Energy Park

[Maniac]

johndmullern, just turn the matrix 45 degrees in whatever direction you want.

[johndmuller]

Thanks, it doesn't seem to really matter in this context, but when base spacing is being depicted and discussed, especially with phrases such as 2 or 3 on the diagonal, it becomes more ambiguous seeming.

[Gluegun]

Here is the thread...

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=83937

BigRich said in that one:

"How about this:

xoooxo 33
xoxoxo 34
ooxooo 38
xoooxo 36
xoxoxo 34
ooxooo 33

Grand total 208 energy with 12 echelon mirrors in 6x6 park."

[Kody]

E stands for Emirrors, X for solar
e x x x e x
e x e x e x
x x e x x x
e x x x e x
e x e x e x
x x e x x x
The bonus energy for each square
0 3 1 3 0 2
0 4 0 4 0 2
2 4 0 4 2 2
0 4 2 4 0 2
0 4 0 4 0 2
1 3 0 3 1 1
Total= 64


_____________________________________________

E stands for Emirrors, X for solar
x x x x x x
e x e x e x
e x e x e x
e x e x e x
e x e x e x
x x x x x x

The bonus energy for each square
1 2 1 2 1 1
0 4 0 4 0 2
0 6 0 6 0 3
0 6 0 6 0 3
0 4 0 4 0 2
1 2 1 2 1 1

Total= 66

________________________________________

Sorry I stuffed up some of the calculations earlier (had the excel only summing some of the results).

It seems better to put the mirrors nearer the centre rather than creating the pattern.

[Mr. Harley]

I've done some experimental pirate play, sea parks in SMAX can get you 4 per square for all 25 squares, that's 100 energy. I like to harness and trawler ocean energy resources in the early game, you get 6 per square before bonuses, seven with free market! I do it just around my base periphery, but prior to relaxing energy restrictions they rock. In multiplayer you probably want a shallow ocean area you can enclose to protect both the terraform time and the much more expensive crawler investment. Pirates have completely different problems than other factions, there was a thread last month on that.

[johndmuller]

(RE the Pirates) SeaFormers and Trawlers are both pretty expensive and time-consuming in the early game. While it's nice to have a balanced approach, you can probably get more for your money in the early game with (the more reasonably priced) Warships and/or TPorts cruising around popping pods. One approach is to coordinate your pod popping and base production (to the extent reasonable) so that you can put stuff like SeaFormers or SeaColonyPods temporarily into the build queues of relevant bases while you are popping pods to take advantage of the possibility of getting a free build from the pod.

[Jac de Molay]

What about the Geothermal Shallows? I've got a game with Morgan, with my energy city(w/mercant exchange), and currently running FM/wealth. How much energy can I pump into my energy city from geothermal squares with this setup?

[Adalbertus]

Geothermal Squares give +1 energy, just as do Uranium Flats. So what I'd guess is
3 tidewater caverns (oh no, that was another game)
+1 Thermocline Transducers
+1 Geothermal Shallows
+1 Merchant Exchange (you've got this, don't you?)
+1 Free Market
makes 7 energy.

[Mr. Harley]

One thing missed on the comment about the pirates is that popping pods doesn't increase your research rate. I combine what JohnD metioned, but as soon as I can I make usually two-five trawlers to go to those outer periphery ocean energy squares. They represent an extra five to eight extra energy per turn, half of which goes into research. That's where you start kicking butt, you've used pods to rush a couple of armored trance trawlers (also nice for rushing that special project) plus you have the extra armored trance sea formers and some base facilities. I've only done the Pirates solo, and I don't build too many warships early in solo play, I want to spread my pod popping out as I gain better techs. As I said, we had a great thread on that in December or January.

[jtsisyoda]

One thing I worked out was a time-efficient way to raise land. Meaning, what gets you lots of high land with relatively few former turns. This is for a situation where you have lots of crawlers and lots of space. Time (or former-time) is your limiting factor. If space or crawlers are your limitation, that's different.

