"What the...": Fast(er) Chirpnado (No Mods/Workshop/Cheats)

[Holysword]

Afters lots of testing, I think I have learned a few interesting things about Chirpnado and how to trigger it "faster".

Here are the things that I learned:
- Certain: Chirpnado is ***only enabled*** if Tornadoes are enabled too
- Very likely: the % of Chirpnados has nothing to do with the % of Tornadoes
- Likely: Chirpnados only spawn after 200 disasters have been triggered
- Questionable: after that, it has 3% of chance to spawn
You can test those things with --enable-dev-ui on. Note that this mode disables achievements, so you can only test there.

Knowing that we can use the Theme and Map Editor to create a map where disasters are enabled, but won't affect your city at all. Here are the steps:
 - create a new theme (let's call it ChirpFarmer)
 - change disasters probability:
   - forest fire=100
   - tornado=1
   - everything else=0
 - create a new map using ChirpFarmer theme
   - make a region without any trees. You will build there. Make it an island, or separate it from the rest of the map with a river; the important thing is that the forest fires won't reach your city
   - populate the rest of the map with lots of forests
 - start playing in the ChirpFarmer map, with ChirpFarmer theme with disasters maxed
   - grow to 18k and then make sure to stagnate pop. growth
   - keep it compact (less than 1 tile), self-sufficient, positive income
   - use recycling centers and crematoriums - no landfills nor cemeteries
   - buy tiles containing forests, keep them empty
 - Key Step: spam at least 200 forest fires and a few tornadoes using landscape tools; put them far from your city

Now you just need to idle. I've tried it two times. Once it took me 3h18, the second time it took 3h37m:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2478636005
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2478806410

It could be that I just got extremely lucky. I'd be interested to know if you guys can reproduce these results as well!

PS: I put a lot of effort into figuring these things out and just wanted to share with the community/confirm it works. Do not waste your time coming here to call me a cheater. If you think this method is cheating, just don't use it and please, refrain from posting here. Let us keep this thread clean, please. Thanks!

[chimeran_dragon]

Didn't get lucky with chirpnado but I did get lucky that after buying the disaster's DLC and turning on random disasters my map got hit with a meteor after only 2 minutes of installing the DLC.

[Holysword]

Originally posted by chimeran_dragon:

Didn't get lucky with chirpnado but I did get lucky that after buying the disaster's DLC and turning on random disasters my map got hit with a meteor after only 2 minutes of installing the DLC.

You call that luck?
Well, okay... xD

[Bankde]

Around 3 hours of setup and 6 hours of AFK'ing, finally got the chirpnado. Comparing to other regular 200 hours AFK'ing, the duration looks very significant so I think your tactic works.

I guess reducing other disasters' chance could mean increasing chance for chirpnado. Forest fire does not and never slow the clock so you don't have to check it often.

[Holysword]

Originally posted by Bankde:

Around 3 hours of setup and 6 hours of AFK'ing, finally got the chirpnado. Comparing to other regular 200 hours AFK'ing, the duration looks very significant so I think your tactic works.

I guess reducing other disasters' chance could mean increasing chance for chirpnado. Forest fire does not and never slow the clock so you don't have to check it often.

I'm glad it works! I hope this helps the console people to get the achievement in a reasonable time as well.

[jshutich]

Works as documented.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2555575104

[Holysword]

Originally posted by jshutich:

Works as documented.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2555575104

Thanks for confirming! I'm glad it worked ^ ^

[jshutich]

Originally posted by Holysword:

Originally posted by jshutich:

Works as documented.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2555575104

Thanks for confirming! I'm glad it worked ^ ^

You need to just build a small 25~30K population city that runs without issues and then just let it run. The actual Chirpnado I got was not very interesting to watch, it didn't go very far and it was not near my city so it was a bit of a let down. If you are not interested in actually watching it happen you could just let it run every night while you sleep and one night it will happen.

[dragonadamant]

Originally posted by Holysword:

Afters lots of testing, I think I have learned a few interesting things about Chirpnado and how to trigger it "faster".

Here are the things that I learned:
- Certain: Chirpnado is ***only enabled*** if Tornadoes are enabled too
- Very likely: the % of Chirpnados has nothing to do with the % of Tornadoes
- Likely: Chirpnados only spawn after 200 disasters have been triggered
- Questionable: after that, it has 3% of chance to spawn
You can test those things with --enable-dev-ui on. Note that this mode disables achievements, so you can only test there.

Knowing that we can use the Theme and Map Editor to create a map where disasters are enabled, but won't affect your city at all. Here are the steps:
 - create a new theme (let's call it ChirpFarmer)
 - change disasters probability:
   - forest fire=100
   - tornado=1
   - everything else=0
 - create a new map using ChirpFarmer theme
   - make a region without any trees. You will build there. Make it an island, or separate it from the rest of the map with a river; the important thing is that the forest fires won't reach your city
   - populate the rest of the map with lots of forests
 - start playing in the ChirpFarmer map, with ChirpFarmer theme with disasters maxed
   - grow to 18k and then make sure to stagnate pop. growth
   - keep it compact (less than 1 tile), self-sufficient, positive income
   - use recycling centers and crematoriums - no landfills nor cemeteries
   - buy tiles containing forests, keep them empty
 - Key Step: spam at least 200 forest fires and a few tornadoes using landscape tools; put them far from your city

Now you just need to idle. I've tried it two times. Once it took me 3h18, the second time it took 3h37m:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2478636005
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2478806410

It could be that I just got extremely lucky. I'd be interested to know if you guys can reproduce these results as well!

PS: I put a lot of effort into figuring these things out and just wanted to share with the community/confirm it works. Do not waste your time coming here to call me a cheater. If you think this method is cheating, just don't use it and please, refrain from posting here. Let us keep this thread clean, please. Thanks!

THANK YOU, this worked! https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2579750246 This is the city I used from your idea, in case anyone wants another example of what the huge forest, separated from the city, can look like.

[Holysword]

Originally posted by dragonadamant:

THANK YOU, this worked! https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2579750246 This is the city I used from your idea, in case anyone wants another example of what the huge forest, separated from the city, can look like.

I'm glad it worked!
Since people confirmed it works, I created a guide:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2579860592
to make sure that people looking for this will find the answer. I'll upload some more pics some time later.

Thanks to everyone who contributed here!

[HaserPL]

For anyone that isn't playing on Steam, this is useless. But I am wondering, how did you come to the conclusion that 200 disasters may be required for Chirpnado to spawn?

[MarkJohnson]

Is there a premade map on workshop?

[jshutich]

Originally posted by MarkJohnson:

Is there a premade map on workshop?

I just used the Swampland map which has you starting with water around you so fires started outside your city can't reach you.

[snowflitzer]

Originally posted by MarkJohnson:

Is there a premade map on workshop?

Yes, there is. Under the achievement guide :)

[MarkJohnson]

I searched the workshop for "Chirpnado" saved game and found one. I got the achievement in a few minutes.

I'm down to my last few achievements now I think the hardest one left is the 5mil investment one. I struggled with the 1m one. 5 million is going to take some budget balancing to manipulate it.

[jshutich]

I stopped buying the DLC at the Airport one. Waited for them to be 50% off which never happened and now we are going to start all over with CSII. A little and at the same time.