I have seen several threads complaining that Nuclear Power Plants(NPP) simply do not compare to the production of the Solar Arrays (SA). Additionally, they complain that the cost of nuclear isn’t fair given its limited usability. From a cursory glance I can see why some come to this conclusion; however, careful analysis is necessary to get to the truth.
In an effort to make this easy to read, and avoid a long boring post that no one will read, I will be posting several chapters over the next few days analyzing the costs, production and efficiency of the solar array and nuclear power plant.
And while I am sure there will still those that I will never reach nuclear enlightenment, I simply feel the need to at least give everyone a opportunity. Bottomline, if you need more fields on your colony, and don't want to spend the credits to get them, nuclear will is the way to go. Today, we will look at the Solar Array (SA) and begin our journey to nuclear nirvana.
Analysis: Solar ArraysSolar Arrays (SA) are a cheap source of power. The formulas for their construction and production are very straight forward, and easy to understand. In fact, they are such a simply formula that a simple easy to read table can be found on the
Solar_Array wiki page. For all intents and purposes, this information could have been hard-coded into the game assuming space considerations were not an issue and BFG didn’t see the simplicity of using a formula.
Construction CostsI will spare you the details of explaining the formulas; just refer to the chart if you have any questions. Keep in mind that these values are cumulative so building a level 2 array is actually going to cost a total 187 ore, and a level 20 array has a total cost of 498,629 ore. Same with crystal level 2 costs 75 crystal and level 20 costs 132,939 crystal. A SA is a very inexpensive energy production facility; its limitation is the total amount of energy it produces compared to the number of fields it requires.
Energy ProductionOnce again the formulas for the SA are very cut-and-dry and the aforementioned table demonstrates it very easily. A level 2 SA produces 48 energy, and a level 20 SA produces 2,690 energy. There are no external factors that affect these numbers. No matter what slot you are in or what maximum temperature you planet may have you will never have a change in energy production from a SA.
EfficiencyBecause a SA requires no resources to operate its efficiency is affectively 1 or 100%, meaning that for every resource in you get 1 energy out, and at the moment this does not change.
Stay tuned tomorrow when we explore the costs of Nuclear Power Plants.