Random events

Random events occur at random (unless the Bell Curve difficulty option is selected), according to the below calculations, and have the power to greatly affect your performance in the field and against your enemies.

Occurrences
No random events occur before Turn [75 - (DIFF x 10)]. (That is, 75 minus the difficulty level of the game time 10, where Citizen difficulty level is “0”, and Transcend difficulty level is “5.”) Thus, at Citizen level, random events kick in no earlier than Turn 75, while at Transcend they can show up as early as turn 25.

The truly random events also don’t occur if you turn Random Events off. There are some events which players often think of as random events that actually occur because of the nature of Planet … for example, the Perihelion event, which accelerates native life activity 20 years out of every 80. These events can still occur even if Random Events are turned off.

Each turn, the game randomly picks a base. If there are less than 100 bases on the planet, it picks a number from 0-99, and if no base corresponds to that number (for example, if it picked “Base 80” when there are only 20 bases), then there is no random event.

If the picked base is less than Size 4, or if it is the only base of its faction, or if it is already under the effect of an on-going random event (for example, famine), then no event takes place.

After all the above conditions are fulfilled, one of the following events is randomly picked. 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. 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.

Positive

 * Bumper Crops. +1 nutrient/square at this base for 10 years
 * Heat Wave. +1 energy/square at this base for 10 years.
 * Industrial Boom. +1 mineral/square at this base for 10 years.
 * New Resource Discovered. The new resource may be nutrient, mineral or energy (randomly determined).

Variable

 * Children’s Creche Event. If there is no Creche at the base, protests cause an extra Drone for 5 turns. If there is a Creche, the base experiences massive population surge — it gains as many population points as it would be able to feed with current farming enhancements.
 * Biology Lab Event. If there is no Biology Lab at the base, then Planet Blight destroys all farms and forests near the base. If the base has a Biology Lab, then a beneficial bacterium is discovered instead, producing +1 nutrient/turn for 10 turns.
 * Energy Bank Event. If there is no Energy Bank at the base, then a power surge destroys all nearby mines. If the base has an Energy Bank, then the power surge is absorbed instead (producing +50 energy credits).
 * Energy Market Boom/Crash. If base’s faction has less than 1000 credits, its energy reserves are reduced by 75% (crash). If faction has more than 500 credits and is in fourth place or lower, his energy reserves are doubled (boom). Otherwise there is no effect.
 * Network Node Event. If the base doesn’t have a Network Node, then network overload wipes out all of your current research (all credit toward next discovery being lost). If it has a Network Node, your faction gets a free technology.

Negative

 * Asteroid Strikes Base! This never occurs before Turn 75, and only if the base’s faction is in first place. It destroys everything nearby, including the base itself, and makes a new crater á là Garland Crater.
 * Existing Resource Peters Out. Again, it is randomly determined.
 * Hail Storms. Storms wipe out all solar collectors near base (but no effect before Turn 75).
 * Famine. -1 nutrient/square at this base for 10 years.
 * Haze and Clouds. -1 energy/square at this base for 10 years.
 * Industrial Collapse. -1 mineral/square at this base for 10 years.
 * Prometheus Virus. If this base has a research hospital or Nanohospital, or if its faction has a “medical” secret project (Human Genome Project, Longevity Vaccine, Clinical Immortality), there is no effect. Otherwise, the base’s population is reduced by half, and any base within a number of squares equal to the base’s former population is also reduced by half (unless it has a Hospital or Nanohospital).
 * Sea Beetles. Beetles wipe out all kelp farms near the base.
 * Sunspots. Communications are disrupted for 10-20 turns, but not sooner than Turn 50, and not if sunspots have happened in the last 40 years.
 * Tidal Wave. A wave wipes out all mining platforms near the base.
 * Volcano Erupts. If base is near a volcano, the volcano erupts (but no effect before Turn 75). This never happens unless the base’s faction is in first or second place. It destroys all terrain enhancements and severely reduces the populations of all bases near the volcano.
 * 20% Chance of Asteroid Striking Nessus Prime. All Nessus Mining Stations are destroyed.
 * 20% Chance of Solar Storm/Flare. Orbital Power Transmitters and Orbital Defense Pods are destroyed. All bases produce triple energy next turn.