KSP 1.0.2 Battery charge levels and sci lab reseearch during warp

[RidiculousRichard]

Hello,

I've just managed to get to the Sci Lab in my first career game and noticed something that I initially thought was odd when using time acceleration and focussed on another vessel. It appears to me that vessel battery charge is not simulated while I am piloting another craft using time acceleration (which is most of time allowing for the acceleration). After I thought about it I've concluded that perhaps this is a deliberate optimisation to avoid slowing the engine down. Am I correct about this effect?

It may be a bit of a bore to have to sit there watching a huge battery slowly charge up (for long night locations) if I notice that it's low; is there a mod that improves this otherwise unexpected behaviour?

The next thing that occurred to me was to wonder about researching in the sci lab. I think it continues regardless which is convenient. Am I right about this or have I simply not been paying enough attention to the research level?

Does this sort of behaviour impact anything else of importance?

Thanks for your help,

Richard

Edited June 29, 2015 by RidiculousRichard

[Snark]

In general, most things in the game turn off completely when a vessel is "on rails" (i.e. isn't the currently piloted vessel, or within a small radius of it). Examples:

- Heat doesn't radiate or build up

- Electrical power stops (both production and consumption)

There are a few specific things that do continue in the background. Examples include resource mining and science lab research.

As to "why is it this way": It used to be that everything stopped when not in focus. With 1.0, a few new features were added that are time-based (e.g. resource mining and the new science lab mechanics), and for time-based features to work sanely, they need to continue working in the background. But the overall game wasn't overhauled to cover everything.

(And that's not just an oversight. There are some things that would be hard to model when on rails, for example heat flow, since that would suck up memory & CPU.)

[Randazzo]

When you are piloting another vessel, everything else is "on rails". This means other vessels will not gain or lose electric charge, or heat. The science lab works somewhat differently, as it's progress is tracked separately and the lab is updated to the expected science amount when you return to the vessel.

The exception to this may be vessels that are within physics range, but I'm not positive.

Too slow.

[RidiculousRichard]

Thanks for the fast replies; this is something for me to bear in mind to make sure the batteries are fully charged well in advance of a night-time excursion

Thanks,

Richard

[Nich]

this is obviously ripe for abuse. I SCI lab only need 1 solar panel and maybe 500 charge. Start research and switch to another ship. I as a rule of thumb force my self to put enough solar panels and batteries that it can run continously

[Randazzo]

this is obviously ripe for abuse. I SCI lab only need 1 solar panel and maybe 500 charge. Start research and switch to another ship. I as a rule of thumb force my self to put enough solar panels and batteries that it can run continously

It's the transmission of the science that's the big power hog. Running it isn't bad.