What's Needed?
A level 3 Material Production Workbench for processing iron and copper.
A level 2 Crafting Workbench for processing rubber, plastic, nails, tapes, etc.
A Research Table, Research Data, and 5 specific books for purchasing necessary perks.
Research Data can be obtained from paper boxes, cars, loot boxes, bookshelves, laptops, and loot bags dropped by dead zombies, or made from Leaves at the 2nd tab of a Crafting Workbench.
These are the 5 perks and their corresponding book requirements in matching colors.
Click on the picture for a better view.
To zoom in, press Windows key and + key.
To zoom out, press Windows and - .
To quit the magnifier program, press Windows and Esc.
Not all 5 perks have to be purchased immediately at once. The Senior Engineer perk, bought with the book, Polymer Chemistry from the research facility and with Research Data, is good enough to start making the most basic electrical components.
Here is a guide for getting those 5 books.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2537105692
Now it's time to make an Electronics Workbench, where electronic components are made. Although it's not immediately necessary, the workbench can be upgraded to level 3 for more advanced electronic components.
Some components for upgrading the Electronics Workbench are made in the first tab of the Electronics Workbench.
Same, check the 2nd tab of the Electronics Workbench for components for upgrading to level 3.
Build a Mechanical Equipment Workbench.
From the 1st tab of the Mechanical Equipment Workbench, make a Wire Connector, a tool for performing connection or disconnection between electrical devices.
Its ingredient, the Plug, is made at the 1st tab of an Electronics Workbench.
Electric Wires can be made from the 2nd tab of the Mechanical Equipment Workbench. With a Wire Connector in hand, they can then be deployed to connect electrical devices.
Now that all the related workbenches and tools are in place, it's time to connect electrical devices.
How To Set Up And Connect?
The Setup
This basic electrical system in this tutorial consists of an electrical device that generates electricity and a device that consumes electricity.
The Wind Power Generator in the following example is one among the 4 devices (Bicycle, Solar Panel, Fuel Generator) that can generate electricity. Its turbine blades need some clearance to spin; thus, do not place a Wind Power Generator too close to other tall objects. Like the Solar Panel, it can randomly break down from time to time by itself, requiring a repair with a Piece of Iron to function again.
When a Wind Power Generator breaks down by itself randomly due to time, sparks come out of it. The breakdown does no damage to anything. The Wind Power Generator merely stops functioning.
A Lamp consumes electricity to give off light.
When a Wire Connector is held, the output ports (green) and input ports (blue) of electrical devices will be displayed. Electric Wires are the "ammo" for a Wire Connector. With a Wire Connector equipped and some Electric Wires in the inventory, let's connect these two devices together.
The Connection
Aim at the output port (green) of the Wind Power Generator.
Hold down the attack button (left mouse button as default) for 1 second without moving the mouse.
A sound will be played to confirm a successful deployment of an Electric Wire onto a port.
Right now only one end of the wire is connected to the output port of Wind Power Generator. The other end will have to be connected to the input port of the Lamp to form a connected system. If you want to abort, press the cancel button (right mouse button as default). An Electric Wire is only removed from your inventory when both ends of it are connected.
As your character moves to the Lamp, the 3D model of an Electric Wire will follow. The 3D models of Electric Wires are only visible when a Wire Connector is held.
Aim at the input port (blue) of the lamp.
Hold the attack button for 1 second to finish the connection.
The Lamp now has electricity so it performs its task of illumination.
Notice that the order of connecting an Electric Wire doesn't matter. You can start from the input port (blue) of the Lamp and end at the output port (green) of Wind Power Generator.
However, matching the correct ports is important. Connecting an output to another output, or an input to another input, or a port of a device to another port of that same device, is automatically prohibited by the game. This is the reason why, even with a Wire Connector held, some ports are not being displayed.
How To Disconnect?
With a Wire Connector held, aim at any end of the 3D model of a connected Electric Wire, that is, either a green output port or a blue input port, and then hold the attack button for 1 second without moving the mouse.
Successfully disconnecting 1 end of a connected Electric Wire will automatically disconnect the other end, and that wire will be retrieved back into your inventory.
When an electrical device is demolished with a claw hammer, all wires connected to it will disconnect and be forever lost.
