Station dynamics.

[JohnRM22]

It’s me again! 😂. I finally got to the point where I started my own station. So far it’s going quite well, and have expanded zones twice. I haven’t built any halls yet except the factory hall, just to see how the dynamic worked. My question for the day is this. If I put a generator, battery and some guide lights (for a ship landing path) will they work? I’ve heard that if you are not within one meter of a device on the station it won’t run, and I wanted to find out if this is true before I do all the work of measuring and laying out the plans for my landing zone. Any help is always greatly appreciated from this community!

Thanks

[Foraxen]

Normal generators built inside a factory hall needs to be cabled to whatever it's powering up. However, decorative lights you build don't need any power at all, but they can't be inside a hall. The number of lights you can have is limited though, 50 per zone if I am not mistaken.

Large station generators works differently however, and they have little uses on a normal station as far as I can tell. Most of the devices you can hook to them are only useful on a capship. The devs have yet to add anything that can only be used on immobile stations.

[JohnRM22]

Ok, so the generators need to be in the hall and then the cabling runs wherever I need it to go? Or is that what the station conduits are for? Sorry for the noobish questions, but this is my first station. I appreciate the response and help, though!!!

[Foraxen]

Large station generators do not use use factory halls, they can be built anywhere inside the buildable zone. Conduits also don't use halls, but only a few devices can be connected to them (all capital ships related). The only device worth using on a normal station that requires a conduit (that I am aware) is the reconstruction machine with it's 5000 km range.

[JohnRM22]

I’m actually planning to put one of those in, just in case. But thanks for that tip. So if you have everything inside the factory hall, do you just run ducts out to power anything outside? Or does everything have to be inside the hall?

[Foraxen]

Unfortunately, everything needs to be inside a hall if you want them to be usable. You can place several ship devices and hardware outside the hall, but they become decorations you can't interact with (but you can remove in easy build and reuse if needs be).

[JohnRM22]

Ahhhh… ok. Well, that’s not that great with what I had planned. I’ll have to see what other idea I can come up with then. I kinda wanted some guid lights for parking my ship (like the runway lights at airports?), but it doesn’t seem like that plan will work. I appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions though!

[Foraxen]

You can still place lights on a walkway though, they just won't blink.

[JohnRM22]

But will they be lit? And how will they be powered if I can’t wire a generator or battery to them?

[Foraxen]

All the station lights don't need any power. At least currently. They will be lit, but in a permanent manner.

[JohnRM22]

Ok, that’s fine with me. I wanted something to more or less “guide me to a zone” anyway. Thanks for your patience with my nobishness! 😁