Most useless workshops ?

[Panzer]

I noticed that if I use 2 or less batteries I dont get the power fault at all (or very rarely), maybe you should run critical stuff on a separate circuit with just 2 batteries, worked for me at least.

I dont understand the hate the smithing bench is getting. I use it to level crafting and it is a good income source, on maps where wood is abundant I have my crafter make wooden swords all the time, so I dont get crappy quality clothing later on when I get devilstrand.

[Mikhail Reign]

Wow man. You seem to be having some major difficulty a with the game. I only build outside and rarely loose anything to raids or sieges - hell seigers barely ever even get to deploy their mortars - just go out and snipe the mortars while they are building them. Battery explosions barely even register on my radar. Some small localised damage which is auto repaired by the colonists and I have to place 1 or 2 conducts (eventually - just make redundant wiring in your circuit and it has no effect) - hardly worthy of the rant.

[Elfblood]

I find Crop Blights are not less or more anoying as shortcuts.
And I had lots of shortcuts where a worker got on fire coz he stands on the wrong tile. Ok thats more anoying than a blight...

And its not always soo easy to simple get out and snipe the siegers ^^ My actual play I started with Bows only(mod), got attacked only by tribesmen for a long time. Now I have 6 pps with bows and they are facing the first pirates with assault, pistol, shotgun and sniperrifle. mh

But back to Workshops, I like the Idea to Butcher Humans for leather, but It doesnt feel right for my colonists. Before I get a -4 mood from the food dispenser and another -4 from butchering human, I better stay with farming and hunting. Its a little stress in the first year to get always enough food.

But even if I dont use some workshops, I build all of them (except dispenser, its too big) just for "completenes".

[b0rsuk]

I'm skeptical about Crematory. Maybe there are lots and lots of raiders in later game, but in my 2nd year on Rough, raids are well below 10. Graves are quick to dig, a corpse is instantly buried once hauled there (so I can't imagine crematory being faster), require no resources and no tech. The only downside, I guess, would be that graves use space.

The colony mentioned above is successful by building outside. I always have between 2 and 4 people with rifles ready to clean up siegers. I only lost a colonist once or twice while doing this. The main worry is being able to prepare a push before your fighters get hurt. Stone constructions are sturdy and it would take 2-3 direct hits to destroy a piece of perimeter wall. They seem to shoot all over the place, they can't do too much harm unless you let them shoot for days. I prefer wind turbines - no eclipses and they work in nights, so they tend to charge batteries more evenly. They're just a bit fussy with trees, so I tend to surround them with wooden floor.

[Vexare]

Batteries will destroy your base, and are therefore useless unless you want your base constantly exploding.

People say this all the time, but honestly you must be misusing them because I never have this problem, even with up to 15 batteries on my ultra-large colonies where geothermal was a pain in the arse INSIDE MOUNTAINS, the explosions are a tiny annoyance at best.

I have a feeling if we could see his base layout (screenshot of areas with batteries) or examine his played game, the culprit or real story might be revealed why batteries are exploding so much because like you Boboid, I rarely have battery explosions unless I forget while building and one's left without a covered/roofed area. I even have some outside but under stone roof overhangs near the edge of my mountain and they've never blown up either.

I used to have conduit faults a lot and I learned you cannot rely on only one conduit from your batteries or power source into your base. Some redesign and safety measures have eliminated all battery explosions and this current saved game I have about 16 batteries because we're too far from geothermal and so far no disasters at all.

My advice for battery safety:

1. Encase the battery on all sides but one short end where conduit comes out, one block wide for them to build it inside.
2. Always encase each battery separated from the next by a solid rock or stone wall of higher end material (marble/granite)
3. Never put batteries right next to turrets (obviously) or anywhere they might be exposed to gunfire.
4. Only directly connect a few things to a battery. The more loose wires you have running across the ground from lamps, turrets, etc, the higher the shortage chance. It's better to run connections to conduits in walls, not the battery itself.
5. Always use at least 2 conduits running from a battery bank and preferably 2 at each end of your battery 'banks' to even distribution load.
6. Never build batteries out in exposed areas to heat, cold, rain. Always cover them with a roof at least, preferably indoors.
7. Do not build batteries on wood or carpet floors and try not to use wood walls except at first if you have no stone options yet.

I'm attaching a screenshot of the entry to my base's 'courtyard' (growing space) which has 5 solar panels and a wind generator and primarily only powers the turrets and a few rooms at that end of the base. It's completely separate from the main part of the base further in which has it's own battery storage as well. They are not on the same circuits to prevent overloads and separate during surges. I currently have NO geothermal at all, relying only on wind/solar (the banks further in are larger but harder for me to screenshot). As you can see, I have 7 batteries in this entry area. 4 on one side and 3 on the other. They are all neatly separated by stone walls and there are two conduit circuits from each battery bank to the solar panels and wind generator line. This has been my most successful power line setup to date and I have had exactly ZERO shortages and fires even when my solar panels took a direct lightning strike. We are building in an extremely rainy tropical biome so we get storms a LOT. I think this is proof that proper planning and electrical safety works.



