Geothermal Generator Bug

Lady_Mionka · April 18, 2014, 05:50:32 PM

I'm not sure if this has been posted about yet, but I'm having an issue with the geotherm generators.

For the first part of the game, the generator worked perfectly, but it started seemingly taking power from the system, going into the negatives for power generation. I destroyed the generator and rebuilt it but encountered the same problem. I have several solar panels hooked to the system and they work mostly fine until I hook up the geo generator and the battery drains only a few minutes into the night.

OpposingForces · April 19, 2014, 02:06:52 PM

i think that geothermal gens eventually use up the steam. i had this happen in alpha 2. although then it simply stopped making power at all. the fact yours is using power seems strange.

StorymasterQ · April 20, 2014, 10:56:27 PM

I had this issue without ever creating a generator, so it's probably not related to that. I usually 'fixed' the issue by saving and restarting, so there isn't going to be any savegames to look into.

Tynan · April 21, 2014, 12:35:06 AM

Worrying!

Can anyone isolate a set of steps to reproduce the problem?

daft73 · April 21, 2014, 12:27:35 PM

I had something similar happen last week, current alpha. Everything was going fine, but then my nights started getting a little wacky. The power was draining at the moment the sun set, but I could not figure what I'd done to get this to happen.

Thinking it was user error I restarted the same map re-built (albeit a new design) and everything went fine. So, my assumption is that I had to much going for the power to work correctly, though it made sense at the time, I wonder if this is actually what was going on.
Luckily, for me at least, I have not come across the same issue.

StorymasterQ · April 21, 2014, 08:33:18 PM

For me this happens not-quite-incessantly but quite frequently. As I said, restarting the entire game fixes it. Merely saving then reloading does not.

Now that I think about it, it may have something to do with the Power Switch and/or Better Power+ mods. I'll probably go and play a vanilla game to see if this also happens.

Cosima · May 17, 2014, 01:13:51 AM

This is happening to me with alpha 3 - anyone know how to fix it? Sometimes it looks like the geothermal generator is just getting used up, but rebuilding it fixes it - other times it doesnt. Sometimes it goes into the extreme negatives (like a few thousand!). Every game, and I'm not using any mods! Bug or game design? Hmm.

ItchyFlea · May 17, 2014, 02:16:21 AM

If this is happening to you, please, post your save file here. Zip up the save and attach it to your post. If it is still too large to attach (which does happen from time to time), upload it to a file-sharing website and post a link to it here.

If you are using mods and are encountering this bug, post your save, and tell us both which mods you are using, and in what order they were activated. Alternatively, when posting your save, also post the ModsConfig.xml file, which is in the \Config folder as well as telling us which mods you are using. The ModsConfig.xml file simply tells us the exact order in which they were activated.

Cosima · May 17, 2014, 02:25:34 AM

Thanks, here's the save file - but I found an in-game fix, at least. It happened around day 28, I disconnected it from the rest of the circuit, and left it alone for a few days. Reconnected on day 34 and everything was fine - it went wonky again once during a thunderstorm, but still running normally now... if it happens again I'll put up the save when it's still happening!

https://www.mediafire.com/?15sj5ickpdj77vd

No mods at all, 0.4.13, Windows 7

Cosima · May 17, 2014, 04:28:21 AM

Save file for game with geotherm draining power - disconnected from batteries.

Same game, but this has happened in all of my games so far.

https://www.mediafire.com/?ec08iqhpi4n883p

Tynan · May 17, 2014, 03:09:15 PM

Itchy can you Mantis this please?

ItchyFlea · May 17, 2014, 06:26:52 PM

Thankyou for the save files Zokajo.

EDIT:

I'm not able to see a bug in either of those saves.
In both saves the generator is correctly producing 3600w of power. In the second save, your geothermal generator is still connected to the powernet, which is why it is showing a connected rate of -3450w. Your total power usage is 7050w in that save.

For the thunderstorms, during the night whenever lightning strikes, solar panels treat this as if they were seeing the sun, and as such generate power for the brief moment the lightning is visible. You'll see the yellow "light meter" on solar panels briefly shoot up to max when lightning strikes.

Cosima · May 17, 2014, 07:22:49 PM

No problem! Sorry I can't be more helpful - no idea how to debug or anything like that. Love playing this game, though.

digitalman · July 31, 2014, 06:37:19 PM

Sorry to reseurect this thread, but I searched and this looked applicable.

I'm having the same issue. I'm running version 496 on Windows.

I've attached two saves that seem to exhibit the problem. If you can let me know if you find anything, that would be great.

The link is here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/wrw0zwlwht4wsgv/Saves.zip

Many thanks!