hydro power plants are killing the fun

[Wutproppen]

Once again a city I built is at a stage where a hydro power plant makes the most sense to generate electricity.

I saved enough money for that and can also purchase up to two new land areas nearby. So I look around, and find some kind of river spring. It has a strong current, is nestled in a steep valley and the river it creates is neither too wide nor too small.

So, I save the game and attempt to build a dam there. No chance, it always says "slope too steep" or whatever. Trying all that took me like 30 minutes or so.

Then I loaded my savegame and looked for another area. There I found a river, but the area is a bit flat and the river is a bit wide, but I try it anyway. I buy the land and see how a dam would work out there: not very well. It simply wouldn't create enough power to make sense and cost too much.

So I load the savegame again and look around, but the only feasable place I see is that spring. So I buy that land again and try it again. I try more points how to build the dam, and behold: there I find a place: the dam would generate over 700mw and cost less than 300k. What a steal! I build the dam, connect it to the city with roads and a power line. Then I fast forward the game.

The water level upriver of the dam is rising, and rising... Dam still doesn't produce energy... Then the water level is falling again. Then it's rising again, then falling again... Then staying low... Weeks pass by, and still 0 power.

Ok, something didn't work here. I don't know what it didn't work, so I load up my savegame and try it again, placing the dam slightly different, more centered of the river. I fast forward the game: same thing, water level rises, falls, no energy produced.

I check the currents, and the currents around the dam stopped. I guess they stopped because I built the dam there? Does that mean that building the dam killed that spring which is why it doesn't produce energy? I have no idea.

All that took me now a couple of hours. And all I want is a working hydro power plant. I want to play the game. My people are screaming for new zones, I still have to create that railway and see how that city highway I built works out. I want to play the game, but instead I get frustrated with that power plant and lose motivation to play the game.

It feels as if I created a space ship by hand from scratch, and now I can't fly into space because some tiny lamp is having a lose contact and I now spend years fiddling it back and forth instead of doing something interesting.

[grapplehoeker]

I sympathise with you and I understand how difficult mastering dam building can be. This guide should help ;)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=643348291
Even if you don't want max output, the theory alone should help you succeed. Good luck and keep going ;)

[Official Overwatch Investigator]

Why not use Nuclear power plants, they have like 0 consequences and arent big.

[Mansen]

Clearly not enough water to keep the plant running at full speed.

[Official Overwatch Investigator]

Originally posted by Mansen:

Clearly not enough water to keep the plant running at full speed.

It only costs 2k, thats nothing....

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by Gabe Newell #xD #YOLO:

Why not use Nuclear power plants, they have like 0 consequences and arent big.

In terms of cost effectiveness, this is how all of the various power sources rate against a dam:
At 427MW, a dam is better than a solar plant.
At 321MW, a dam is better than any wind plant.
At 257MW, a dam is better than a nuclear plant. (Not considering 1.92k m³ water / week!)
At 229MW, a dam is better than a coal plant. (Not considering cost of resource burned!)
At 201MW, a dam is better than an oil plant. (Not considering cost of resource burned!)
At 27MW, a dam is better than an incineration plant.
So, as long as you can generate more than 427MW consistently from a dam, you will have the cheapest power producer. The only power producer that performs better than a max output dam is the Fusion Power Plant.
And besides, dams have more uses than just generating power. They can create lakes behind a dam, they can tame mighty rivers and create more habitable areas. They can even become a main aesthetic feature of your city.
Sure, dams aren't suitable for every map or every city and neither are nuclear plants, but they sure are fun ;)

[Wutproppen]

Thanks for the advice, but I always try to perform well on maps the way they come. Using modding tools doesn't really work like that. :)

But I can't find any useful place for a dam on this winter map.

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by RB Oneironaut:

Thanks for the advice, but I always try to perform well on maps the way they come. Using modding tools doesn't really work like that. :)

But I can't find any useful place for a dam on this winter map.

If you are referring to the 3 default maps supplied by CO, then yeah they're all very flat and not suitable for natural dams. You'll have to design your own map or subscribe to one. Or the simple placement of water spawners using the ELT mod, even if you don't wish to terraform, can make all the difference.

[Erei]

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

Originally posted by RB Oneironaut:

Thanks for the advice, but I always try to perform well on maps the way they come. Using modding tools doesn't really work like that. :)

But I can't find any useful place for a dam on this winter map.

If you are referring to the 3 default maps supplied by CO, then yeah they're all very flat and not suitable for natural dams. You'll have to design your own map or subscribe to one. Or the simple placement of water spawners using the ELT mod, even if you don't wish to terraform, can make all the difference.

