Suddenly everyone dies of radiation

[Pesky]

I'm on the third world, the one around the Class M sun. I have just got my colony up and running, with adequate power, water and air, and producing just enough stuff to expand slowly. And suddenly everyone died of radiation poisoning. Is this intended to happen ?

I'm expecting answers like "you should have built a telescope and a guard room" but I'm only a couple of hours into the level. I haven't had enough spare materials to do that. I can't bbelieve that the level is meant to be this harsh.

[Greenbell]

What I usally do when I'm in a similar situaciton is stop everyone from going outside untill the flair is over. To do this I turn off the mine and cancel any building projects, then once everyone's in I turn off the door(because collonists have no common sence). Hope it helps.

[Pesky]

Originally posted by Greenbell7:

What I usally do when I'm in a similar situaciton is stop everyone from going outside untill the flair is over. To do this I turn off the mine and cancel any building projects, then once everyone's in I turn off the door(because collonists have no common sence). Hope it helps.

Hey, that seems like it should work. And it is vaguely like what would be done in real life.

[Jatlen]

You can also build an empty control centre and go on yellow alert. Then all colonists/bots return back to base and stay indoors.

[Didz]

The Class M planet is subject to occassional solar flares, so it's important not to allow, or leave, colonists outside during such activity or they will get a hefty dose of radiation.

(I'm assuming that your 'everyone died of radiation' comment is a bit of an exaggeration, as radiation isn't catching. So, unless you somehow contrived to have everyone outside during a solar flare it's doubful that they all died of radiation from a single solar flare.)

To manage and minimise the risk of losses from solar flares I would recommend the same solution mentioned by @Jatlen above.

Build an empty Control Centre as part of your initial base construction. (I usually add one right after the O2 generator, which will also act as a security dome later) This gives you the ability to set an AMBER ALERT whenever there is solar flare activity and will order everyone to stay indoors until you turn it off.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1189846857
Problem solved. (Or risk minimised at least)

So, YES!.....this is the "you should have built a telescope and a guard room" response you anticipated. Or at least 'you should have build a control centre' response. A telescope is not absolutely necessary except to provide you with a bit of advanced warning.

A cheaper and less reliable solution would be to lock the airlocks during a solar flare, but apart from being manually intensive, it can't save colonists that are caught outside the base. In fact, it pretty much sentences them to death, so not recommended except in emercengies.

Also later in the game you will regret not having a control room just inside the airlocks from the starport to defend against intruders. So, it's best to get one in place right at the outset.

[Pesky]

Wanted to thank everyone for your series of replies with more and more information. Very helpful. I did take Greenbell's advice and progressed further with the level, and now I understand it better.

In the case of the game I'd just played, it really was everyone. This is because I had just planned a large farm building, and for some reason everyone decided to go outside to move metal and plastics into position. I guess since they were all fed and slepped they had nothing more important to do.

[Jeremy]

Another thing that can help, is cheap out on everything and only get necessity's quickly gather resources and be prepared for a solar flare. I did that and after the loss of 1 worker I am now doing great!

[Didz]

Originally posted by PeskyTheTroll:

In the case of the game I'd just played, it really was everyone. This is because I had just planned a large farm building, and for some reason everyone decided to go outside to move metal and plastics into position. I guess since they were all fed and slepped they had nothing more important to do.

Yes! construction deliveries are given a high priority. so, if you haven't prioritised your production domes it will drag colonists away from their work.

[Greenbell]

Originally posted by PeskyTheTroll:

Wanted to thank everyone for your series of replies with more and more information. Very helpful. I did take Greenbell's advice and progressed further with the level, and now I understand it better.

In the case of the game I'd just played, it really was everyone. This is because I had just planned a large farm building, and for some reason everyone decided to go outside to move metal and plastics into position. I guess since they were all fed and slepped they had nothing more important to do.

You're welcome. :)

[Rigel]

Solar flares only happen about 5 or 6 "days" after you've started. You definitely can have built a small control center by then.

Make sure you have multiple entrances near the mines, so there's not too much of a queue. Remember that 1 second playtime is about 600 seconds (or so) of in-game time. Every second of radiation is actually several minutes.

As soon as you can, build a large medbay near the mines, and make sure you have enough medics and medkits to deal with the flood of patients.

I took this approach on the 'express colony' challenge and never lost anyone.