Energy

Energy is the electric energy stored by batteries. It is used for a variety of purposes as a safe but expensive resource.

Components

• Battery - Holds electric energy and makes it available for electric engines and Particle Cannons (PACs). Batteries hold 15,000 energy per cubic meter and scale linearly. Stacking batteries creates larger battery storage, which is necessary for electric engines.
• Electric Engine - Creates engine power when attached to a battery bank. They work off available energy, not max energy, so it's important to keep your batteries charged. Electric engines convert one unit of energy into one unit of power per second.
• RTG - Electric generator, creates free energy. Very expensive.

Game Mechanics

Energy has two main uses in From the Depths, ammunition for Particle Cannons and to power electric engines.

Electric Engine

Energy is a safe mode of power generation. It's not explosive like fuel engines and it doesn't create a massive heat signature like fuel or steam engines. This comes with the downside of it being less power dense than either of them. Additionally, energy needs to be created for electric engines, which will have to come from either a fuel or steam engine, or from the extremely expensive RTGs.

Particle Cannon

Particle cannons (PACs) use energy as ammunition. PACs are an expensive but powerful weapon that requires large amounts of energy. However, they don't require an electric engine to feed into PACs. While RTGs could theoretically provide enough energy to power a PAC, it is incredibly unlikely (and impractical) to do this. A fuel or steam engine will be required to create energy to power a PAC.

Plasma Cannon

Plasma cannons use energy as ammunition. ****More information needed

In Practice

Energy usage on a vehicle is rarely a primary form of power. They are useful for very small crafts receiving energy from larger ships or as a secondary mode of propulsion, but almost any design is going to have a fuel or steam engine as the primary mode of power generation. Electric engines are a useful form of secondary power but are rarely strong enough to properly power a vehicle, especially in a combat situation.

Large energy storage is almost always used to power PACs, with a powerful engine feeding energy back into the battery bank(s). The batteries can be anywhere on the vehicle, so it is often beneficial to place the batteries somewhere safer and away from the PAC.