer HP itself. However, if you replace every hull block with glow, you will still have the same amount of HP but your ship will only weight 1/3 of the hull, making it a much lighter ship. Also, you will be saving yourself some energy consumption from the cubic hull block.

[Splutty]

I see what you mean. I'd probably go nuts from the glow, though :)

 

Then again, I don't think I've ever used a normal hull piece, ever.

 

The windowed ones sometimes to make things look neat, but not the default hull piece.

 

I use either armour for the spots where I could ram into something, or shiny blocks. (Reflector blocks, just checked  :P)

 

The main advantage of armour however is that you don't immediately explode on hitting an asteroid. With hull/glowy blocks that would just blow up your ship.

[Pob]

nice to know angled hull doesn't need power.

 

What about crew requirements?

[Splutty]

To actually answer the question in the Subject: I'd imagine hull blocks needing power for life support to connect the crew quarters to all other parts of the ship. That makes sense, really.

 

The fact you can build a ship with 0 hull parts, though...  ;)

[Longtooths]

I would think as Splutty said above you would still have to suplly power to every aspect of your ship to keep gravity out of it. Additionally the engines would need more energy i.e. (power) to move the greater mass..

 

Yeah Im a  nerd so what...

[Brigadon]

The new ship I am designing:

 

[Splutty]

That's some crazy old BSG there :)

[Brigadon]

That's some crazy old BSG there :)

 

Vastly better than the remake.

 

Dirk Benedict FTW