What power generator do you use the most

adel_50adel_50 Join Date: 2016-09-01 Member: 221973Members
Since we are coming on the last months of subnautica early access
I want to ask this question for feedback purposes.

The power in the game is important but the power generators are even more important so I think the devs should know how well each of the current power generators are doing
So please choose the power generator you use the most and comment why
Thank you for taking the time answering this poll :)
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Comments

  • garathgarath Texas Join Date: 2017-02-08 Member: 227730Members
    Bio Reactors are the best! They work in all biomes and at all depths. You grow the fuel for them and feed the reactors when you feed yourself. What could be easier?
  • kingkumakingkuma cancels Work: distracted by Dwarf Fortress Join Date: 2015-09-25 Member: 208137Members
    edited October 2017
    Me, I use solar panels to start out, then transfer to bioreactors and thermal. Currently , My base is 8 solar panels, 1 bioreactor, and two thermals. It's near the gun.
  • elfcrisiselfcrisis Join Date: 2017-05-13 Member: 230466Members
    My power supply evolves over the course of the game. Usually I go from solar to bio to thermal, but lately I've been skipping thermal and doing nuclear instead. I figure I can gather a bunch of mats for a bunch of generators, or a bunch of mats for one generator. Nuclear is kind of expensive to feed, but you don't have to feed it very often. Plus it makes a pleasant humming sound.
  • Hulkie2345Hulkie2345 New York Join Date: 2017-08-23 Member: 232598Members
    edited October 2017
    I use to use mainly Solar and Nuclear. Since the nerf/change in Solar panels. I solely switched over to Bioreactors. Unless I make a base in Lava Lakes or ILZ. I stick to them. It's replenish-able by grabbing fauna pretty much anywhere. Plus breeding the larger ones in the base. I like taking my revenge on Crab squid and Stalkers.
  • adel_50adel_50 Join Date: 2016-09-01 Member: 221973Members
    edited October 2017
    elfcrisis wrote: »
    My power supply evolves over the course of the game. Usually I go from solar to bio to thermal, but lately I've been skipping thermal and doing nuclear instead. I figure I can gather a bunch of mats for a bunch of generators, or a bunch of mats for one generator. Nuclear is kind of expensive to feed, but you don't have to feed it very often. Plus it makes a pleasant humming sound.

    You have a very critical point on the nuclear reactor as this is probably the reason people don't use the nuclear reactors much. as you said it's very expensive which I don't think anyone would disagree about it so what I think they can do is reduce the recipe requirements to make it more easy to do
    I think only one urninaite crystal per power rod is good if it's too easy make it two
  • elfcrisiselfcrisis Join Date: 2017-05-13 Member: 230466Members
    @adel_50 I think 1-2 uraninite crystals would be reasonable. Three crystals is a pain.
  • adel_50adel_50 Join Date: 2016-09-01 Member: 221973Members
    elfcrisis wrote: »
    @adel_50 I think 1-2 uraninite crystals would be reasonable. Three crystals is a pain.

    Or you get 2 or 3 reactor rods from the current recipe
  • adel_50adel_50 Join Date: 2016-09-01 Member: 221973Members
    Big thanks to everyone who participated in the poll hopefully a dev sees this and take it into consideration and if you didn't participated yet please do

    I will make other polls later but I want to give each poll some time to get lots of people's votes
  • PJMaybePJMaybe United Kingdom Join Date: 2017-10-14 Member: 233545Members
    I tend to build bases near heat, so I'm pretty thermal powered, but I use all but nuclear at the main base. I feel guilty enough about the radiation leak from the Aurora until it's repaired, never mind adding more by-products later.
  • KurasuKurasu Join Date: 2017-06-24 Member: 231322Members
    If you asked me what my *favorite* is, the answer would be different. :)

    Bioreactors are my #1 source for energy. I build one in every base that I create, although in many cases it is used as a supplement for other power sources (a solar panel on my first shallow base or a thermal generator near a heat vent).

    Thermal is my *favorite*, but because it can be difficult to find an area near a vent, I almost never get to build them.

    I have never yet used a nuclear power generator in any of my games. Compared to the ease of bioreactors, it seems fairly useless in the long run.
  • AvimimusAvimimus Join Date: 2016-03-28 Member: 214968Members
    Solar, then thermal - if neither is available or if there is a convenient supply of uranium - then I prefer nuclear.

    I tried a bio-reactor but it wouldn't use blood kelp. I didn't want to grow something on an exterior grow-bed that didn't fit into the correct biome.
  • SidchickenSidchicken Plumbing the subnautican depths Join Date: 2016-02-16 Member: 213125Members
    Avimimus wrote: »
    Solar, then thermal - if neither is available or if there is a convenient supply of uranium - then I prefer nuclear.

