Maximum Monolith Use

[Begle1]

I remember a game years ago where I had a monolith on a road in the middle of my bases, and I was using it to level-up all of my forces until it stopped working after a few years.

I was playing a game today where I was relying on a monolith to repair my rovers in front of a choke point, and I was nervous that the thing was going to wink out to and let me be overran.


Does anybody know how many times a monolith can be used before shutting down? Does it regenerate after a period of time? Can a monolith repair units more times than it can upgrade units?

 

[Petek]

The conventional wisdom is that a monolith has a 1-in-32 chance of disappearing each time that it's used to upgrade or repair a unit. I don't know the origin of this piece of wisdom, but here's a post on 'Poly from 2002 that cites it. Numerous other cites also exist.

Petek

 

[GooglyBoogly]

Does anybody know how many times a monolith can be used before shutting down? Does it regenerate after a period of time? Can a monolith repair units more times than it can upgrade units?

There is no direct limit as to how many times a monolith may be used, as Patek said there is a chance per use (either heal and/or upgrade) for a monolith to disappear. This also means that a monolith does not 'regenerate' over time, use it 100 times in one turn, or once per turn for 100years - it makes no difference in regards to vanishing.

Yes, a monolith may repair one unit several times, but any one combat unit may only upgrade its morale/lifecycle via a monolith once

 

[Perfection]

Don't use monoliths in your territory for repairing, that's what bases are for.

Your opponent's on the other hand...

 

[vyeh]

In Script.txt,

#MONOLITH0
#MONOLITH0
#xs 320
#caption Operations Director
The arcane technology of the monolith enhanced
our unit to $MORALE0 status. It then vanished.

#MONOLITH1
#xs 320
#caption Operations Director
The arcane technology of the monolith enhanced
our unit to $MORALE0 status.

#MONOLITHNO
#xs 320
#caption Operations Director
The monolith is silent.

#MONOLITHHEAL
#xs 320
#caption Operations Director
The arcane technology of the monolith has repaired our
unit.

Since there is no message for healing and vanishing, I would suggest that it is perfectly safe for the opening poster to use the monolith for repair without fear of it disappearing.