Uninstalling charged batteries for hard times...

[zathura]

Like when you have a raid of 20+ pirates and only 5-6 colonists you're willing to throw into the fray. You go to flip the switch on your magnificent killbox and...*ZZzzt* A power surge has drained all ***** watts of power in your grid

You may be able to offset this by building extra batteries and removing them to a safe location, as they retain their charge once uninstalled and disconnected from the grid.

[REMworlder]

Oh neat, I never realized you could uninstall batteries. I'm still getting used to all the uninstallable stuff this alpha.

You can also use power switches to create new circuits too, though this is arguably cooler.

[Pickle]

If we keep some charged batteries separated from the whole circuit with a switch, will they be affected by a "Zzzzt" event ?

I'm going to test that, power is vital when it's - 97°C outside D:

[Jarwy]

If we keep some charged batteries separated from the whole circuit with a switch, will they be affected by a "Zzzzt" event ?

I'm going to test that, power is vital when it's - 97°C outside D:

No, switch will do just fine to keep them safe.

[Limdood]

If we keep some charged batteries separated from the whole circuit with a switch, will they be affected by a "Zzzzt" event ?

I'm going to test that, power is vital when it's - 97°C outside D:

This is why i posted my "custom start" idea in suggestions.  The ability to turn certain events off, on, or increase or decrease frequency of things would be great for people looking to play a certain way or play in extreme circumstances (like your ice sheet).  Turn off solar flares and Zzzt?  sure!  increase raids?  free food!  Manhunter pack of Thrumbos? uhhh....

[Locklave]

Really there should be a tech that removes this issue. I personally hate all the cheese solutions, this one added to them. You could just cut the battery room from the grid and put in one wire when you need it. Same effect and only 1 thing to install instead of however many batteries you have.

[Pickle]

This is why i posted my "custom start" idea in suggestions.  The ability to turn certain events off, on, or increase or decrease frequency of things would be great for people looking to play a certain way or play in extreme circumstances (like your ice sheet).  Turn off solar flares and Zzzt?  sure!  increase raids?  free food!  Manhunter pack of Thrumbos? uhhh....

Customization is always nice because you can find completely different ways to play at the same game. If I could, I would probably try a world with a permanent night, and the mods Darkness, Brighten and Zombie Apocalypse activated. That sounds really good xD

The "Zzzzt" event don't bother me that much because if you act quickly and keep some batteries safe you can reduce the damages. But solar flares are awful at the moment because there is nothing to do, you just sit in your chair watching everyone freezing to death. I choose animals which can bear negative temperatures (but even the Thrumbo get hypothermia here... xD) and I always buy some wood,  but I doubt making firecamps everywhere would really help, they seems quite inadapted (I'll try that too just to see). We need more no electricity stuff to manage with this event.

That is the point for me, if there is a negative event, there should be a way to fight it a minimum, with research or no.

[Duban]

If we keep some charged batteries separated from the whole circuit with a switch, will they be affected by a "Zzzzt" event ?

They will not be affected by Zzzt events. Zzzt events are what happens when lightning strikes a wire. Everything connected to the wire is drained, but batteries that are separated by a switch are fine. This is how I keep my battery backup. Installing batteries during an emergency takes too long.

[skullywag]

If we keep some charged batteries separated from the whole circuit with a switch, will they be affected by a "Zzzzt" event ?

They will not be affected by Zzzt events. Zzzt events are what happens when lightning strikes a wire. Everything connected to the wire is drained, but batteries that are separated by a switch are fine. This is how I keep my battery backup. Installing batteries during an emergency takes too long.

This is not correct.

The zzzt event looks for all full batteries, then finds all conduits connected to the same powernet it then draws the power from the battery and explodes the conduit. If your batteries arent full this event cannot fire. If you have no conduits connected to full batteries this event cannot fire.

