Energy generation in the early stages

[Dapperdog]

Just want to hear some thoughts on the topic,

In the early stages, pre-cycle 20, your main energy generator would undoubtedly be the coal generator.

After which, you would move on to using natural gas. But the game is configured so most natural gas geysers go dormant after about 80 - 100 cycles in the game and will likely stay dormant for more than 30 cycles.

At this point, you can choose to go back to coal, use petroleum (via petroleum generator), or somehow be able to create a setup for the steam turbines. Its very likely you can't get solar this early.

All this happens around cycle 100 to 130. At this point, would it be wise to push towards solar? I'm not sure if you can get enough hatches to rely on coal, and likewise unsure if fertilizer synthesizers can get enough gas to support late game pushes.

Since water is renewable via the geysers, would using petrol be worthwhile?

[Ixenzo]

Your cycle constraints are completely arbitrary and have no reason behind them.

You store natgas from vents to be used through dormancy. Hydrogen from O2 production is enough to keep the lights on in the living quarters. Coal is the backbone failsafe that end up supplying continuous industrial consumers, it's also not bound to geyser locations and as such can be installed anywhere.

These three are enough until late-late game.

[Gurgel]

You are not seeing the possibilities. For example, I never, ever use coal generators at all. I usually go all hamster-wheel until cycle 200 or so when I add a hydrogen generators because I have moved to electrolyzers. Natural gas I do very late, if at all. Cycle 500-1000 would be typical. Petroleum as energy source I have done never, same for steam turbine. Yet energy has never been a problem in my games.

Break out of your fixed timeline and experiment. That will pretty much solve your issue.

 

[KittenIsAGeek]

I tend to vary what energy I use depending on the map I'm on.  Coal is a great source of power, especially early in the game.  Sometimes I end up using coal power late into the game.  One of my bases had an excessive number of idle dupes, so I built a room with hamster wheels at priority 1 and ended up running my base mostly on dupe power.  In another base, with three (omg!) slush geysers, I ran the base off hydrogen power.  Basically don't fall into the trap of deciding that "X source of power is the best, so I have to focus on it."  Use the resources that are available to you in your current map.

[PhailRaptor]

You can last a really, really long time on just a single Hamster Wheel with a pair of Batteries connected to it.  I sit on that for a really long time with my pair of Algae Deoxidizers, my Super Computer and Research Station, Microbe Musher and Grill, and Rock Granulator.

When I set up my first Electrolyzer, it will have a Hydrogen Generator.  For my first bathroom loop through a Water Sieve, I might need a Coal Generator.  After that I'm looking at my options for NatGas, since it's a great source of (polluted) Water.

Setting yourself an arbitrary schedule for using or not using various types of power, or even how you expand your base, is going to cause a lot of problems in your development.  If you lock yourself into a single, solitary, and unchanging build path, you're gonna have a bad time.  The random nature of map generation will ensure that.

[mathmanican]

Once I can find 800kg of water, 150kg of oxygen, 200kg plastic, 800kg gold, and 400kg of 400C+ petro, and 100 mcg of chlorine, I make  steam turbine.... Power, what's that? Batteries, what are those?

[SamLogan]

23 hours ago, Dapperdog said:

After which, you would move on to using natural gas. But the game is configured so most natural gas geysers go dormant after about 80 - 100 cycles in the game and will likely stay dormant for more than 30 cycles.

NG geysers are not enough to sustain a base (or a small one), you have to use multiple power source : NG + hydrogen* in mid-game and later Petroleum + Solar Panel +/- Steam Turbine.

For the dormant period, you have to storage your gas and calculate it flow. An aproximative way** is to divide by 2 the output and only use the result, the rest is stored for the dormant period. Usually, a NG geyser can supply enough gas for 2-3 generators that run permanently, or more with automation and alternate usage.

*Some players keep the hydrogen for the rocket.

** Formula to calculate the exact output : (Eruption period : a / b) x (Active period c / d) x output

[suicide commando]

While some people seem to dislike door compressors, I personally think storing NG in a room with a door compressor is far more effective than what you've set up over there

 

[Thrundarr]

Or you can pour a bit of water to a gas vent and overpressure small 3x2 area. Though be warned that a recent change in the mechanics made that water goes up when gas passes through vent so you need to push vent into a hole downwards. Like that:
 

xxxx
xppx
xppx
xxvx
xxxx

where x - tile, pp - pump and v is vent.

P.S. Ensure that there is more than 60g of water covering a vent, or else it will be deleted on gas push.

[Xheotris]

25 minutes ago, Thrundarr said:

Or you can pour a bit of water to a gas vent and overpressure small 3x2 area. Though be warned that a recent change in the mechanics made that water goes up when gas passes through vent so you need to push vent into a hole downwards. Like that:
 

xxxx
xppx
xppx
xxvx
xxxx

where x - tile, pp - pump and v is vent.

