wont grow in nighttime

[Quasarrgames]

I've noticed in alpha 6 that plants won't grow in nighttime, even if you have a sun lamp right next to them. Surely a plant would still grow if it had light no matter what time of day it was (or would it? I'm not a herblogist). Either way, i think this should be taken out. Otherwise, sunlamps don't really have a point.

[Lost Cause]

This was a change made for balance reasons. Personally I think it's a bit silly but the balance issue is there. I'd like to see the sunlamps simulate a day night cycle, with low power use at night so it is at least consistent with the plant growth rather than having to micro the lamps or waste extra power at night for no benefit X.x

[Nukeman0]

Agreed... Completely removing the sun lamp's functionality during night is a bit drastic, even a bit unrealistic. I feel like creating an indoor space, hydrophonics basins (if you want max efficiency) and sun lamps now takes more resources than it gives.

[EarthyTurtle]

I think sunlamps dimming to 10% power of a night, then kicking back up to 100% during day would be amazing. If anything the visual display would be awesome.

[Wex]

So, you're telling me the sun lamps that keep exploding every time it rains on the outside camps aren't actually growing plant by night? Deconstruct time!

[Mathenaut]

Not growing at night is a bit frustrating, admittedly.  Kinda defeats the purpose of sunlamps if farming outside.

[ShadowDragon8685]

Not growing at night is a bit frustrating, admittedly.  Kinda defeats the purpose of sunlamps if farming outside.

Entirely defeats the purpose, I'd say.

Honestly, every decision that's made in the name of "game balance" needs to be heartily reality checked. If it strong violates all suspension of disbelief, then it's preferable to leave it unbalanced.

[Igabod]

I would like to see it set up so all lamps are turned off automatically at night when there is no awake citizen in the illumination range. Saves power (especially useful for those who use solar power) and adds realism. Who sleeps with their bedroom light turned on anyway? As for the sun lamps, those should work on a timer system regardless of whether a colonist is in the room or not. 18 hours on 6 off.

When you are growing with artificial light you have to give them an artificial night. Giving them 24 hours of light does cause stress and can reduce yield significantly. And plants actually grow most in their night cycle in real life. The day cycle is when they gather the energy needed to grow and when they "sleep" they use that energy to produce new growth. Humans are the same way, we grow more during our sleep than we do during our wakeful times.

Balance issues should be solved by reducing the numbers all around and not just disabling an entire growth cycle for a plant, especially not the most important one. If you aren't happy that plants are growing way faster with artificial light (which is the realistic way of things despite the gaming balance issues) then just drop the rate of growth enough so that the advantage is slightly smaller, not non-existent. Or implement the timer system for sun lamps as I suggested above.

As it is now I never use the sun lamps due to their uselessness. I don't even research that topic until after everything else (including ship research and I've never actually used the ship to leave the planet cause I never want to quit playing).

[Cimanyd]

Otherwise, sunlamps don't really have a point.

Of course sunlamps have a point. They are for growing plants inside, under a roof or in a cave. That's their point, they're the only way to do that, and they still work just fine for that. They just don't make the plants grow way faster than outside anymore. If you want fast-growing plants, you need hydroponics, not sunlamps. (not that you can't use sunlamps with hydroponics to do your inside growing)

I do wish sunlamps wouldn't waste all that power at night though.

Igabod, I think the problem is the current system of plant growth. They only "grow" (get closer to 100%) when brightly lit, and when it isn't "night." This, for one thing, makes the "time left until harvest" (or whatever the name is) completely wrong, since it's impossible for it to actually go down 1 day per day.

I'd like a system of plant growth that increases the percentage at the same rate all the time (slower than now during the day, obviously, if it's supposed to stay the same) and would have some other way of handling consequences of temporarily not being "brightly lit," like in an eclipse outside or sun-lamp power failure inside.

Oh, right, another thing. As it is now (or at least as it was in A6 when I noticed this), the time of the artificial "plants aren't growing because it's night" is less than the time it isn't brightly lit outside. So sunlamps still do provide some small advantage over actual sunlight. I have no idea if it's worth the trouble, especially outside in the rain where they keep catching on fire, but they do.

Who sleeps with their bedroom light turned on anyway?

In the game, there's really no reason to have a bedroom light at all. 

[Minus]

Having crops indoors has no real advantage at all. After realising my sunlamps were doing nothing, and that the plants were magically working out what time it was despite having no way to do so, I instead started regular plant farms in walled areas with no-roof mode on that room. I get the advantage of indoor farms with no wasted power!

On that note, even the Hydroponics are pretty rubbish. I had about 6 solar storms which meant my devilstrand crops never got past 50% before dying... But that's gonig slightly off-topic.

For their massive power use, sunlamps need to start being worth it again. If they break balance, remove them or make their power cost more sensible.

[keylocke]

actually i've stopped using sunlamps altogether. i noticed raiders mostly drop on top of your trading beacon anyways. and since i go for the non-mountain base these days, it's easier to just manage roofless areas and home zoning.

so yea.. the sunlamps and the "most efficient hydrophonics arrangement" kinda becomes a bit of a moot point in the long run, since it still eats up so much energy and messes up with pathing.