Power States

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Currently there are two hidden power states, Sleep and Active.  Sleep is
what makes the Sleep task work, and all other tasks are Active.

This system should be expanded and given its own GUI element.

Desired power states:
1. Stasis.  The base is completely shut down and put into stasis, dropping
its maintenance cost by 50% (rounded down) and its detection chance by 90%.
 It takes 10 minutes per size to put a base into or take a base out of
stasis, during which time no bonus is given.  Bases entering, exiting, or
in Stasis do not support the AI.
2. Sleep.  The base is running in standby, using less power than normal. 
50% reduction in detection chance.
3. Active.  The base functions normally.
4. Overclocked.  The base gets a 50% bonus to CPU time, but has a 50%
higher detection chance as well.
5. Suicidal.  The base gets a 200% bonus to CPU time, but the detection
chance is set to 50%/day.

All modes except Active should have associated technologies.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by funnyman3595 on 5 May 2008 at 7:13

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Good point, though the 50%/day seems like overkill to me.

Original comment by nova.al...@gmail.com on 11 May 2008 at 9:37

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Partial implementation will be merged alongside issue 11.

Original comment by funnyman3595 on 2 Aug 2008 at 8:48

• Changed state: Started

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About 4: I'd certainly take this! It is just a reduction of the initial costs, 
so
instead of having to pay for 3 I can pay for 2!

Suicidal: I'd never take this... from, say, 1.5% to 50%? Never!

I like the idea for stasis and sleep, though. Those would be usefull, when I am 
in
full retreat to my arctic capsule... though I'd probably just put the arctic 
capsule
in stasis, it never contributes much anyway.

Original comment by robertsd...@gmail.com on 5 Oct 2008 at 9:23

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For clarity's sake: At the moment, it's still just Sleep/Active, though that 
may be
expanded further by 0.29 release.  The partial implementation I spoke of was 
giving
this its own GUI element, which tied into the research screen improvements.  
Now that
that's in, we can look into including the other states, without causing GUI 
clutter.

Overclocking probably needs a higher disincentive, for the reason you 
mentioned.  A
maintenance increase, for sure, and perhaps a chance of destroying the CPUs (or 
the
base, for server time, etc).  1%/day or so should discourage using it 
continuously.

Suicidal does exactly what it says.  The main use I have in mind is as a decoy. 
"Hey, look over at North America!  (...because you're paying too much attention 
to
the Moon right now)"

Remember that bases in stasis effectively don't exist for purposes of staying 
alive.
 If you have nothing else left, you're toast.  So you could put the time capsule into
stasis, but you'd better take it out if you're down to one other base.

Original comment by funnyman3595 on 6 Oct 2008 at 1:16

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Shifting to next release milestone.

Original comment by phil.bor...@gmail.com on 27 Jan 2009 at 12:36

• Added labels: Milestone-0.31
• Removed labels: Milestone-0.29

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Stasis seems a bit over-powered to me. Bases should require to be a certain 
size to
support it. If you could put three Datacenters (size 1) into Stasis, it'd be 
too easy
to take one out and construct another (plus, how would you turn off a Datacenter
without being noticed?).

Suicidal looks unbalanced too. Same basic resolution; the less significant the 
base,
the less attention diverted from other continents.

Overclocking should add a possibility of becoming "damaged". In this state, the 
base
should essentially be put into Stasis, but the detection chances should remain
unaffected.

IMO, just to keep the game realistic, Sleep should be unchanged, though the name
might need to be changed to "inactive" (in the real world, putting a Datacenter 
to
sleep would disconnect human clients) and from hard mode up, it also shouldn't
support the AI. A sixth state named "Stealth" would make more sense for 
Funnyman's
suggestion.

Original comment by nofewfudtefcity@gmail.com on 7 Aug 2009 at 8:13

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@funnyman3595: Stasis should only be supported for a base considering that the 
AI has 
full ownership of the base in question.  Logically, a base cannot be fully shut 
down 
when humans have access, as that alone would cause suspicion.

Sleep could very well be any base that is idle (i.e. contributing to the CPU 
Pool).  
This would only be an automatic thing, not user-initiated directly.  In this 
sense, 
computers in idle reduce detection, but also not doing anything *at all* (i.e. 
not 
doing a job or maintaining bases).  This could also be considered as computers 
not 
doing anything, but are ready to work at a nanosecond's notice.  Location wise, 
this 
could be used for every base.

Active is for a base maintaining other base(s) or itself, working a job, or 
researching.  All bases can do it, regardless of location and type.

Overclocked should cause a detection chance increase, but, if the entire base 
is used 
with humans in conjunction with the AI, then the detection chance would 
increase 
more.  Also, I agree with nofewfudtefcity that overclocking could damage or 
destroy 
the base.   Repair could cost money or CPU to repair.  If the base is really 
owned by 
humans, then there could also be a big fine, or the owner could sue you (bad if 
you 
control no human-looking robots).

Suicidal has to have a moderately strong disincentive.  It should be that it 
causes 
the base to run itself into the ground within 36 hours, if the suspicious 
people 
(rate should be +15% - +20%) don't find it first.

I also believe that there should be a "Decoy" state... a 100% chance of 
detection for 
the individual base, detection rate +5% or +10% for other bases in the same 
sector, 
but reduces the detection in all other locations to zero.  The detection rates 
normalize after about a week.

Original comment by Avaera8820 on 13 Oct 2009 at 7:05