Chain Connection, Wire Limit, Extension, LED
A Lamp has not only an input port (blue) but also an output port (green). Although it generates no electricity. it can pass electricity out of its output port.
Therefore, a chain of connections can be made.
When doing connections, you'll notice that an Electric Wire has a distance limit of 100 units. Since many electrical devices have at least one input port and at least one output port, they can be used as relays to extend connections.
However, Extension Sockets are better for relaying, because they consume less electricity to do their job of passing electricity though (Power Consumption: 1 electricity per sec or 1 E/s), have a higher safety limit (Power Limit: 2500 E/s), and are cheaper to build.
I will explain those electrical terms in details in the later sections of this guide, but first let's look at the LED light of a port.
On the right, there is an LED light under the output port (green) of the Wind Power Generator, and it's lit.
On the left, the input port (blue) of the Extension Socket is also lit; however, the output port (green) of the Extension Socket is not.
So, the lit LED indicates that the corresponding port detects electricity passing through it.
Now we can set up examples to understand what Power Consumption means.
Power Consumption - Basic
The Setup
A connected system of a Wind Power Generator and Extension Sockets.
As indicated by the LEDs, the first 25 Extension Sockets successful did their job of passing electricity to each of their immediate downstream.
When an additional Extension Socket is connected, they all failed at their job, as shown by unlit LEDs.
Explanation
A Wind Power Generator generates 25 electricity per sec (+25 E/s). An Extension Socket, in order to do its job of passing electricity, consumes 1 electricity per sec (-1 E/s), indicated by its Power Consumption.
Enough +E/s is why the first scenario worked, whereas the second scenario failed due to total electricity consumption exceeding electricity supply.
Disappearing Electricity
There is a phenomenon - electricity can disappear into thin air. Take a lone Wind Power Generator for example. It generates +25 E/s, is connected to nothing, and does not consume any electricity. Thus, 25 E disappears into thin air every sec.
Don't confuse this phenomenon with Power Consumption.
Power Consumption & Standby Power
Let's start with something easier to understand. Take a look at a non-electrical trap - Cutter.
It comes with 100 charges for attacking, which can be reloaded with Branches. When it runs out of charges, it cannot attack. That means it has 2 states.
A state where it can attack by using its charges. I'll call it "secondary mode."
And a state where it cannot attack. I'll call it "non-operational mode."
The boundary for dividing those 2 states is just a number, namely, 0 number of charges.
Keep in mind this concept of "states" and "boundary of states."
A Cutter can be upgraded to become electrical, and gain an input port and an output port.
Upon upgrading, it gains full charges of a higher maximum count, but instead of reloading it with Branches, Cells are required, which are made at the 1st tab of an Electronics Workbench.
It also gains 1 slot for equipping an upgradeabe modification (up to +5), but it's not the topic here.
As you can see here, this electrical Cutter is not connected to anything. It used its charges to attack like before.
It was running in secondary mode - consuming a charge per attack.
Obviously, it can still enter non-operational mode when all charges are depleted.
Let's reload it back to full charges and connect it to a power source, a Solar Panel, and then see what happens when this electrical Cutter attacks.
The zombie is dead and NO charges were used. which means it was operating in a new mode. I'll call it "primary mode."
Then, what is the boundary between the secondary mode and the primary mode?
It's a number of 50, indicated by the electrical Cutter's Power Consumption in its upgrade menu.
The Solar Panel generates 75 electricity per second, which exceeds 50, so the Cutter entered primary mode.
In primary mode, the Cutter consumes 50 electricity per attack instead of 1 charge per attack.
Of course, it will enter secondary mode when it has less than 50 E, and consume 1 charge per attack.
It will also enter non-operational mode when 50 E couldn't be obtained and all charges run out.
Ok then, what happens to this well-fed electrical Cutter when it's NOT attacking?
Every second, it continuously consumes as much electricity as possible up to its limit of 5 E/s, indicated by Standby Power.
Note that when the electrical Cutter attacks in primary mode, it stops its incessant consumption of max of 5 E/s, and instead, only consumes 50 E.
That's because Power Consumption has a higher priority than Standby Power. An electrical device consumes electricity in only one fashion in a given time, not both.
