Proper placement of Wind Turbines.

[Celsus]

I know that Wind Turbines are a contentious issue on RustEZ servers. After experimenting with them, it does seem that they introduce lag. But given that they aren't a proscribed item, and based on how some players are deploying them, I thought it would be worth pointing out how they can be used more effectively and lessen the impact on other players.

I notice that some players have several Wind Turbines placed just above ground level, a few spaces away from each other. It should be understood that this is an ineffective way of generating power because the Turbines interfere with one another and dramatically reduce the power generated. Using Solar Panels would be a much better option where space is limited.

For a Wind Turbine to operate at peak efficiency (producing up to 300 Rust Watts) the Turbines must be placed with a minimum of eight (8) empty foundation spaces between them. Other structures placed within this limit, if they are as high as the Turbines, will also interfere with them. They should be placed as high as possible (9-15 levels above sea level is ideal) in order to generate the most power. If your base is on a mountain, towers are unnecessary, but are useful to get the Turbine above any part of the base that could interfere with them.

As long as Wind Turbines are going to be used, players can make less of an impact on others by placing them properly, and only placing a few, saving components and resources, rather than dense packing them together.

I have been experimenting and have discovered that there is indeed a large lag cost when four or more of the Turbines are placed on a base. After flying away from my base to Bandit Camp and back, the lag was severe enough that I needed to be extremely careful when landing on the roof of my base to avoid crashing the minicopter. After replacing four of them with 48 Solar Panels, there was much less lag, and I was able to land without issue.

 

TLDR: Solar Panels are preferable to Wind Turbines to reduce lag, but if you're going to use them, place only a few of them at least 8 foundations away from one another and on towers (made of wall frames) as high up as practical.