Flagship Energy Management

From Star Control - Official Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Combat Dynamo vs Shiva Furnaces

Even though the Shiva Furnaces are more advanced than your standard Combat Dynamos, it's not always a good idea to replace all your dynamos with them. Shiva Furnaces and Combat Dynamos actually don't do quite the same thing.

Dynamo Units affect the delay between recharge of your energy, while Shiva Furnaces affect the amount of energy gained each recharge. The energy regeneration counter starts at 10, and every Combat Dynamo adds -2, to a minimum of 4. (so having more than 3 dynamos is never useful). This counter specifies the number of frames in between recharges that there is no energy recharge.

The energy regenerated per recharge starts off at 1, and every Shiva Furnace adds +1. There's no maximum to the number of furnaces other than the number of free slots on your ship..

Put into a formula:
energy per time unit = (#furnaces + 1) / (1 + 10 - 2 * (min(#dynamos, 3)))


To get the fastest recharge rate for a given amount of RU, follow this guideline:

  • Under 4000 RU: 1 dynamo
  • 4000-11999 RU: 1 furnace and 0-3 dynamos
  • 12000-13999 RU: 2 furnaces and 2 dynamos
  • Over 14000 RU: 3 dynamos and 2-12 furnaces


To get the fastest recharge rate for a given number of available slots, follow this guideline:

  • 4 or fewer: All furnaces
  • 5 or more: 3 dynamos and 2-12 furnaces


The table below shows the average amount of energy generated per second:

  Shiva Furnaces
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Dynamos  0  2.2 4.4 6.5 8.7 10.9 13.1 15.3 17.5 19.6 21.8 24.0 26.2 28.4 30.5 32.7 34.9
1 2.7 5.3 8.0 10.7 13.3 16.0 18.7 21.3 24.0 26.7 29.3 32.0 34.7 37.3 40.0
2 3.4 6.9 10.3 13.7 17.1 20.6 24.0 27.4 30.9 34.3 37.7 41.1 44.6 48.0
3 4.8 9.6 14.4 19.2 24.0 28.8 33.6 38.4 43.2 48.0 52.8 57.6 62.4

Alternatively, here is a table of slots/dynamos:

  Slots used for energy regeneration modules
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Dynamos  0  2.2 4.4 6.5 8.7 10.9 13.1 15.3 17.5 19.6 21.8 24.0 26.2 28.4 30.5 32.7 34.9
1 - 2.7 5.3 8.0 10.7 13.3 16.0 18.7 21.3 24.0 26.7 29.3 32.0 34.7 37.3 40.0
2 - - 3.4 6.9 10.3 13.7 17.1 20.6 24.0 27.4 30.9 34.3 37.7 41.1 44.6 48.0
3 - - - 4.8 9.6 14.4 19.2 24.0 28.8 33.6 38.4 43.2 48.0 52.8 57.6 62.4

Energy Usage

The different weapons use different amounts of energy when firing.

For the primary weapons there is a energy usage of 1 unit plus the energy usage of each of the guns (2 for Ion-Bolt Gun, 4 for Fusion Blaster and 6 for Hellbore Cannon) plus 3 units for each Auto-Tracking System.

The Point-Defense Laser weapon system, The Flagship's secondary weapon, uses 1 unit of energy per module when firing.

See also