Thermal Power Plants Only work when I am nearby.

[Merddyn73]

Early game, I'll find myself running out of power. After looking around, I find that in each of my games, saved or started fresh, the Thermal Power Plants only operate when I am near them. If I'm even on the same planet, but a certain distance or more away from them, they will all stop taking fuel. When I show back up near them, they start loading the fuel again.
So, the Thermal power Plants are only useful to me if I plan on using them while I am looking at them. Otherwise, they are a complete waste of time for me.
I looked around and didn't see any other posts about this, so here one is.

I'm enjoying the game and look forward to the finished product.
Keep up the good work, Developers.

[josmith7]

Are they automatically starting to take fuel again when you approach? That's super weird; and not a behavior I've seen them doing.

I'd have a good guess as to what's happening if you had to manually load fuel to restart them when you returned.

>>>In that case they almost certainly suffered from the power grid crashing, satisfaction dropping below 10%, at which point their sorters shut down -- which might be caused by them running out of fuel temporarily. But in that case they can't jump-start themselves; their sorters won't operate until the power grid satisfaction exceeds 10%.

There are a couple ways they could periodically restart; but none I can think of just due to your proximity. (If you had an uneven supply of power, say an occasional infusion of energy full accumulators shipped in, or a bunch of solar panels on just one side of the planet then when that other supply peaked it might get the grid above 10% and bring the thermal plants back online. Alternatively if your major load was PLS or ILS towers they'll still trickle charge from a grid that'd below 10%; and once they fill their demand stops and that might drop demand enough to jump above 10% satisfaction; bringing the thermal plants back online) <<<


I could also see a condition where you get close and enter the charging range of a wireless power towers, which significantly increases demand on the grid and increases the rate the thermal plants consume fuel. But in that case they would still be loaded and using at least a tiny amount of fuel even when you weren't around. So that also doesn't seem to match your description of what you're seeing.

So I'm baffled.

[Zigamus]

Can you describe your setup better? or maybe post a screen shot to show us what is happening? We really enjoy helping people, if we have enough information to go on!

[Bluemoon_19]

If you are far away from the plants so it looks like they have stopped does it have an impact on your power grid? like if you click a power pole do the numbers suggest your power plants have actually shut down? I have power plants of all types on different planets and they all function perfectly when I am away.

[LorDC]

Hmm... I think I know what is happening.
OP has quite diverse power grid with solar, wind and thermal mixed together. When he is away, grid is supported by wind and solar while thermal plants are mostly throttled and almost dont consume anyhting. Now, when he comes back to his base, Icarus connects to Wireless Power Towers and starts to draw a lot of energy from the grid. Additional power demand unthrottles thermal plants and OP sees that they start to consume fuel.
So, everything is working as intended.

[Merddyn73]

My apologies for not looking at this thread for a couple days.

I appreciate the responses, and the attempts to help.

josmith7 >>> Yes. The Thermal Power Plants always start consuming fuel once I get close enough. Without major testing, it only happens once I'm on grid with them, as in I can see them without going into the "Planet View". Until then, Planet view will show me that all the Thermal Power Plants are blinking visible warnings for "No Fuel". Mind you, it's most noticable when I am being ridiculous and have a huge grid of multiple Plants in one location. That, and it doesn't seem to matter what the fuel source is. I'll set up multiple potential fuel sources, so the fuel "can't" run out, or even just have them be the only thing being fed from an "infinite" Coal source (in the "Sandbox" versions). Near as I can tell, something in the coding stops them feeding when I am far enough away.
But, i don't have to manually restart the fuel feed. At first, I thought the conveyers might stop when I'm away from that location, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Near as I can tell, the Plants themselves stop accepting fuel when I am away.

Long comment, I'll do a new one for the next response in the list.

