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Moved to suggestions.

 

11 hours ago, Spracky said:

Next time you want to make a suggestion, make sure to put it in the Suggestions sub-forum :)

 

Always good to report the thread to be moved so we can do something about that. ;)

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Lol, now I gotta go find electrical power strips to plug all my stuff in?

 

I think the current system was designed for ease of use. It isn't hard to put an outlet where ever you feel like. The electrical lines in your house are all over and you can splice wires onto wires or onto your junction box and run a whole new wire on its own breaker. Then simply add the wires to a plug and you got juice. 

 

It might be cool to do later, Having a generator with a wire run to a home made junction box and then having wires run all over your house to different rooms to give them power. Kinda like Fallout 4. Though I think the nature of fallout 4 and its building system is more designed for that type of thing then this type of game. 

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I was thinking about this, and if the Devs got serious about electricity I think I would like this idea.

 

Mostly for one reason, amps. In the end, Solar, Wind, Water power are about the only thing you could rely on after the fall of humanity. Even gas stations would run dry eventually if not immediately. And siphoning cars would be dangerous in the long term. And eventually you would reach a point where it wasn't even worth it. 

 

So back to the idea. You can only run so much power and store so much power using renewable energy sources. So breakers and switches would be needed to limit power output to save what juice you stored in a battery for when it isn't windy or sunny. Or if you are using to much juice running a refrigerator and need to cut everything else.   

 

But also including outlets you would need fuses, breakers, voltage regulators, distribution panel and wires to make circuits for your home made power grid. Also if you wanted more then a couple power generator options like a generator, a windmill and batteries you could setup a transformer. And you could add things like a spinning electrical generator, steam turbine, 

 

In multiplayer, you could setup long electrical lines and players could actually run their own power plant and provide energy to others. 

Edited by Slice985
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4 hours ago, Slice985 said:

Lol, now I gotta go find electrical power strips to plug all my stuff in?

 

I think the current system was designed for ease of use. It isn't hard to put an outlet where ever you feel like. The electrical lines in your house are all over and you can splice wires onto wires or onto your junction box and run a whole new wire on its own breaker. Then simply add the wires to a plug and you got juice. 

 

It might be cool to do later, Having a generator with a wire run to a home made junction box and then having wires run all over your house to different rooms to give them power. Kinda like Fallout 4. Though I think the nature of fallout 4 and its building system is more designed for that type of thing then this type of game. 

Yes and fuses and tripped breakers.

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7 hours ago, Slice985 said:

I was thinking about this, and if the Devs got serious about electricity I think I would like this idea.

 

Mostly for one reason, amps. In the end, Solar, Wind, Water power are about the only thing you could rely on after the fall of humanity. Even gas stations would run dry eventually if not immediately. And siphoning cars would be dangerous in the long term. And eventually you would reach a point where it wasn't even worth it. 

 

So back to the idea. You can only run so much power and store so much power using renewable energy sources. So breakers and switches would be needed to limit power output to save what juice you stored in a battery for when it isn't windy or sunny. Or if you are using to much juice running a refrigerator and need to cut everything else.   

 

But also including outlets you would need fuses, breakers, voltage regulators, distribution panel and wires to make circuits for your home made power grid. Also if you wanted more then a couple power generator options like a generator, a windmill and batteries you could setup a transformer. And you could add things like a spinning electrical generator, steam turbine, 

 

In multiplayer, you could setup long electrical lines and players could actually run their own power plant and provide energy to others. 

all of this seems like something you would need an electrical skill to do so possibly a better use for that besides running a generator. 

 

5 hours ago, Zomboid said:

Yes and fuses and tripped breakers.

And then this would even make electrical skill even more valued so its not so optional or meh.

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9 hours ago, Slice985 said:

I was thinking about this, and if the Devs got serious about electricity I think I would like this idea.

 

Mostly for one reason, amps. In the end, Solar, Wind, Water power are about the only thing you could rely on after the fall of humanity. Even gas stations would run dry eventually if not immediately. And siphoning cars would be dangerous in the long term. And eventually you would reach a point where it wasn't even worth it. 

 

So back to the idea. You can only run so much power and store so much power using renewable energy sources. So breakers and switches would be needed to limit power output to save what juice you stored in a battery for when it isn't windy or sunny. Or if you are using to much juice running a refrigerator and need to cut everything else.   

 

But also including outlets you would need fuses, breakers, voltage regulators, distribution panel and wires to make circuits for your home made power grid. Also if you wanted more then a couple power generator options like a generator, a windmill and batteries you could setup a transformer. And you could add things like a spinning electrical generator, steam turbine, 

 

In multiplayer, you could setup long electrical lines and players could actually run their own power plant and provide energy to others. 

2 issues with this: not every player wants to take basic electrical engineering class to play PZ (which is why those skills are represented with a simple value on your character), and all these renewable power sources would not have been readily available in the mid 90's. They did exist, they just weren't wide spread.

