[X3TC] New complex on constant yellow alert

[Dovakiin]

Hello

I recently built a Microchip complex for the HUB plot and it's on constant yellow alert, but I can't figure out why. The complex has been running for around 4 hours on constant yellow alert.

It needs a seperate supply of ECells, which I source from one of my other complexes, so it doesn't need to spend any money there. It has 1m credits in it's account, which doesn't change. It also doesn't have any ships homebased. I've let the food factories and mines run through multiple cycles before opening up the chip plants, so it isn't running out of resources. I generally add up how much of each resource is required per cycle for every factory in the complex, multiply it by 2.5 then build up that amount of resources before opening the end product facilities. It's fully operational, and the stocks of Microchips are already at 50% capacity, but it still flashes yellow.

I don't have any idea what could be causing this.

One thing I have noticed when building complexes is that at some point an NPC employee shuttle turns up and tries to dock with one of the individual stations before I've attached it to the complex. When I scan these shuttles, they contain a number of people, all of which have my name as their race. This is my 11th complex in this game, and the only one that I've seen these employee shuttles land at. They normally just fly around within the areas between the stations. Could that have caused some glitch?

[Alan Phipps]

A really efficiently-designed complex will quite probably (and harmlessly) flash yellow. This post helps to explain why.

Shuttles and tour ships and prison ships, etc are just travelling fluff ships for local game colour. They appear wherever they can dock (seeming to prefer player-owned docks, trading stations and factories) and then hopefully go on to find somewhere else to dock if they can.

They can become a nuisance if there is in fact nowhere else to go and they clog up player docking arms (as can often happen in exclusively player-used sectors). Even then there are always a minimum number of docking arms reserved for player ships though.

You can play mind-games with them to shift them on by making their races temporarily hostile at your stations and then setting them to friends again after the ships leave. (Use the station friend/foe or global command to transmit relationships to stations in that sector.)

[RainerPrem]

Hi,

Hello

I recently built a Microchip complex for the HUB plot and it's on constant yellow alert, but I can't figure out why. The complex has been running for around 4 hours on constant yellow alert.

It needs a seperate supply of ECells, which I source from one of my other complexes, so it doesn't need to spend any money there. It has 1m credits in it's account, which doesn't change. It also doesn't have any ships homebased. I've let the food factories and mines run through multiple cycles before opening up the chip plants, so it isn't running out of resources. I generally add up how much of each resource is required per cycle for every factory in the complex, multiply it by 2.5 then build up that amount of resources before opening the end product facilities. It's fully operational, and the stocks of Microchips are already at 50% capacity, but it still flashes yellow.

I don't have any idea what could be causing this.

One thing I have noticed when building complexes is that at some point an NPC employee shuttle turns up and tries to dock with one of the individual stations before I've attached it to the complex. When I scan these shuttles, they contain a number of people, all of which have my name as their race. This is my 11th complex in this game, and the only one that I've seen these employee shuttles land at. They normally just fly around within the areas between the stations. Could that have caused some glitch?

most likely you have installed conflicting mods.

Normally you can look at the different factories, see, which one is in fact causing the yellow, and then see, which resource is missing. (I don't know the menu item because I'm playing the German version)

cu
Rainer

[Dovakiin]

Thanks for the replies.

A really efficiently-designed complex will quite probably (and harmlessly) flash yellow. This post helps to explain why.

I had a look at that post. I run the intermediate product facilities through multiple cycles to prevent that.

For example, in my chip complex I have 20 chip plants. Each one requires 60 Bofu and 15 Silicon Wafers per cycle. Multiplied by 20 that's 1200 Bofu and 300 Silicon per cycle. So I multiply those values by 2.5 (3000 Bofu and 750 Silicon). Before activating the Chip Plants, I ran the Bofu Chemical Labs and Silicon Mines until they had the 3000 and 750 units respectively. So the Chip Plants never have to wait for their resources to restock and there will always be over 1 cycles worth of resources in stock. I bring in ECells with a CLS1 trader that makes deliveries whenever the Microchip complex has less than 15% of it's ECell capacity. The complex is always stocked with over 12000 ECells. It was still flashing when I was manually bringing in ECells and it had more in stock than would be used in an hour. I have other complexes that use CLS1 energy suppliers, and they don't ever go to yellow alert.

