Can't connect more lines to this connection?

[Drybreeze]

So I tried building more assemblers. Oh that's odd, I connect it to power and it doesn't do anything. Activity light stays grey. I notice it says "Can't connect more lines to this connection" in orange. Ok so I got too many assemblers?

Some kind of unlock tier limit or sth? No probs. Delete one from somewhere to make room for new one. New one still won't connect. But wait. That means I'm down one on what I had before. How can a cap go down?

Let's try building a constructor. Same orange message. Hmm. Smelter? Same thing. wtf.

Ok let's try bulldozing an entire block unit, some 4 smelters and 8 constructors. Try connecting the new assembler. Same message. wtF??

So now I'm thinking either it's something to do with the new power plant, where I replaced my old 7 stack burners with a new well organised 12 stack burner unit. Or it's some kind of wierd bug I tripped somehow, where from now on I can't ever connect a new building. I'll test the power plant theory, and in the meantime I'll write this and see if someone out there knows something about this which I don't know.

Thoughts? What am I missing? Haven't played it since like release 4 I think? So maybe I'm missing something well known to the community?

[Wolfgang]

Can you post a screenshot of it please?
Also, are you sure you connected it to a power pole and not to another machine? That can happen and the game doesn't stop you from doing it even though every machine can only have one power line going from it.

[Drybreeze]

https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198035059542/screenshots/

Any newly placed building, including if I delete one and replace it with an exact duplicate building connected in exactly the same way (or any other type of new building). The game simply won't let me power up any new building. Ever. Anywhere. wtf....

[Wolfgang]

It looks to me like this machine is already connected with a power cable so you can not put another one on the machine. Is the power pole connected to power?

Edit: Just checked all three screenshots and in the second one it seems functional while in the first and third one the machine is already connected with a power cable so you can not put a second one on that (as it is intended). I more think that the power pole you connected it to is not connected to the power grid.

[Drybreeze]

The machines are freshly placed. They are connected once, the connection snaps to it like it should with the buzzing sound, and then the activity light on the machine stays grey and it flashes that orange "Can't connect more lines to this connection".

The first one is a specially placed constructor in the open, with the power line connected to the same pole as the hypertube with the green activity light visible in the left of frame.

The second and third images are of a working constructor, which I then deleted, built a new one in it's place, and connected it to the same point that the first working constructor was connected to. I've built for awhile, I know whether there's already a connection to a building or not. It won't let you connect another line when one is already connected, but in the case of my game it is connecting the new line (the only line) and snapping and buzzing.

I just tried it on several different types of buildings existing throughout my base, even when I remove a hypertube and replace it with a new one and connect it back to where the first one was it still gives me that message, except unlike factories the hypertube in addition to the message does actually light up green and work, so... yeah... even weirder. It's gotta be some kinda of bug, I broke the game somehow.

Edit> I put comments on each of the three screenshots to make it easier to understand what they're showing.

[Wolfgang]

Are you using any mods?

The message that you can not connect more power cables to the machine appears because you are still in the mode of building power cables and the game tells you why you can not put a power cable there.

[Huren Ogeko]

the grey color bar is due to two things. one the machine is newly built and hasnt had power connected yet and also hasnt had a recipe added for the first time. once you do these two things the bar will never be grey again and will be red for no power, yellow for waiting but ready to go and green for operating normally, or blue/white for overclock

anyhow I am not 100% sure the issue you are having but somethings to note in case its related
machines can only connect one wire to it...so that wire should come from a power pole or power connection
the basic power poles and power connectors only can handle 4 connections so that may be the limit you are seeing
but imagine you already know this and you are seeing some other issue..and if so more details or screenshots will be needed to figure out what you are trying to describe

[Drybreeze]

The issue can be simplified to this:
Any new building I put down anywhere in the game cannot be connected to power. Anywhere. Anyhow. Even if I plug it into somewhere that is clearly powered. Even if I connect it directly to a smoke stacked power plant. I simply can't power any new building, ever.

It has destroyed the game completely for me. Totally pointless to even play it.
No mods. I don't know how I broke it.

I will try opening earlier versions of the world and see if they're broken too, and I will try starting a new world and seeing if it's broken.

I can see from your responses that this is not a commonly known bug, so I'm interested to understand exactly what caused it and how if possible to fix it.

EDIT > All previous saves are broken. No building can be connected after being placed, although I can disconnect and reconnect existing buildings no issue at all.

EDIT 2 > New game new world works fine. Very annoying. All that work just gone. If I could fix it I could resume that world. What happened to cause it? Will it happen again in this new world...?

[Rasjel]

can you try to set the machine on ground? not on the foundation. havent played for a bit but wasent there a research to set the foundation under power so it connects the maschines that are build on it with power? maybe you have reasearched that and now your complete base is on the same foundation grid and cant connect new mashines.
not shure if my memorie a correct on this but it is worth a shot.

[Drybreeze]

Didn't know about the foundation electrified thing, that seems like an interesting upgrade, never saw that.

But no.

Just tried building new smelter out of base, connected it to a free line with other things already connected to it and running. Same issue. Building remains grey bar and non functional with the little orange error message middle of screen. :/

[Wolfgang]

Originally posted by Drybreeze:

Didn't know about the foundation electrified thing, that seems like an interesting upgrade, never saw that.

But no.

Just tried building new smelter out of base, connected it to a free line with other things already connected to it and running. Same issue. Building remains grey bar and non functional with the little orange error message middle of screen. :/

Is there already a cable coming from that machine to a power pole?

[Rasjel]

as i said its a long time and it only tickles in my memorie so maybe i am wrong about that.
anyway.
one thing you can try is to build a bio generator out in the wild and conect it with a single mashine nearby. only to check if its a problem with the game or with your power grid.

[Drybreeze]

Originally posted by Wolfgang:

Originally posted by Drybreeze:

Didn't know about the foundation electrified thing, that seems like an interesting upgrade, never saw that.

But no.

Just tried building new smelter out of base, connected it to a free line with other things already connected to it and running. Same issue. Building remains grey bar and non functional with the little orange error message middle of screen. :/

Is there already a cable coming from that machine to a power pole?

There is not.
Any new building I put down and connect for the first time to a line which is clearly generating power fails to power the new building. Always. Everywhere. In every save I load from a previous timeline where clearly I built many more buildings after that save. Right back to the very first save in this world where I built many more buildings since saving. But now, when I load and play and build a building, can't connect it.

But a new world I create lets me connect new buildings with no issues. It's something to do with that specific world. If I delete every single building and just had the hub powered by it's built in generators and connect it to a new ANYTHING, it won't work.

Originally posted by Rasjel:

as i said its a long time and it only tickles in my memorie so maybe i am wrong about that.
anyway.
one thing you can try is to build a bio generator out in the wild and conect it with a single mashine nearby. only to check if its a problem with the game or with your power grid.

I had considered this also. Will test and report.

[Drybreeze]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2948012037

Still fails.

[Wolfgang]

Originally posted by Drybreeze:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2948012037

Still fails.

Have you set a recipe in it?

[Drybreeze]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2948018822
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2948018983
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2948019039
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2948019882
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2948019981
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2948020164

Ok interesting! So it seems as though it's purely a game logic issue during the session. As soon as I reload a save, anything that had been grey-barred in the previous session is now suddenly normally connected and functional. So the bug has a work-around. Play on, connect what you want, and then save/reload and all grey bar buildings work as intended. Not convenient but at least my world isn't dead. Would be nice to figure out how to stop it grey-barring in the first place...