Battery Behavior improvements needed
Batteries in their current form while incredibly useful have some major flaws making them actually detrimental to use on grids that use a fuel source and, inefficient on grids with renewable energy generation.
For instance, in their automatic mode they will intake all energy generated by the grid before then distributing it to the power consuming blocks themselves. On the surface that would seem fine however, batteries suffer a 20% energy loss from charging. This in turn means that any grid looses 20% of all the energy it produces the instant you add a battery system to it. Which is a very substantial loss in efficiency and extremely detrimental in any situation where your power is in limited supply.
I think it would be much better for the general user if batteries on automatic mode were to default to being the last to give power, as well as last to receive power, this not only nullifies most of the efficiency loss in vehicles using them as backup power but, also may make it moderately easier to automate battery function with this much more predictable behavior.
I think that batteries can still keep the higher priority to give or take when in recharge or discharge mode. as it makes sense in my mind at least.
additionally, it may be worth it to add a checkbox to the menus of power producing blocks determining if they are allowed to charge batteries, this can further prevent power waste from limited fuel power generators as well as let the player determine if the batteries in a grid are allowed to give power to other batteries.
Unless I misunderstand you, I think you might be mistaken about how batteries work. Batteries on auto only charge when there's a power surplus and discharge when there's a power deficit. They are best used either alone or together with renewable power like wind and solar. Using batteries with reactors only makes sense as an emergency power source in case the reactor is destroyed
Unless I misunderstand you, I think you might be mistaken about how batteries work. Batteries on auto only charge when there's a power surplus and discharge when there's a power deficit. They are best used either alone or together with renewable power like wind and solar. Using batteries with reactors only makes sense as an emergency power source in case the reactor is destroyed
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