I am so sick of trying to build dams...

[Wyrm]

I have been trying for days now on various maps to build dams. Both with and without terraforming. I always end up with a dam that is either not working or as in my last attempt without terraforming, end up with at dam that was predicted to produce 450 or something MW and in reality ends up producing 48...

I wait for water levels to staiblize. I make sure to not build too close to lakes or the edge of the map. I make sure that water doesn't spill over somewhere else. And I wait for years and years and nothing happens...

I don't know how many guides I have read or videos I've watched, I still don't manage to get it to work. So why is this even a feature in the game? Why include something that is nearly impossible to get working without being a PHD in City: Skylines?

Sorry, I just needed to vent. I am done trying to build dams now...

[Gerdih]

Agree, dams are quite broken.

[Danny Donkey]

Dams can indeed be hit or miss in regards to it's actual electricity production compared to it's construction costs.

[MarkJohnson]

I gave up on dams almost immediately after unlocking my first nuke plant. Dams are just too time consuming to setup.

[ebrumby]

Simple solution: don't try to build another dam. Period. Go for a nuclear power plant.

[MessengerOfRage]

I like dams, dams can be visually stunning map features.
I also totally agree with above posters.

My last 2 maps had beautifull dams prebuild on them.
both were from Bringer of Fire, big thank you those maps are stunning.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198072433656/myworkshopfiles/?appid=255710

[~\\Savarast//~]

Tbh it honestly feels a map had to be designed with hydro in mind for it to work without much head-banging. There was one vanilla map that had a perfect spot for a max energy dam... Two rivers or Grand River iirc

[Stealthy]

Dams are not broken, by any means. They are very finicky but very usable.

What affects the amount of power produced is 2 things. Height and amount of water flowing through the dam. More height, more power, more flow, more power. So to some extent you can replace missing flow with height and vice versa.

Now, what then reduces the power: Water below the dam. Yes, when dam produces say 1000 MW it spills out a LOT of water. If this water doesn't flow away quickly, water level rises and effectively reduces the drop height across the dam (see above) and the power output reduces. Then when the water level recedes, dam will start spilling more and power production increases, until it hits the problem again.

So to make an effective dam you need to have high flow, decent drop and very efficient water removal / flow further downstream to keep dam working at max flow rate which equals to max power.

I'm working on a city with vanilla only (no workshop content, no DLC, no CCP) and can upload that map tomorrow. It has a dam which produces fairly solidly about 1000 MW. It also has buses only, about 160k population and 92-93% traffic flow.

My intention is to then add further saves where I introduce only one DLC or CCP into the game and show what I use it for. There will only be 1 DLC / CCP only, so effects are not piled up and this way anyone can download the versions they have the right DLC / CCP for.

[BucketBrain]

Originally posted by Stealthy:

Dams are not broken, by any means. They are very finicky but very usable.

What affects the amount of power produced is 2 things. Height and amount of water flowing through the dam. More height, more power, more flow, more power. So to some extent you can replace missing flow with height and vice versa.

Now, what then reduces the power: Water below the dam. Yes, when dam produces say 1000 MW it spills out a LOT of water. If this water doesn't flow away quickly, water level rises and effectively reduces the drop height across the dam (see above) and the power output reduces. Then when the water level recedes, dam will start spilling more and power production increases, until it hits the problem again.

So to make an effective dam you need to have high flow, decent drop and very efficient water removal / flow further downstream to keep dam working at max flow rate which equals to max power.

I'm working on a city with vanilla only (no workshop content, no DLC, no CCP) and can upload that map tomorrow. It has a dam which produces fairly solidly about 1000 MW. It also has buses only, about 160k population and 92-93% traffic flow.

My intention is to then add further saves where I introduce only one DLC or CCP into the game and show what I use it for. There will only be 1 DLC / CCP only, so effects are not piled up and this way anyone can download the versions they have the right DLC / CCP for.

+1
That´s it , great explanation

lf you are willing to use mods you can use the water sources of the ELT mod to manupulate the waterflow on both sides of the dam . The inner source in the lake to create enough volume and an outer source downstream for draining the outflow to avoid flooding your city . So you get a higher power output even on lower leveled dams
edit link
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2840854295

[Danny Donkey]

This guide might be helpful in order to understand dams and water flow: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=410718825

[2xreper]

Wyrm;

I agree Let's all quit using dams.

[BucketBrain]

Originally posted by banned0lero:

Wyrm;

I agree Let's all quit using dams.

No
Sorry if it don´t work for you

[Wyrm]

I Ironically built one this morning and finally got it working and I think I finally managed to understand water levels :)

(I wasn't going to do this anymore, but couldn't get it out of my mind)

The secret as I understand it is to not build the dam higher than the highest water-level in the river. As basic as that.

[Stealthy]

Originally posted by Wyrm:

The secret as I understand it is to not build the dam higher than the highest water-level in the river. As basic as that.

To begin with, yes. If it is too high above the max water level, it will never fill up and work. After you pass this point and manage to make it work, then the other "laws" kick in.

[Stealthy]

Uploaded the save I mentioned earlier. Turned out that when you have airports DLC disabled, you can't upload. After enabling it, uploading is again possible.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2842309531

[shiggies713]

agree they can be finicky, just need to be slightly higher than the water is. It can help to use waste water to help power it.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2842394168

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2842398097

The bigger my city gets, the more power this thing generates. When i first built it and 2 of the waste treatment plants it was predicted to do 96Mw but was teetering between 128-144Mw, now with the 3rd one its always at least at 144Mw and sometimes ticks up to 160Mw. Its nearly free energy since the excess water is making it go up.

Of course this was a map I actually imported from google earth from around the area the Hoover dam really is, just so i could specifically recreate it... so on other maps you may have more issues. If you want, its been on the workshop for years, here is the download, you can try it if you are interested.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=415692500

looks best with tropical climate and a custom theme map i found called California Coast.