Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Author Topic: Gear assembly suddenly stops working?  (Read 410 times)

Bearskie

  • Bay Watcher
  • Nyam nyam
    • View Profile
Gear assembly suddenly stops working?
« on: February 15, 2015, 09:39:57 am »

I've got a row of pumps by the oceanside, which are connected to gear assemblies, which are connected to windmills above them.  I usually toggle my gear assemblies to 'off' when I'm not planning to drain the ocean.

However, recently all of my gear assemblies suddenly stopped working.  I don't only mean that they are not transferring power, but they cant even be toggled when the lever controlling them is pulled.

I noticed the issue because my windmills suddenly deconstructed (apparently due to the absence of 'machinery' below it).  When I try to rebuild them on the same spot (above the gear assemblies), the cursor is red and the message 'requires solid ground or connecting machinery' is shown.

One thing that might be important - it's currently winter now, and the whole setup is periodically bathed by ocean waves.  However, I haven't seen the ocean freeze yet, and the screw pumps dont seem to be frozen.

So, any takers?

Larix

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Gear assembly suddenly stops working?
« Reply #1 on: February 15, 2015, 10:00:05 am »

What's indicated as assembly status when you hover over them in "q"uery mode? Gear assemblies can be either engaged, in which case they'll show "power: xxx / required: yyy". Or they're disengaged, in which case they'll just show "disengaged". In the latter case, they will not take on or transport power, and they will not support buildings resting on them. That's why the windmills broke.

Switching your lever should still switch the gear assemblies between engaged and disengaged. You won't get any power since the windmills are broken, but the basic status should change. When the assemblies are again engaged, you'll be able to build new windmills on top of them.

Turning pumps on or off must be done in other ways. You can route power through a single switchable gear assembly that doesn't support a windmill and turn power on/off there. You can install hatch covers over the pump intakes and mechanically open/close them; you can put doors or floodgates into the pump outputs and open/close those via mechanism. You can have barely enough power in your system to run all pumps and have an extra normally disengaged gear assembly that gets engaged to stop the machine - adding more power requirement than you have supply overtaxes the whole system, grinding it to a halt.
Logged

Bearskie

  • Bay Watcher
  • Nyam nyam
    • View Profile
Re: Gear assembly suddenly stops working?
« Reply #2 on: February 15, 2015, 10:06:18 am »

Strangely enough i dont think pulling the lever changed its basic state, it only shows Stable foundation disengaged for both cases.  I will double check again tomorrow though.

That hatch solution is genius though :D i think i might go with that.
« Last Edit: February 15, 2015, 10:10:47 am by Bearskie »
Logged

PatrikLundell

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Gear assembly suddenly stops working?
« Reply #3 on: February 15, 2015, 03:38:37 pm »

Is the lever connected to where you think it is? Try to order a connection to your target destination, and if you can do it, it wasn't connected (like e.g. a connection to the gear assembly torn down for some reason, but then not [also] connected to the replacement).
Logged

Bearskie

  • Bay Watcher
  • Nyam nyam
    • View Profile
Re: Gear assembly suddenly stops working?
« Reply #4 on: February 16, 2015, 04:58:59 am »

Apologies to everyone and Larix - the gear assembly does toggle properly.  Must've caused it to fall.

The curious thing is that I've turned on the gear assembly, built another semi-supported windmill above it (exactly the same as before), and toggled the assembly off.  But the windmill has not deconstructed.

I have a feeling it will deconstruct when the seasons change though, so I'll keep an eye out.  Using your hatch suggestion now - genius!

Edit- Ah, deconstruction happens after saving the game.  Solved.
« Last Edit: February 16, 2015, 08:42:20 am by Bearskie »
Logged