Hi,
most likely you have installed conflicting mods.

Normally you can look at the different factories, see, which one is in fact causing the yellow, and then see, which resource is missing. (I don't know the menu item because I'm playing the German version)

cu
Rainer

I did consider that, but my 10 other complexes don't do this. They have all been at yellow alert when I first activate the stations producing end products, but the flashing stopped when they started production. Every factory in the Microchip complex is operational, and they all have been for several hours.

I don't have many mods. I'm using the ATF Shipyard mod from the Terran Revitalisation Project, the Marauder Shipyard and a custom mod that adds some new ships.

This isn't exactly a game-breaking issue, but if there's something a bit funky with my game I like to know why, and stop/prevent it if possible.

[Alan Phipps]

Fair enough. So what station(s) is/are causing the complex to flash? If you cannot determine that just from the complex details and modules screen then you can at least turn individual stations or types of stations off in turn.

The type(s) of stations involved could lead to the type of resource or interim product causing the issue.

Just for interest, have you run your current complex design through any of the complex calculators available just to check for any design issues that are less than obvious?

[Honved]

Check to see what the complex's shield levels are at. If it's less than 100%, you may have a collision issue with 2 of the pieces. I had that in one game, where a complex was gradually destroying itself. I deleted the connector kits, stitched it back together again, and it was fine.

[Dovakiin]

Fair enough. So what station(s) is/are causing the complex to flash? If you cannot determine that just from the complex details and modules screen then you can at least turn individual stations or types of stations off in turn.

The type(s) of stations involved could lead to the type of resource or interim product causing the issue.

Just for interest, have you run your current complex design through any of the complex calculators available just to check for any design issues that are less than obvious?

I've turned off individual stations and all of each type. I've disabled the entire complex in the Station Manager. I've changed prices of products. Still flashing.

The complex is still running as it should. Its CLS1 deliveries are still taking place. There are no shortages of resources.

I put a link to the my complex in the calculator in my first post.

Check to see what the complex's shield levels are at. If it's less than 100%, you may have a collision issue with 2 of the pieces. I had that in one game, where a complex was gradually destroying itself. I deleted the connector kits, stitched it back together again, and it was fine.

I'd never have thought of that. The hull shields for every station and the complex itself are at 100%. There no NPC ships colliding with any part of the complex. There are no tubes colliding with each other.

I bet its something really subtle, like a Spacefly getting trapped when I connected 2 stations.

[Black_hole_suN]

meh.. looking at your complex my guess would be two things

— the ts ship tasked to deliver e-cells dont get there in time to deliver wares before the supply runs out

— your Bofu stations consume all bio—gass before more is made.. sure, your complex calculators says that purduction of bio.gas is equal to its consumption but both bio.gas and bofu have almost the same rate of producion so, for example, in every 100 bio.gas and bofu cycles there is this one cycle that all bio.gas is consumed before more is made.. as a result, some of you bofu stations will stop and flash yellow... but actually the production of your end products, the microchips, isnt slowed down a bit...

[Alan Phipps]

Sorry I missed the calculator link. (I thought it was a screenshot of the complex. )

The only thing I can think of having looked at it is that you may be running ultra-efficient production on Bogas and that is triggering the yellow alert whenever your Bofu stations collect their round of resources for the next batch. At that precise time you would not have enough Bogas in stock for the Bofu production run after that, even if you then make enough in time for it when needed.

I don't think you actually mentioned building up a huge reserve of Bogas itself prior to starting Bofu production - maybe you need one more Bogas Fac and to fill your additional Bogas storage as a safety net to avoid the alert?

Just a wild stab.

EDIT: Ninja'd by BHS.

[Timsup2nothin]

I know this is obvious, but just to cover all the bases...you are efficiently removing the microchips, right? No room for product gives you the same yellow flash as lack of resources.

That goes for intermediate products too. You aren't going momentarily full up on silicon or bofu and blocking production somewhere, are you?

[Triaxx2]

I agree with Tim. If you want to ensure a surplus, park a couple of super freighter with CLS2 to absorb a chunk of the resource backlog, and automatically pump it back into the station when it gets low.

