Disasters are temporary events with great negative consequences. There are three kinds of disasters in Anno 2070: City Disasters, Environmental Disasters and Technological Disasters. On this page, you will find an overview of all of them.
Disasters got their own soundtrack called "World's End", which is especially played during a tornado.
City Disasters
NEW! If you have the Deep Ocean Expansion, there will be a new reward on each faction's Career Ladder which gives you a formula that will provide ALL your inhabitants complete protection against one of Crime, Fire, and Disease. However, to obtain these new rewards, you need 2100 Career points for each and every one of them when you start building up on the 13th and final step on the career ladders.
The Fire Station
Fire
If you have too few or no active Fire Stations in your city, your houses may catch fire. The houses will eventually burn until destroyed, and sometimes they will also explode, initiating an Inferno, where a substantial number of houses are burning together, or in the worst-case scenario a Blaze, meaning that more than 15 houses are burning all at once. The Blaze will continue until it is either extinguished by a fire station or the fire units of a Repair Dock, or peters out, generally having destroyed gigantic parts of the city, sometimes up to 30 houses. The houses can however be saved by a Fire Station. As with disease and crime, it is possible to reduce the risk of fire on your island by building multiple Fire Stations. For Techs, using Safety in Research channel on the Information Center reduces the risk of fire by 100%. Fire can also be effectivly stopped by using the eco Shield Generator, though this can be expensive in the long run.
The Hospital
Disease
If you have too few or no active Hospitals in your city, your people may suffer from disease. Sick people will leave your city until no more people live in your residences. Sick people can be cured by a Hospital.
The probability of disease depends on how many hospitals you have on your island. It is possible to bring the chance of this disaster down to 0%, but this requires a lot of hospitals. For Eco players, it is much cheaper to use Check Up - The Consultation channel on the Education Network.
The Police Station
Crime
If you have too few or no active Police Stations in your city, crime can arise in your city. Robbed people will leave your city until there is just 1 citizen left in the house. Unlike the disease disaster, houses will not turn into ruins. However, criminality spreads quickly: if it is not stopped quickly, the entire city may be affected by it. Criminality can be stopped by a Police Station. As with disease and fire, it is possible to eliminate the chance of crime actually occurring in your city by building several police stations, but is extremely expensive in the long run. For Tycoon Players, it is much more efficient to prevent crime using Neighborhood Watch channel on the Ministry of Truth, which reduces the risk of crime to 0%.
It may be important to note that upon attaining Geniuses, crime as a disaster immediately unlocks but the police station will not unlock until the first executive of any of the two other factions arrive on the island. This means that crime will be impossible to fight unless one attains executives before geniuses, at which point the police station unlocks like it normally does.
Respiratory Ailment
Respiratory Ailment is caused by smog (which itself reduces satisfaction). It greatly reduces your Inhabitant's satisfaction and can be linked to an outbreak. It is mitigated by hospitals.
Civil Unrest / Rioting
For the main article, see Uprise.
Civilians may riot in conditions of low satisfaction, high taxes, and/or high population levels. Civilians will also occasionally present the player with ultimatums such as a demand to destroy a Nuclear Power Plant, and they will riot if these are left unfulfilled.
Environmental Disasters
Acid Rain
See also: Ecobalance.
Acid Rain reduces the productivity of farms and production plants by 50%. Farm fields can be completely destroyed by the rain. This only occurs at a disastrous ecobalance(-500).
Acid Soil
See also: Ecobalance.
Acid Soil is not really a disaster but it reduces productivity of farms by 1% for every 10 points below negative on the Ecobalance. Acid Soil especially affects Eco farms such as the Tea Plantation.
Tornado
While rare, tornadoes do appear in the game and cause devastating damage to buildings on the island. The damage inflicted by tornadoes can be effectively mitigated by the use of Eco Shield Generators.
After the 4th patch, tornadoes appear more rarely.
The chance a tornado might appear is affected by the global Ecobalance of the map, however a positive or neutral Ecobalance does not necessarily mean a tornado cannot happen. The probability of a Tornado will significantly increase when one or more islands drop below -200 Ecobalance, or the Ecobalance in a sector drops very quickly.
Tip: When a tornado appears, it will most likely go for the most polluted island in the sector. An island with -500 Ecobalance is much more likely to get hit by it than a island with -100 Ecobalance. Try to build some islands where you purposely decrease the Ecobalance, just so that you're able to distract the tornado from causing any damage on your main islands. However, the best way of avoiding the tornado is still raising the Ecobalance above 0.
