Power Balancing

[King Class Scout]

yet another fresh download of mine has a bad power balance. 

I have an idea, now, that we should put together a sticky to help people repair out of balance ships.

the ship I'm having trouble with has the following

Core Output: 2000 PPS

Draws
impulse 720
shields 720
torps 250
tractors 700
pulse system 250
beam weapons 250

@ green alert, impulse and tractors
@ yellow add sheilds (torps?)
@ red  add all other weapons

total draw at red alert: 3590, thus 50% drain on main battery.  since a cloak draws from the reserve, it doesn't count, here

am I missing any draw points?

[teleguy]

AFAIK the tractors only draw power when active so I wouldn't count them in. How did you arrive at 3590? I only get 2190 at red alert (2890 with tractors).

am I missing any draw points?

Sometimes the enginneering/repair system also consumes power.

Edit: The sensor array is missing in your list.

[King Class Scout]

i DID forget the sensor draw.  the repair and sensor systems are set to draw one point.

I just got 2890 without the cloak (plus 2 points for the sensor and repair draw), I must have accidentally included the cloak draw the first time.  either way, that's at least double the power output from the core.

I cut the heavy draw-ers in half ingame.

does anyone know if teleguy is right, and the tractors draw only when used?

[Morgan]

Correct. Tractors and cloak only draw power when in use.

[ACES_HIGH]

and as I recall, tractors draw directly from the batteries.

[King Class Scout]

another royal mess is the Nova class pirate conversion USS Gabriella

the core production is 5000
however

Impulse 1000
Shields 2000
torpedoes 500
Pulse system 100
Phasers 3000!
sensors 700

the cloak pulls only 200, the tractors pull (ha, ha) 600.
most repair systems pull 1 point.

I'm coming up with a red alert draw of over 7000 on a core production of 5000.

[vonfrank]

This is what i normally use to balance power

Shield power usage = average shield value / 20
Sensor power usage = sensor range / 20
Impulse power usage = top speed / 20
Phaser power usage = # of phasers x 20
Disruptor power usage = # of disruptors x 20
Torpedo power usage = # of torpedoes x 20

Warp core output = sum of above values
Main battery output = sum of above values x 0.125
Aux. battery output = sum of above values x 0.125


This means that all of your systems use the exact power that the core delivers and all systems at 125% use the exact power that your 2 batteries can give

[King Class Scout]

you just earned yourself a cookie.  I've got to copy this down for later use.

Edit: not the torpedo COUNT, but the tube count?
Edit 2: Battery limit, or conduit cap?  also, you don't know the top speed of the ship unless it's allready IN game, so get that first?

[vonfrank]

the tube count

the top speed of a ship is 360 times the value of the top speed number in the impulse engine hardpoint

[Digital_Clarity]

I just use the old power output formula.

Power Output = Power Output
Main Battery Limit = PowerOutput*100
Backup Battery Limit = PowerOutput*300
Main Conduit Capacity = PowerOutput*1.3
Backup Conduit Capacity = PowerOutput*0.3

So, for example, my Constitution Class Refit has a power output of 1000
WarpCore.SetMainBatteryLimit(130000.000000)
WarpCore.SetBackupBatteryLimit(300000.000000)
WarpCore.SetMainConduitCapacity(1300.000000)
WarpCore.SetBackupConduitCapacity(300.000000)
WarpCore.SetPowerOutput(1000.000000)

My phasers, photons, and impulse use 200 units of energy. Sensors use 100 and tractors use 200 when active. As you can see I have enough power to boost
engines, weapons, and shields to 125% with plenty of reserve power w/o making it a god ship with seemingly endless energy reserves.

[tiqhud]

some times, as an HPer I purposely leave the Power unbalanced, to give a little bit of realism

[King Class Scout]

I'm refering to ships that are so underpowered and overdrawn that their batteries are sucked dry in the first battle.