Though since you're producing an overage of crystals, that's likely the issue.

Personally, I always build at least one more station than is recommended for food production, because the consumers will all ask for it within moments of one another, and sometimes it causes flashing because it's not full enough at that moment. Even though when you look at it, it makes no sense because everything is running fine.

Then again, I also run my stations so that all the stations feed overages into one another.

[Alan Phipps]

"No room for product gives you the same yellow flash as lack of resources." Really, or is that only for open complexes? I sometimes have self-sufficient complexes stuffed full of everything (products and intermediates) waiting on a future need for their products - and they don't flash. Mind you it has been a while since I played TC instead of AP.

[Timsup2nothin]

"No room for product gives you the same yellow flash as lack of resources." Really, or is that only for open complexes? I sometimes have self-sufficient complexes stuffed full of everything (products and intermediates) waiting on a future need for their products - and they don't flash. Mind you it has been a while since I played TC instead of AP.

I don't do a lot of closed looping, so I can't answer that...and I only play TC so can't account for AP either.

[Nanook]

Full complexes should never flash yellow. They should only flash when there's a shortage of some resource or intermediate product.

[Timsup2nothin]

Full complexes should never flash yellow. They should only flash when there's a shortage of some resource or intermediate product.

Unless something has changed in one of the last couple updates flashing yellow is triggered by "production stopped," and production stops if the factory can't hold the product that would be produced.

I'll have to run some quick tests, but I'm almost certain of this one.

[pref]

Occasionally my stations sell some stuff even though trade is restricted.
Might be one of your STs loading some wares occasionally?

Stopping the end product (or all higher level fabs resource tree wise) and letting the storage fill for all wares solves the issue unless there is a shortage.
For ex only operate the fabs that keep the Solar Power Plants ticking, and the food resources, until storage fills for all of them. Then switch on all 2nd food and other intermediate fabs, then the rest.

[ancienthighway]

I'm on the #noflashwhenfull team. Never happens on open or closed loops, TC or AP.

@OP:
I have seen complexes flashing that according to the complex calculators should be good, but due to synchronization issues between bio-food-product fabrication frequently flash for a minute or so.

I use a CAG if resources and intermediates are available in the area to supplement what my CLS1 deliveries might be making to build up those stocks (good for mission needs also).

For complexes built well away from NPC support, a Teladi shield fab in Yaki space, for example, I periodically ship in a freighter load of sunrise flowers and Nostrop Oil.

[pref]

They only flash yellow when resources are missing. No matter if its a complex or single fab. Full ones just stop production without any warning.

If its being attacked, it flashes red.

[Dovakiin]

Hello again.

I thought I'd provide some screenshots to show you what I'm dealing with.

Proprty menu (shows flashing)
Complex info screen
Station Parameters
Complex Settings (Part 1)
Complex Settings (Part 2)

The complex info screen shows that the Chip Plants are half way through their cycles. I have so many resources in reserve at that moment that even if all the Chip Plants started their cycles right then, there still wouldn't be a shortage.

I have just noticed that BoFu consumption is slightly less than production. They should be the same.

The complex is fully functional. At no point is there any kind of shortage. I've got a superfreighter that I use for manual trades parked there, manually loading Microchips before the complex reaches maximum capacity. I plan to get a new TL and a CLS2 freighter to that automatically at some point. None of the wares at maximum capacity, though I've seen a number of my stations reach maximum capacity of specific resources and products, and they didn't flash.

I built up reserves of BioGas aswell as Bofu and Silicon before opening up the Chip Plants. I had atleast 250% of the required resources before a single Chip Plant was activated.

I have my CLS1 trader delivering ECells whenever the complex goes below 35000. I got confused with another station when I mentioned the 12000 above. That energy supplier is currently the only automated trader working at that complex.

[astreus]

I often faced a permanent yellow warning flash on a compex. Won't stop.

=> This happens also if you link a new (= and empty = yellow flashing) factory to a existing complex! The whole complex now give yellow warning also there is no reason for. Sometimes it ends, sometimes not (never?). Don't know why.

Workaround: Set the new & empty factory to 'not producing' before you link it to the complex. Then set it active (if recources are ok)