Generator... a real bummer

[Man_In_The_Purple_Hat]

I see a lot of people saying that generators are useless. I thought they were supposed to be.

 

I thought they were supposed to be that shiny rock in the pile that you kill yourself trying to get.

 

Just... another way to die.. ^.^

DING DING DING we have a WINRAR! haha in all seriousness though I see people talking about using solar cells, and the solar cells in calculators...really lmao that's a bit silly , one thing that could be done about solar panels is that on some street signs there are actually pretty decent sized panels powering them, (not sure if they were around like that in the 90's but meh work with me here lol) and maybe the 'best' place I've seen panels that are about 3 by 5 feet in size are by the railroad tracks actually! they power the wheel greasers for passing trails and i believe there is 1 set of wheel greasers every 2 to 5 miles of track (just from what I've seen on the tracks in Maryland, id walk up and down them as a teenager with my friends for miles and miles, I'm no train expert )

So thats just something to think of on the whole solar panel thing. Now for generators, there not a great idea in a zombie apocalypse anyways and I think they have done a great job with them in game, there loud and attract zombies, you gotta fill them very frequently, and the only reason you'd even use them is for lights and the fridge/oven that's about it. as for using a generator to power a gas station to pump gas you gotta remember,you need to have the register working too, or have a working debit card thats you have the pin to or a credit card thats yours or that you know the persons zip code, so thats quite a pain in the ass really, BUT!!! this opens a new idea! a new job could be added during the character creation section. A gas station worker, I worked at a gas station as an assistant manager for like 4 years and had to get my C-class pump operators cert while working there and I knew how to power the pumps back on using the control panel in the back and this ist just a tiny little computer, its like 6 feet tall and 5 feet wide and has tons of little lcd screens and buttons, you get the idea, but if the job was added in you character would know how to use it, and you could essentially hook a generator up to the station and re power the pumps on and set it to a "free pump" mode so you can pump as much as you need, till the underground tanks ran out which is (if i remember correctly) was like 55,000 gallons lmao, and theres a printer that can tell you how much is left in each holding tank for each type of fuel, something the gas station worker would know how to use and where is located/what it looks like. wellp hope you guys like the idea, id like to here your feedback as always, haha I have like 1000's of ideas for the game and and what I really like about TIS is that you guys actually listen to us, unlike a lot of game devs, so thanks! and thanks for filling my head with all these damn ideas haha, i feel like my brains gonna pop sometimes

[CaptKaspar]

 

I see a lot of people saying that generators are useless. I thought they were supposed to be.

 

I thought they were supposed to be that shiny rock in the pile that you kill yourself trying to get.

 

Just... another way to die.. ^.^

DING DING DING we have a WINRAR! haha in all seriousness though I see people talking about using solar cells, and the solar cells in calculators...really lmao that's a bit silly , one thing that could be done about solar panels is that on some street signs there are actually pretty decent sized panels powering them, (not sure if they were around like that in the 90's but meh work with me here lol) and maybe the 'best' place I've seen panels that are about 3 by 5 feet in size are by the railroad tracks actually! they power the wheel greasers for passing trails and i believe there is 1 set of wheel greasers every 2 to 5 miles of track (just from what I've seen on the tracks in Maryland, id walk up and down them as a teenager with my friends for miles and miles, I'm no train expert )

So thats just something to think of on the whole solar panel thing. Now for generators, there not a great idea in a zombie apocalypse anyways and I think they have done a great job with them in game, there loud and attract zombies, you gotta fill them very frequently, and the only reason you'd even use them is for lights and the fridge/oven that's about it. as for using a generator to power a gas station to pump gas you gotta remember,you need to have the register working too, or have a working debit card thats you have the pin to or a credit card thats yours or that you know the persons zip code, so thats quite a pain in the ass really, BUT!!! this opens a new idea! a new job could be added during the character creation section. A gas station worker, I worked at a gas station as an assistant manager for like 4 years and had to get my C-class pump operators cert while working there and I knew how to power the pumps back on using the control panel in the back and this ist just a tiny little computer, its like 6 feet tall and 5 feet wide and has tons of little lcd screens and buttons, you get the idea, but if the job was added in you character would know how to use it, and you could essentially hook a generator up to the station and re power the pumps on and set it to a "free pump" mode so you can pump as much as you need, till the underground tanks ran out which is (if i remember correctly) was like 55,000 gallons lmao, and theres a printer that can tell you how much is left in each holding tank for each type of fuel, something the gas station worker would know how to use and where is located/what it looks like. wellp hope you guys like the idea, id like to here your feedback as always, haha I have like 1000's of ideas for the game and and what I really like about TIS is that you guys actually listen to us, unlike a lot of game devs, so thanks! and thanks for filling my head with all these damn ideas haha, i feel like my brains gonna pop sometimes

 

 

Great ideas!

