The game is reaching 1.0 and I still have short circuits/zzzt disabled

[Bolgfred]

Maybe with a lot of batteries, it would, but I prefer more reliable power. Especially now, when batteries and solars are gated behind the research - fueled generators are just better unless it is an extreme biome.

Apparently that's a pretty solid point. The only reason to use batteries is in combination with wind and solar power, as these are the only non-permanent sources.
As so it could be said, that batteries are more a early/mid-game thing. This is the time where it can really matter.
In the lategame you switch more to battery-less power like geothermal or reactor.
Whilst in the lategame you can take more of a beating, meaning explosions, you need to rely in the early game on your minimal infrastructure.
personall I always think about my greenhouse with a sunlamp, walled closely and fueled by 2 solar, a battery and 2 heaters. When the explosion comes, it sets lamp and crops on fire, making it impossible to put out the fire, as it burns really quick and secondish gets very hot.
Later this wouldn't be a problem, as your building bigger, the fire could be put out faster as your colony got more manpower and the rooms are probably larger, so the heat can spread more. My solution for this was to build 20 vents into my greenhouse and deactivate them until a fire breaks to release the heat.

Nevertheless, for me it feels as if batteries are too dangerous in the beginning to be used, but too uselessharmless in the lategame as to be noticed.

I could Imagine a non-fire solution to be instresting, causing a wave of electricity moving along the cable, putting damage to everything 1-5 tiles away from the cable depending on strength.

[Moesugi]

I've been turning off short circuit events since pretty much A16 and never looked back on it. I know there are mods to basically make fuseboxes but I don't care much for those for reasons I will explain later.

I never really understood short circuits. I once had a tiny hut with one solar panel and one battery, with a SINGLE tile of conduit between them and it still exploded. Short circuit to me is a mechanic that penalises efficiency. The better you are at handling your power the more power you have, the bigger the explosion. I just throw batteries in the freezer early game and usually forget about them until I want to make a dedicated battery room, more for aesthetics reasons than anything else.

Getting around short circuits boils down to disconnecting your batteries, using switches to turn off and having an "emergency" backup. Except short circuits are just annoyances, they don't ever blow up during something as stressful as a raid, the same way you barely get an eclipse during a raid attack, therefore rendering your turrets useless (and turrets usage very much varies between player to player). Lack of electricity is basically lost productivity, and while there's nothing wrong with that per se, it never combines with other events to make things more existing.

I suppose you could just integrate the fusebox mods. To those who are unaware, fusebox mods basically negate the explosion made by the short circuit, and you have to repair said fuse with a component. Which basically repeats the "machine broke down" event anyway!

@Mehni complained in the "losing flavour" thread where more is not always good, and while I disagree with that complaint specifically because I think having a medicine production line going is rewarding, having a similar fusebox mechanic will basically adding extra steps where non is necessary. It's the same complaint in spirit basically.

So tell me Rimworlders, what is your opinion of short circuits? Yay or nay?

Along with megascarab randomly pop up in a mountain base, good old predator hunting and poison ship, these are the few bad mechanics of Rimworld (There might be more that I have forgot).

What these had in common is that the tool to deal with them is very limited, and it's not "fun" trying to deal with them.

[Oblitus]

Along with megascarab randomly pop up in a mountain base, good old predator hunting and poison ship, these are the few bad mechanics of Rimworld (There might be more that I have forgot).

What these had in common is that the tool to deal with them is very limited, and it's not "fun" trying to deal with them.

Rimworld is not supposed to be fun. It is supposed to make drama, and bad events without tools to counter them is dev's weapon of choice to provide it.

[Jagerius]

I never disabled any events, playing since A14, since I consider this game a drama simulator, not some colony builder or sim-city like manager. No game gave me that feeling of hopelessnes when I've got zzzt during massive raid, or infestation spawning in my favourite couple's bedroom. I just enjoy the carnage.

[erdrik]

...
Rimworld is not supposed to be fun. ...

uh... No. Just because it doesn't fall into your definition of fun doesn't mean the game wasn't designed with the purpose of being fun.

[Syrchalis]

I personally hate Zzzzt as well, because it's just random, instant and mostly a minor annoyance.

If it was an annoyance along the lines of food poisoning, which you could effectively counter (or choose to just deal with) then I would never disable it, but in it's current form it's boring and annoying.

Food poisoning was relatively stupid too, but now it's very controllable and so I don't mind it.

[OFWG]

If it was an annoyance along the lines of food poisoning, which you could effectively counter (or choose to just deal with) then I would never disable it, but in it's (sic) current form it's boring and annoying.

100% this

[Eterm]

I never disabled any events, playing since A14

Volcanic winter is the only event I sometimes disable, it's a multi-quadrum event which is basically 'game over' if you were playing on an otherwise warm climate and aren't prepared for it.

