[0.9 Staging-1515] Power generators work in binary, while they should scale production based on demand

[ThePiachu]

Power generation in the game before you get into renewables means burning something to get the power. However, unlike in games like Factorio or what have you, the fuel consumption of a power generator doesn't scale with demand - the generators are either completely on, or completely off. For example - coal generator with 1 street lamp:

100W consumption, a stack of coal runs out in 1 hour:

10 Street lamps:

1kW power consumption, a stack of coal still runs out in 1 hour:

This forces you into a few things:

• Run all of your machines at the same time and don't leave them crafting overnight unless you can max out the power
• Create a communal power production facility so the load can be more balanced between everyone, which is hard before you get into Industry / Electronics with the Transmission Pole and you'd have to mess around with some taxes for power consumption

It would be much nicer if the power producing machines scaled their fuel consumption and waste generation based on the actual consumption so you wouldn't have to worry about leaving a small power consumer on wasting 90% of the generator's fuel.

1) Version 0.9 Staging-1515

2) Steps to reproduce

• Create a fuelled power generator
• Hook up a single street lamp to it, note down how much fuel it consumes
• Hook up a lot more street lamps, the fuel consumption stays the same

3) Expected behaviour

• Fuel consumption should scale based on load

4) Actual behaviour

• Generator produces 100% power when running, consuming 100% of the fuel input rate, regardless of the load

[D3nnis3n]

Very good point, but rather a suggestion.

[elfl0rd]

As far as I remember, they initially worked dynamically, but then were changed.