Limit Solar Flares? (Bad Interaction Between Hydroponics & Devilstrand)

[Gargrant]

I think the game has too many solar flares, I suppose.  As ShadowDragon said, "redonkulous".

They are most effective, and most frightening, if you've been relying on turret defenses and a raider party waits for one to occur before attacking.  In upsetting the food supply, they really provide very little effect, because berries and potatoes are produced again in only two days from the first onset of the solar flare.

It's only their effect on the one crop that requires 3 weeks to mature even in a hydroponics tub that is devastating and absolutely effective.

I think, Damien, that you are correct that I was ignoring the basic game mechanics issues, in that there should be a hydroponics balancing factor, but I feel like they could be more balanced in a few ways:
a) Require maintenance by colonists on a regular basis (to refill nutrients or whatnot) as the crops mature
b) Require explicit nutrient resupply (so your colonists have to go mulch things or shove in animal corpses or whatever to feed the hydroponics tubs)
c) Wear out and require repair as they produce crops

Solar Flares (and I think, based on their severity, they are Coronal Mass Ejections) are like a giant hammer of destabilization against a significant but optional system.

(And yes, I grow Devilstrand in the ground at the moment.)

[Damien Hart]

I'm afraid the frequency of solar flares is a symptom of the game's relatively small pool of events for the story teller to choose from. That, plus the fact that raids have a minimum interval for big threats (raids, insanity waves, etc.) unless you're playing on Randy, and that when your population gets near the desired max, the random join, crashed escape pod and slaver events become less likely, means solar flares are a lot more common than you would expect.

The more events that get added, the less frequent they should become.

I do like those ideas, though. Question: if i fertilise the hydro tubs with raider corpses, will that upset the colonists? 

[RawCode]

flare is punishing event, only viable solution to remove it completely, probably it's fun, but when your colony fell and you just can't do anything about it...

[TrashMan]

Good post OP.

I agree. It only makes sense for plants to NOT die off (as long as they have some sun light) during solar flares.
Electornics hardening also makes sense

[Minus]

I have spent a year ingame growing Devilstrand. Not using the building difficulty, so I guess I've just had bad luck, because I've never been able to grow any of the stuff. Got to 60% once though.

Solar flares are horrible, but they don't feel unbalanced. And all this talk of shielding or lead mining and other silly researches, it's just mad. Protecting yourself against a random event like this just shouldn't even be a thing.

The solution to this is painfully simple. Give Devilstrand enough HP to survive the solar flare. Combine this with making powerless hydroponic plants die slower and you've sorted out all balance problems.

This is a huge issue though. I now start my games by having all 3 colonists create a huge farm of the stuff which I can forget about and ignore until much later in the game, by which time it's ready just as I need it. But for new players that don't know to do this, the system is just utterly broken.

[Noobshock]

https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=6892.msg67761#msg67761

Mod and discussion related.

[Matthiasagreen]

I now start my games by having all 3 colonists create a huge farm of the stuff which I can forget about and ignore until much later in the game, by which time it's ready just as I need it.

That is the way Tynan meant for devilstrand to be used, IIRC. He doesn't want people with a constant supply of the stuff. It would be too OP in terms of income. I do think it should be removed from the Hydroponics options and kept as an outside only crop. Something that could be planted far away and forgotten until it is time to harvest.

[Jstank]

The problem here is that the solar flare arbitrarily just knocks out power. The solution is for solar flares to knock out just power plants and not the full grid. Therefore, even if your base is running on geothermal you can weather the storm with backup batteries. This would make batteries useful in all situations while providing yet another layer of strategy.

[SimpleLogician]

I was thinking two levels of solar flares. Little ones would only disable everything with an energy requirement of greater than 151, and the more rare big ones would disable everything.

Y/N?

[Mathenaut]

I was thinking two levels of solar flares. Little ones would only disable everything with an energy requirement of greater than 151, and the more rare big ones would disable everything.

Y/N?

Variation to solar flares like that would be a fun little addition.  This, ontop of battery power still working during solar flares would be great.  Hydroponics suck up alot of power, so it would make for a nice management obstacle.