Minor Lights are popping for no discernable reason

[Lady Birb]

It seems that the coding team is unable to come to a consensus.
Zewaka has said in other threads as well as here that it's a bug, but other coders are saying it's a feature? And even among the "feature" crew, some are saying it was recently added while others are claiming it has existed forever(though I have played for three years and have no recollection of this happening before recently)?
imo if it's a feature its an ABSOLUTE GARBAGE feature and should be removed with extreme prejudice anyway.

[glassofmilk]

Could it just be changed so that lights randomly burning out don't spark? Keep the sparks for an AI overload or somebody flicking the lightswitch, but random welding tank bombs just aren't fun

[aft2001]

how about we just remove lights, ez-pz, problem solved

But really, has the coding team come to a consensus on whether or not this will be removed, regardless if it's a bug or a feature?

[Zamujasa]

I've started just moving the welding tanks away from bulbs now, because having them randomly go off without any warning or direct reason is extremely not fun.

[The Gorog]

It seems that the coding team is unable to come to a consensus.
Zewaka has said in other threads as well as here that it's a bug, but other coders are saying it's a feature? And even among the "feature" crew, some are saying it was recently added while others are claiming it has existed forever(though I have played for three years and have no recollection of this happening before recently)?
imo if it's a feature its an ABSOLUTE GARBAGE feature and should be removed with extreme prejudice anyway.

Yeah, I really dont know why we would want to have this as a feature, as well as the random door crushing.
I dont see either of these adding anything to the game then frustration for the most part. Maybe some funny moments with the door crushing.

[Frank_Stein]

Are we talking about the bulbs burning out when they are flicked on and off rapidly?

[MagicStudiosGuy]

If it is a feature:

Yes, sometimes light bulbs sometimes burn out and can start fires. And yes, sometimes automatic doors just stop working. But people also trip a lot, and yet people didn't like that inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Don't risk game play for the sake of 'realistic features'.

If it is not a feature:

fix it please...

[Zamujasa]

Are we talking about the bulbs burning out when they are flicked on and off rapidly?

No, that's normal and intended. The issue in this thread is that bulbs will randomly pop by themselves, with no outside influence.

[The Gorog]

Are we talking about the bulbs burning out when they are flicked on and off rapidly?

Look at the picture I posted on the page before this one.
I spawned in the artlab and the fuel tank in that small room was already exploding. Shift time: 0 Minutes

[Technature]

Yeah, I really dont know why we would want to have this as a feature, as well as the random door crushing.I dont see either of these adding anything to the game then frustration for the most part. Maybe some funny moments with the door crushing.

I'm sorry, but every time the door smashes someone it's fucking hilarious.

It doesn't happen often and every time it does I laughed my ass off.

ESPECIALLY that one time I killed that one obvious changeling as an AI with shocking a door and a door eating him at the best possible time.

Still the best god damn moment on this game.

[Avack]

Seems this is happening again. Had a round with multiple fuel tank explosions as a result, plus by the time the round ended (RP, so 2 hours) large parts of the station were really dark. What is even going on here?

Edit: Just remembered a round I had a little while back where the chemistry fuel tank had blown up before the round started, too. It's nasty.

[sodly]

A point of clarification for this thread: Azungar revealed that this was neither a bug nor an old feature, but a relatively new implementation. He then proceeded to tweak it to behave much more reasonably.

Someone's since changed the bulb/tube burnout rate to ludicrous speeds again. By 40 minutes, I had changed 36 tubes in places I could reach with assistant access; entire departments had blacked out by that point. By 60 minutes, 3 fuel tanks situated beneath light tubes had exploded.

this isn't a fun feature


e: I want to assume this was only tested on the Cogmaps, since those are both pretty large and generous in their tube and bulb placement. It's way more disruptive on the smaller maps RP leans toward.

[Zamujasa]

I couldn't confirm this by testing, but I've added some logging to note when this happens. I suspect that perhaps the update loop got bugged and was rapidly updating lights, which caused them to pop.

There are a few possible fixes I'll look into.

[Skornzy]

Why not remove the possibility of lights burning out altogether?

[UrsulaMejor]

Why not remove the possibility of lights burning out altogether?

lights burn out to prevent extremely easy lag creation abuse from spam turning them off and on and to give the ai a reliable way to start fires.

there's other reasons, but those are among the largest.