[MR_T3D]

so yesterday i am fooling around in XvT, and then i realise "how iis the enegry distribution going to work?" (yeah, i think in poor spelling)

in XvT, when i standard levels of energy merely maintain a charge for guns and sheilds, and increaseing the rates merely allow minor to adaquate recharge rates, anything below means you lose charge either quickly or slowly

HOWEVER in FS2, minimum levels means no recharge, and everything abov it is recharge rate.
]
It seems to me that XvT's system works for sheilds, while FS2 works for guns.

How is FoTG going to work this?

[chief1983]

It will be different than FS2 or XvT.

[aRaven]

It doesn't make sense for me that you would lose stored energy in the Xwing series, if you don't allocate energy to laser/shields...i like the fs2 system much better

[MR_T3D]

with sheilds it make sense to lose charge if you direct power away from it, (minimum should be completely off, losing sheilds, but boosting engine output)
but not for guns, simply because the energy is stored in capacitors, and they do not lose charge unless used.

Y-Wing FTW!

[chief1983]

Haven't you ever heard of leakage current?  Capacitors do not store power indefinitely.  Now, these could be some strange futuristic battery-like capacitors, but a traditional capacitor has a drop-off time.  Plus, I think the point is that you're also taking energy from those capacitors to boost other systems.  Wouldn't you want that ability if it helped in a dogfight?

[MR_T3D]

i would think that that is the purpose of shunting power.

[aRaven]

Well the only problem I had with the XWing series is that the ships moved so damn slow (for playability). Diverting power from the engines made the ships even slower. I hate it when it does that. But SWC is here to fix that issue

[TomShak]

Personally the thing I found most wacky about power distribution in the X-Wing series was overflow (or lack there of). Often you'd set your guns to charge and then you'd get into a big battle. Unfortunately you'd often end up not noticing that your gun buffer was full and so the power would be wasted.

Now if I were a rebel pilot I'd go to my mechanic and say "Hey Ruchanga, could you fit me a little circuit that will redirect overflowing power from the gun buffers into the shield buffers, and vice versa". After all, if you were paying attention you could manually change the recharge rate when the buffer was full, and put it back again when it stopped being full. If they can make droids that talk then surely a little automatic switch wouldn't be too hard

The other thing that was a bit silly was that in some ships the guns charge quicker than the shields (or vice versa) so you could put the guns of charge max, the shields on drain max and end up with a net power gain (sometimes a very big one). This doesn't really make a lot of sense since both systems must draw power from the same onboard generator ...

No doubt FotG won't have a power system with so many quirks

[chief1983]

I wouldn't be so certain.  Quirks add character.

[MR_T3D]

yeah, if i drop my y-wing's  sheilds, she can keep up with TIE's, and when i am under fire, a quick shunt from guns to sheilds does the trick

[Turey]

Personally the thing I found most wacky about power distribution in the X-Wing series was overflow (or lack there of). Often you'd set your guns to charge and then you'd get into a big battle. Unfortunately you'd often end up not noticing that your gun buffer was full and so the power would be wasted.

Now if I were a rebel pilot I'd go to my mechanic and say "Hey Ruchanga, could you fit me a little circuit that will redirect overflowing power from the gun buffers into the shield buffers, and vice versa". After all, if you were paying attention you could manually change the recharge rate when the buffer was full, and put it back again when it stopped being full. If they can make droids that talk then surely a little automatic switch wouldn't be too hard

I love this idea, and I'm definitely coding it up when I find some free time, even if FotG doesn't want it.

Of course, FSO might already do this. I've never looked at the energy system code.

[chief1983]

No that totally makes sense, you should just be prioritizing what charges first, not the only things that are charging.

[Kyle_K_ski]

I really like the "circuit automatically redirects overflow power to system x" idea.  It makes a ton of sense, especially when one's maximally stressed in a combat environment. 

Setting up a system for maximum recharge would then only place it in top priority for charging its systems, with other system's being prioritized accordingly. 

Brilliantly simple and elegant solution to a headache inducing situation.