Generator Blows Up Early in Fall of Winterhome on Survivor

[C.J.]

Does anyone know what can cause your generator to blow up early in Fall of Winterhome on Survivor Mode around Day 17 or 18? Is it an issue of not having enough Hope or too much Discontent? Or am I pushing my generator too hard through Overdrive?

It's happened to me twice at a point where I am struggling and distracted by too many things to tell why it is blowing up early. Both times I have been running out of coal and trying to get the 5000 needed to start the Dreadnought. The first time I think I didn't get Hope up in time and the generator blew up. But the second time I don't really know what happened. Does anyone know all the things that can trigger it?

[Bobywan]

Do you mean blow up like end of game ? Because there is nothing that would cause that except letting the overdrive reach the max like in any other scneario.
But if you mean blow up like need repairs, well this is a scripted event part of the scneario that is bound to happen as the generator is faulty from the start, that's why you start with a lot of debris all around.

[C.J.]

Originally posted by Bobywan:

Do you mean blow up like end of game ? Because there is nothing that would cause that except letting the overdrive reach the max like in any other scneario.

Yeah, twice it triggered the cut scene on Day 17 or 18 on me and displayed the text about Winterhome freezing without their generator and then I have to start a new game. It's possible I let the Overdrive get too high, but usually it displays a text giving me the option to repair it with a child or a steam core. I guess it's possible that I left the overdrive reach the max a second time and that's what caused it... It must not display any warning text when it happens a second time then.

Originally posted by Bobywan:

But if you mean blow up like need repairs, well this is a scripted event part of the scneario that is bound to happen as the generator is faulty from the start, that's why you start with a lot of debris all around.

No, I don't mean the scripted breakdowns. I know that those are part of the scenario. I've beaten the scenario before on the normal difficulty so I know there are more breakdowns after Day 17 and 18. That's why I was having trouble figuring out why my game ended prematurely and was wondering what I am doing wrong before making another attempt. Maybe I just need to pay more close attention to my Overdrive...?

[Bobywan]

I am not sure you get the overdrive warning in this scenario or the option to sacrifice a child or core.
I don't see anything but the overdrive to blow up the generator.

[alexander.julian.erhard]

The generator currently having a malfunction causes stress, as if you were having active overdrive.

This means that pushing the overdrive too much before the "breakdown days", which should be 13, 16, 20, 23 and final one at 26 could potentially cause you to hit 100%.

However if you aren´t currently having a malfunction, I guess you must have used the overdrive to cause an explosion and didn´t notice it.
I think the "95% warning" is only ever given once, as well as that steam core or child event at 100% (I´m not sure if you reach 100% without either, if the event even fires a first time or you are just handed a game over right away)

[C.J.]

I played it again and I think I know why it blows up early. It is due to Overdrive, but possibly not because I was using it and not paying attention. When the generator breaks down Overdrive goes up and if you don't repair it in time the generator blows up. So it is possible that is what was happening to me.

I think I was getting a really long repair time because I wasn't putting Engineers on the generator before it broke down and I wasn't researching technology to help make the generator repair go faster. This probably caused the Overdrive to go up without me realizing it and then the generator blew up.

Possibly it helps not having the Overdrive reaching the critical limit right before the generator breaks down?

Anyways, finally finished it with 376 souls saved!