RTGs need a buff

[Monthar]

Currently the stock RTG only produces as much power as the small flat solar panel, has a mass that's 3.2 times that of the shielded fold out solar panels, a Kerbuck cost greater than the large fold out solar panel and a crash tolerance lower than all the solar panels. Yes, it works all the time, but it still needs a buff for all the penalties is has.

My suggestion

Raise crash tolerance by 1 so it equals that of the solar panels. Reduce the Kerbuck cost to 1000 (shielded panels are 400 and the large is 3000). Raise its power generation to the same 2/sec than the shielded and unshielded solar panels produce. Reduce the mass from the current 80 kg to 50 kg (twice the mass of the shielded solar panels). This will keep solar panels as the better choice for cost and mass, while also making the RTGs more useful.

[stupid_chris]

RTGs shouldn't produce that much power. Really, you need a lot of mass for little power generation. 0.75/s makes sense. Their advantage is that however far you go, they still produce the same amount of energy, unlike panels.

[Vaporo]

I think the RTGs are fine. They generate power under any circumstances, and can generate just about as much power as you could ask for if you spam enough of them. What we need is a larger RTG to reduce part counts.

[Murph]

I agree with the other 2 responses. There's absolutely no basis in reality for having RTG stats comparable to solar panels. Relatively expensive, heavy, and crash-intolerant sounds just right to me, nothing obviously broken to fix about them.

A larger version of them, maybe as a 1.25m in-line part, would probably be a very good addition.

[OrbitusII]

Yep, I like RTGs as they are now but it would be nice to have something to go inline to fill out the part catalog in that area.

[MKI]

Yep, I like RTGs as they are now but it would be nice to have something to go inline to fill out the part catalog in that area.

Pretty much.

Overall power resource needs a look at before 1.0

Generally power runs out to fast, and batteries don't function like that in real life.

Regardless if they actually do change the power resource mechanic a larger sized power generator would make sense.

We did just add a bunch of new FX for explosions, so a nuclear reactor can't be much further away

[Joonatan1998]

Until the massless solar panels and batteries are fixed we can't really talk about balance of any electric parts.

[Starwaster]

Instead of raising RTG or solar panel output, battery capacity should be increased....

... and, possibly, RTG / solar panel output decreased. That's what Realism Overhaul does such that generators/panels/etc output is in joules and battery capacity is in kilowatt hours.

[Laie]

Well, an important part of the equation is that electricity tend to be very low on average. A vessel of 500 tons and a dozen reaction wheels can go along nicely on four RTGs and 4000 units of battery capacity. Actually, half as much would probably do, but might look scary at times.

The only need that really requires a lot of power generation is ion drives; any and all problems we currently have in powering ions with RTGs are perfectly acceptable to me.

[Random Tank]

Yeah, if anything electricity production should have a bit of a nerf... Or just changing. RTG's are fine as they are, if a bit too good, but as others say a bigger one in stock would be great (3e/sec but weighs 320kg with a bigger model would be alright).

The thing I think should change is that solar panels should follow the inverse square law, as they are waaaay too effective outer system, still providing plenty of power around Jool (which is really far away by the way); the only panel that should provide any noticeable power at Jool is the Gigantor (about 1-3e/sec though). Also, speaking of the Gigantor, it is massively heavy (350kg), and also has >9x larger surface area than the SP-W and OX-4L panels, but only produces 9 times the power.... It either needs a buff in the power generation or a reduction in the weight (I vote the weight, 200kg would be good)

Until the massless solar panels and batteries are fixed we can't really talk about balance of any electric parts.

Also, this. I agree ladders, fuel lines and maybe landing gear should be massless (as they can really throw off the CoM for basic, needed items), but batteries are basically optional, and one being massless makes the rest almost useless... And the solar panel? Well, do I even need to say anything?

[stupid_chris]

Until the massless solar panels and batteries are fixed we can't really talk about balance of any electric parts.

The nice part about that is that they did it intentionally. Ain't even an error.

[bartekkru99]

I saw some comments about bigger RTGs in there, you can use Near Future mods, they look pretty good and stock-alike. So until they add bigger ones, you need to use those in mods or stack a lot of stock RTGs.