In conclusion
Power Consumption is the amount of electricity the electrical device needs every time it tries to perform a task such as attacking per cycle (Electrical Cutter), lighting per sec (Lamp), passing electricity per sec (Extension Socket), etc.
Standby Power is the maximum amount of electricity the device consumes every second when it's not performing its Power Consumption task.
Storing Electricity
The Battery and its upgraded version, Bulk Battery are the electrical devices for storing electricity.
A Battery has 1 output port (green) and 5 input ports (blue), which means up to 5 electricity generators or devices can simultaneously send electricity to it.
However, Batteries have Max Charge Rates, which are storing speeds that limit how much electricity they can store per second. If too much incoming electricity rushes in, the excess amount of electricity from generators, having nowhere else to go, may disappear into thin air, which is the phenomenon mentioned in "Power Consumption - Basic."
The LEDs on the sides indicate how much electricity is stored in a Battery. Bulk Battery has a much larger capacity than Battery.
Batteries have periodic leaks of -10 E/s, another phenomenon where electricity disappears into thin air. As shown below, the lone Battery loses electricity over time.
When Batteries are chained, the one at the very bottom of the downstream will fill up faster than the ones in the upstream, because electricity flows from an output to an input, not the other way around. The upstream Battery keeps sending electricity to its downstream Battery, but its recipient cannot reciprocate.
A simple application
A Solar Panel generates +75 E/s. A Lamp consumes -10 E/s. The excess electricity will disappear if it has nowhere to go. A downstream Battery stores the excess for future use.
Power Limit & Short Circuit
Power Limit is analogous to the internet bandwidth, or to the cross-section size of a pipe in a water pipe system. It's the maximum amount of electricity per sec that can safely go into or go out of the said electrical device without triggering a short circuit. Thus, it should be understood as the "safety limit" instead.
Short Circuit is a phenomenon that happens to an electrical device when the amount of electricity exceeding the device's Power Limit (safety limit) goes into or out of it.
When a short circuit occurs, that device explodes in sparks, setting fire to everything flammable within 10 units around, leaves a 10-sec burning damage-over-time debuff on anyone flammable in that area, and stops functioning until it's repaired.
Let's take a look at the description of Railgun before going after an example.
It states "cannot be operated without power," meaning it can only shoot its ammo when it consumes 20k electricity.
Electrical system setup
Devices from upstream to downstream:
5 Solar Panels - Power Limit: 75 E/s, Power Generated: 75 E/s
1 Bulk Battery - Power Limit: 2.5k E/s, Max Charge Rate: 2.5k E/s (with ~140k electricity already stored)
1 Railgun - Power Limit: 50k E/s, Power Comsumption: 20k E/attack
1 Battery - Power Limit: 500 E/s, Max Charge Rate: 500 E/s (with vacancy for storing electricity)
Connection diagram from upstream to downstream:
5 Solar Panels > Bulk Battery > Railgun > Battery
When the Railgun shot, the Bulk Battery short circuited; however, everything else didn't.
Simple explanation
The Bulk Battery sent 20.5k electricity out of itself into the Railgun, which exceeds Bulk Battery's safety limit (Power Limit: 2.5k).
All other flows of electricity into or out of the rest of the devices are within those devices' safety limits (Power Limits).
Detailed explanation
Let's look at the electricity flows at the moment of shooting, in the perspective of downstream devices requesting electricity from their upstream devices, starting at the very bottom and then upwards.
Battery
It requested a max of 500 E because its job is to get and store electricity as described in its Max Charge Rate: 500 E/s.
Note that a max of 500 E means whatever amount available up to 500 E. It's not a fixed number of 500.
Its upstream, Railgun, had no electricity for it, so Battery's request went upstream again to Bulk Battery.
Bulk Battery had electricity for it, so Battery awaited its request to be processed by Bulk Battery. Railgun
It requested 20k E because its job is to attack as described in its Power Consumption: 20k E/attack.
Its upstream, Bulk Battery, had electricity for it, so Railgun awaited its request to be processed by Bulk Battery. Bulk Battery
It requested a max of 2.5k E because its job is to get and store electricity as described in its Max Charge Rate: 2.5k E/s.
Its upstreams, Solar Panels, could generate electricity, so Bulk Battery awaited its request to be processed by Solar Panels.
