Solaris Achievement [Solved]

[Bramborough]

So, I launched my rocket quite a while ago, using this factory to explore different aspects of the game and garner a few additional steam achievements. "Solaris" (10 GJ/hour using solar panels), however, eludes me.

* 8100 Solar Panels generating up to 486 MW.
* 6400 Accumulators storing 32 GJ.
* During night, Accums are drawn down to roughly 10GJ before beginning to recharge in the morning. So the Solar Panels are restoring ~22GJ during the day (which they do quite quickly).
* Once the Accums are charged, the load is quite low at only 270ish MW (not researching or rocket-building at the moment...plus the base isn't that big to begin with). But those 8100 solar panels are operating at near-full capacity while charging the Accums in the morning; surely this is enough to pop the achievement?
* Removed all steam engines from the map; Electrical system sees only the solar panels and accumulators.
* Exited and restarted both the game and Steam itself, in case it was some sort of achievement recognition bug.
* Have used no /c commands. No mods. Not Peacful Mode (Rail World with VB start area, if that matters...I can't imagine that it does). I did use Debug mode a couple times just to show gridlines unpaused, but that was quite a while back, and have popped multiple achievements since then.


Only thing I can think of is that perhaps this achievment has to be done before "finishing" the game with a rocket launch? The description doesn't say such, and many other achievements don't have such a condition; have popped quite a few after the first rocket.

Also, I don't know where/how to view GJ/hr...so I don't know if I'm getting close or still miles away.

Edit: One other thing that occurred to me after first posting. Earlier on, I stayed solely with steam through the first rocket, for "Steam All the Way" achievement. Perhaps these are mutually exclusive on a single playthrough, and I disabled "Solaris" when I popped the earlier achievement? But seems like that would've grayed out "Solaris" in the ingame achievement list like others which become typically become unobtainable like No Spoon, etc.

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Solved. Problem took care of itself after an hour.

What I didn't realize is that the 10 GJ/hr really means over a real-time hour (I'd erroneously thought it was just a rate). My big troubleshooting mistake was only looking at the "5s" and "1m" graphs. When I switched to the "1h" view in the electrical production window, it still reflected the MW that my steam engines had produced before I'd deleted them. Had been almost a game hour since then, so just ran off and did some other stuff for a few minutes. As soon as the graph passed the 1-hr mark since steam engine removal, "Solaris" immediately popped.

A much quicker way, had I realized earlier, would've been to go drop a few solar arrays somewhere with some radars (as Ledow suggested) for load, to create an independent electrical system with no "memory" of steam-supplied power. Which is effectively what Nailfoot did below by disconnecting his solar from the main system.

[Lawlzer]

I believe (can't guarantee) but I believe you need to use the 10GJ of power, too.

[Ledow]

Just build a shed-ton of radars.

[Nailfoot]

I completed this achievement by "unhooking" my solar farm from the base. The only thing the panels were powering was the accumulators and a bunch of lights. I got the achievement with about 60K of each, and no connection to the base at all.

The base suffered power-wise, but only for about 10 seconds while I go that achievement.

[Zeetank]

Radar array for drawing power. Tileable. https://pastebin.com/Lk6r9Dd7

[Nailfoot]

Go back to Dol Guldur, foul denizen of the dark!

[☣ Leech ☢]

Was a great help, thank you Bramborough

[Coldy]

Man....thanks. I build around 18k solar panels and 21k accumulators (and was about to build even more), when I thought let's have a little look-see at the discussions. And now I'm about to bild a closed circuit with a bunch of radars.
Thanks a lot.

La Editor: 4min later and it's done. :D