Need help with short circuit addicted base...

[MechaDoc]

I have come across the point where circuits happen every 5 days and it had became frustrating since it started.
I know the following:
-Batteries and work stations that need electricity need to be under a roof- Double checked
---Every thing is hidden.
-Batteries explode when heated
---Every battery room has coolers set to -30C
-----Got enough power to run them- No one enters the battery rooms to release the cool air
-Power input/output is ballanced- No gain, no loss
---Have multiple storage rooms with multiple chargers, Gain and loss is same in all of them
-I do know there is an "unavoidable incident" but it shouldn't happen this many times...

Can anyone explain why do short circuits still happen so usually?

I do realise you can turn this off in scenario editor. My version doesnt have this feature (A12)
Some will probably say: "Update your sh*t m8" Answer is: I can't. Latest versions do not have the mods i use in A12, and i dislike some of the new "features" that were added recently
To clear this out, no mods "change" the way electricity works.

I looked for the mod that can disable atleast this frustrating disaster with no such luck.

[Majere]

So the main thing with this game, that i have found, is that many things seems to be 100% random, based on the fact that nothing is random.....

So what I mean with that crazy statement above, is my point that, although things are suppose to be random, they are not. Things always seem to happen in a very specific order - to cause the worst thing to happen that can happen. No good events seems to random ontop of themselves.

Example. Often, i would get a short, which destroys my batteries, followed by an eclipse, followed instantly by a raid - leaving my base defenses 100% down. Now you would like to think that is random, however that is not random at all.

Example 2. Ice sheet Biome - finally i get a bulk trader up - i buy all his food, his muffalo herd then turns around and begins to eat my food, that I just bought - Of course i shoot the Muffalo which then turns everyone hostile to me - but again RIGHT before they attack, Short and my base defenses all go down.

So I guess what I am saying is, there is no way I can tell to stop shorts in your power grid no matter how smart you plan and create them. Once the game gets hold of events like this they seem to just happen - I even have only had my best construction toon make all the wires, batteries and solar panels, all of which made no difference, or sometimes they did. I dont know - the randomness seems 100% randomly unrandom...again if that statement makes any sense at all! :D

If events were random, tons of crap that happens in perfect unison shouldnt be always happening...if the game were not random, you should be able to control outcomes of events with amazing planning and hard work..

Neither option has ever worked for me - the game effect of doing the same thing over and over and constantly getting different results.

[Nova225]

Are you getting Yellow Zzzt envelopes or Red ones?

Red means something got too hot or wet and exploded thusly.

Yellow is just random chance. Be grateful you get that instead of watching half of your older colonists catch the plague when you have no medicine and nobody has a high enough grow skill to grow healroot.

[Majere]

Yellow mostly - but they are way too often to be random, and always at the worst time - like right before a raid.

[RemingtonRyder]

You can minimise the effects of overloads.

First of all, the size of the overload depends on the amount of stored charge on the power network. If you have lots of batteries on the same network, that's a bigger boom. So if possible, build isolated power networks - only one of them will be affected.

It's important to note also that the overload always occurs on a power conduit. Not on switches or other connecting things like batteries or generators. Where possible, run conduits under stone block walls. Use switches to disconnect parts of the power network which are not currently in use. Switches can be placed between a battery and the rest of the network to keep the battery's charge isolated from the rest of the grid. If you like, you can also use switches to provide redundant paths for power to flow. Like on your favourite sci-fi show when they need to reroute power somehow.

Also, conduit explosions can set their square and neighbouring squares on fire. Keep conduits away from flammable objects as much as you can, to minimise the fire hazard.

A lot of power using buildings will connect 6 squares away from a conduit. It's just the generators and batteries which need a direct connection.

In mountain bases I sometimes run conduits through a fairly narrow corridor, so that adjacent rooms can draw power from the conduit without needing to have any conduit in the rooms. I sometimes also add vents to these corridors so that the heat from any fire gets equalised across the base instead of building up to dangerous temperatures.

Geothermal and fueled generators provide a stable source of power and can be used to create power networks which do not use batteries. Geothermal generators are fairly expensive and can only be placed on steam geysers and requires research, and fueled generators obviously need a constant supply of fuel.

Hope this helps.

[Majere]

Marvin, Very well written. Thanks.
But i think my point, although poorly written, was not how to stop shorts. It was just that, the differences in biomes, between desert and ice - a short can kill your toons, and destroy all your hydro farming, in a very short time, where as in the desert, you do not risk losing your crops for a short - it was just to compare the dangers between the two. But your info was very helpful.

[7FOUR]

Had this problem when I first started playing. Zzzts happen way too frequently, as do breakdowns as you keep adding more generators and batteries (I'm fairly certain at this point that the more things you have that are capable of breaking down, the more they will do so). I solved the problem by simply never building batteries... In the early stages of the game, I use fueled generators to meet any electrical needs, rush researching geothermal, then build geothermal generators as needed. Wiring long distance can take a while, but it's worth it to not deal with the nonsense shorts and breakdowns.

