Staff AI Struggles with Repairing RO Systems (or am I just bad at it?)

[Flishster]

The RO systems are a neat idea in theory, having their own "Repair kit" if you will that is used up on repair. However the Staff AI, particularly in larger aquariums, seems to seriously struggle to repair them.

I'm on the last campaign of the DLC and was simply waiting for my prestige to tick up so I could progress to rank 12. I had every freshwater species bar the manatee of course, and because of that I also have a LOT of acidic tanks. With all the new traits fish have, you end up having a lot more tanks to keep everyone happy, especially if you're trying to breed stuff at the same time. The problem came when I went AFK for about a day time to try and let things progress, and when I came back I had like 25 notifications. I go to check to find out not only did all the RO systems go down in my jetty tank, but so did the ones in my congo/cardinal tetra tank and in my discus tank, which killed all but two of my discus, all my congo tetras, most of my cardinal tetras, most of my cories, most of my hatchetfish, and those evil little plecos that never seem happy, setting me way back because of the prestige drop and because of all the discus I lost. Not only did I have like ten RO systems that had needed repaired for long enough that the acid level was no longer dropping, but I noticed other tanks were in desperate need of RO system repairs and none of the RO systems had the blue arrows that someone was coming to fix them. So naturally I clicked the ones on the tanks that were in desperate need of repairs, and it took half the game-day for a staff member to trek over there and repair them, so by the time they got to one tank the other one was already a lost cause.

I should note I have basically no tool kits, all my fixing staff have tool belts, which should make repairing RO systems easier for them, and I have them mostly set to prioritize fixing over other things. Not having any problems with them repairing heaters/filters, it's just the RO systems they seem to struggle with.

I also noticed the RO systems seem to lose effectiveness once they need repaired much faster than filters and heaters? I may have imagined it but it seemed to be dropping crazy fast.

[Twice Circled]

All equipment lose their power as a percentage over time once they break down. The mega RO machines are worth more acid than the mega heaters/filters so they will tick down quicker in terms of numbers. As a percentage they fail at the same rate as everything else though.

I'll take a look, but I haven't noticed anything like this myself. The animals are quite sensitive to a change in pH, if it crosses the threshold between neutral and acidic you get an immediate drop in health which increases the further from the threshold you are.

One tactic can be to add additional RO machines/bogwood so you have more capacity in the system. Then you can deal with a drop in some of the RO machines without the whole thing failing.

If you have all your acidic tanks on one system with say 5 mega RO machines and it's only just enough acid, then two fail simultaneously, the whole system could be plunged into neutral pH within around 30-60 seconds. Whereas if you add one extra mega RO it'll be more maintenance for your staff, but you'll probably have more like 2-3 minutes before hitting the danger zone. These numbers are approximate just based on my memory of the numbers involved.

I will take a look, just in case though. :)

[Flishster]

I typically have been adding an additional 200 or so acidity because on the earlier campaigns I was having so much trouble. Glad to know the RO system ticking down faster is just because of how it works. I try to add bogwood whenever I can, but when you're doing a ram tank or a tank with plecos you're so limited because of the amount of requirements they have. Either you seriously understock the tank or you have to rely on the RO systems. Thanks for the reply as always, Tim!

[I AKU!]

I think how the system works needs a bit of nerf in how fast it kills fish because I consolidated my RO systems to be in mainly one central area in the final scenario, used a lot of bogwood, and had an experienced engineer zoned in the area and I still had a few fish die on me. I still beat the scenario but its still a bit stupidly punishing.

[worstcase11]

Lost a few fish early in the Kairobi level, because of small R/O machines failing close to 16:50 and they couldn't be repaired before the new day started. Since then I keep buffering with extra machines an extra bogwood, where it is possible.

[I AKU!]

Looks it just got addressed with today's patch, thanks.