    I tried a bio-reactor but it wouldn't use blood kelp. I didn't want to grow something on an exterior grow-bed that didn't fit into the correct biome.

    Really? You can't feed blood kelp samples into it? I'll have to try that.
  • Hulkie2345Hulkie2345 New York Join Date: 2017-08-23 Member: 232598Members
    Sidchicken wrote: »
    Avimimus wrote: »
    Solar, then thermal - if neither is available or if there is a convenient supply of uranium - then I prefer nuclear.

    I tried a bio-reactor but it wouldn't use blood kelp. I didn't want to grow something on an exterior grow-bed that didn't fit into the correct biome.

    Really? You can't feed blood kelp samples into it? I'll have to try that.

    That's probably a bug. Crabsquid didn't want to work in Bioreactors. They recently fixed it.
  • garathgarath Texas Join Date: 2017-02-08 Member: 227730Members
    I'm extremely surprised no one voted Thermal. In previous threads, it seemed like I was the only one in the universe who didn't get all their power from Thermal. Is this my earth? Or, is this just a Mirror Earth?

    Tell me... Does Spock have a beard in your...er, this, universe?
  • Hulkie2345Hulkie2345 New York Join Date: 2017-08-23 Member: 232598Members
    edited October 2017
    Well I use them when I make a ILZ base. But not in the main sea area. I would consider it. If I could make like 50 power relays to my bases location. But they increased the cost.
  • parallelomegaparallelomega Join Date: 2017-06-30 Member: 231468Members
    bio reactor the lantern fruit is the best way to power your base you can go for real life hours and they would be still powering the base
  • adel_50adel_50 Join Date: 2016-09-01 Member: 221973Members
    From what I'm seeing thermal and nuclear reactors needs a boost and I think i have some ideas

    1-reduce the reactor rod recipe or get multiple ones from the current recipe

    2-slow the generation rate of power on the bio reactor and increase it slightly on the thermal and nuclear reactors

    3-reduce the amount of energy that can be taken from each organic matter available

    Feel free to discuss my suggestions
  • 0x6A72320x6A7232 US Join Date: 2016-10-06 Member: 222906Members
    PJMaybe wrote: »
    I tend to build bases near heat, so I'm pretty thermal powered, but I use all but nuclear at the main base. I feel guilty enough about the radiation leak from the Aurora until it's repaired, never mind adding more by-products later.

    That's why you scan the Nuclear Waste Disposal blueprint (looks like a square trash can).
  • 0x6A72320x6A7232 US Join Date: 2016-10-06 Member: 222906Members
    Avimimus wrote: »
    Solar, then thermal - if neither is available or if there is a convenient supply of uranium - then I prefer nuclear.

    I tried a bio-reactor but it wouldn't use blood kelp. I didn't want to grow something on an exterior grow-bed that didn't fit into the correct biome.

    Use the Blood Oil deposits?
  • KurasuKurasu Join Date: 2017-06-24 Member: 231322Members
    adel_50 wrote: »
    From what I'm seeing thermal and nuclear reactors needs a boost and I think i have some ideas

    1-reduce the reactor rod recipe or get multiple ones from the current recipe

    2-slow the generation rate of power on the bio reactor and increase it slightly on the thermal and nuclear reactors

    3-reduce the amount of energy that can be taken from each organic matter available

    Feel free to discuss my suggestions

    1: I probably still wouldn't use the nuclear. Bioreactors give infinite power as long as you keep feeding them, and you can feed them... well... infinitely. Bases honestly don't drain power all that fast; you can pretty much go on forever with one solar and one bioreactor, as long as you don't have a water filtration plant in the place.

    2: The power generation on nuclear is already 100x the power of a bioreactor. Increasing it more wouldn't make a difference; it would just drain the rods faster. It's plenty fast as it is, IMO. The fact is that the base doesn't *need* that much generation speed from what I have found. And if you slowed down the speed of a bioreactor, it wouldn't make it less appealing; it would make it genuinely useless.
    Same with speeding up the thermal. Going faster would be nice, but it wouldn't encourage people to build more; thermal plants have a *very* narrow area of where they can be built, which is why they aren't favored. It's tons of free power, but you have to build on top of a geyser or 'hot spot', or the lava zone, to get any kind of use out of them. It's not that they aren't fast enough. It's that they're not as ubiquitous as bioreactors (which can be built in any area, any zone, and give power no matter what time of day, temperature, et cetera).

    3: I wouldn't have an issue with that. I'd just need to feed my reactor more often. Since bases don't take that much energy unless you're *doing* stuff with them, I probably wouldn't feel it.

