Guide to killing your entire population in a single turn

[leeor_net]

So, I was playing around with OutpostHD running numbers and checking out the simulation and was moving merrily along. At turn 269 I decided I needed more storage tanks. Opted to modify a tube section so I could add them to the current bank of storage tanks I had. So I bulldozed the tube sections I wanted to replace, hit the next turn button and everybody died.

I forgot that my Fusion Reactor, the colony's only source of power, was at the end of that line of tubes.

Moral of the story?

Check what's at the end of the line before you disconnect a section of the colony.

The other moral of the story?

Redundancy isn't always a bad thing.

[lordpalandus]

Really? So it doesn't use Outpost 2's method of beaming the power wirelessly via microwave dishes?

Also, why would everyone die in one turn? Wouldn't there be enough power from the Command Center, to keep at least a few people alive? Even in Outpost 2, when you run out of food, you have a few seconds before a colony of 200 starves to death.

[Hooman]

Loved the topic title 

Ok, now how can it be done on your first turn?

[JetMech1999]

Hooman, you're sadistic .  Funny, though.

[leeor_net]

Really? So it doesn't use Outpost 2's method of beaming the power wirelessly via microwave dishes?

Nope. That's a lifeline from the colony ship until it deorbits. This comes from the original game's documentation.

Also, why would everyone die in one turn? Wouldn't there be enough power from the Command Center, to keep at least a few people alive? Even in Outpost 2, when you run out of food, you have a few seconds before a colony of 200 starves to death.

Yes and no. The CC only has enough power for itself and itself alone. It's one of the few self-contained structures in the game.

Dying in one turn makes sense. A turn is basically a month. If the power goes out, all food stored in the agridomes perishes which leaves nothing left for the colonists to eat. Humans can live at most three weeks without food.

Now granted in desperate times humans can find other ways of finding sustinence (including eating their dead) but keep in mind if someone died due to starvatation there really isn't anything left to feed another human. Scraps, basically... the heart, lungs, liver, brain... not sure how much nutrition would be left in those organs if the person died of starvation.

Keep in mind this is basically 'hard mode'. It's extremely unforgiving. A mistake like the one I made can doom your colony (as it did in this case). It's also why you should save often (something I neglected to do).

In easier modes it'll be a little more forgiving. Your colonists will be able to stay in the CC like they did when they first landed and there were no residential units. The CC is capable of storing 250 units of food so it technically should keep at least some of your colonists alive until you can reconnect or rebuild your power facilities. All in good time though.

Ok, now how can it be done on your first turn?

Oh that's easy. Go to a star system with no planets. Immediate game over (though in OPHD this stage of the game won't work the way it did in the original so you can't really go to a star system with no planets.  )