First, does it even say anywhere that you MUST have power core housing for additional power cores?
Second, even if it does, why would anyone ever invest in it? The sum of BP cost for power core housing and the additional power core always seems to be higher than if you had just installed a higher grade power core.
So, why on earth would you ever have multiple lower grade power cores over a higher grade power core, unless the best power core in the game wasn't enough to meet your power consumption alone?
Why does this rule even exist?
First, does it even say anywhere that you MUST have power core housing for additional power cores?
Second, even if it does, why would anyone ever invest in it? The sum of BP cost for power core housing and the additional power core always seems to be higher than if you had just installed a higher grade power core.
So, why on earth would you ever have multiple lower grade power cores over a higher grade power core, unless the best power core in the game wasn't enough to meet your power consumption alone?
Why does this rule even exist?
Hulls have a maximum size power core then can hold i.e a Nova Ultra for a medium hull that only supplies 300 PCU. Having designed a stock tier 4 medium hull that uses most of 150 PUC (not counting the drift engine) I imagine with enough build points, weapon upgrades, expansion bays I might be able to exceed that number.
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First, does it even say anywhere that you MUST have power core housing for additional power cores?
Each Large and smaller ship has room for only a single power core by default, but Medium and Large starships can be fitted with an extra power core housing (see Expansion Bays on page 298). Huge starships can have up to two power cores, Gargantuan starships can have up to three, and Colossal starships can have up to four.
So, why on earth would you ever have multiple lower grade power cores over a higher grade power core, unless the best power core in the game wasn't enough to meet your power consumption alone?
For exactly the reason you suggest, though I suspect it would be one of the highest and then a lower grade if needed rather than multiple low-grade cores.
In the higher Tiers when you get a lot of Build Points it's easy for a ship to exceed their PCU maximum. For example a Transport (medium) with M12 Thrusters and Superior Shields 600 has already used up 240 of the 300 PCU a Nova Ultra can provide. And that's only 76 BP counting the core!