    In other words, bioreactors would still be the thing I used most often, because they are the thing that can be used in more places than anywhere, are the easiest to power (not requiring extra work to create rods), and unless bases suck a bunch of power up (like, for instance, a base with multiple water filtration things) they aren't going to run out of energy any time soon. All you need to do is breed crabsnakes, basically.
  • elfcrisiselfcrisis Join Date: 2017-05-13 Member: 230466Members
    adel_50 wrote: »
    2-slow the generation rate of power on the bio reactor and increase it slightly on the thermal and nuclear reactors

    I think maybe you got the bio and nuclear reactors mixed up? Output from nuclear is /massive/. I can run two water machines off of one reactor, and charge ion power cells in my Seamoth or Prawn and it barely makes a dent in my available power. When I need 6 bioreactors to power one water machine, I think their output needs a buff.

    Bioreactors are super convenient. Any small base I build will get a bioreactor with a lantern fruit tree next to it. Talk about renewable energy, I'm pretty sure lantern fruit's intended purpose is to power bioreactors.
  • RalijRalij US Join Date: 2016-05-20 Member: 217092Members
    edited October 2017
    Solar is my go-to early on in every playthrough. Frequently I'll move my base to a deeper area and either use the power transmitters to set up a solar farm on the nearest ridgeline within 50m of the surface or switch over to thermal. Voted solar because I always use solar in some capacity, while I only sometimes use thermal. Bioreactors get used for outposts and observation posts.

    I pretty much only ever use nuclear as a backup.
  • garathgarath Texas Join Date: 2017-02-08 Member: 227730Members
    elfcrisis wrote: »
    adel_50 wrote: »
    2-slow the generation rate of power on the bio reactor and increase it slightly on the thermal and nuclear reactors

    I think maybe you got the bio and nuclear reactors mixed up? Output from nuclear is /massive/. I can run two water machines off of one reactor, and charge ion power cells in my Seamoth or Prawn and it barely makes a dent in my available power. When I need 6 bioreactors to power one water machine, I think their output needs a buff.

    Bioreactors are super convenient. Any small base I build will get a bioreactor with a lantern fruit tree next to it. Talk about renewable energy, I'm pretty sure lantern fruit's intended purpose is to power bioreactors.

    Lantern fruit is purely decorative. It's only in the game to look "cute".

    All the cool kids use melons. Get with the times!

    :)



  • elfcrisiselfcrisis Join Date: 2017-05-13 Member: 230466Members
    garath wrote: »
    Lantern fruit is purely decorative. It's only in the game to look "cute".

    All the cool kids use melons. Get with the times!

    :)

    According to the wiki, lantern fruit is one of the highest output sources for the bioreactor... but marblemelons are still a lot higher. Guess they're not just going down my gullet anymore!
  • KurasuKurasu Join Date: 2017-06-24 Member: 231322Members
    If you want *real* power, breed reginalds. :)
    1 reginald = 1100 power = 1 slot = 1100 power per slot
    1 marblemelon = 550 power = 4 slots = around 175 power per slot

    Unless they've nerfed how much power reggies give, it's a no-brainer. Plus, they're great to have on-hand for food, both cooked and salted.
  • elfcrisiselfcrisis Join Date: 2017-05-13 Member: 230466Members
    @Kurasu Actually, once I have an alien containment unit full of reggies and a water machine or two, I ditch my marblemelons. Reggies are the best.
  • garathgarath Texas Join Date: 2017-02-08 Member: 227730Members
    Kurasu wrote: »
    If you want *real* power, breed reginalds. :)
    1 reginald = 1100 power = 1 slot = 1100 power per slot
    1 marblemelon = 550 power = 4 slots = around 175 power per slot

    Unless they've nerfed how much power reggies give, it's a no-brainer. Plus, they're great to have on-hand for food, both cooked and salted.

    I disagree for several reasons:

    1. You get melons early in the game
    2. Melons grow quite at least twice as fast as Reginalds
    3. Melons don't require finding a tech (Alien Containment) like Reginalds.
    4. You don't have to build a separate building (Alien Containment) to grow melons
    5. You don't have to travel to a different room in your base to get the melons as you would with Reginald
    6. Bioreactors give energy so slowly that I doubt I would notice the difference.

    Oh, and I NEVER build an Alien Containment. :)

  • KurasuKurasu Join Date: 2017-06-24 Member: 231322Members
    garath wrote: »

    Oh, and I NEVER build an Alien Containment. :)

    You make Kura cry. :( Alien Containment is one of my favorite toys, admittedly.
  • scifiwriterguyscifiwriterguy Sector ZZ-9-Plural Z-α Join Date: 2017-02-14 Member: 227901Members
    I used to go heavily into solar, but thanks to the recipe change ( :rage: ), I've more or less given up on it and gone bioreactor for my primary power supply. A couple interior growbeds with lantern fruit and I don't need to worry about power. When I go deep, like in the Lost River, I generally switch to nuclear mainly because the fuel is bloody everywhere down there. I just don't like how fast those rods deplete.
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