For a continuous game you can minimize the chance of a tornado by doing the following:
- On the game settings tab, set environmental disasters to easy.
- On the game settings tab, set the Ecobalance influences to positive.
- Don't play with Tori Bartok, Vadim Sokow or Thor Strindberg.
- Do not let your Ecobalance drop fast, a fast dropping Ecobalance will cause a tornado to occur nearly always.
- While Leon Moreau is an expanding player, he doesn't really expand in terms of population or infrastructure. All he really does is spawn Ozone Generators and Monitoring Stations on every island, which in fact makes him one of your best choices to play with. He greatly improves not only single islands but general Ecobalance too. Don't hesitate to settle his islands: he will not complain and you can rent his buildings for a moderate fee (maintenance cost).
- Whether you are a Tycoon or Eco player, make use of Ecobalance buildings and keep your islands in stable or positive conditions.
Technological Disasters
Oil Spill
Offshore Oil Rigs
See also: Oil Rig.
An Oil Spill is caused by an accident on an Oil Rig. The Oil Rig will catch fire as a consequence of the accident. After sustaining heavy damage from the Fire an Oil Spill will occur. The Oil Spill will slowly expand from the Oil Rig towards a nearby Island and will cause a Black Tide on that Island upon reaching it, instantly incurring a -500 Ecobalance penalty. If left unattended the ecobalance will eventually sink to -999. The Oil rig will eventually burn until destruction.
You can prevent the Oil Rig from being destroyed by extinguishing the fire in time. Even if the Oil Spill already occurred, but the Oil Rig hasn't been destroyed and you manage to put out the Fire, the Oil Spill will stop from spreading towards nearby Island and the disaster will not occur. In this situation the spilled oil will eventually clear by itself. If the Oil Spill reaches an Island and Causes the oil spill, you can clear the Oil Spill near the Island's shore by using the Effluent Pump module which can be researched (constructed) in a Laboratory. To put out a fire on an Oil Rig you need an Emergency Equipment module which can be researched (constructed) in a Laboratory as well. It is also possible to use the Firebird's bombing run ability on a burning oil rig, to instantly destroy it without causing any further negative effects.
In addition to the significant Ecobalance Penalty the Oil Spill Disaster will cause a significant Productivity Penalty to the affected Fisheries.
Several items (bought / found / created in the Academy) reduce the probability of this accident. For example the Maintenance Unit module, which can be researched (constructed) in a Laboratory, will reduce the probability of an accident on an Oil Rig by 90% for a duration of 2 hours.
Gallery
Nuclear Accident
See also: Nuclear Power Plant.
Nuclear Power Plant - Nuclear Fallout
While rarely very serious, Nuclear Accidents may happen at an operational Nuclear Power Plant. There are three levels of Nuclear Accidents.
- A Minor Accident is the least severe Nuclear accident, and also the most common one. It has no immediate influence on anything. The power station continues to operate normally and no Ecobalance or Energy values are affected, but the event indicates that the probability threshold for an accident has been exceeded.
- An Imminent Meltdown is the second level of Nuclear Accidents, and also the second-rarest accident. Imminent Meltdown at a Nuclear Power Plant will cause a disaster condition on the Island the Power Plant is located on, incurring -500 Ecobalance penalty which will last for "some time". Sometimes it can also explode like a Nuclear Missile, but with less damage, so it won't get destroyed. This disaster will also contaminate some residences causing the inhabitants to leave, until the residences are completely devolved (into ruins). This can be prevented by Hospitals, which will clear the contamination from the residences. The productivity of the Nuclear Power Plant will eventually drop to 50%.
- Nuclear Fallout is the rarest and most severe Nuclear Accident, occurring after the Nuclear Power Plant has been operational for a very long (though variable) time. A Nuclear Fallout accident will cause the Nuclear Power Plant to explode similarly to a Long-range (Nuclear) Missile strike. The explosion will immediately destroy nearby structures and the Power Plant itself, as well as damaging buildings outside the influence area of the Nuclear Power Plant. Nuclear Fallout will also initiate a disaster condition on the Island, incurring a -500 Ecobalance penalty and contamination. In addition, the Power Plant will turn into a Nuclear Power Plant Ruin which cannot be removed. The Nuclear Power Plant Ruin will generate a permanent additional Ecobalance penalty of -100 on the Island. The surroundings of a Nuclear Power Plant Ruin (equivalent to a Depot Influence Area) may not be built upon until a long time has passed. (In a test game, it was possible to build inside the area after more than 30 hours of gameplay, but it is likely to take longer for other players.) A Nuclear Fallout accident will also cause the player to lose 60 influence points with Yana Rodriguez, and possibly other NPCs as well, though this loss can easily be recouped through lobbying.