[Nafensoriel]

The part of zzzzt that just doesnt jive well is its totally implausable for the game. It crosses the absurd line and because of that it cant tell a good story. For a power short to cause a story it has to start with sanity and expand to insanity.

If ZzzzzT started as what a logical electrical issue would be it would simply "break" the connection past that point. Then you could expand to having the line "surge" to a piece of equipment and either damage it or cause it to behave in an unexpected way.

This would change the story dynamic from:
Current: Sudden explosion and draining of stored power causes fire and kills "chops" sitting in a human leather chair in the kitchen.

Modified: Wear and tear or corrosion due to cobbled together an assortment of different metals as an electrical conduit to fail in the wall. When "Chops" successfully repaired the line the power surge fried one of the turrets personality matrix causing it to fire on anything in range. The Yorkies did not survive.

I'd rather have a story than sudden stupid explosions that really don't make good drama. Think of the Yorkies.

[Canute]

Nafensoriel,
you shouldn't compare the Zzzzz event with your short circuits at your home with modern safty systems.
At Rimworld you currently have a crude powergrid which contain the full power at any part of the powergrid.
So a short circuit at this powergrid is like a short circuit at a city transformer station.
Maybe you should look at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pJN3ik32pc
to see how a Zzzzz event at Rimworld looks like.

[Syrchalis]

Volcanic winter is the only event I sometimes disable, it's a multi-quadrum event which is basically 'game over' if you were playing on an otherwise warm climate and aren't prepared for it.

I have the opposite feeling. It feels absolutely meaningless to me. There isn't really an area with constant 10-15°C temperature where the drop has significant impact. The light reduction is also minor. Wish volcanic winter was more like toxic fallout so it's huge deal.

[Nafensoriel]

Nafensoriel,
you shouldn't compare the Zzzzz event with your short circuits at your home with modern safty systems.
At Rimworld you currently have a crude powergrid which contain the full power at any part of the powergrid.
So a short circuit at this powergrid is like a short circuit at a city transformer station.
Maybe you should look at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pJN3ik32pc
to see how a Zzzzz event at Rimworld looks like.

You don't get grid level explosions from non-grid sized sources. You would seem to be suggesting that rimworlders would need to have megawatt power generation and not also have the capacity to build cables.. Trust me that ain't happening. If you can run a power plant, not just inhabit it until it breaks, then you would have the basic understanding of how large a cable has to be to not overheat(the cabling is also stupidly easy compared to generation). Additionally, there are no transformers in rimworld except at device. No "city" grid. Power goes from source to applied use.  IE its much more like your house than its like a city grid. You MIGHT fry a local piece of equipment plugged into such a system or even multiple pieces.. but if your generation capacity was significant enough to destructively surge your ENTIRE local grid.. you have seriously overbuilt your generation capacity and will have destructive effects long before surges are an issue. Unless you can think of a compelling reason a group of survivors need to have step up and step down transformers to go between houses the event is still absurd beyond realism.

To top this all off... Batteries. Pretty much a "DC" current style system.. and there would be very little compelling reason to make AC systems with a local base design. DC would be safer, easier to generate, and would require far less engineering. It's realistic to think of people creating a DC system in a survival situation. This includes computers and most industrial applications which require DC over AC as it is. The only compelling reason to use AC is transmission range.

So no.. I can certainly compare the circuits with a short in a DC light industrial setting. I've never once seen such a setting detonate like a bomb. I've seen plenty catch on fire from overheating though and I've seen more than one generator turn into a motor due to poorly designed or poorly functioning safety systems.

/edit
One thing i forgot as well.. Frequency. In rimworld we have several generation sources. No one would waste time making an AC grid with multiple sources of input all at possibly different frequencies. The likely result of the attempt would be a grid that died every few days and took out everything connected to it in the process. A DC grid with multiple sources is dirt easy. Managing batteries in a DC system is dirt easy in comparison. Building industrial equipment with a DC grid is also.. dirt easy.  Hell the ONLY thing I can think about exploding in rimworld logically IS the battery.

[Broken Reality]

I never disabled any events, playing since A14

Volcanic winter is the only event I sometimes disable, it's a multi-quadrum event which is basically 'game over' if you were playing on an otherwise warm climate and aren't prepared for it.

Hardly game over even on cold biomes. You have heard of greenhouses? It's only time I think it would be hard is for a tribal start that doesn't yet have electricity. Mostly it is an event I forget is happening.

[Syrchalis]

Mostly it is an event I forget is happening.

Exactly... that's why I wish it was more extreme.

[Robc]

I don't like zzzt events but can tolerate them as part of the game, they are an additional stressor and have a role to play in the game.  A better story telling version would be to have them occur more frequently with damaged walls near conduits or damaged electrical equipment rather than straight RNG.  Everything repaired and maintained in good working order?  Zzzt event probability == 0.  Got some base damage near electrical equipment from multiple raids?  It's one more thing you have to worry about and another reason to keep the repair crews active.