[Merddyn73]

zigamus >>> While I am pretty damned good, technically speaking, when it comes to computers... I've built computers myself, as well as working technical support to help others, and even working in the Video Game industry in the past... I'm ashamed to say that one weakness I have is taking screen shots. I'm not very skilled at it, and have to hunt down instructions each time I want to do it.
Ugh. I hate admitting that, but it's the truth. lol.
I'll tell you, though, that I have found no connection which makes me think it's something I am doing, as opposed to how others run the game.
Now, I don't want to be closed-minded, and I'm not perfect, so...
With multiple saves, resource settings, and it happening in every version of the game I have going (by version i mean Saves or new starts using different Resource settings), providing screen shots would be cumbersome. there is no Saved Game where this is not happening for me. TRhough, honestly, the only set up I think I haven't specifically tried is when I am using only a single Thermal Power Plant. I'm always using multiple plants, usually feeding of one to 3 belts, but each plant feeding itself individually; though in one version I stumbled on the plants being able to feed each other directly... as in, one conveyor belt using a sorter to feed a plant, and then sorters to feed successive plants from that first plant in the line.

but... I will see about posting some screen shots. If I want help, I need to do that. Thank you for pointing that out. Give me a little time.

[Merddyn73]

Bluemoon_19 >>> Yes, and yes. The Plants shut down and the power grid is affected. If I'm relying on those plants for my power, any associated production shuts down.
If I'm not relying on those plants... well, then they are a waste of resources and space... but the Plants themselves still shut down, not using the fuel. that's important when I am trying to "burn off" any of the fuel sources.
Case in point, hydrogen. complicated set up, or simple set up, doesn't seem to matter. Take Red Cube production. Need Energized Graphite and Hydrogen to produce Red Cubes. If i set up the Oil refineries to produce that, and set up Thermal Power plants to use up the excess hydrogen production, I rely on the Plants to burn the Refined Oil to keep the hydrogen flowing. or, the hydrogen AND the Graphite flowing. But, move "off-grid" far enough... and the Plants stop taking the fuel. I've found no variation in this, which is why i ended up posting this thread.

It's good to hear that others aren't experiencing this, even if it seems to point out I'm the one doing something wrong. I'll have to spend more time diagnosing this. Testing this.

[Merddyn73]

LorDC >>> In one version of my game (Sandbox mode Enabled) I have all research done (except "infinite", of course), so I'm using on one planet every power production type EXCEPT Geothermal.
Wind all over the place.
Solar belted all the way around the equator, 3 deep.
Dyson Sphere and Solar Sails around the sun.
Ray receivers and E.... can't remember the name... they launch the Solar Sails... belted "above and below" the Solar Panels along the equator line.
Energy Exchangers. 1 row on the Southern side for producing Energy Accumulators (Full).
Energy Exchangers. 1 more row on the Southern Side to USE Full Energy Accumulators to produce empty ones.
(overkill, I know, but was intended to use all "free energy" to transport batteries off world in the future.)
Thermal Power Plants.
Mini fusion reactors.
I mean, the only thing I don't have running is the Geothermal or the Artificial Sun.

In that build, I have plenty of alternative power sources, and plenty of power... but the Thermal Plants just won't keep working unless I'm on grid! lol.

Now, I thought it might be as you are saying... the thermal plants weren't needed at the moment, so they shut down. Makes sense. Unfortunately, I started a new game, and built the Thermal Plants to burn off hydrogen AND provide power and I'm only up to Red Cube production in that save, and built very sparingly... meaning I have one assembler per product working.
While I'm standing with the Thermal Plants, everything works fine. I go a short distance away to my production line and the thermal plants will stop providing power to the grid and everything will shut down. I walk back over to the Plants, and they slowly start taking in the fuel, and power is restored.
Walk away, power gone.
Walk back, power restored because Plants start taking in fuel again.
Annoying, and mind boggling.

All this leads me to believe that... for me only, apparently... i walk away from a thermal Power Plant, and it stops taking fuel.
Every other Sorter on the planet continues to work when I am nowhere around, or even (in other saves) when I am on other planets. So I can only conclude that the coding is telling the Thermal Plants to only work when I am near... meaning in Surface view, Icarus walking around, and I can see them on my screen.