Meanwhile, Bulk Battery processed those 2 requests from Railgun and Battery, so it sent 20.5k E out of itself into Railgun UNSAFELY because 20.5k is greater than Bulk Battery's safety limit (Power Limit: 2.5k).
As a result, Bulk Battery short circuited.
Railgun safely received 20.5k E (Power Limit: 50k).
Railgun consumed 20k E to shoot, and safely passed 500 E (Power Limit: 50k) out of itself to Battery.
Battery safely received 500 E (Power Limit: 500). Solar Panels
Having no input ports, they have no upstream devices to make requests to.
Their job is to generate and send electricity to the downstream as described in Power Generated: 75 E/s.
Solar Panels processed Bulk Battery's request and each safely sent 75 E to it (Power Limit: 75).
Bulk Battery (Power Limit: 2.5k) safely received 375 E (75 x 5).
As for the timing issue of whether Bulk Battery unsafely sent 2.5k E first, or safely received 375 E first, I cannot say.
Intentional design
As of v1.1.0.1, no electrical devices besides Railguns can safely send 20k E into a Railgun because the Power Limit must be at least 20k. Therefore, Railguns' shooting will always cause something in the upstream of those Railguns to short circuit. This is a confirmed deliberation by the devs.
Built-in Safeguards
Now that Power Limit and short circuits are explained, we can talk about how certain electrical devices dodge short circuits.
Power Generators
All power generators have a built-in safeguard in the form of NO input ports. Therefore, no amount of electricity that exceeds their Power Limits can ever go into them, let alone go out of them. The amount of electricity that goes out of them is the electricity generated by themselves, which is always within their Power Limits.
Batteries
Any Battery has a Max Charge Rate. Not only does it mean the maximum amount of electricity a Battery can store per second, but also the maximum amount of electricity a Battery can transfer to its other downstream batteries per second.
In this example of a full upstream Battery (Max Charge Rate: 500 E/s) and a downstream Bulk Battery (Max Charge Rate: 2500 E/s), Bulk Battery requests from Battery as much electricity as possible up to 2500 E/s. However, despite having lots of stored electricity, Battery will only send 500 E/s. Therefore, electricity transfer requests between batteries are limited by Max Charge Rates.
Switch & Pressure Switch
Switches are similar to Extension Sockets, but have an additional function for players to control the electrical connectivity without resorting to removing Electric Wires. They can be upgraded to Bulk Switches for a higher Power Limit.
Like Extension Sockets, when Switches are built, they pass electricity through by default, and can be deactivated by players.
On the contrary, Pressure Switches, when built, disconnect the flow of electricity by default. They are activated by players, zombies, and animals that stand on them.
Trap Controller
Trap Controller is a switch with 5 input ports and 1 output port. It has a monitor for players to interact with.
When supplied with 10 E/s, the monitor shows the sum of electricity currently being consumed by its downstream electrical devices and itself. The sum of consumption consists only of Standby Power and Power Consumption, excluding Battery leaks. Neither does it monitor Charge Rates of its downstream Batteries, nor any electricity consumption of its upstream devices.
As shown in this connected system of a Solar Panel, Trap Controller, and a Lamp. The sum of consumption is 20 E, 10 of which is by the Lamp, and the other 10 by the Trap Controller itself in order to perform its job of monitoring and passing electricity.
The switch is on the monitor, toggled by mouse left-clicking. The number 500 E/s on the right is the Trap Controller's own Power Limit.
The system below shows that B cannot monitor its upstream devices, so its reading is 10 E, the amount of consumption by B itself.
The right panel of the monitor is where players can left-click on the engagement rules to set the primary mode targets of downstream traps of the Trap Controller. An upgraded Trap Controller has 2 more options, allowing non-hostile players and animals to trigger electrical traps. Note that this has no effect on any upstream devices of the Trap Controller.
An upgraded Trap Controller.
The monitor of an upgraded Trap Controller with 2 additional engagement rules.
Another important note is that the engagement rules solely affect the primary mode of downstream traps. That is, downstream traps will obey their Trap Controller's rules ONLY WHEN they have enough Power Consumption electricity. For example, a downstream Cutter (Power Consumption: 50 E/attack), when supplied with 49 E or less, will NOT follow its upstream Trap Controller's command. The Cutter will switch back to its default targets - all zombies and hostile players.
