When the station is very heavy, it becomes extremely difficult having enough mass to reach the desired velocity. This is the same reason why there's a total payload limit for rockets and given a technology there is a maximum theoretical limit of payload to orbit.
This is no different.
Unfortunately, once you build to many thrusters, they become too hungry, because now not only your objective is to reach the asteroid belt, but to reach it in 24 days. It should still be possible, but the solution at convergence might require A LOT of matter.
I should implement a way to reduce the thrust and change the parameters of the trip, but I'm not very good with UI.
When you travel you cannot harvest matter, so depends on the matter consumption of your station how much matter you need.
The calculation only takes into account matter for the engines.
Furthermore, when you get away from Earth there is no shadow anymore, but the sun shines less bright if you go far away. One has to account for that as well...
it might be either a crash or a hangup to the pause. If energy is not changing but button work it is probably because the game time has been paused and has to be resumed.
In the coming update I will make the resume button available and might solve these strange cases.
eheh but why are you insisting Idyaceina? I'm not forced to implement your feedback, and some people liked the system you don't. To each its own.
And by the times you're back you could have mastered this game! :P
It's a game with quite realistic physics and units. kWp has a specific definition. I could put an average, but it's part of the essence of the game and challenge to ether resist to urges or to make a couple of calculations. In space, physics rules and the wrong move can be very risky. It's not a mindless upgrade game.
It's a science based game, there's a reason for some features. Don't be afraid to fail and start again. Life is hard, at least here we get a restart.
There is a day-cycle, for this reason the peak power has to be quite greater than the average consumption power
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If you orbit against a body that casts a shadow, you will not be able to constantly produce at peak efficiency. Just like on Earth, but even more extreme.
Dear Minerva, you truly are wise. Thank you very much for the toughtful comment.
Your travel idea is very similar to how it works, it is slightly more complicated because it takes into account the Rocket equation with an hypothetical nozzle velocity and the orbital requirements to reach escape velocity (which are not 100% adjustable).
Right now is the amount of engines that decides, so it might land in the situation that too big a station it starts to be near impossible to move, and too many engines might be too hungry.
The idea of having all matter at hand is because you cannot harvest matter en route, there is no debris to scavenge before reaching the asteroid belt! The energy it is consumed en route, you don't need it all at one time. You might notice the requirement is in MWh and not MW ;)
It could be cool to have a slider to decide how much push the engines, because one should be able to decrease power, but I need a bit of help with the UI maybe. The same for the building queue, would be excellent and might try to work on it but I'm a bit afraid to clutter the space.
Humans already help, the building time is divided by log_2(#humans+1). Didn't want a linear advantage, I don't want to make come true the project manager dream of 9 women making a baby in 1 month :P
The research mechanics in my mind would be expanded later on, but the game stops before. Right now the cost advantage is given by the 0G nanofactories, that also divide the cost logarithmically (log_4)
Thanks again for the feedback. If you find time for another playthrough, having a leaner station and not overbuild engines helps.
Hi Deudanann, thanks for the comment! As written down, "There is a day-cycle, for this reason the peak power has to be quite greater than the average consumption power."
It is not unpredictable (it's a shifted sinus function ;P) you just have to test its limits and be careful in the expansion. It's a game after all! ;)
