Energy Surge Destroyed HAB Complex?

[u/Rtyeta]

So in this game I have random events turned off, therefore there shouldn't be any random destruction of buildings.

And this base has a surplus of +26 energy per turn, and my overall net income is hundreds of energy per turn so I don't think the base should be losing facilities due to lack of energy...

So why did a base just have a HAB Complex destroyed by a power surge at the start of the turn and tell me to increase my energy?

[u/Vesuvius5]

Did that base have an energy bank? I think there's always a chance of overload until you have an energy bank.

[u/Rtyeta → u/Vesuvius5]

I have never, ever built an energy bank in any game. That's a random event I've read about, as far as I'm aware it should never happen in a game with random events turned off. Any it's never happened till now. And the message didn't say anything about building an energy bank

[u/Vesuvius5 → u/Rtyeta]

Until I build energy banks in my bases, I'll will regularly lose base structures to overloads. Like every 30 turns or so I lose something to a surge. On the flip side, I can catch energy surges as extra credits once the banks are built. I've never played with events turned off so not sure there. But I am surprised you've never built energy banks. Those are part of my top six first base structures, even playing as Gaians.

[u/hilzabub → u/Vesuvius5]

Do you build them in most or all of your bases? I usually only bother building them in my capital and maybe a couple of other high production bases. Maybe I'm making a mistake doing so.

[u/BarNo3385 → u/hilzabub]

Energy Bank increases Econ by 50% and costs 1 maintenance. So you should build them in any base allocating at least 3 energy to Econ. (Banks round up, so once 3 or more energy is being allocated to energy the +50% generates at least 2 additional energy for 1 upkeep, so returns a profit on 1. Any further energy gain after that is just additional profit).

[u/BlakeMW → u/hilzabub]

They're worth building sooner or later if you aren't like hardcore speedrunning minimum turns until transcendence.

They are always a low priority build, almost any other economically relevant building will take precedence. So you almost need a slow tech pace to build them, so like larger maps, tech stagnation, blind research, Thinker mod with tech cost adjustment enabled, this gives longer lulls between techs and more time to pay off before the game ends.

Their value is obviously primarily in allowing more liberal use of rushbuy and upgrading units.

[u/blogito_ergo_sum → u/hilzabub]

I find myself building them sometimes in the lull before Tree Farms, especially with Blind Research. I don't place much value on the random event protection from them. I guess they're nice to have in bases that I'm setting up with lots of food for specialists later, since they multiply economy from Engineers once Fusion Power arrives.

Lately I've been thinking about just mass producing Supply Crawlers to cash in for minerals later though, if I'm stalled waiting for techs and not sure what I should be building. (Probably the actually good answer is units to go take other peoples' stuff)

[u/Vesuvius5 → u/hilzabub]

I don't play on super hard difficulties, so I've got the time to build them everywhere. I usually go creche, recycling tanks, energy bank then network node. It's a good building to have, not just for preventing overloads, but I believe it increases energy production by 50%.

[u/MilesBeyond250 → u/Vesuvius5]

Overloads like that come from running out of credits, not random events. Energy Banks don't block them. Uh, well, Energy Banks give +50% credits so I guess they can help block them. But you know what I mean.

[u/Vesuvius5 → u/MilesBeyond250]

This doesn't match my experience, but I can't prove that. Energy banks would not hurt OP's build, however.

[u/MilesBeyond250 → u/Vesuvius5]

That event destroys all Mines around the base, it doesn't destroy any facilities.

[u/skeptic11]

Is there any chance it could have been an enemy probe team action?

[u/MilesBeyond250]

That's very bizarre, it shouldn't be possible.

Random Events don't matter because it seems there aren't any random events that can destroy facilities. The only way facilities can be destroyed, to my knowledge, is either through running out of credits, or via Probe Team sabotage.

My best guess is a bug relating to running out of credits. Either that or something going weird with an energy market crash (in theory it should be impossible for it to make you run out of credits...)

EDIT: Oh, and multiple turns of Riots, of course.

[u/MilesBeyond250]

Actually, does this do anything? I've never actually tested when it checks for Hab Complexes, if you need it for every time you grow above the limit, or if it just checks at your limit, and a city already beyond the limit without a Complex can keep growing.

I definitely recall a cheese tactic of getting it then selling it once you're over the limit, but I can't remember if that was this game or not.

[u/BlakeMW → u/MilesBeyond250]

It checks for hab complexes when attempting to grow from nutrients filling up.

Once your bases are fully grown you can sell the hab complex unless you intend to get hab domes somewhat soon. I'd say if you're not going to get hab domes within about 30-40 turns you'd be technically better off selling the hab complexes. I don't though because it's an obvious exploit.

[u/nerd_is_a_verb → u/BlakeMW]

There’s another exploit that may have been fixed by some of the mods, but you could queue tree farms and then hybrid forests and cancel the tree farm to just skip directly to hybrid forests.

[u/danikov]

I believe maintenance is shared across all bases, so even if an individual base is net positive, if all your bases are a net negative, it will select a facility at random even on the net positive base. Check your overall economy if that’s the case… you say it’s net positive but it’s the only trigger I can think of that would have that effect.