Can we talk about Solar Panels?

[WhiteWind36]

On 12/25/2021 at 11:28 AM, LadenSwallow said:

As a follow up thought, how about letting sweepy automate the task?

It depends on how it would work. If space dust is a layer of let's say regolith and is stored inside solar panel building then it would be possible, but to make it count I think it should be only manual labor, like with desalinator, oil well or outhouse, also it should be tidying task, not operating. So making sweepy do the job would ruin the very idea of having such mechanic.

[Slavon Blue]

I don't think solar needs another nerf. However I do like the idea of solar accumulating dust when exposed to space. over time it'd need to be cleaned. So this is a mechanic change I could get behind on the condition that the previous nerf is reverted and instead the rate of dust accumulation changes per asteroid. This mechanic would be more intuitive for new players as well, so perhaps we'd stop seeing the question threads in the Reddit asking: "why does solar never get to max power during the day?"

[Sasza22]

5 hours ago, Slavon Blue said:

I don't think solar needs another nerf. However I do like the idea of solar accumulating dust when exposed to space. over time it'd need to be cleaned. So this is a mechanic change I could get behind on the condition that the previous nerf is reverted and instead the rate of dust accumulation changes per asteroid. This mechanic would be more intuitive for new players as well, so perhaps we'd stop seeing the question threads in the Reddit asking: "why does solar never get to max power during the day?"

I don`t think they need nerfs as well. But they could use something to make them more interesting. A cleanup mechanic combined with a slight buff would do the trick. Would provide some free regolith as well (if we could collect the dust we are cleaning up).

[Clinch]

Cool ideas - if the panels required some occasional maintenance (similar to the Desalinator), it would bring them inline with their real-world usage...if you have solar panels in a place where it snows, you gotta get outside and clear them off!

As for the materials required, I think that's a very easy thing to mod (I've tinkered with the resources required by production buildings, and presume that build-able objects can be similarly altered on a case-by-case basis).

On 12/26/2021 at 4:47 AM, WhiteWind36 said:

It depends on how it would work. If space dust is a layer of let's say regolith and is stored inside solar panel building then it would be possible, but to make it count I think it should be only manual labor, like with desalinator, oil well or outhouse, also it should be tidying task, not operating. So making sweepy do the job would ruin the very idea of having such mechanic.

I'm envisioning Sweepy working away in the vacuum of space, overheating slowly, until the poor blighter melts on the spot haha

[durbal]

I don't mind maintenance but I also wouldn't want such maintenance to be required to be done by dupes.  It's more interesting if there are many ways to solve the problem of say regolith buildup (Sweepy bots, autominers, etc.) or meteors (radbolt cannon example earlier in the thread) without requiring a dupe.  Of course, in both those cases a dupe can handle the issue (manual cleaning or repair) but it isn't required.  Making solar panels occasionally need to have a dupe run from one end of the base to the other to clean off space dust doesn't make them less fire and forget -- it just makes them more annoying.