New event: earthquake

[Vault101]

Life under the mountain is safe. Too safe. You're isolated from so many menacing issues like sieges, toxic fallout, etc.

Earthquakes could occasionally strike, collapsing rocks down a portion of the mountain, burying a few rooms. People could get killed or trapped and knocked unconscious, bleeding and needing to be dug out asap.

I don't imagine it would require a lot of work to implement, just collapse a random portion of the mountain.

[Shabazza]

Seems like a game- or fun-killer if not balanced correctly, because it's so global.
Up to now you can have a plan for every event to prevent it or making it unlikely to happen or reducing or redirecting it's effects, so it get's manageable.
With an earthquake, you basicly have no chance to plan or react.
An unlucky moment and all of your colonists can be wiped out in one ocurrance.
Don't know if this can work from a game-perspective.
I also hated earthquakes in SimCity back then...

[Sens]

Do like the idea, it could still be managable, i dont know how many tiles a wall has to be away from other to collapse rocks somewhere in between, well in case of earthquake - that distance would get shorter for a small duration of time, giving 20% chance or something to collapse rocks if that new max distance due to earthquake would make one wall too far from other  (if at time of earthquake occuring u position your guys close to walls they would still be safe), so bassicly u could prevent it in ahead by building smaller rooms for example ) while it also wouldnt necessarly mean it would collapse everywhere, still based on that % to collapse.

P.S. or even better, 2 tiles away from wall 20% to collapse, 3 tiles away 40% to collapse, 4 tiles away 60% or something, could also base this % on earthquake strenght and drop random strenght, duration equakes, while during earthquake game would collapse stuff several times not just once, like 3+ times, well based on difficulty which could determine strenght, duration + the random range factor (lol, to complicate stuff)

[Limdood]

anything with a chance to instantly kill a colonist with no chance to prepare or react is VERY bad.

its not much different from the "2-year old" effect....where your 2 year old kid randomly wanders quietly up to your computer and hits the power button.

If that isn't fun, then why would some of your colonists randomly just "dying" be fun?

[Toggle]

Yeah, it seems roof not being connected to supports, pillars, would be the only effective way to do it for collapsing, and then it would completely destroy or insta-kill anything under it, which is too much.

[Wex]

In reality the solution is quite simple.
Cave ins don't kill. They injury. Maybe badly.
No one dies immmediately, but you have probably to dig, if you want your bleeding colonist to live.
Now imagine it hitting the hospital.

[Toggle]

But the way the game works, you could easily mine a colonist out, and it's not made for stuff like a cave in for blocks on top of people.

[silverskin]

The safety of the mountain is a reward for how much harder it is to set up a base inside one compared to building on the open plains.

But earthquakes would be good. For preparation, you could have warning before it occurs. Maybe build a detector, scan for some seismic activity, scan p-waves or whatever it is. It would give a warning message about half a day before the earthquake. Time to evacuate. Or the earthquake could start with slight screen shaking that steadily gets worse, then the earthquake occurs.

Could make it even harsher by adding a chance for the quake to close steam geysers.

[medwards10]

Instead of having warnings or anything along those lines, I'd rather see a 'Seismic activity' tab on the 'pick a landing site' screen. That way players can choose to land in an area where earthquakes are rare and mild, or common and severe.

[Wex]

Could make it even harsher by adding a chance for the quake to close steam geysers.

Or open them. Not funny inyo your main hall; less so into a narrow passageway.

[Reviire]

It seems like a cool idea, but why not change how it works? Rather than falling on colonists, it falls blocking up passageways or blocking colonists. Depending on how far in the game you are, and the storyteller you pick, it could range between an entrance being blocked up, and half of your colony being trapped behind rubble, with you needing to save them.
No insta kills, at worst minor/moderate injury.

[Toggle]

It seems like a cool idea, but why not change how it works? Rather than falling on colonists, it falls blocking up passageways or blocking colonists. Depending on how far in the game you are, and the storyteller you pick, it could range between an entrance being blocked up, and half of your colony being trapped behind rubble, with you needing to save them.
No insta kills, at worst minor/moderate injury.

But the thing is, they can mine out simply. The blocks are the same as any of the blocks that usually fall, at least they're a few hours off as the people mine them out.

[Reviire]

It seems like a cool idea, but why not change how it works? Rather than falling on colonists, it falls blocking up passageways or blocking colonists. Depending on how far in the game you are, and the storyteller you pick, it could range between an entrance being blocked up, and half of your colony being trapped behind rubble, with you needing to save them.
No insta kills, at worst minor/moderate injury.

But the thing is, they can mine out simply. The blocks are the same as any of the blocks that usually fall, at least they're a few hours off as the people mine them out.

I guess. It made more sense in my head, but as a DF player, I naturally assume the miners have picks, and the others don't.

[Toggle]

And also, the main point of this is that "Mountain bases are too safe", but it's really any base. If you're not in a mountain, you just make your own walls to protect you, it still puts a roof over your head and is capable of being secure as a mountain. Toxic fallout as an example, no difference between a normal base and mountain base, since who makes a normal base and leaves everything outdoors?

[Reviire]

And also, the main point of this is that "Mountain bases are too safe", but it's really any base. If you're not in a mountain, you just make your own walls to protect you, it still puts a roof over your head and is capable of being secure as a mountain. Toxic fallout as an example, no difference between a normal base and mountain base, since who makes a normal base and leaves everything outdoors?

Mountain bases aren't very good, imo. Mining takes too long, time that you could be spent doing other things. It's much faster to just build some walls, and use the spare time for growing/research/hunting.

If toxic fallout could get into vents/filtration, that'd actually make it a problem. Your air comes from somewhere, right?.