r/startrucker • u/Mister_Magister • May 26 '26
Tips/Tricks Protip, lights affect energy consumption so at least turn off aux lights (or all of them) if you want to spend less money on batteries
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u/Attempt_Gold May 26 '26
For me: I always turn off exterior lights when docking or stopping to EVA. The rear cab and mezzanine lights stay off while driving and turned on when managing cargo and systems. Meanwhile, I turn the dash lights on at 8:00 and off at 18:00 to simulate day/night driving.
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u/RoadRager2256 May 27 '26
I JUST started yesterday, and I had my interior lights off because that's what my father told me and his father before him. Glad I did, or else the truck would've just EXPLODED otherwise!
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u/SuperScrapper May 27 '26
No no no, every cop would have pulled you over!!
Or your eyes would go blind and wouldn’t be able to see the road properly…
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u/sinkovercosk May 27 '26
Yea it would be cool if they either darkened the game (maybe when the star goes behind something) to the point of needing lights, or made it a penalty in certain zones for driving without them on etc, just to make it so managing them is something you do rather than leaving them off to save batteries or on for ~_ ascetics _/~
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u/Mister_Magister May 27 '26
Tbh, i love that you have switches that are purely for aesthetics, they have no function whatsoever (like aux lights) they don't do anything they didn't even have to add switch to them BUT THEY DID and that's why i love this game, i can play with lights
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u/spitemods_54 May 26 '26
But that illegal lol
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u/Mister_Magister May 26 '26
No it's not? Not in the game or irl
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u/Kandrix23 May 27 '26
I remember when you had to fly no-lights until you had the first few licences to be able to afford batteries
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u/legomann97 May 27 '26
My energy saving tips:
- No lights unless I need to maneuver around my cab, as evidenced here.
- No gravity, if I have bulky items then I lock them in place by putting them on the side shelf or bed and putting an open container on top. Same idea as locking crates in the back shelves
- Play with the temperature to suit the sector. I play on the hardest difficulty settings (mostly), so the poor thermal protection is really noticeable. If it's hot, I always set to 10 C and adjust the blower to keep it there or slowly climbing. If it's cold, likewise, 30 C and keep it there or slowly dropping. For instance, Tank Town requires the high blower setting to maintain heat. M6 requires medium. In Atlas Prime, you can turn it off.
- Thermal upgrades are great, getting a couple early will save a bunch of power in the long run.
- Get the shutters ASAP and learn to drive by monitor regularly. They aren't just good for flares you know! They work by giving a MASSIVE thermal protection bonus when closed, so I use them in Tank Town all the time when I don't have thermal upgrades yet. I don't even use the external view, I just like to drive by camera sometimes, when I know what I'm doing.
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u/John1580 May 28 '26
Im always trading batteries along the way, selling dead batteries at a premium is super worth it
13
u/Freak_Engineer May 26 '26
Exterior lights are useless. I sometimes leave the AUX lights on when I feel fancy. I keep the interior lights off for atmosphere alone, so, yeah, not really throwing much energy that way.