Assume a flat plain of solars and mirrors at zero elevation. Raising one square to 3K gives you 35 bonus energy from elevation in a 5x5 mountain. That costs three land raises in the middle square. It might be tempting to raise one/some/all of the surrounding 2K tiles, but actually you get more for your former-time by moving several (say four) squares orthogonally and raising another zero elevation up to 3K. This gives you a bumpy ridge:

11111111
12222221
12322321
12222221
11111111

Where exactly to raise your second peak is another question of space vs. time. I prefer to make the peaks four apart as above. It's a decent trade-off, because per peak, it gives you eight new 2K squares (plus a 3K) and minimizes the number of 1K squares.

When you run out of space for 3K peaks, you have mostly 2K land, which you can raise to 3K at your leisure. (Like when you get clean formers.)

Edit: As far as solars and mirrors, the first mirrors go on the ridge, with solars on both sides. Then with more peaks, you can do the alternating rows described in previous posts.

[johndmuller]

jtsisyoda, it would seem that one could get even better value by simply raising the tiles one by one starting as you do by raising the first peak to 3K, and then proceeding 1 tile at a time (with only 1 raise per tile needed to get it to 3K) to your second peak. That way, in the same 3 raises (that you would be making to raise your 2nd peak from zero to 3K), you get all the same effects except that the between-peak tiles are all at the 3K level as well instead of just your 2 peaks.

[jtsisyoda]

I knew that.

[Skanky Burns]

[b]E stands for Emirrors, X for solar[/b]					
e x x x e
e x e x e
x x e x x
e x x x e
e x e x e
x x e x x
[b]The bonus energy for each square[/b]					
0 3 1 3 0
0 4 0 4 0
2 4 0 4 2
0 4 2 4 0
0 4 0 4 0
1 3 0 3 1
Total = 53
Mirrors = 12

_____________________________________________

[b]E stands for Emirrors, X for solar[/b]					
x x x x x   e x e x e
e x e x e   e x e x e
e x e x e   e x e x e
e x e x e   e x e x e
e x e x e   e x e x e
x x x x x   e x e x e
					
[b]The bonus energy for each square[/b]					
1 2 1 2 1   0 4 0 4 0
0 4 0 4 0   0 6 0 6 0
0 6 0 6 0   0 6 0 6 0
0 6 0 6 0   0 6 0 6 0
0 4 0 4 0   0 6 0 6 0
1 2 1 2 1   0 4 0 4 0
					
Total = 54, 64
Mirrors = 12, 18
________________________________________

[b]E stands for Emirrors, X for solar[/b]					
x x x x x   x e x e x
x e x e x   x e x e x
x e x e x   x e x e x
x e x e x   x e x e x
x e x e x   x e x e x
x x x x x   x e x e x
					
[b]The bonus energy for each square[/b]					
1 1 2 1 1   2 0 4 0 2
2 0 4 0 2   3 0 6 0 3
3 0 6 0 3   3 0 6 0 3
3 0 6 0 3   3 0 6 0 3
2 0 4 0 2   3 0 6 0 3
1 1 2 1 1   2 0 4 0 2
					
Total = 52, 64
Mirrors = 8, 12

It seems having a row of mirrors with solars on the outside gives you the most bang for your buck in terms of energy per mirror.

[Kody]

Glad to see someone found the spreadsheet useful

[Skanky Burns]

Many thanks.

Interestingly, mirrors only affect solars within a certain distance height-wise. I built an energy park on the uranium flats and covered it with crawlers now. Then started the operation to raise the height from just above sea-level to 3,500m, starting with the square in the middle. Weirdly, this square was only producing 5 energy despite having no less than 6 mirrors around it. They were at a height of just over 2,000m though. Raising the square next to the recently raised central square however seemed to do the trick, my crawler was now sending back 11 energy.