[zandadoum]

all my bases have at least 2, most of the times 4 battery rooms, 3 fully charged rooms, disconnected from the grid with a switch and 1 active room.

if a zzzz event occurs, i just need to flip 2 switches and i am back in business and can take all the time in the world to fix the broken battery room

also: i always run 2 powerlines to the important stuff like a/c and turrets

[EarthyTurtle]

The "Zzzzt" event don't bother me that much because if you act quickly and keep some batteries safe you can reduce the damages. But solar flares are awful at the moment because there is nothing to do, you just sit in your chair watching everyone freezing to death. I choose animals which can bear negative temperatures (but even the Thrumbo get hypothermia here... xD) and I always buy some wood,  but I doubt making firecamps everywhere would really help, they seems quite inadapted (I'll try that too just to see). We need more no electricity stuff to manage with this event.

I agree with that whole heartedly solar flares are a menace on ice sheets. Pretty much mid winter at -110c and a solar flare hits means doom for everyone in the colony. But it's not impossible to survive, pretty much making a bunker, for your colonists to go in times of need, can save all their lives.

Try building a room around a geyser, insulate it inside a mountain or double wall it to preserve heat. Stock it with wood (for campfires), beds (or sleeping spots), emergency rations, something to keep them entertained and set a restricted zone for that area. Condensing your entire colony might not be ideal, but really it's easier to heat 1, 8x12 room that it is to heat an entire colony. Just wait out the solar flare is your best option especially since muffalo wool parka's sometimes can't even protect a colonist from the cold extremes of the sub-arctic conditions of rimworld ice sheets.

The only time's this method has failed for me is (understandably) when pretty much any other negative event that happens during a mid winter solar flare. But not much you can do to solve that. (worst I had was a toxic alien ship part landing on the far side of the map. Even the centipedes froze!)

[zandadoum]

The "Zzzzt" event don't bother me that much because if you act quickly and keep some batteries safe you can reduce the damages. But solar flares are awful at the moment because there is nothing to do, you just sit in your chair watching everyone freezing to death. I choose animals which can bear negative temperatures (but even the Thrumbo get hypothermia here... xD) and I always buy some wood,  but I doubt making firecamps everywhere would really help, they seems quite inadapted (I'll try that too just to see). We need more no electricity stuff to manage with this event.

I agree with that whole heartedly solar flares are a menace on ice sheets. Pretty much mid winter at -110c and a solar flare hits means doom for everyone in the colony.

save/buy wood, make campfires? saved my ass gazillions of times with solar flar or cold snap...

[code99xx]

In response to OP...

What I do is create several battery rooms (rooms with lots of batteries in them) scattered around my base (not too close to each other, in case there is a fire or a short circuit only one room is lost) and put a switch at the entrance of each room.

When batteries are fully charged I flip the switch and disconnect the battery room from the network, thus keeping power saved up for later when needed and in case of short circuits that dont happen in that room, those batteries are safe from discharge.

Its much easier to flip a switch than picking up an uninstalled battery and installing it somewhere (in the middle of a battle you might not have the time to do that anyway or it would be too late by the time you do it).

Ofc short circuits can happen in one of the battery rooms even if they are disconnected from the network but thats why I have several such rooms.

Worth mentioning, I also have a mod that adds fuses which help with short circuits (they dont prevent them all the time, you would need a HELL OF A LOT of fuses to prevent the more nastier short circuits events but in those cases they help reduce the strenght of it). I build such fuses in every battery rooms and around my colony. It helps.

Anyway I find this approach is really useful when solar flare hits or you have some huge raid that you must fight for days or have every single gun turned on. Just turn on the battery rooms as needed.

Also, one battery room is always active at any given time, the rest are turned off until needed.

Hope this helps someone

[SpeedDaemon]

Ofc short circuits can happen in one of the battery rooms even if they are disconnected from the network but thats why I have several such rooms.

Can you even get "zzzt" events in conduits that are "integrated" into equipment (batteries, geo generators, etc.)? I always design my battery rooms such that once the isolation switch is turned off, there are no standalone power conduits on the isolated circuit. I've gone several entire games, and never had a short circuit in a room like that.

[milon]

^ I'm pretty sure it *only* occurs in power lines that you built yourself.  I often build a room of batteries stacked together with a switch between it and a power line (so no power lines in the battery circuit).  Once they're charged I turn the switch off.  The only time I've ever had a Zzzzzt event was the time I turned the switch on to charge the two new batteries and forgot to turn it off again afterwards.  That doesn't constitute proof, but it's a good track record.