[attachment deleted due to age]

[MsMeiriona]

The problem is likely having batteries touching each other/conduits/conduit walls and not having multiple grids. I know if you have you whole base on one grid, a single short can be a problem because you've lost ALL your stored power, plus you have fires, and if you have a lot of batteries together your colonists may not be able to get to them.

Keeping batteries all in their own little stone cells away from any attackers, with only one conduit touching them, and each "group" of batteries should be on a switch so you can make sure to optimise power use.

[b0rsuk]

I haven't tried putting wind turbines like in the image above - wouldn't it be blocked by solar collectors ? A tree in that spot would reduce effectiveness.

[Boboid]

Nope, solar panels are considered " short " and don't obstruct wind turbines.

[Vexare]

Nope, solar panels are considered " short " and don't obstruct wind turbines.

And the nice thing about this efficient way of building, the solar panels block anything from growing under them so you don't have to worry about trees re-growing there or putting down concrete first. It's a very handy way to line up power production.

[Mikhail Reign]

My advice for battery safety:

1. Encase the battery on all sides but one short end where conduit comes out, one block wide for them to build it inside.
2. Always encase each battery separated from the next by a solid rock or stone wall of higher end material (marble/granite)
3. Never put batteries right next to turrets (obviously) or anywhere they might be exposed to gunfire.
4. Only directly connect a few things to a battery. The more loose wires you have running across the ground from lamps, turrets, etc, the higher the shortage chance. It's better to run connections to conduits in walls, not the battery itself.
5. Always use at least 2 conduits running from a battery bank and preferably 2 at each end of your battery 'banks' to even distribution load.
6. Never build batteries out in exposed areas to heat, cold, rain. Always cover them with a roof at least, preferably indoors.
7. Do not build batteries on wood or carpet floors and try not to use wood walls except at first if you have no stone options yet.

... Most of this is kinda wrong/unnecessary/for the wrong reasons.

1/2. This doesnt prevent them from exploding from a short - granted if the short happens at THIS battery it will protect nearby stuff - but it does mean if they catch fire you will probably lose them because colonists cant path to the 'back' of the battery. That said, batteries themselves don't explode, the 2 in-build conducts in them is where the explosion happens, IF it happens at the battery unless its from rain.
3. Well yeah, obviously ya dont put things you dont want to lose in the way of fire
4. More conducts don't make the chance for short higher, only more places for the short to happen.
5. While I wish loading was a thing in-game, the reason you have more then one way for electricity to get anywhere is so that in the event of a short knocking a conduct out, it doesnt break the connection to anything.
6. Yeah this works. Being in squares marked as 'outdoors' is bad for a battery. I'm pretty sure that they receive rain damage even if under roofs, which can cause a batteries to explode.
7. Floors don't burn. A wooden floor fire break is as good as a concrete one or carpet one - most of the time I don't even floor battery rooms, I mean how often do colonists go in there?

I haven't tried putting wind turbines like in the image above - wouldn't it be blocked by solar collectors ? A tree in that spot would reduce effectiveness.

This is one of the best ideas. You can fire 3 or so solar panels in a wind turbines footprint - building these in banks works great for non-geo power to space ratio.

[vendox]

I disagree with all the smelter hate.  In my current game, attacks are so big that I always lose at least 2-3 turrets every way.  At some point I had 3 full stockpiles of slag and was running out of steel.  Smelter solved both problems.  Although it took A LOOOONG time for it to really be useful.

[b0rsuk]

I disagree with all the smelter hate.  In my current game, attacks are so big that I always lose at least 2-3 turrets every way.  At some point I had 3 full stockpiles of slag and was running out of steel.  Smelter solved both problems.  Although it took A LOOOONG time for it to really be useful.

So maybe make it a high tier tech ?  1500-2000 to research, to discourage people from investing into this piece of crap before they take care of more important things...

[Darkhymn]

As with anything else, the smelter is very useful, the player just needs to prioritize. Brick making has the same problem. Particularly if you like to tunnel, you wind up with a ton of rubble to either pack into bigger and bigger stockpiles, or turn into brick and sell in bulk, however if you focus too much on it in the early game, you're going to find yourself short in more important areas. You have to know what and when to prioritize.

As for the furnace, I don't know where I'd put all of the bodies without it! You can only put graves in arable soil, which is a waste, and I rarely have enough incendiaries lying around to cremate them that way. The only real problem I have with it is that it uses power (I'd rather it burned wood, honestly), but I just turn it off when it's not in use, like turrets and A/C in the winter.