Generators - Low Tech Electricity and Lighting

Hey all, I decided to give an idea to expand the idea of a broken world of lost technology without going too far. This is not an immediate technology suggestion, but an idea for when farming comes out, a means of fueling it.

I think it'd be nice, for more industrial styled tribes, to be allowed to build and maintain a sort of salvaged generators made from more rare scavenged parts.

The purpose of electricity would be to power various facilities in the tribal area, which would first of all be electric lights, not like your basic lightbulbs in buildings, but large outward lights on stands that shine forward, like a sort of stationary spotlight. This gives an air of power to the tribe and helps them see enemies at their borders at night or shine light on important locations.

Now, let me just say, first of all, I do not think anything of a higher tech like this should be easy or hard to come by. I think it should take work. First of all, you've need to build it from parts, built from parts, built from scavenged pieces. Just more stuff to build. You need to scavenge some parts that would fit in a generate as well as basic scrap too. You then build the more finished parts which are ingredients in the larger parts, which then build the final generator. You need to get the feeling of a good bit of work being needing for this sort of thing so it feels gratifying. Having it just be a recipe requiring basic goods just makes it there.... that's no fun. Look at Fallen Earth, a lot of it isn't that great of a game (it's why we're here), but because you had to look for specifics to build the high tech, the better goods just felt like more of an accomplishment.

Secondly, the generator would have to be powered. This means adding in a still to create alcohol as a fuel source. Which also means, it will come after farming. You grow corn, process it into raw alcohol, and then fuel your generator. You turn it on and bam, you got yourself one fancy looking base! This would be something you'd be continuously maintaining and fueling, making it something you only turn on at times, only at night, or have the whole tribe working on.

Of course, giving out higher technology in this game should always include a non tech alternative for the more primitive tribes. A bondfire would be nice to give off more lighting, requiring sticks and such, which would take a bit to fuel it, but would be good for rituals and all that. I believe that there should be various forms of a low, medium, and higher tech alternative to various needs of tribes. To give a balance to living this game as you want, as a primitive, as a scavenging, and as an industrial tech tribe.

I had an idea for battery source also.. not as complex or deep with generators i think personally that is far to evolved right now..

Just start with simple things like, miner type head lamps, where u scavenge for glass, and make that melted down and reformed into bulbs, using scrap metals turned into fillaments for the bulb.. power the bulbs then with batteries made from fruit acids and wound copper coils etc. Just use containers of whatever seems appropriate to house the battery components..

would be more in line with starting out again and be a nice addition to night time with lighting..

Miner lights would be pretty cool to see, and scavenging batteries or finding a way to actually make them (vinegar always worked).

But yeah, generators would be for when farming eventually comes in after a while, not this close.

Electricity eh?
Good idea indeed, but think how electricity would change the post-apocalyptic world of Xsyon. If we had generators making energy it would justify players asking for things like electric tools, appliances, electric razorwires, tasers and all of other modern stuff you can imagine. I think the devs have excluded electricity from the world in order to prevent such things.
Now if electricity is in, imagine yourself as a dev browsing the suggestions forum. You see a topic where a player is proposing to make a wire controlled robot, all blueprints included and all the functions explained till the last detail. If you implement a robot into game it would greatly ruin the balance of the game, but how can you deny it if you have already implemented generators and electricity exists.
I think that we have to stick to Tribal tech level in post-apocalyptic world for some time and only if everything runs smoothly devs may implement a higher level of technology, which would be something in a medieval style because it is more easily handled in MMO.

That's it from me ...for now :)

Having electricity doesn't "justify" anything. Nor does it detract from post apocalyptic - in fact, it adds to it. Having shoddy little pieces of old technology is what post apocalyptic is. Rather, not having it adds to a feel of fantasy instead. Having crude salvaged technology jury rigged to work with whatever you can find is what a post apocalyptic setting is. If you deny what a post apocalyptic setting of any technology, you are creating an oxymoron of a setting. If it were to be no high tech at all, it'd have to be more than a decade or two after, it'd have to be many centuries later. And even with that setting, it makes no sense as to why not just make a fantasy medieval setting in the first place.

But yeah, tribal for now, we need to build our way into salvaging the technology. That's why this idea would work when they eventually get farming in, which will probably be quite a while.

I agree that electricity should be in the game at some point. The devs have said there will be definite tribe progression in terms of technology.

The way I see it is we start as hunter gatherers/scavengers, then we work our way up to be able to actually produce items from raw materials when the junk piles run up (this would lead to a more self-sufficient lifestyle than the previous hunter/gatherer because you know what needs to be found, how to process it, and everything), then we will advance to a form of agricultural society, then we may progress to an industrial revolution learning how to use technology to our benefit. That's just my ideas though.

