Issue with coolers not cooling during a heat wave

[zandadoum]

I don't have problems with heaters on ice sheet and I don't have problems with a/c on desert. It just needs more during a cold snap or heatwave.

And I absolutely did not like what you said in the OP about people being "know it alls" for asking for screenshots.

In fact, I'd like to see some screenshots of your setup, specially because you mentioned using vents.

If you CBA to post screenshots, why should anyone else BA to try and help you?

I couldn't care less what you like.  Feel free not to help.

Well, seems obvious to me now who the "know it all" here is: you

Post screenshots or GTFO

You're probably embarrassed to post them because it would show a horrible messed up setup which would proof that you actually have no idea what you're doing.

[CannibarRechter]

What I think is that putting gasoline on a fire doesn't help. This thread should be locked.

[milon]

Cannibar, please don't back seat moderate.  If someone is causing trouble just use the "Report to moderator" button.

Everyone else, calm down behave.  And refresh yourselves on the forum rules before you continue posting.

[Praeses]

From my experience from real-life, ACs become less efficient at extreme outside temperatures. This is because for an AC to operate, it has to be cooled efficiently (fan blowing over radiator). If the heat-wave temperature isn't cold enough to cool down the radiator, the AC reaches a plateau and can't decrease the temperature further. Therefore my opinion is that the game's mechanics are pretty spot-on.

[brcruchairman]

From my experience from real-life, ACs become less efficient at extreme outside temperatures. This is because for an AC to operate, it has to be cooled efficiently (fan blowing over radiator). If the heat-wave temperature isn't cold enough to cool down the radiator, the AC reaches a plateau and can't decrease the temperature further. Therefore my opinion is that the game's mechanics are pretty spot-on.

I believe what the OP is saying is that the heat wave event, not temperatures associated, seem to break the AC. For instance, if it's 40 *C on a hot summer day, the AC works fine. If it's 40 *C because of a heat wave in autumn, the AC craps out altogether. From a real world standpoint, the mechanisms of a cooler shouldn't distinguish between an unseasonably warm day (autumn heatwave) and an identical temperature which is normal for the season (hot summer day).

Thus, I agree with the OP that the behavior exhibited seems to be a bug. However, it's not a bug I've ever personally encountered; can anyone else confirm the presence of this bug?

[RemingtonRyder]

As far as I can gather, you have 240 tiles of room space and you're trying to cool it all with only two coolers and a bunch of vents. During a heat wave.

What you need is a dedicated cooler for each room, bare minimum. How you deal with the heat exhaust is up to you, but in my own mountain bases I typically have it go along corridors until it reaches the outside.

Note also that when you are using exhaust tunnels, they can get quite hot if there's not enough outdoor space connected to them. I quite often don't want raiders or mechanoids just sauntering up the tunnels to strike deep inside the base, so I wall off an unroofed area. If I wall off too little, heat will build up in much the same way as it would if you have a campfire inside a building with only one tile of 'chimney.'

The reason why the two coolers work under ordinary circumstances is that there's a smaller temperature gradient both for heat trying to get into your base and for your cooling system trying to expel it. When the outdoors temperature gets high enough, you have much more heat incoming and cooling fails to get down to the desired temperature.

The heat wave map condition itself only adds a temperature offset which, by default, maxes out at +20C. It doesn't do anything directly to the efficiency of cooling. Source: I looked at the decompiled map condition.

[Pax_Empyrean]

Temperature equalization within mountains is a known bug. I suspect that this is interacting with the heat wave event in weird ways that cause problems which otherwise don't show up just because it's hot.

From my experience from real-life, ACs become less efficient at extreme outside temperatures. This is because for an AC to operate, it has to be cooled efficiently (fan blowing over radiator). If the heat-wave temperature isn't cold enough to cool down the radiator, the AC reaches a plateau and can't decrease the temperature further. Therefore my opinion is that the game's mechanics are pretty spot-on.

