Immersive power overhaul

[audiodef]

I've often wondered about the power generators. Where do they get their power from? A gas genny that never needs a drop of gas? A windmill that barely turns and is barely off the ground that can power a whole building? And so on.

 

I'd like to see an immersive power overhaul that does away with these magical generators and instead provides solar panels, tall wind turbines, buildable hydroelectric generators - there's a river within the Sanctuary Hills settlement building boundary, for example - fusion reactors powered by cores, etc.

 

And someone else started a thread about sharing power between settlements - the above and this idea could be part of the same overhaul.

[jimmygitto]

DDProductions83, who I hear may very sadly have stopped modding for FO4, had a mod called craftable solar panels that is incredible. It's not a stretch to say this mod might have saved the game for me... Like you I was really annoyed at the magic fuel-less fuel generators and really wanted my sciency character to be able to make wind turbines out of vertibird props and solar panels out of all the high tech stuff around. And the ones he made were so good, they looked great, provided reasonable power, and even could be shut off and had an animation of them flattening down.

 

I just searched for it for you but it didn't come up. Stinks if he took it down, but I guess he might not want to support it anymore.

 

I posted about a mod for vertibird turbines, usable makeshift batteries, and fusion core generators too. Would love to see them. And hydro would be cool. Maybe a modder could use the water purifier as a base.

 

This mod is pretty great too, better windmills. Use the vertibird prop and have stackable supports.

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/17058/?

There is a mod out there that speeds up the wind turbine spin animation too, if you want it. (I think it would be cool if it changed speed sometimes with weather changes!)

 

There is also one that has "batteries" that are electrical switches that is pretty cool. Plausibly immersive. I am still hoping that someone will do the same thing with makeshift batteries.

 

Hope this helps. Mods make this game playable to me, honestly, I'm forever grateful to these talented folks.

[pra]

While I get the point, I definitely don't want to have to refuel generators. A pre-war fusion generator was running for 200 years, I think if you build one itself, it should keep running forever, too. Having it use a fusion core as a requirement would be a nice touch, though.

 

Otherwise, I agree: get rid of the standard generators. Instead, wind, solar, and maybe water generators should be the first ones you build, without any perk requirements. Maybe also a simple battery, which you craft using copper, lead and acid, which provides just 1 power (enough for the settlement beacon and some lights). Then, with more levels in the science perk, you can build advanced versions of said generators.

With the nuclear physicist perk, a simple radionuclide generator (AKA the atomic battery), which generates power from nuclear material inside of it. It would require you quite a bit of nuclear material and would be slightly radioactive, though.

Then, when you have science and nuclear physicist high enough, you may build the fusion reactor, which requires one fully charged fusion core. Instead of that core getting depleted, you could make the reactor require a new core if it has to be repaired to simulate that.

 

edit: here's a solar panel mod which looks good btw:

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/17168/?

 

edit2: or, ANY kind of actual power generator requires you to have at least 1 rank in the science perk. The settlement recruitment beacon would no longer require to be powered (maybe using one microfusion cell in it's recipe instead). This way, you would need to have at least some understanding of science in order to have working electricity in your settlements. If you don't know science, then you will live in medieval times.

Somewhat related:

https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/4701485-access-pre-war-powerlines/

tl;dr in some settlements, you could have access to pre-war powerlines, without the need to build generators yourself.

Edited October 27, 2016 by pra