How to get >90% uptime for Tune-Up on all generators

[Tobruk]

<voice from infomercials> Have you ever wondered why your dupes don't ever Tune-Up your generators, even though you desperately spam priority nine over the Power Control Station in hopes they'll understand what you mean?

But in all seriousness, that's annoying. So I'm here to help you get this matter dealt with. If you already know how to do this, good for you.

• Obvious - get at least one dupe with engineering skill

• Give him a hat. Its' cute. And you'll know at a glance if your electricians are where they supposed to be (in the generator rooms).

• Three things in mind
  • Don't be fooled into thinking raising priority on the Power Control Station directly affects tune-up. It does not. It affects the production of microchips, but from my experience they rarely run out of them, and so 5 will do.
    
  •  The game doesn't tell you this, but generators, even though they appear not to have any priority, have an assigned priority of 5. And it cannot be changed by you, which makes our tasks slightly harder.
    
    EDIT: Coal/wood generators (where you actually put things) do have the priority gauge, as corrected by @Chthonicone
     
  • 
  •  Also, another thing. The process of tuning-up is categorized as operating.
•  Now let's do some scheduling
  • Pick your electrician and bump his operating to >>
  • Leave all other task categories at > or lower
    
•  After that, we're going after all the operating tasks that are not tuning-up, but clutter the precious to-do list on the highest (>>) level. To do this, click on any electrician and view his to-do list.
  •  If you set operating as the highest, and nothing else is at >>, only operating errands should show on this level.
  •  Set everything, that is not Power Supply or Tinker at less than 5
    
    
     
  • If anyone's worried setting his refineries or sth to less than ABSOLUTE MUST NINE GO GO GO GO!!!! will impact his production, the electricians will still operate it frequently. This may only impact other dupes.

 

And there you go! You can enjoy your tuned-up generators!

Hope I helped someone

[Chthonicone]

22 minutes ago, Tobruk said:

 

• •  The game doesn't tell you this, but generators, even though they appear to not have any priority, have an assigned priority of 5. Always. And it cannot be changed by you, which makes our tasks slightly harder.
    
    

Very good information, I already knew it personally but I'd like to add something. Not every generator lacks this priority gauge. Generators that can manually receive fuel have a priority that you can change. These include the coal and wood generator.

So, you should mention that if you have any of these generators, to make sure you set them appropriately as well, or your operators might prioritize the wrong generators.

I know that I personally work with a mix of power sources, so if one runs low, I'm not completely out of luck.

[0xFADE]

Can you choose which metals to sacrifice to that thing yet?  Won't be bothering with it till then.

[Chthonicone]

20 minutes ago, 0xFADE said:

Can you choose which metals to sacrifice to that thing yet?  Won't be bothering with it till then.

It requires you to choose which metals.

[SharraShimada]

2 hours ago, 0xFADE said:

Can you choose which metals to sacrifice to that thing yet?  Won't be bothering with it till then.

You choose the used refined metal at the tuning station. You can even choose different metals for different locations (for example with near volcanos to reduze shipping times)

[LarB]

There's a way to change priority on hydrogen and petroleum generators. Mark them for deconstruction,  change priority and cancel deconstruction.

[Tobruk]

2 hours ago, LarB said:

There's a way to change priority on hydrogen and petroleum generators. Mark them for deconstruction,  change priority and cancel deconstruction.

For real? I'm gonna test this right now

I always thought that priority is only in force during the deconstruction errand period.

[Foefaller]

5 hours ago, Tobruk said:

For real? I'm gonna test this right now

I always thought that priority is only in force during the deconstruction errand period.

It would make since that ot stays, since deconstructing something with a higher or lower priority keeps the priority.

[AntaresHiS]

The tune-up process can take a while if you have many generators, so I don't always find it worth the dupes' time. Especially when you have geysers for easy power.

Has anyone tested if the "lit workspace" bonus applies to generator tune-up?