 

That said, it would make for an AWESOME mod :D I like engineering :D

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2 hours ago, bobchaos said:

2 issues with this: not every player wants to take basic electrical engineering class to play PZ (which is why those skills are represented with a simple value on your character), and all these renewable power sources would not have been readily available in the mid 90's. They did exist, they just weren't wide spread.

 

That said, it would make for an AWESOME mod :D I like engineering :D

Go engineering! woooo! Still i like the idea of complex power and not so simple you place it and it works.

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11 hours ago, bobchaos said:

2 issues with this: not every player wants to take basic electrical engineering class to play PZ (which is why those skills are represented with a simple value on your character), and all these renewable power sources would not have been readily available in the mid 90's. They did exist, they just weren't wide spread.

 

That said, it would make for an AWESOME mod :D I like engineering :D

Well, I think one thing that could really help is to make the books actually readable. And put the tutorial inside of them. Have the Farming Advanced, Farming Master include that you need to find a recipe book for the pesticides, and how to make them. 

 

The Electrical book can also just show a simple drawing of how to run a circuit. Keep it basic, Power -> Wire -> Switch/fuse -> Wire -> End product. Then each level of book can add new concepts. the intermediate level can talk about distribution boxes, the advanced level can include batteries and power storage. The expert can include that you need to find magazines to make generators like a hydroelectric or wind or solar cells, and those magazines can simply include the formula for how to make those items and the voltage they produce and how to convert their power to electricity. And lastly the Master book can talk about how to make a Transformer/Voltage Regulator for converting high voltage for high end uses like an electric fence and transmission into usable power

 

See, if you break it down like that.. its not some advanced engineering class you need to take. But it does keep things realistic and also gives untrained people an idea of how electricity really works. 

Edited by Slice985
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Holy monkeys batman! You want me to actually READ those books my character is reading? How interesting. I think if there were widespread solar panels, or at least that one house in the whole city that bought them before they were cool, I'd like this idea a lot. Without a lot of options for gasolineless power I find it would be kinda tedious, especially with the new exciting freedom of picking crap up and moving it gives.

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11 hours ago, Demonic_Kat said:

Holy monkeys batman! You want me to actually READ those books my character is reading? How interesting. I think if there were widespread solar panels, or at least that one house in the whole city that bought them before they were cool, I'd like this idea a lot. Without a lot of options for gasolineless power I find it would be kinda tedious, especially with the new exciting freedom of picking crap up and moving it gives.

well remember, the game is set in the 80's.

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18 minutes ago, King jjwpenguin said:

Late 80's as a dev said somewhere. Need to try and fine the quote. Dont quote me.

Survival mode is the one considered canon by the devs. Starting date is July 9, 1993. Actually, all the scenarii start in 1993. Just go check ingame ;)

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On 3/26/2016 at 3:14 PM, King jjwpenguin said:

well remember, the game is set in the 80's.

That's about right. I live in the area and solar wasn't a thing around here. I'm sure "Someone" was doing it. But I never saw any panels. it would be the safest bet, but getting your hand on solar cells would be hard. You can make them easy enough, things like copper flashing and table salt and a CD case  or Titanium Dioxide. The power would be fairly low as Louisville is only moderately sunny.  But this would be a safe way of making a panel that wouldn't need a lot of work once setup

 

As for Hydroelectric, The McAlpine Lock and Dam is Hydroelectric on a large scale, but that's downtown... where all the zombies would be. I didn't see any small scale stuff, but most people have seen a water mill before which you can use as a base for it. the slow turning isn't very conducive for power, most real hydroelectric's are very small, they look like a drill attachment, hard to setup, but the Ohio River doesn't stop flowing. However this type of setup would be most likely to be damaged as debris floating downstream could wreck your setup. . 

 

But I did see a few Wind Turbines attached to the tops of buildings, so though rare it is something that was known in this area at the time and necessity is the mother of invention. It would also be the easiest to setup and the most likely to have faults due to a lack of wind. 

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Alternative energy is often discussed on here. Solar would be too weak to provide decent energy when taking into consideration the level of energy produced by 1993 era solar cells. Wind requires something pretty massive to be effective, not something 1 man can put together on his own in a world without heavy machinery. Same for hydro. All of these would also likely require new mechanics be implemented to manage their outputs since it would vary according to the weather.

 

Ethanol might be a better option. High level cook makes it, and an engineer can convert an engine to use it or something such. It's still a hard sell from a realism point of view but its easy to implement as a game mechanic.

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1 hour ago, bobchaos said:

Alternative energy is often discussed on here. Solar would be too weak to provide decent energy when taking into consideration the level of energy produced by 1993 era solar cells. Wind requires something pretty massive to be effective, not something 1 man can put together on his own in a world without heavy machinery. Same for hydro. All of these would also likely require new mechanics be implemented to manage their outputs since it would vary according to the weather.