P.S. Ensure that there is more than 60g of water covering a vent, or else it will be deleted on gas push.

I get how compact that is, but I've never ever suffered for space in this game. The self-pumping nature of gas reservoirs means never having to connect an emergency hamster wheel to my natural gas pump.

[Ixenzo]

The point is not space, it's logistics. You get one pipe out and whatever you want with it. With reservoirs you have 30 pipes in an out for less storage. And pipes are performance-heavy.

[crypticorb]

Coal generators can sustain a base until the very endgame, and the key point to this is ranching stone hatches. A properly set up ranch can feed 1-2 coal generators running 100% easily, and you'll get meat and eggs in addition.

After cycle 10 or so, I abandon manual generators for coal or natural gas. If you can build an infinite gas storage room, you can store all natural gas easily and it'll keep things going until the NG geyser comes out of dormancy.

The last key point is smart batteries. These guys can conserve up to 50% of your power consumption, by simply disabling the generators when the batteries are full.

[chemie]

you can mine coal to last your first 200 cycles.  same for algae.  h2 from electros us often enough for me until large power hogs like plastic, steel, rockets.  so mine and dont have high demand is my answer

[fredhp]

Early stages? Coal. Then, as soon as possible, Hatch ranching to create more coal..... Hydrogen power to remove excess hydrogen generated by electrolyzers.

 

[MorsDux]

If you accept a good number of duplicants, you will use (and thus create) a lot of oxygen with electrolizers. In this case most of your early to mid needs can be met by hydrogen generators with tuning. If some extra power is needed go for easy coal or natgas. If you have only a few duplicants even coal can last you hundreds of cycles.

Really hydrogen is a little bit unbalanced with the tuneups, if you dont have 30-40 dupes but you have the water for it you can still create and store oxygen just to support your hydrogen needs :>

[chemie]

3 minutes ago, MorsDux said:

If you accept a good number of duplicants, you will use (and thus create) a lot of oxygen with electrolizers. In this case most of your early to mid needs can be met by hydrogen generators with tuning. If some extra power is needed go for easy coal or natgas. If you have only a few duplicants even coal can last you hundreds of cycles.

Really hydrogen is a little bit unbalanced with the tuneups, if you dont have 30-40 dupes but you have the water for it you can still create and store oxygen just to support your hydrogen needs :>

I have had games where I had to turn off the gen tuning just to stop h2 from backing up.  of course, that was before rockets which require a large amount of power and require h2 to be liquid instead of burned so double wammy

[Gurgel]

18 hours ago, PhailRaptor said:

You can last a really, really long time on just a single Hamster Wheel with a pair of Batteries connected to it. 

I noticed that too. I am usually to forward looking for that, meaning pumps and filters, but, for example, my steel production is still on 1 hamster wheel and 1 battery at cycle 4500. It just works. 

But really, there are a lot of things that work and none is really "the best". That is one of the things that makes this game great, it it really is a simulation!

[PhailRaptor]

20 minutes ago, Gurgel said:

But really, there are a lot of things that work and none is really "the best". That is one of the things that makes this game great, it it really is a simulation!

Well, there are "best"s from certain perspectives, but there is no overall "best".  Your example of a Hamster Wheel powering your Steel production Refinery, for example, would be inefficient -- you can only run the Refinery as long as there is power in the Battery.  It would be more effective to connect the Refinery to some form of Generator, or the main power line of your base, if you need it running continuously.

But if you're only running that Refinery infrequently, then you can certainly make do with that setup.  It depends on your needs.

[psusi]

3 hours ago, MorsDux said:

If you accept a good number of duplicants, you will use (and thus create) a lot of oxygen with electrolizers. In this case most of your early to mid needs can be met by hydrogen generators with tuning. If some extra power is needed go for easy coal or natgas. If you have only a few duplicants even coal can last you hundreds of cycles.

Really hydrogen is a little bit unbalanced with the tuneups, if you dont have 30-40 dupes but you have the water for it you can still create and store oxygen just to support your hydrogen needs :>

Tuneups require an electrical engineer, which is not something you want to deal with the qol needs early on.  I've still never done a tuneup because I don't want to waste the metal.  Maybe one of these days I'll uncork these two gold volcanos I have then start using it.

[0xFADE]

A rough order.  Insert natural gas whenever you find one:
Dupe power

Coal

Hydrogen[for a long time]

Reduce/stop using coal

Solar

Hydrogen makes up the bulk of my power for a very long time.  Mechanical filters helps a lot.  You make a lot of excess hydrogen power from electrolyzers.