I agree entirely!

The whole point of Xsyon is starting from scrap and progressing, or that's how the developers presented it. We're supposed to encompass several ages as the game goes on, and hopefully we'll see things like electricity and new (old) devices being formed as the game goes on.

I should however clarify that I do not believe the game is ready for it yet. In a few months time, after prelude perhaps, then it would make sense. We do have to consider an effective way to run the generator however. Coal powered? Wood? I don't suppose we'll be using gasoline. Running rivers perhaps, or wind mills. Something like that to keep it running.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Zarma

I agree entirely!

The whole point of Xsyon is starting from scrap and progressing, or that's how the developers presented it. We're supposed to encompass several ages as the game goes on, and hopefully we'll see things like electricity and new (old) devices being formed as the game goes on.

I should however clarify that I do not believe the game is ready for it yet. In a few months time, after prelude perhaps, then it would make sense. We do have to consider an effective way to run the generator however. Coal powered? Wood? I don't suppose we'll be using gasoline. Running rivers perhaps, or wind mills. Something like that to keep it running.

---

Oh definitely, we shouldn't get electricity for atleast a few years in-game, which time is 1/8th scale I believe. So 1yr in real life is 8yrs in game. I think we should start off with farming as our first advancement, which should only be accessable to tribes that are advanced enough to discover it. Then animal taming after to plow the farms and to "power" things like windmills (which would also be added along with water turbines) this was used to crush grain and the like for making bread I believe, then after that we may be able to use maybe Wood then Coal then Steam then Gasoline when we EVENTUALLY discover internal combustion engines.

Personally, I think as a post apocalyptic setting, we shouldn't progress completely in the normal path. Post Apoc is all about getting a little bit of tech ahead of time to boost the lower tech. Where we have crossbows and bows but have electric lights but nothing more being powered till later. The idea is to have bits and pieces to early to share that scavenged tech feel before the rebuilding. Where we must find rare devices before we can create it and let the technology flow. Bits and pieces along the way would bring this world to life in a far more interesting way.

Just because technology was discovered in a certain order in history does not mean it would take the same course in the PA. Who's to say that electricity would ever be discovered again, or the crossbow? Science may evolve from nature and we all forma type of Cobra-La society.

That is true, but I think for it to be a true sandbox we will get to chose how we want to progress.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Xidian

I think we should start off with farming as our first advancement, which should only be accessable to tribes that are advanced enough to discover it. Then animal taming after to plow the farms ..... we EVENTUALLY discover internal combustion engines.

---

I could see large scale farming being limited to large tribes with the land and labor to manage it, but in the long run, a homestead without a vegetable garden, a horse, a couple cows, chickens, and perhaps some honey bees, isn't much of a homestead :).
Far as the combustion engine... shouldn't we wonder what caused the apocalypse to begin with before we consider pollution-producing technologies? :D just sayin'...

Glad I searched rather than start a new thread. Figured I'll just give my idea of how electricity could work with this game:

I noticed other people keep mentioning farming has to come before electricity, and technically it does not. Electricity can be captured by wind or water currents so one could easily build a water wheel or a windmill out of scavenged parts that powers a little generator. You could scavenge pieces of wire, splice them together (extremely fast and easy to do in real life, so it makes sense here) and run them from the generator to anything that needs it, providing that generator is producing the right amount of power. Maybe there could be a 5th resource on junk piles called "electrical parts" or something along those lines. Bigger water wheels/generators could affect the total power output. The first things that we'd get should be basic, like lights, basic heater/ac, microwaves (assuming cooking will come before them), things of that nature. Later on (weeks/months) we "discover" how to piece together alarms, motion detector, or even some sort of communications tool (radio).

To those who think electricity should be no less than a year or two away would add to the realism of a post-apocalyptic setting: if you're trying to survive the fallout from an apocalypse that you were alive before the fact, and for multiple years you continue to fail to produce electricity, you will be at a serious disadvantage from anyone else that is competing for resources because they will likely try to get electricity themselves. Whether it's from a simple portable generator that runs on fuel, some sort of solar panel, or a mechanical means of production (water wheel, for example), an adult survivor should definitely be able to produce electricity or figure out a way into a working grid (finding a working power outlet somewhere, not that that necessarily applies here though). Our characters are supposed to be at least close to twenty years old around ~2012. Don't you think even people as young as 14/15 would have heard of generators?

Better use the alcohol for drinking and for motorbikes and small cars