Better explanation of elecricity production and efficiency loss.

[qwazzy]

I was quite lost on this topic today and only came to an understanding of how it works thanks to other players helpfully explaining it to me. The game's UI technically did have the puzzle pieces available to decipher the answer, but it communicates that poorly (in my humble opinion).

The trouble is that while the game does tell you of the efficiency loss associated with tying multiple claims together, it doesn't really explain or demonstrate where this takes place on any other part of the UI such as on generators themselves.

My example - my base was consuming 14.5 electricity (or mJ/s or whatever the term is, sorry, I can't remember) and my gas generator was producing 16, so I assumed it would be enough to meet demand and my steam generator would only kick on when the gas generator was empty. However, this wasn't the case and the steam generator was kicking on and using/wasting my firelogs.

Only after inquiring with other players what was going on was I made privy to the knowledge of how the efficiency loss worked. At 10% loss, my generator was only providing 14.4 electricity, which was slightly less than the current consumption, which I guess is why the game concluded it needed help from my steam generator.

One could look between the power grid panel and the generator and figure this out, but I argue it's still confusing - if you want to be technical, sure, the gas generator is indeed producing 16, but that can make less informed players (like myself) conclude that 16 is what I was getting, and not the lesser 14.4 mentioned by the power grid. If a modifier is going to enter the equation, I personally think it would be fair for the game to consolidate that information onto one place.

For example, instead of the gas generator saying: "Current generation 16"

It could say: "Current generation 14.4 (16 max X 90% efficiency)"

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All this to say, the information about how this electricity generation works is technically there, but it requires some puzzling out by a player if they're not already informed about how the mechanics work. I think there's better ways to communicate that info to the player than how it is done now.

Or to put it more basic: I think it's an understandable confusion on my part to see "my gen is making 16 so that should be enough" when in reality I was getting less than that.

Hope I don't sound like I'm being petty about this. It just had me scratching my head for a bit trying to figure this stuff out ingame and I'd feel better knowing other players wouldn't have to go through the same process of confusion.

[ai_enabled]

Hello!

You're right. I wonder why nobody reported this earlier.
I think we need to provide some power grid stats right in every power producer/consumer window (in the "switch" add-on near the top-right corner) so players will know how much power there is in the grid and its efficiency, and with this data, we can also display the actual generation amount of the building (adjusted by taking grid's efficiency into account) like you've proposed here:

Current generation 14.4 (16 max X 90% efficiency)

Thank you!

Regards!