can somebody explain why solar flares are in the game

[Titan]

Seriously, I don't understand them from a game design perspective. All they do is make your colony waste a day and be unable to to anything besides sit around for the lights to come on. It's not a challenge to deal with like a heat wave where you can actually plan around them, you're just sort of sit there and go "Welp, guess I'm not doing anything today".

[Warhunter]

a solar flare would disable your turrets making your base much easier to attack
so you could get a solar flare right before you get raided.

through if you dont use or rely on turrets at all then they are just a nuisance (also kills all your hydroponic crops)

also if you have biotech. theres a building to increase your mechanitors bandwidth so you could lose access to some of your mechs which can be annoying if you are about to be raided

[CloudSeeker]

Warhunter also forgot that it can become a big problem if you get a solar flare during a heat wave. Bye bye all the meat in the freezer. Have fun with the heat you might not be ready to take care of.

I get where you are coming from OP. I find it so annoying that you get them so often. Which is why I just disable the event now. Its just annoying.

[brian_va]

As a counter to using electric power to solve your problems. You either do nothing or come up with plan b

[Ombrero]

Originally posted by brian_va:

As a counter to using electric power to solve your problems. You either do nothing or come up with plan b

a bad counter imo, you can't even defend yourself against it, unlike raid/heat wave and so on

[Kittenpox]

Originally posted by CloudSeeker:

Warhunter also forgot that it can become a big problem if you get a solar flare during a heat wave. Bye bye all the meat in the freezer. Have fun with the heat you might not be ready to take care of.

^ this.

"RimWorld is a story generator, not a skill test. A ruined colony is a dramatic tragedy, not a failure."

[Cat®]

To incentivise you to not rely entirely on electricity as a resource. Fuelled stove backup, fuelled smithy backup, etc.

[Astasia]

Solar flares are a negative event meant to cause chaos, like most negative events in the game. They kill your hydroponics, they cause stuff in your freezer to rot a few hours unless you keep it cold enough, they can totally screw you over if they happen during a raid and you rely entirely on turrets, and they otherwise mess with your progress and throw off your plans for a day. These events exist to keep the game from being too predictable and "safe."

[Yorke Hunt]

That's why I like the Magnetic Shield mod. They drain the hell out of my batteries, but the solar flare passes without incident. Even if my batteries get fully drained, they've at least bought me a few hours.

[Warhunter]

Originally posted by CloudSeeker:

Warhunter also forgot that it can become a big problem if you get a solar flare during a heat wave. Bye bye all the meat in the freezer. Have fun with the heat you might not be ready to take care of.

I get where you are coming from OP. I find it so annoying that you get them so often. Which is why I just disable the event now. Its just annoying.

huh i never had problems with food rotting during solar flare. sure the freezer turns off but meals can last several days and most vegetables lasting 40+ days so even if my freezer gets warm the food generally has enough of a buffer to last several solar flares before they fully rot

[Darklight]

Simply put, it's a story generation game and solar flares provide a negative RNG element. Given all colonies eventually depend on electronics, they are meant as a annoyance.

[POWER WITHIN USER]

A challenging event where you... have to zoom out, double click a campfire (or use a mod
to do it for you), and press "Toggle refueling" in order to save all your crops.

Originally posted by Titan:

Seriously, I don't understand them from a game design perspective..

Events in this game are a replacement for solid gameplay.

[Bathory]

Just disable the events you don't like and move on. Can't blame you for venting though, it is a very frustrating event.

This event might inspire you to try a different type of colony, such as ranching, cannibalism, or fungus. Maybe start with some chickens for an egg farm. Or perhaps build a second colony strictly for farming.

[Astasia]

Originally posted by POWER WITHIN USER:

A challenging event where you... have to zoom out, double click a campfire (or use a mod
to do it for you), and press "Toggle refueling" in order to save all your crops.

Crops in unpowered hydroponics quickly die, it has nothing to do with temperature (or light level).

[Steelfleece]

I always like when you're hit with a solar flare during a day-long full eclipse. It's like the moon is somehow acting as a focusing lens to concentrate the full intensity of the flare into the exact shape and size of your colony. Conveniently bypassing anything else, especially attacking mechanoids.

[Titan]

Originally posted by Warhunter:

Originally posted by CloudSeeker:

Warhunter also forgot that it can become a big problem if you get a solar flare during a heat wave. Bye bye all the meat in the freezer. Have fun with the heat you might not be ready to take care of.

I get where you are coming from OP. I find it so annoying that you get them so often. Which is why I just disable the event now. Its just annoying.

huh i never had problems with food rotting during solar flare. sure the freezer turns off but meals can last several days and most vegetables lasting 40+ days so even if my freezer gets warm the food generally has enough of a buffer to last several solar flares before they fully rot

Yeah, I mean the first thing I ever do is start a massive crop of potatoes so freezers going out is never really an issue.