It's night, and I'm watching my pawns wrap up their day of work before going to bed as a storm rolls in. A bolt of lightning strikes in my colony, starting a small fire (no biggy, it's raining), and I think to myself "I wonder if it's possibly for pawns to get hit by lightning?". I then think of lightning rods, and how nice it would be if I could build them to protect my colony from fires started by lightning and maybe even my colonists from being hit, if that's at all possible.
So, I suggest an early research project to build lightning rods that "protect" an area around them. If lightning strikes within the rod's radius, it strikes the rod instead and is grounded, safely protecting the colonists and their settlement. Make the radius small to medium sized, so a small number of rods would be required to protect a larger area.
Later, an "upgrade" research (mid-game) to make capacitors that, instead of just grounding the massive output of energy, the lightning rod converts and captures a portion of the energy in the lighting bolt striking it, storing it in a battery.
This allows people to keep their colony and colonists safe from lightning strikes, especially during a dry thunderstorm. And also opens up the option of an alternative method of generating power for their colony. By building several lightning rods over a large area, one could farm a lightning storm for batteries that can be stored and swapped out as needed or in whatever other method they choose.
Perhaps even a new event could be added along with lightning rods, a "stormy season" or something idk. An event that for a few days, or maybe even a whole season, depending on the map region (Monsoon Season?), generates a higher frequency of thunderstorms.
I have had pawns struck by lightning, although in the health tab the injuries that they have appear to only be burns from the fire started by the lightning strike.
Indeed if we could only harness this power!
New Bill: Make Delorean -> travel back to 1955 Marty!
There are already lightning events and this gets suggested so very often. Im adding this to the list in the Frequent Suggestions Topic.
Quote from: JimmyAgnt007 on April 21, 2016, 09:37:26 AM
There are already lightning events and this gets suggested so very often. Im adding this to the list in the Frequent Suggestions Topic.
Oh? What events?
Dry thunderstorm where a ton of strikes happen all over the map. Absolute Murder if you dont hide in a mountain like I do. Sets all kinds of fires as well.
That's not an event! That's just weather.
Flashstorm on the other hand is an event, it's a fast chain of lightning strikes across a fair sized portion of the map. Can always kick dev mode on for a moment and check it out.
Wasn't aware of that one. But, yes, that would certainly be beneficial for one with a lightning rod farm set up and connected to battery packs.
Lightning in the jungle is the worst.
Would also be a good alternative power source.
Also, if when selecting a area on the map for the game, their was a lightning probability also.
This would make lightning rods a safety requirement for some maps along with a power source once researched as an alternative to wind/solar/fuel
It wouldn't really be a good power source though. Incredibly unreliable, it would be pretty rare for it to actually work, to get a storm/flashstorm and have lightning hit that area. Because of that, you'd only get the electricity very few times and it doesn't seem like it being worth coding in.
Quote from: Z0MBIE2 on April 22, 2016, 11:49:34 PM
It wouldn't really be a good power source though. Incredibly unreliable, it would be pretty rare for it to actually work, to get a storm/flashstorm and have lightning hit that area. Because of that, you'd only get the electricity very few times and it doesn't seem like it being worth coding in.
This is why I mentioned the usage of batteries. After researching a safe way to channel the lightning into a battery pack, without making it explode, lightning could provide a fair amount of charge for a single battery. While not a spectacularly beneficial thing with a handful of rods around one's colony, if they were to set up a lightning rod farm elsewhere on the map, and hook up a number of batteries, a good storm could provide an added bonus that could be used whenever wanted/needed. It would be no great loss, entirely optional, and potentially beneficial in a pinch.
And with even a medium amount of coverage, a grid of 9 lightning rods set up with minimal overlap would actually have a much higher chance of being struck because of the wide area of effect.
Except, in the time it takes for a lightning storm to happen and put energy into those batteries, a few solar panels would probably earn a hella lot more.
Quote from: Z0MBIE2 on April 23, 2016, 04:43:12 PM
Except, in the time it takes for a lightning storm to happen and put energy into those batteries, a few solar panels would probably earn a hella lot more.
/facepalm
Are you people not listening to what I'm saying or is it just not sinking in? The PRIMARY function of the Lightning Rod would be PROTECTION from lightning.
The addition to the Lightning Rod of channelling energy into batteries is SECONDARY and SUPPLEMENTARY to a main power source.
/facepalm SOMEONES getting /facepalm a LITTLE /facepalm fRuStRaTeD /facepalm
/facepalm
Stupidity infuriates me.
I think lightning rods would fit in the game as well as some mechanic to harness the power. by no means is anyone expecting to power ones base with such a thing but why not? even if it didn't supply power but just was used as a lightning deterrent it would still be good.
Quote from: Silvador on April 24, 2016, 03:10:00 AM
Stupidity infuriates me.
Quote from: Silvador on April 24, 2016, 12:02:48 AM
/facepalm
Are you people not listening to what I'm saying or is it just not sinking in? The PRIMARY function of the Lightning Rod would be PROTECTION from lightning.
The addition to the Lightning Rod of channelling energy into batteries is SECONDARY and SUPPLEMENTARY to a main power source.
If you noticed, I never said the lightning rod was a bad idea. I never said it preventing lightning from striking your base was bad. I only said the idea of it collecting energy wasn't worth it. So if you could keep that condescending attitude and yer bloody insults outa this suggestions thread, that'd be great.
And by the way, the reason people weren't talking about yer friggin main point is because, as Jimmy said, this is frequently suggested, there's nothing to discuss there. But energy is something you can discuss on this, as it has more potential.