I believe what the OP is saying is that the heat wave event, not temperatures associated, seem to break the AC. For instance, if it's 40 *C on a hot summer day, the AC works fine. If it's 40 *C because of a heat wave in autumn, the AC craps out altogether. From a real world standpoint, the mechanisms of a cooler shouldn't distinguish between an unseasonably warm day (autumn heatwave) and an identical temperature which is normal for the season (hot summer day).

Thus, I agree with the OP that the behavior exhibited seems to be a bug. However, it's not a bug I've ever personally encountered; can anyone else confirm the presence of this bug?

If I got to the end of this thread's sadsack display of reading incomprehension without somebody actually reading and understanding the post, I was going to bash my face on my desk until I was claimed by the sweet release of unconsciousness. Thank you, sir or madam, for showing that it can be done.

The rest of you should be ashamed of yourselves. Read the freaking post, don't just skim it and jump to a conclusion reinforced by the posts of some other idiot who did the same thing before you.

[stu89pid]

What happens if you build a 3rd cooler during the heatwave? Does it hit the temp. mark then? That should address if it's a bug or a capacity issue.

[ThreeMartiniLaunch]

@nuschler22 I sympathize with you. Most responders here either did not read, or did not understand your post.

Your frustration is justified.

[ItchyFlea]

If you believe you have encountered a bug, please post it on the bugs subforum.

[RemingtonRyder]

Bear in mind, we're being asked for a diagnosis of a problem that we're not able to get a first-hand look at. I'm sorry if there aren't a lot of helpful or relevant responses, but in order to give such feedback, we need to be able to duplicate the  conditions with as few steps as possible.

I think I recall reading something about double-thickness walls creating problems like this in mountain bases, but my memory isn't that great. You should see if you can track that down.

Also, bug forum, yes.

[nuschler22]

From my experience from real-life, ACs become less efficient at extreme outside temperatures. This is because for an AC to operate, it has to be cooled efficiently (fan blowing over radiator). If the heat-wave temperature isn't cold enough to cool down the radiator, the AC reaches a plateau and can't decrease the temperature further. Therefore my opinion is that the game's mechanics are pretty spot-on.

That's not how it works.  First, ACs don't have radiators.

And, as I've said, actually living in the desert where I have been in 120 plus degree heat, it's not realistic that an area that can be cooled by X number of coolers suddenly needs Y number of coolers to cool the same area.

They cooler performs the same function, it just goes on for a longer duration.

[nuschler22]

@nuschler22 I sympathize with you. Most responders here either did not read, or did not understand your post.

Your frustration is justified.

But you didn't see a screen shot!  Lol.

Thanks.

[nuschler22]

As far as I can gather, you have 240 tiles of room space and you're trying to cool it all with only two coolers and a bunch of vents. During a heat wave.

What you need is a dedicated cooler for each room, bare minimum. How you deal with the heat exhaust is up to you, but in my own mountain bases I typically have it go along corridors until it reaches the outside.

Note also that when you are using exhaust tunnels, they can get quite hot if there's not enough outdoor space connected to them. I quite often don't want raiders or mechanoids just sauntering up the tunnels to strike deep inside the base, so I wall off an unroofed area. If I wall off too little, heat will build up in much the same way as it would if you have a campfire inside a building with only one tile of 'chimney.'

The reason why the two coolers work under ordinary circumstances is that there's a smaller temperature gradient both for heat trying to get into your base and for your cooling system trying to expel it. When the outdoors temperature gets high enough, you have much more heat incoming and cooling fails to get down to the desired temperature.

The heat wave map condition itself only adds a temperature offset which, by default, maxes out at +20C. It doesn't do anything directly to the efficiency of cooling. Source: I looked at the decompiled map condition.

It doesn't explain why it couldn't cool at night during a heat wave when the temperature was fairly normal (80s).

[Darth Fool]

I won't ask for a screenshot since you seem morally opposed to providing the minimum that would help people diagnose your problem.  So instead, I will ask you, do you have a savegame?