Interesting developments in the quest to get power from my EM generators to my copper mining outpost. I measured the distance between my EM generators and the copper hotspot, 740u. I had resigned myself to building a new base at the copper hotspot and powering it with solar as the battery trick stopped working for me.
I built a new base at the copper hotspot, plopped down a thumper(they really are the ones form Dune, just bigger), and placed a supply depot at the very edge of the build radius facing my EM generator base. If I had to walk to get the ore, I was not going to walk that far.
It was when I placed the supply depot that I noticed both bases lined up, a straight shot between the two. This got me to thinking about the build radius again and the restriction on how close bases can be built to one another.
My original assumption was that the build radius served as delineation, if another base computer’s build radius would overlap an existing one, you could not build another. So I flipped my assumption: what if the delineation was not the build radius, but the base computer itself? I had built myself the perfect chance to find out.
I walked out into the space between my two bases and using the distance on the base markers as reference, I walked until the distance between the two bases was more or less even. Then I built a third base computer.
It worked. I was able to claim the land between the two bases. Here is the awesome part: the build radii of all three bases overlapped and I can now build wires/pipes between all threes bases. The bad news though: once a wire reaches the build radius of the next base, power stops flowing.
I’ve tried building a powered wire to the edge of one base and then building a connection wire from the other base; still no power. However. There is a Power Inverter you can unlock which “toggles the flow of power when used”. It’s a long shot, but I’m hoping that I can use the inverter to bridge the gap between the two bases and get power flowing.
I’ll need to unlock the part, so stay tuned. This is getting good!
Building a power inverter at the point where power stops flowing between the two bases allows the power to flow across! I just charged a battery at my middle base using the EM generators from my first base.
There is a visual glitch with the battery though, even when the battery is charging or is fully charged, it will still flash red and have a red lightning bolt above it. Checking the batteries menu will confirm that it is connected to the power network. This seems to eventually go away though.
Now I’m currently (pun!) unable to get power to flow from the battery to a new wire, but that problem will have to wait until tomorrow.
I have not, unfortunately. I forgot to add this to my bug list. Currently, all regular doors on all of my bases are unpowered and are open with blinking red light where I can’t get a wire to connect.
I was initially so frustrated with the current state of Beyond that I intended to take a long break until things were much more stable. Well, just a few patches later… I caved. Still heavily struggling (with much cursing) over the unchangable controls, but at least it’s no longer constantly crashing and is running at almost Next framerates again.
Anyway, I finally got my base fully powered. Ultimately ended up building 3 linked generators on a C-class electrical hotspot about 700 units away and running a single long wire back (atop a couple pipe-towers on both ends). I first extended the base building distance by walking towards the hotspot and dropping lamps whenever it would reach the edge. That gave about another 50-100 units to build each time. Once done, I was able to connect and walk the wire back the whole way without it dropping. I even deleted all the lamps without issue. I dunno if this will cause multiplayer problems when uploading, but it’s working great in single-player.
As for doors, they close when they’re powered. You gotta use the inverter+switch method mentioned above to toggle the power off. If you can’t connect wires to the door, try deleting and rebuilding it. I had to do that on some lights to make them connect. I also encountered some scary “construction limit” messages, but fortunately those were eliminated by raising base complexity to high in the graphics settings.
Ditto, I was initially unhappy with the power addition, but Im slowly getting back into it. I have tested my old save from (i think) just before Next, whenever the last reset happened and changed the planets. Its working just fine. But I still havent been to the Nexus.
A tip for prefab base part users:
I mentioned this in the “BEYOND Tips” thread but just in case; everything you connect via coordinator or stacking base parts are automatically wired together and auto power everything inside (mostly), and seem to have an outside radius as well, so you can power containers and lights without needing wires.
I am like whatever…who wants to go to the trouble of hiding wires. I am building power poles. Just like real life, it is cheaper and easier and uglier.
An annoying but kinda good update. I’ve found that you don’t need a power inverter to get power to flow across build radii. You just build wires, however there is a bug where the power will randomly flow or not flow through the wires. I discovered this when I built a wire segment from one side of my connected battery, which glowed blue, and then built a connecting segment which did not glow at all.
I started testing this out by building and deleting wires and they would let power flow or block it randomly. I’m going to open an ticket with HG about this. In the meantime, Praise the Sun!
Too bad you can only get the Sphere Creator in creative mode. I have no idea why this is not available in all modes. It is typically useful for creations involving other players.
Still heavily struggling (with much cursing) over the unchangable controls, but at least it’s no longer constantly crashing and is running at almost Next framerates again.
I love it!