Trap Controllers can be chained. However, as of v1.1.0.3, the downstream Trap Controllers' engagement programs seem bugged in my opinion.
If an engagement rule is enabled at a Trap Controller for its immediate downstream traps, that rule must agree with all of its upstream Trap Controllers' rules in order to take effect, which seems bugged to me.
If an engagement rule is disabled at a Trap Controller for its immediate downstream traps, that rule will take effect without any agreement with its upstream Trap Controllers, which seems normal to me.
Gates - Introduction
Not to be confused with Bill-Gates, these are switches, unable to be operated by any players nor enemies, but by logic. Their job is to pass or not pass electricity through.
A Gate has 2 input ports (blue) and 1 output port (green). When a certain combination of electricity flows into those 2 input ports, a Gate automatically connects or disconnects, allowing or disallowing electricity to leave its output port.
The systems in the following examples are comprised of 2 Wind Power Generators, a Gate, and a Lamp.
Connection diagram: Wind Power Generator(s) > Gate > Wall Lamp.
XOR-Gate
Logic
When only one input port receives electricity, electricity can leave the gate.
When both input ports receive electricity, electricity can NOT leave the gate.
Examples
Both input ports receive electricity, so XOR-Gate disconnects.
Only the right input port receives electricity, so XOR-Gate connects.
Only the left input port receives electricity, so XOR-Gate connects.
AND-Gate
Logic
Only when both input ports receive electricity, can electricity leave the gate.
When only one input port receives electricity, electricity can NOT leave the gate.
Examples
Both input ports receive electricity, so AND-Gate connects.
Only the right input port receives electricity, so AND-Gate disconnects.
Only the left input port receives electricity, so AND-Gate disconnects.
OR-Gate
Logic
When any input port receives electricity, electricity can leave the gate.
Obviously, when both inputs receive electricity, electricity can leave the gate as well.
Examples
The left input port receives electricity, so OR-Gate connects.
The right input port receives electricity, so OR-Gate connects.
Both input ports receive electricity, so OR-Gate connects.
Simple application
Since an OR-Gate always passes electricity through, it can be treated as an Extension Socket with 2 input ports (blue).
I'll use a Spotlight as an example, which has 1 output port (green) but only 1 input port (blue).
When it has a lot of downstream devices but only 1 upstream electricity generator due to being limited to only 1 input port, there will not be enough electricity for that electrical system.
However, OR-Gates solve the problem, demonstrated in this system of 4 Solar Panels, 3 OR-Gates, and 1 Spot Light.
More downstream electrical devices can be connected to the Spotlight in the future.
If needed, more OR-Gates can be chained in this tree-diagram fashion, in order to accommodate more electricity generators in the upstream.
Another custom Extension Socket with 1 output port on the top and 8 input ports at the bottom, using the tree-diagram chain of OR-Gates.
Battery Eliminator Circuit
An Extension Socket with 10 output ports, used for daisy chaining electricial devices.
As mentioned at the end of section "How to set up and connect?", certain connections are automatically prohibited.
For example, Battery, Bulk Battery, Trap Controller, and Gates have multiple input ports. If multiple output ports of a Battery Eliminator Circuit are connected to different input ports of a Battery, only ONE connection will remain, any other connections will be automatically removed and those Electric Wires will be automatically retrieved.
Solar Panel & Fuel Generator
An electricity generator that only works between 6 am and 6 pm, and randomly breaks on its own from time to time, requiring repairing with a Piece of Iron.
An electricity generator that converts Fuel to electricity with a fuel capacity of 500.
The loaded Fuel will be continuously consumed every second, even when the Fuel Generator is not connected to anything, because a Fuel Generator cannot be shut down. Take out the Fuel if you want to stop electricity generation.
End
Thanks for reading. Have fun with the game.
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2538552676
More Night of the Dead guilds
- All Guilds
- A General Guide to Night of the Dead
- Custom Maps
- Night of the Dead: Beginner Tips and Understanding Basic Mechanics
- night of the deadtips
- Dedicated Server Guide
- Night of the Dead Guide 3
- Night Of The Dead Guide 4
- Night of the Dead - 10 Tips and Tricks for Surviving
- Night of the Dead - Beginners Guide