 

Its great to hear from someone on this topic that actually has real working experience with this issue. If TIS implemented everything you suggested about the gas pumps, that would be super cool! Maybe overkill, but I like the idea!

 

Do you have any working knowledge on how long you could expect the fuel in the tanks to maintain its volatility? Gas in a jerry can is only good for maybe 3-6 months without a stabilizing agent added to it. Every winter when I winterize my summer toys, I need to take this into account. I imagine the tanks at the stations are designed to maximize the useful life of the gas/product they're selling.

 

However, I could care less about generators if there was another viable way to preserve food. A root cellar, canning supplies that actually spawn, salting or smoking meats, etc. I only use generators to power my fridge for this purpose.

[Man_In_The_Purple_Hat]

Thanks! yeah it may be a bit overkill but would be pretty awesome . now when it comes to fuel stability I believe when fuel is stored in 55 gallon drums all the air is pumped out and is vacuumed sealed meaning its good for i think like 5 to 10 years? this is all things I've heard about from my dad and grandfather, I'm not sure 100% on it though. now for gas cans i think the fuel is good for 6 months but with a stabilizer it can last well over year or so, just just depends on the stabilizer to fuel ratio. now for the underground gas station tanks I'm really not sure how long it lasts down there, we always need refills like every 2 weeks or more, just depended on business.

[ulfstein]

I haven't had the inclination to use a generator yet because i've barely find a use for them in real life even if the power is out let alone in a survival situation. I don't even use a fridge for that matter, but say if i was concerned about a refrigerater, what i would be concerned about is insulating the fridge than anything else. if you insulate it better than it already is, you'd only need to have a generator running for a couple minutes to keep something cold for the rest the day.

 

In this regard I would like to see deep freezers brought into the game. Growing up in the country, the deep freezer was our life blood as we would only buy groceries every few months, but have loaves upon loaves of bread and ground meat stored in that thing, and It would be fun to watch the bread thaw or get impatient and try to separate slices with a butter knife only to fail. That and they had the insulation to last at least a week or two without a generator.  Though we had about 200 gallons of fuel in the shed at all times, we only used the generator which was stored in a section of our garage to power the water pump, get the house warm, and listen to the news.  We never worried about fuel stabilizers either as even bad gas still burns though I wouldn't put it in my motorcycle or anything like that.

 

so yeah, I don't see generators being that useful to begin with, so i'm not concerned if they are not that useful in the game unless I wanted to do an endurance test.  Maybe in multiplayer where people may want to set up a base or architect gamers might enjoy them, but the only exciting thought I've had about them is powering a water tower.

 

As for the gas station though, I think you would only need power to get the gas from the pumps. i'd just hand pump it out of the underground tanks.

 

as for food preservation, i'd love to have smoked meats as an option or the option to make jerky, but I don't think that would be important until they add animals in which I think I recall hearing about. Another thing that will probably never happen is the use of cave. One of my lady friends took me out to a small cave in Kentucky that you could feel a constant flow of cold air coming out of it which was cold enough to work as a refrigerator.  It would also be nice to have natural springs somewhere on the map that you could do 100 gallon water runs with once they add trucks in the game, but these things are really just nostalgia from my child hood. At some point you have to just say hey, this is a game, why tiresomely try to emulate life or expect someone to create an emulation for you when you could just live life.

[Rathlord]

Good post Ulfstein, though it's worth noting most water towers use gravity, not power, to feed water to the surrounding area. Unless you mean actually pumping new water up into the tower, in which case you'd also need to power whatever water treatment plant it's sourced from. And that's a job a little too big for one residential generator

[Geras]

Caves are cool but I doubt they will ever make it into the game. At my latitude deep enough caves have a constant 4 degrees Celsius.

 

What we could use though, are lakes deep enough for thermocline phenomenon to happen. Without going into too much detail, thermocline means that lakes starting from a certain depth and below keep constant temperature (average annual temperature) as well. In Europe it's as shallow as a 7-8 meters in summer.

[ulfstein]

Good post Ulfstein, though it's worth noting most water towers use gravity, not power, to feed water to the surrounding area. Unless you mean actually pumping new water up into the tower, in which case you'd also need to power whatever water treatment plant it's sourced from. And that's a job a little too big for one residential generator

yes I meant pumping up the water. I even had a whole post about implementing a water treatment personnel profession and such related to it, but it fell on the way side.