General Questions

[Sorrontis]

Is there a particle's limit? I'm maxing out at 6k, shared between blues & reds.

[Karsten75]

Yes, there is. I thought it was 8K, so perhaps ship hulls and virtual particles are included in that.

I can tell you that Virgil was hoping for 2-2.5K particles per map. :)

[Darkmega]

but I guess the ship needs more energy then can be supplied at once

Yes, that. in the general how to thread it says that the maximum energy that can be sent per second by a mine is 30 (or something around there) so having far too many ships around a single mine will slow the rate at which the mine sends energy to all the ships cause it can't cope. So placing a few out of range so a bunch of energy goes first to a tanker, and then out from the tanker to units not trying to be sent to by a mine (since ports also have a max of 30 to send) can let you be a little bit funky with what gets energy from what so to spread the fleet out so everything can get enough of it. :V

Is there a particle's limit? I'm maxing out at 6k, shared between blues & reds.

it's apparently depends on the map. but yes, there is a settable limit. Since there's a technique I see some use to snipe out emitters without them doing much cause particles are too busy taking up the spawns somewhere else and they sneak around and blow them up from behind. :D but that also means your particles will overflow and stop spawning aswell if you don't direct them to places they'll be useful and instead they have to time out.

Yes, there is. I thought it was 8K, so perhaps ship hulls and virtual particles are included in that.

I can tell you that Virgil was hoping for 2-2.5K particles per map. :)

D'OH, you sniped me, karsten. :V

[Xalos]

Yes, that. in the general how to thread it says that the maximum energy that can be sent per second by a mine is 30 (or something around there) so having far too many ships around a single mine will slow the rate at which the mine sends energy to all the ships cause it can't cope.

I thought the rate limit was that ships could only request 30 energy per second, but energy sources (mines, ports) could send energy at unlimited rates?

[Darkmega]

I thought the rate limit was that ships could only request 30 energy per second, but energy sources (mines, ports) could send energy at unlimited rates?

Thoughts on energy supply limits

Tankers won't supply anything in range of a mine, unless it is really starved.  That really only happens after the bridge is built, since bridge construction takes place at a regulated rate.
Tankers (ports) also have a limit of 30 packets per second.  If you need more, you have to get creative with additional tankers and possibly fleet arrangement.

The reason tankers don't supply ships in mine range is because it creates a situation where you are building a tanker and it won't fill up because it is trying to supply other ships nearby that you are building.  So it is 'reluctant' to supply ships in the range of a mine with energy.

For PF each command module is allowed to request up to 1 packet per frame.  They do that so the requests can all be sorted based on a whole slew of criteria.  That's where the 30 pps limit comes from.

I could have gone back for another sweep across "packets requesters", but decided the performance hit from that wouldn't be worth encouraging even larger ships.  So I left the natural constraint which encourages tighter ships.  In terms of lore, we might say that a single ship can only process energy so fast, hence the limitation and the resulting problem some large ships can have.

that. I think... the stuff I bolded. :V by saying "also" I think it's implied that mines will only send up to 30 points per second, each ship can only get a single point per frame. so the sending gets scattered and hence slowed around if theres more than 30 requests to get power in an area in a second. so a ship thats consuming energy faster than it can get it will never get fully charged up... unless you move stuff out and it can get all the energy quickly or you let it charge somewhere where it's not consuming a rediculous amount of energy first then send it back in in bursts.

[Relli]

Mega, that's almost entirely incorrect. Xalos has the right idea. To piggyback the quotes you used: "For PF each command module is allowed to request up to 1 packet per frame. That's where the 30 pps limit comes from." The limit is hard-coded into the bridge of each ship, not the energy sources. Have you ever built multiple ships or Omnis at once and seen that solid green line heading to each of them? If the energy line is completely solid like that, that's your 30 energy per second. Breaks in it occur when you're getting less than that amount, whether that's all it takes to fill the tank, or you're too starved for energy to give it its full value. Assuming you had the energy production to pull it off, potentially any number of ships should be able to get the full 30 per second from a single energy mine. I hope that helps clear things up a bit.
Oh, and as a bonus, 1 second is equal to 30 frames. So the "1 packet per frame" means the same thing as "30 packets per second".

[Tjgalon]

But if one ship is way to powerful, it possible to suffer energy drain on the ship due to the 30 packet rule, sorta like thor in cw3 when trying to keep all weapon going for to long.

[Darkmega]

then why have I witnessed fleets get power backlogged and certain super power hungry custom ships still having dark bridges perpetually when a large number of ships is in the general area and the power power store is still maxed and sending? :V is that just the ship eating more than 30 power per second? O.o maybe I'm just outright misremembering what I saw. Cause I thought there was an episode where shadeofdead hit that problem where he had to move a ship outside the power zone so that the tanker would send it power instead cause there was too much stuff trying to get power at once... unless he was just out of energy and the tanker was reluctant to use it's storage as a buffer cause it was in the zone... >_> ... yeah, maybe thats what it was... (shame on me, for thinking I know a thing or two just by reading some stuff and watching most of the videos out. :V)

[GoodMorning]

Because most small ship designs are very close to one or other of the stock ships, custom ships are often large. This makes it all too easy to build a design which can use more than 30 eps. At that point internal power sources are required.

[Ovalcircle]

This might be a stupid question, but what happens to  beta testers when the full game releases? Do we have to buy it or do we get it for free?

[Karsten75]

This might be a stupid question, but what happens to  beta testers when the full game releases? Do we have to buy it or do we get it for free?

All keys that have been issued are good for the full release of the game.

[Killer007lite]

Just wondering, where will all of the Exchange maps that have been made actually go?
Will there be an "Alpha Zone" like in CW3 or will they just stay there?

[Karsten75]

Most likely they will just stay in the Exchange.

[planetfall]

Will the soundtrack/CITG be available direct from kc? I have reservations about steam...

[knucracker]

It will...
Right now (while the 9 versions of the game are building), I'm actually setting up fastspring and all of the non-steam stuff.  The addon pack won't be there on Thursday, I won't make the deadline for that. But next week perhaps.  All depends on how much of the sky falls on Thursday :)