Honestly, I'd love to show you guys video of what I'm talking about. not really prepared to author something onto YouTube just to do that. I figured the developers would know what's going on, but submitting a bug report... I didn't want to use my Google log-in info, and there seems to be no other option available for submitting an official bug report. So I hoped they paid attention to these threads.

Perhaps I'm being silly on that Google log in info thing, but my caution in this area has served me well in the past.

[Merddyn73]

Thank you for the attempts at help. I generally find this community pretty good in that respect, and have occasionally been one of the people that help, myself.

i think I'll end up submitting an official bug report. This really seems to need the touch of the developers. or, at least, someone intimately familiar with the code.

Though, I really need to look again to see if I'm making some silly mistake nobody else is.

but, thank you again for your guys' help.

[kithron2]

Are you playing vanilla or with mods? Could it be a mod that 'turns off' buildings while out of range in order to conserve CPU cycles to increase frame rates? It would be in line with your observations and would indicate a bug in the mod, rather than the base game. If no mods are involved, definitely file a bug report.

[Merddyn73]

kithron2 >>> Thank you for pointing that out.

I should have mentioned, I'm not running any mods. None downloaded, so they can't even be interfering by accident.

Though, on an interesting note, I just looked into a little bit of this, and it seems that when I am only running 1 Plant, or 1 Plant with no other right next to it, I don't seem to have the problem. It seems to only occur when I have more than 1 Plant running next to each other in a given space.
Unfortunately, that amounts to the same ultimate response for me... they're a waste of time. i don't like that answer, so I'll keep looking into it and submit an official bug report.

[josmith7]

Originally posted by Merddyn73:

zigamus >>> While I am pretty damned good, technically speaking, when it comes to computers... I've built computers myself, as well as working technical support to help others, and even working in the Video Game industry in the past... I'm ashamed to say that one weakness I have is taking screen shots. I'm not very skilled at it, and have to hunt down instructions each time I want to do it.

Steam makes it very easy to take in game screenshots (just press the F12 key while in a steam game)
However, it is far less obvious how to then find them and add them to a post here.

I seem to end up fumbling around in the steam client to find the spot where you can upload them to steam; after which you can view them under 'your content' and copy each one's sharing URL.
Then paste that sharing URL directly into your post here to add the screenshot to it.


(Though if you're playing the game on Xbox PC Gamepass then it'd be some other process)

[Merddyn73]

josmith7 >>> Thank you for that guidance. I'm about to do the family thing, but I'll get it done in a bit.
Thank you, again.

[mreed2]

Originally posted by Merddyn73:

...
Though, on an interesting note, I just looked into a little bit of this, and it seems that when I am only running 1 Plant, or 1 Plant with no other right next to it, I don't seem to have the problem. It seems to only occur when I have more than 1 Plant running next to each other in a given space....

It sounds like you are trying to feed one thermal plant from another thermal plant, with no belt in-between. This works, but when you are using slower sorters (especially Mark 1), its easy to get into a situation where the first Thermal Plant is consuming all of the fuel, leaving none for the second Thermal Plant to burn. As always with power plant issues, this quickly turns into a cascading problem (because you are short of power, the sorters are even slower, and now even the first thermal plant can't produce power, etc.).

At least as long as you are concerned about this bug, I'd recommend feeding your thermal plants exclusively from belts. While this wastes a bit of space, a snaking belt makes it really obvious if you have sufficient fuel or not. If the belt backs up you are good, and if it doesn't, you aren't.

[Zigamus]

Originally posted by Merddyn73:

josmith7 >>> Thank you for that guidance. I'm about to do the family thing, but I'll get it done in a bit.
Thank you, again.

In case you didn't know it, you can run a belt straight into a TPP, no sorter needed, then run a belt out the other side and right into the next one, max of 3 TPP's linked this way per set.