Random Events: Facilities and Secret Projects

[gwillybj]

In Morgan - What now? there is a discussion of the value of various facilites (or lack thereof) in mitigating the negative effects of some Random Events. It seems a reasonable topic for its own thread.
Here are the "Negative" Random Events, their effects, and the Facilities and/or Secret Projects that offset their effects. If the name of the Event is a Facility, it is the lack of that facility that allows the effect.

• Asteroid Strikes Base. No protection, but can hit only the Unsurpassed faction, whether player-controlled or computer-controlled. I've seen it both ways, in nearly every game, and more than once in some games.
• Biology Lab. Planet Blight destroys all Farms and Forests in base radius.
• Children's Creche. One extra Drone for 5 years.
• Energy Bank. Power Surge destroys all Mines in base radius.
• Energy Market Crash. If Energy Reserves are less than 1000, they are reduced by 75%. But, if Energy Reserves are more than 500 and faction is fourth place or lower, they are doubled.
• Existing Resource Peters Out. No protection.
• Famine. -1 Nutrient/square for 10 years. No protection.
• Hail Storms. Destroys all Solar collectors in base radius. No protection.
• Haze and Clouds. -1 Energy/square for 10 years. No protection.
• Industrial Collapse. -1 Mineral/square for 10 years. No protection.
• Network Node. Overload wipes out all accumulated research points.
• Prometheus Virus. Kills half population and spreads to all bases within the equivalent radius. (Details to follow.)
• Sea Beetles. Eat all Kelp in base radius. No protection.
• Tidal Wave. Destroys all Mining Platforms in base radius. No protection.
• Volcano. No protection, but always happens near the Unsurpassed or Mighty faction. Can happen more than once in a game.
• Asteroid Strikes Nessus Prime. Destroys all Nessus Mining Stations belonging to all factions. No protection.
• Solar Storm. Destroys all Orbital Power Transmitters and Orbital Defense Pods belonging to all factions. No protection.

[gwillybj]

The Prometheus Virus can spread to nearby unprotected bases:

#PROMETHEUS0
#xs 440
#caption Operations Director
Prometheus Virus epidemic breaks out at $BASENAME0! All bases within $NUM1 squares of $BASENAME0 affected, except those with Hospitals or other advanced medical facilities! (Radius of effect equals half base's population).

That effect can be quite devastating in an unprotected ICS pattern. If it hits a size 10 base, all bases within 5 spaces will also be hit. That could mean 8 or more additional bases affected if the origin is a central base.
Two medical facilities (Research Hospital, Nanohospital) provide that protection:

#PROMETHEUS1
#xs 440
#caption Operations Director
Prometheus Virus epidemic at $BASENAME0! Researchers at $FACILITYNAME1 successfully contain the outbreak!

Three secret projects (The Human Genome Project, The Longevity Vaccine, Clinical Immortality) also provide that protection:

#PROMETHEUS2
#xs 440
#caption Operations Director
Prometheus Virus epidemic at $BASENAME0! $PROJECTNAME1 prevents spread of disease!

Here's a funny note: Look at the header for the Asteroid Strike that hits the planet:

#EATTHIS
#xs 440
#caption Chief Planetologist
Major Asteroid Strike near $BASENAME0! Massive casualties! Dust clouds will reduce global energy production for next ten years.

[johndmuller]

IIRC, there are good versions of many (perhaps even all) of the lack-of-facility bad events. For example, a NetNode at Basename might be credited with a breakthrough (free tech) or a Creche with a sudden population increase. Perhaps the game randomly decides that a facility event is coming to a base, and it will be either good or bad depending on whether or not you have that facility there. Of course, it may also take other factors into account, such as the difficulty level, how you are doing in the game or whatever.

Similarly, there are good versions of the 10 year bummers where you get +1 of the various resources instead of the -1. Again, I don't know what determines whether you get the good or bad versions, but I suspect that it is not completely random.

Some of the nasties, like the Volcano or Asteroid, do not appear to have a good version, but I recall a thread where certain restrictions were laid out on some events - for example, perhaps it said that one of those things could only happen to the top player and/or only if there was a 4x4 area of dry land in your territory without a base, or something like that.

[joncnunn]

Volcano can be quite good if it forms in the right place.

On the Energy Market Crash, if you have less than X credits the event won't happen at all.

For Solar Storms, it appears to me that it's more likely to occur if you have several Orbital Power Stations.

[Lazerus]

Sea Beetles. Eat all Kelp in base radius. No protection.

i have never once seen that

[MrWhereItsAt]

Neither. Sounds hilarious though.

[HeymlicH]

Originally posted by johndmuller
IIRC, there are good versions of many (perhaps even all) of the lack-of-facility bad events. For example, a NetNode at Basename might be credited with a breakthrough (free tech) or a Creche with a sudden population increase. Perhaps the game randomly decides that a facility event is coming to a base, and it will be either good or bad depending on whether or not you have that facility there. Of course, it may also take other factors into account, such as the difficulty level, how you are doing in the game or whatever.

exactly. You can try the following:

If you encounter a network overload in a base, load an older savegame and build a network node in this base. You will find out that this base now gets a breakthrough event.

