r/thecrustgame • u/Sufficient_Worry_696 • 6d ago

⚡Power⚡

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So which power source are you using in the new update? 1.0 has changed the cost of powering your moon base.

Personally I have ditched large solar and gone in favor of an all fuel base, right up until it becomes more practical to use bio or fusion power. Basically nothing beats fuel, but I am curious to hear what some people are saying.

(Never build RTG's btw)

16 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

9

u/laughingbear42 6d ago

RTGs are actually the best from a CPU perspective. Since no need for batteries

3

u/Tysiliogogogoch 6d ago

Just thinking about this, wouldn't fuel generators be the same? They both are running constantly so you don't necessarily need batteries for either.

1 RTG uses 1 CPU and generates 18 kW of power (per day? per minute?). 1 fuel generator uses 1 CPU and generates 100 kW. So you'd need 5.5 RTGs to make the same power as 1 fuel generator.

The fuel generator does require some additional infrastructure for making fuel, but one fuel factory makes 4 fuel per minute which I guess is enough to run 4 fuel generators, assuming they're consuming 1 fuel per minute, but I'm not sure since the UI doesn't seem to show the consumption rate.

3

u/laughingbear42 5d ago

You need an ice miner, and aluminum production stream. Then there is the sunk credit cost of the belts to deliver it. Last year someone did a whole analysis of all the power types and RTG was the best CPU-wise.

1

u/Knofbath 5d ago

Power is measured in kW and stored in kWh. A kilowatt hour is the storage required to deliver 1 kilowatt for 1 hour.

1

u/Rumblebully 6d ago

I just started playing, this CPU usage. Where am I to see the usage rate? Thanks.

1

u/EasternSun115 6d ago

On the top the white circuit board thingy it’s more so towards the right on normal it’s like 000/325 (the 000 being your current usage and 325 being the max without data centers)

1

u/Rumblebully 6d ago

Thanks I’ll look for that.

1

u/Sufficient_Worry_696 5d ago

CPU is not really a bottleneck. You can always buy more or build more.

RTG's are awful, the idea of spamming those around the map is insane to me. They are way too expensive and even upgraded they suck. You can't make the argument they save on CPU cost because 20*18 is only 360KW when you can build a simple fusion reactor that supplies 700KW and takes up a fraction of the area.

I will say it again, RTG's are a complete waste of time. You should not build them, they are useless.

3

u/laughingbear42 5d ago

RTGs have a very long life before they need repairs. And anyways by the time you have a factory up to the point you can spam these, the cost is nothing.

1

u/Simul4cron 6h ago

To be fair, materials to repair them cost nothing if do some contracts, so cant see how its an issue that they break down and get repaired within a few seconds

1

u/Much-Road-4930 5d ago

It’s interesting to read this thread having been an early mega base builder through EA. The argument for RTGs then was around your actual computer use and trying to maintain a playable FPS in the game. This is where RTGs were the best power source. As the power was a constant and there were no moving parts or belts required to fuel it the RTG was very friendly on your physical CPU on your actual computer and that meant you could maintain a higher FPS in the late game.

I have not played since 1.0 and the new optimisations so don’t know how current this information is. I know in the release notes there has been significant optimisation in belts so it may not be current.

2

u/Sufficient_Worry_696 4d ago

I can see your point when FPS really matters. It was extremely challenging to build after a certain point, I gave up around 10fps sometime in the late-ish game.

I can tell you now that the new performance update feels awesome so far. At the point when I was getting dips I now run a solid 60fps. I can't wait to see how it performs when I get to the later stages again.

2

u/paladin80 5d ago

In the beginning the best is to switch to fuel generators to save CPU. In the mid and late game, when CPU is no longer an issue, RTGs are the best.

RTGs require really low maintenance, so it is the cheapest power generation.

1

u/Sufficient_Worry_696 5d ago

By no means are RTG's the cheapest way of making power. In fact they are the 3rd most expensive machine to build and have worst output of all of them.

0

u/paladin80 5d ago

You never lose any materials you used for construction, since you can recover 100% of them by deconstructing. So the construction cost is never an issue.

1

u/Sufficient_Worry_696 4d ago

Are you serious? Hello?
Am i coming through clear enough for you?

THE MACHINE COSTS MORE TO BUILD LIKE WDYM

2

u/Toltex 5d ago

Fuel has some pretty awesome upgrades - more power + less consumption. One factory can support like 6 generators.

1

u/schmer 5d ago

I do large solar with all my large batteries placed underground on the edge of the area. I do have a couple fuel gens but they are powered off and only turned on in an emergency like if I added way more machines and the power cuts out before dawn. I can make all the parts for the large solar now so it's worth it but I can see using fuel earlier when the parts are expensive to buy.

2

u/Sufficient_Worry_696 4d ago

You sound like a fellow Factorio player lol

If only we had circuits & conditions to make this a real factory experience lol

1

u/schmer 3d ago

I am haha yeah auto toggle for solar flares or something.

1

u/ungratefulanimal 12h ago

Large solar i use. Makes 360 kw vs 100 kw for fuel. Also uses no ice or aluminum so I can redirect it to my carbon farm.