 

Ethanol might be a better option. High level cook makes it, and an engineer can convert an engine to use it or something such. It's still a hard sell from a realism point of view but its easy to implement as a game mechanic.

 

Louisville never delved into alternate energy mostly because of Ethanol. It was very popular around here for awhile. I didn't mention it because its already sort of included in Hydrocraft. Its Bio-Diesel and not Ethanol. But similar.

 

Yes a solar cell would be difficult. But a wind turbine would not. I've seen small turbine setups on top of a commercial building running about 5 turbines. You can get a 5kw turbine which is about 18 feet in diameter which isn't way to massive, especially if you rig up a pulley system. or just grab a belt and cleats and climb a telephone pole and convert the thing into a base for your turbine. It would be a hell of a lot of work, but it would be high enough for good wind.  

 

*Edit: And you know that weird line that runs through the town on the map. That big band between West Point and muldraugh. Like a line was cut through it. Those were actually cut to support Powerlines. There are some very tall high intensity poles you could use there and they have clear area around them unblocked by trees. that is of course if you wanted to build yourself a house there lol. 

 

 

Edited by Slice985
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6 hours ago, Slice985 said:

 

Louisville never delved into alternate energy mostly because of Ethanol. It was very popular around here for awhile. I didn't mention it because its already sort of included in Hydrocraft. Its Bio-Diesel and not Ethanol. But similar.

 

Yes a solar cell would be difficult. But a wind turbine would not. I've seen small turbine setups on top of a commercial building running about 5 turbines. You can get a 5kw turbine which is about 18 feet in diameter which isn't way to massive, especially if you rig up a pulley system. or just grab a belt and cleats and climb a telephone pole and convert the thing into a base for your turbine. It would be a hell of a lot of work, but it would be high enough for good wind.  

 

*Edit: And you know that weird line that runs through the town on the map. That big band between West Point and muldraugh. Like a line was cut through it. Those were actually cut to support Powerlines. There are some very tall high intensity poles you could use there and they have clear area around them unblocked by trees. that is of course if you wanted to build yourself a house there lol. 

 

 

Well you have to remember how little solar power actually powers. I can make one now if i wanted but it wouldn't generate mucch more then enough for a small lamp daily and  bit more if the wind here keeps going.

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13 hours ago, King jjwpenguin said:

Well you have to remember how little solar power actually powers. I can make one now if i wanted but it wouldn't generate mucch more then enough for a small lamp daily and  bit more if the wind here keeps going.

 

You mention 2 separate power sources, i'll admit solar is a pipe dream in 1993, but wind has been used for a very long time, just not really for electricity, but power is power, just in a different form. A 2 kw wind turbine would run just about whatever you wanted. I mean, in all reality, all you would really want to power would be a refrigerator and a light. That's about 300-600 watts, depending on energy rating. the excess energy can be inverted and stored into batteries for when it isn't windy. Because that turbine will produce a whole lot more then what that refrigerator is using.  If you needed batteries, this game has Valley Station in it, about 4 miles north of that is Mill Creek which is a giant coal power plant. They would have to have some industrial batteries there for large scale usage. 

 

If you were really trying to survive the apocalypse, even in 1993, you could really have renewable energy to power at least one, probably more refrigerators and or freezers fairly easily. And because a freezer/refrigerator are sealed to keep the cold in, you wouldn't need to run it 24/7 either. A Refrigerator will keep food cold for about 4 hours and a freezer up to 48 hours when unplugged.  

 

And.. that's all I really have to say about that :)  

 

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On 3/29/2016 at 4:35 AM, Slice985 said:

 

You mention 2 separate power sources, i'll admit solar is a pipe dream in 1993, but wind has been used for a very long time, just not really for electricity, but power is power, just in a different form. A 2 kw wind turbine would run just about whatever you wanted. I mean, in all reality, all you would really want to power would be a refrigerator and a light. That's about 300-600 watts, depending on energy rating. the excess energy can be inverted and stored into batteries for when it isn't windy. Because that turbine will produce a whole lot more then what that refrigerator is using.  If you needed batteries, this game has Valley Station in it, about 4 miles north of that is Mill Creek which is a giant coal power plant. They would have to have some industrial batteries there for large scale usage. 

 

If you were really trying to survive the apocalypse, even in 1993, you could really have renewable energy to power at least one, probably more refrigerators and or freezers fairly easily. And because a freezer/refrigerator are sealed to keep the cold in, you wouldn't need to run it 24/7 either. A Refrigerator will keep food cold for about 4 hours and a freezer up to 48 hours when unplugged.  

 

And.. that's all I really have to say about that :)  

 

Side note, The fridge would actually last more like 12 hours and the frozen would last a good 60 hours on top of how fast food spoils.

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