[gwillybj]

Sea Beetles. Eat all Kelp in base radius. No protection.

Lazerus wrote:
i have never once seen that

I've experienced every one of the Random Events, without exception, and have been thoroughly amused every time , even if I was the victim and it messed me up big-time .

At the basic level, all events are "equally likely" except as marked, but in practice if you roll a really good event when you're already ahead or a really bad event when you're already behind, it will tend to ignore the event and do nothing instead.

The exceptions mentioned are: Asteroid Strikes Base and Volcano Erupts, which are dependent on faction dominance, and Asteroid Strikes Nessus Prime and Solar Storm/Flare, each of which has a 20% chance.

If an event is picked which would have no effect (for example, "Asteroid Strikes Nessus Prime" when nobody has a Nessus Mining Station) then there is no event that turn.

I neglected to mention that the quotes in my posts are from the Prima Guide, pages 15-16. That book has already been both praised and panned in this forum. I like it, have found it extremely useful, and would not have learned the game's nuances nearly as quickly without it .

[Maniac]

Isn't the protection against vulcanoes not having fungal pops?

Also, has anyone ever had the event where a vulcano appears, but not a normal one? Rather one which changes all terrain to rocky in a radius of some four squares, and reduces the global energy production with 1 for 10 years? That was certainly an interesting game...

[gwillybj]

Here are the "Positive" Random Events, their effects, and the Facilities and/or Secret Projects that allow their effects. If the name of the Event is a Facility, it is the existence of that facility that allows the effect.

• Biology Lab. A beneficial bacterium is discovered, producing +1 Nutrient in each square worked (not crawled) by the base for 10 turns.
• Bumper Crops. +1 Nutrient in each square worked (not crawled) by the base for 10 turns.
• Children's Creche. The base experiences a major population surge, immediately growing to the maximum size it is able to feed with its current Nutrient intake.
• Energy Bank. Power Surge is absorbed, producing 50 Energy Credits.
• Energy Market Boom. If Energy Reserves are more than 500 and faction is fourth place or lower, they are doubled.
• Industrial Boom. +1 Mineral in each square worked (not crawled) for 10 years.
• Network Node. Free tech. Most often, but not always, simply completes the one you're researching.
• New Resource Discovered. New Resource Special is created. Not always within any base's production radius.

A general note about Random Events: If you "roll" a really good event when you're already ahead, or a really bad one when you're already behind, the algorithm will tend to ignore the event and do nothing instead.

[Chaos Theory]

I'm pretty sure the children's creche positive event just adds two population units to the base, regardless of base capacity. If the base would grow that turn anyway, I'm not sure what the order would be.

[Jamski]

I never had most of these Never had the asteroid, or any of the ones that affect orbitals, not the beetles...

I must be playing wrong.

-Jam

[Method]

me either. Never had the tidal wave, the drones at the creche, asteriods, sea beetles, the orbitals...

/me shrugs *

[Guynemer]

I believe I've seen all of these except the asteroid striking a base (I have seen the satellite wipe-out events) and the volcano. I assume the random volcano event is something apart from the pod-popped volcano; is it triggered by ecodamage?

[Illuminatus]

Originally posted by Guynemer
I believe I've seen all of these except the asteroid striking a base (I have seen the satellite wipe-out events) and the volcano. I assume the random volcano event is something apart from the pod-popped volcano; is it triggered by ecodamage?

Pod popped volcano ? Are you thinking on earthquakes or am I missing sth here?

[Guynemer]

ooops, yes indeedy.

[Frankychan]

Man, I must be lucky cause I've never experienced an asteroid strike.

I experienced the solar storms a lot. One game I had a total of 3. Is this truly random, or is it some kind of way to balance things out? I had about 44 Orbital Power Transmitters while the next closest faction had about 12.

I've found that the Human Genome Project really helps against the virus' random events.

[RedFred]

This is a good thread. Nice to have all the random events clearly explained.

Franky, my strictly empirical observation is that solar storms are proportional to the number of sats launched.

I've only experienced the asteriod strike twice, both with vanilla SMAC. I wonder if they toned down the odds of it in SMACX or if I've just been a bit luckier.

[Commy]

The good and the bad random events may very well be random, but I have noticed that on the standard map events such as climatic change (-1 nutrient next 10 turns) happen at the exact same place, although not at the exact time. I don't know who said it, but I agree that almost all events have opposites:

For example

(This is hard for me to explain, if someone would like to repost this and interpret it for eveyone else, my thanks)

In the year 2200, an event will happen at University Base

The above statement is predetermined by the random seed of the game.

If you have a biology lab at University Base at the 2200, then University base will discover a beneficial bacteria, if not, Planet Blight occurs.

Either way the event occurs, just depending on whether if you have a certain facility determines whether it is good or bad.