PC Solar Bank: is it just for the silence?

Boidster

Boidster

Refugee
We finally got far along enough in a single playthrough* that basically all of our needs are met for eternity and we are all-but-invincible**. Now we are just doing completionist things, exploring all the weird and wonderful Compopack POIs, and spot-landing our gyrocopters on zombies' heads as we wait for A20. BM is on 3 days +/- 1 to keep us busy and provide an ammo sink. My co-op partner, unbeknownst to me (the engineer of the group), maxed out Int just to get the max bartering perk and with that the ability to see the deepest bowels of Trader Rekt

's Secret Stash. Lo and behold, solar panels started showing up at most traders.

Okay great, we bought a solar bank and a couple of panels to play around with them and...what are they for? Is it just for the relative silence and to avoid refueling? At 41,000 dukes per solar panel, it seems like they are a bad investment. We stashed away ~400,000 dukes and stopped selling all but the most expensive loot to the trader. We just didn't need money from selling leather armor and redundant schematics. Well now if we're going to kit out a few solar banks @ 246,000 dukes each we better get back into the trading game!

Our base is fully electrified, powered by three generators deep underground. I struggle to find an incentive to go solar, except as a late-game money sink. Have we missed something crucial that makes solar banks worth the investment? Just silence + no refueling?

* We've played probably 30 or 40 maps stretching back to 7D2D Console Edition, but we play slowly and restart so often that we've never really made it to what passes for "end game" until this playthrough

** Relative to our hard-but-not-nightmare difficulty settings, of course; we like a good fight and the occasional hasty retreat, but mostly we explore & build

 
Silence is golden.

Some people, like myself, don't like noisy generators , and if it wasn't for my "no-trader" playstyle, i'd use solar , at least for everyday use.

Maybe switch to generator for horde nights.

edit: Also, once setup, solar is also "Setup and forget".  No more worries about fuel.

 
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Kattla said:
Silence is golden.

Some people, like myself, don't like noisy generators , and if it wasn't for my "no-trader" playstyle, i'd use solar , at least for everyday use.

Maybe switch to generator for horde nights.

edit: Also, once setup, solar is also "Setup and forget".  No more worries about fuel.
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Similar to how I go about it.  Once I get solar banks / batteries / cells going, I stop using the generators so I don't have to fuel them anymore (and reduce my gas consumption).  Early game, once I have battery banks I recharge them using generators until I get solar up and running.

 
I do tend to bury my generators underground so I don't have to listen to the droning. But we don't use battery banks at all, just direct feeds from the generators. We smelt batteries for bullets! We do have a chest full of 5's and 6's in case we ever find a use for them, which I guess now we have found.

I guess we can prioritize accumulating wealth again so we can power our zombie murder playground with clean energy. We do plant a lot of trees, too!

I can go test this myself of course, but will a fully-charged battery bank full of L6 batteries power the same amount of stuff as a 6-engine generator, and can it last the entire default nighttime of 10pm-4am? I don't want the Murder Emporium's Hall of Welcoming Blades to spin down right as it's getting interesting...

 
Lets say at horde night batteries are nice but one half of the advantages is moot. You wont hear the generator when 50 zombies moan and an m60 puts holes into the air.

The best value for that money you will get if you had electrified your lights, doors or defenses in your crafting base and power those with solar/battery.

 
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I think half the issue is that the generators are just way too low maintenance.. you drop by once a month to pour some fuel in. There isn't really a reason to use anything else. If they were a lot less reliable (somehow, maybe just turning off randomly once a day), there would be a reason to chain a battery bank and eventually upgrade to solar.

 
I have never found a solar panel before I got bored and started a new game. I always wanted them because I don't like generators. They use fuel and even though it's just a game, I imagine them making a lot of noise and stinking up the place with fumes.

 
ElCabong said:
I have never found a solar panel before I got bored and started a new game. I always wanted them because I don't like generators. They use fuel and even though it's just a game, I imagine them making a lot of noise and stinking up the place with fumes.
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You can´t find or craft them. You need to buy them. But you need better barter at 3 or 4 to get them at the trader and they cost a ton of dukes. Don´t forget the solar bank, you need it to put the panels in.

 
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I wouldn't use solar for a horde base, but I like to use solar to keep the defenses running at my home.  No need to run generators to kill all the wandering hordes/screamers (and I get a lot of screamers...once they start showing up I tend to get a constant stream of them...granted, my current base is a little light, only having 3 forges and 3 cement mixers running non-stop, so they only show up 4-5 at a time now, with a little break in between.)

 
Well I wonder why we dont have windmills with all the alternators and gears we find. You can make a pretty effective vertical windmill with 2 empty 55 gallon barrels. an alternator and some gears and some metal pipes.

 
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Yer bein robbed!  Get the barter perks for cheaper panels.

(like the point a .44 at his head.)

I get 1 bank to recharge the battery banks that run the lights and drawbridges.

(horde base uses generators, and gas is never an issue late game)

:D

(no, ya cain't SHOOT 'rekt, much as ya want too)

:p

 
Sometimes we like to use items not because they are the most "efficient" use of X resources.

When I build a base, I do go with generators at first because I don't have enough batteries or solar panels to setup an electrical circuit that is self-sufficient.  However, once I do, I like to go that route as my gas needs drop significantly (just vehicles and auger).  That reduces my trips to the desert to dig up oil shale.

The last base I made from the ground up, I made a generator room to support all my electrical devices.  Eventually, it transfered over to battery banks with a spare generator connected to several battery banks to recharge them (seems weird, but I found it mildly enjoyable to switch out fresh charge batteries from there and replace the ones in the banks supply the base).  Eventually, as I got solar panels, I switch the base towards 100% renewable (and because I was planning ahead, I used the battery banks for charging to support new electrical equipment I was bringing online).

Most efficient?  Probably not, but definitely was enjoyable when I was playing that base.

 
Boidster said:
He's got max better barter, plus a cigar. 41K for a L6 solar panel. Maybe I should sweet-talk Jen for a better price.
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Check the books. One gives you better prices if you have a .44 in your hand.

Oh, and the pumpkin recipies. One also gives better prices.

I pay in the 36k range with a .44 pointed at'im. 

(still expensive, but better)

 
I love solar power because I'm lazy and want to set it up and never think about power again. Therefore, one of my pet peeves is that they are sooooo late game and not craftable 😢 Please let us craft them again.

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We spent this weekend's play session flying around our map to the 11 traders looking for Q6 solar panels to get at least one fully-kitted solar bank to play with at the home base. We were wondering, since we mostly need the power at night, if it made the most sense to tie multiple battery banks to the solar bank so they would all charge up during the day (seems to take 6w each regardless of the quality of the batteries). Then we'd have a large store of available power over night. If one fully Q6 solar bank can charge, say, four fully Q6 battery banks in one day, then we really could run the horde base off solar+battery.

It definitely has given us a reason to spend our filthy lucre.

 
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