The probability of a Nuclear Accident can be reduced by usage of appropriate Warehouse or Ark Items (e.g. the Maintenance Unit). Note that the probability of an accident can be reduced to 0%, meaning that no accident may occur. Power failures also dramatically increase the probability of accidents, though this information is not stated anywhere in-game. The probability of a severe Nuclear Accident such as a Fallout event actually occurring is nevertheless very small, and the player will probably have already demolished the Power Plant before because of an ultimatum from your population or an NPC.
However, should a Nuclear Fallout event occur to an NPC, the consequences will be much more noticeable as that NPC will become impossible to defeat because of the Nuclear Ruin.
The game settings affect the probability of accidents meaning that you will receive fewer and less severe accidents on Easy difficulty (specifically on the Technological Disasters setting) than on Hard difficulty settings. On Hard it has been proven that each Power Plant will experience at least 1 accident per hour, where 1 out of 10-30 accidents is a Meltdown, and 1 out of 50-100 is a Fallout event. (Note that these statistics may be unreliable, since this was only demonstrated with the 1.03 Patch-Note.) The easier the Technological Disasters setting is set, the rarer Fallout events become.
Protection of a Nuclear Power Plant is possible by building two Eco shield generators nearby. This will prevent some of the devastating effects of a "Nuclear Fallout" disaster, making it comparable to an "Imminent Meltdown" by giving the -500 Ecobalance penalty but not reducing the plant to a ruin, and allowing the surroundings to be built upon.
It is also noteworthy that if "Nuclear Fallout" takes place in a Nuclear Power Plant that is not in the influence area of a Warehouse, you can still build upon the surrounding area.
A partial Nuclear Fallout event can caused by having the Power Plant damaged either by an enemy or by allowing it to decay through making it neutral. Upon reaching 0 hitpoints, the Plant will stop functioning and turn into a Nuclear Ruin, incurring the permanent -100 Ecobalance penalty. Fallout caused by damage like this will however not result in any other consequences, though the ruins will be impossible to remove. It will also still be possible to build other buildings inside the influence area of the Power Plant.
When Nuclear Fallout occurs for the first time, the player will receive an Achievement:
"Restricted Area"
Gallery
Research Accident
See also: Laboratory.
A Research Accident can happen at a Laboratory during a research. The probability of an accident is indicated by the Development Risk value (
). You are able to reduce the Development Risk by usage of appropriate Warehouse and Ark Items. There are 3 levels of Research accidents:
- The Evacuation is the least severe research accident. This however will not cancel any pending research projects. Inhabitants will become ill in the proximity of the evacuated Laboratory.
- The Fire is the second least severe research accident and will cause the Laboratory to catch a fire. Inhabitants will become ill in the proximity of the Laboratory. The Laboratory will burn until destruction unless the fire is extinguished by a Fire Station.
- The Explosion is the most severe research accident and will cause the Laboratory to explode, causing any pending research project to be cancelled. Inhabitants will become ill in the proximity of the Laboratory. Nearby houses may be destroyed or catch a fire. In the worst-case scenario, it may also cause a Blaze.
Tsunami
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Deep Ocean Expansion Required!
You require the Deep Ocean expansion to unlock this content.
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A Tsunami devastating a Tech city
Sokow's island flooded
The Tsunami is a disaster only available in the Deep Ocean expansion. A Tsunami is created when a Geothermic Power Plant collapses. The power plant is destroyed in the process. The resulting wave moves outward in an expanding circle, so the islands affected aren't chosen randomly. The Tsunami is able to destroy harbors and ships near the coast, while ships and submarines in the deep sea are unaffected. The wave is blocked by mountains, so rocky islands may be shielded from the full effect. When a Tsunami has flooded the land, it becomes temporarily unbuildable (much like Nuclear Fallout, only with a shorter duration). You must wait until the water recedes in order to rebuild.
You receive a 10-15 second warning of an impending Tsunami. This time should be used to move ships away from the shoreline, saving them from certain death. It may be possible to build your Geothermic Power Plants and settle islands strategically in order to minimize damage from a Tsunami. Simply choose building sites that put mountains between your settlements and the power plant.