[James]

Originally posted by Blue Istari:

Had this problem when I first started playing. Zzzts happen way too frequently, as do breakdowns as you keep adding more generators and batteries (I'm fairly certain at this point that the more things you have that are capable of breaking down, the more they will do so). I solved the problem by simply never building batteries... In the early stages of the game, I use fueled generators to meet any electrical needs, rush researching geothermal, then build geothermal generators as needed. Wiring long distance can take a while, but it's worth it to not deal with the nonsense shorts and breakdowns.

You can also use ship reactors for power sources, but yeah I am currently a big fan of bases that don't use batteries.

[MechaDoc]

Thank you all for the info. I liked the idea of "No batteries" will definetly try this.

[Madman666]

In my case until I have enough geothermals I just use separate grids with 2 batteries max. The more batteries added to the grid - the more frequently you'll get Zzzzt. Its on the wiki and seems to be true. Because when you have like from 2 to 4 batteries Zzzzt is a very rare occasion. So just make separate medium grids to power limited amount of houses, craft stations in blocks of 4 Solars-2 batteries. Keeping conduits separate is a pain in the ass, but it seems to work for me.

[Mytheos]

Originally posted by Sherlock:

Thank you all for the info. I liked the idea of "No batteries" will definetly try this.

Dont do it!

*Laugh*

This is all just a form of balance, and making things not be do it and forget it...Tynan likes "interesting things to happen".

In other words, just go with the flow of the Dev...

If you get too many zzzt events, you have too many batteries either in total or with a high charge hooked up at once.

1-2 batteries is enough to handle most bases...as they essentially just power your base overnight and during eclipses when alternates arent enough.

Solar is nice, but it really helps to have alternate forms as well, such as wind unless you have Geothermal or can spare the wood for wood burners.

Using a good mix keeps you from turning your base into a battery factory and then ashes...


#1 Batteries arent easily going to overheat, go into dev mode and test the temp required, not sure it can happen without fire being involved...in which case, you really dont need to cool them.

#2 Keep a separate grid for your main base, hydroponics and turret defense if you use the last two.

#3 Keep your battery numbers low in the 1-4 range...if you have multiple full batteries hooked in, uninstall them until you have no more than 1 full hooked in or use a switch.

#4 Use more non-solar sources on any grid you feel you need more batteries.

#5 Reduce your electricity usage...are you using too many heaters? Too many coolers? Turrets?

There are campfires for heat and you can make passive coolers now...rooms not often in use dont need light...you dont need heavy power draw items on ALL the time like the crematorium, the medical bay monitors, etc.

[RemingtonRyder]

A lot of the time I find myself trying to conserve power as much as possible and that's when I wish I had switches in the right places to turn off lots of things at once.

Another miscellaneous tip - wind turbines have an 18x5 'footprint.' Useful to know if you want to plan them out in advance.

[Mytheos]

Originally posted by Marvin:

A lot of the time I find myself trying to conserve power as much as possible and that's when I wish I had switches in the right places to turn off lots of things at once.

Another miscellaneous tip - wind turbines have an 18x5 'footprint.' Useful to know if you want to plan them out in advance.

( Which once you do, you realize that size was designed by Satan himself.. )

[actual trash]

Originally posted by Sherlock:

I have come across the point where circuits happen every 5 days and it had became frustrating since it started.
I know the following:
-Batteries and work stations that need electricity need to be under a roof- Double checked
---Every thing is hidden.
-Batteries explode when heated
---Every battery room has coolers set to -30C
-----Got enough power to run them- No one enters the battery rooms to release the cool air
-Power input/output is ballanced- No gain, no loss
---Have multiple storage rooms with multiple chargers, Gain and loss is same in all of them
-I do know there is an "unavoidable incident" but it shouldn't happen this many times...

Can anyone explain why do short circuits still happen so usually?

I do realise you can turn this off in scenario editor. My version doesnt have this feature (A12)
Some will probably say: "Update your sh*t m8" Answer is: I can't. Latest versions do not have the mods i use in A12, and i dislike some of the new "features" that were added recently
To clear this out, no mods "change" the way electricity works.

I looked for the mod that can disable atleast this frustrating disaster with no such luck.

There's a mod that adds in circuit breakers.

[Majere]

I am really trying to use the vanilla game itself :)

[Thrax]

In my long experience game, ZZZT (yelow one, not the rain explosion ) happend when you have too much batteries compare to power sources and power require.
People tend to build a lot of batteries when building solar, wich cause a lot of shortcuts .

Just try to make more stable power sources instead of solar and only build one or two batteries max in early stages.


-Use separated circuits with a stable source for thing who need power at the night like hydroponics, turreys, coolers et heaters with a few batteries in case of raid.

-The other main cuircuit can shut off himslelf at night. Workbench, stove etc doesn't need to powered at night.

-Always have multiples wires ways, If ZTTT happend, your things doesnt get off.