Islands have a suitable place for a max output dam, but it's on the edge of the 25tiles if I remember correctly, so you can do it, but it's for the late stage of the city.

[Wutproppen]

Well, I used the money I saved for the dam to build some geothermal plants and upgrade all pipes. That did cost about the same and also saved a lot of energy. :)

[Zefnoly]

Most of the stock maps are poorly made to utilize the hydropowers well. If you want more realistic use of them you should look at user made maps where there is a bigger chance of the dam to have high power output. I made a canyon map where i can easily build powerfull dams

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

I sympathise with you and I understand how difficult mastering dam building can be. This guide should help ;)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=643348291
Even if you don't want max output, the theory alone should help you succeed. Good luck and keep going ;)

That way looks stupid in my mind. I prefer whole maps suited for it with a little better looking way of doing it.

As i said. It cant be done easily on stock maps without cheats/mods for terrain altering. You can do it without that by using user made maps well suited for it

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by Zefnoly:

Most of the stock maps are poorly made to utilize the hydropowers well. If you want more realistic use of them you should look at user made maps where there is a bigger chance of the dam to have high power output. I made a canyon map where i can easily build powerfull dams

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

I sympathise with you and I understand how difficult mastering dam building can be. This guide should help ;)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=643348291
Even if you don't want max output, the theory alone should help you succeed. Good luck and keep going ;)

That way looks stupid in my mind. I prefer whole maps suited for it with a little better looking way of doing it.

As i said. It cant be done easily on stock maps without cheats/mods for terrain altering. You can do it without that by using user made maps well suited for it

I deliberately built a stand alone dam for the purpose of that guide to focus on the theory and application, which does indeed make it a lot easier and allows you to place a dam on any map without having to search for a suitable one. I see no stupidity in that.
I was unconcerned with how it looks. The aethetics as I said, I leave to the player.
If looks are that important to you, I believe this dam which used the river should should be sufficient.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=641832087
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=641315868
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=641834774

[Zefnoly]

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

Originally posted by Zefnoly:

Most of the stock maps are poorly made to utilize the hydropowers well. If you want more realistic use of them you should look at user made maps where there is a bigger chance of the dam to have high power output. I made a canyon map where i can easily build powerfull dams


That way looks stupid in my mind. I prefer whole maps suited for it with a little better looking way of doing it.

As i said. It cant be done easily on stock maps without cheats/mods for terrain altering. You can do it without that by using user made maps well suited for it

I deliberately built a stand alone dam for the purpose of that guide to focus on the theory and application, which does indeed make it a lot easier and allows you to place a dam on any map without having to search for a suitable one. I see no stupidity in that.
I was unconcerned with how it looks. The aethetics as I said, I leave to the player.
If looks are that important to you, I believe this dam which used the river should should be sufficient.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=641832087
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=641315868
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=641834774

If there is no river on the map meant for a powerfull dam and you just build a dam somewhere on the edge of the map makes it feel like cheating/unatural to me. So for me i prefer natural looking Dams on actuall rivers not just appearing somewhere just infront of the dam. Or else i can nicely build nuclear/solar power instead if the map doesn't have the river for it. I dont cheat in terrain tools just for that after starting the city. But that is my opinion.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=654973535

[Wutproppen]

Originally posted by Zefnoly:

. Or else i can nicely build nuclear/solar power instead if the map doesn't have the river for it. I dont cheat in terrain tools just for that after starting the city. But that is my opinion.

If I get it correctly, solar power plants generate zero electricity during the night. What I'd really like to see in the game would be buildings that save the energy. Like, a pumped-storage hydroelectricity powerplants, where you create a lake at the top of a hill and at its bottom, and while you have excess energy the water is pumped up, and when you need energy it flows down to power turbines and generate electricity.

[Zefnoly]

Originally posted by RB Oneironaut:

Originally posted by Zefnoly:

. Or else i can nicely build nuclear/solar power instead if the map doesn't have the river for it. I dont cheat in terrain tools just for that after starting the city. But that is my opinion.

If I get it correctly, solar power plants generate zero electricity during the night. What I'd really like to see in the game would be buildings that save the energy. Like, a pumped-storage hydroelectricity powerplants, where you create a lake at the top of a hill and at its bottom, and while you have excess energy the water is pumped up, and when you need energy it flows down to power turbines and generate electricity.

Nah. I would like the method they use in irl. Solar plants heating up salt (or whatever it was) and the rest heat is stored for night use,

[Bread]

For anyone interested, so far I have found one map that can utilize a hydro dam with a max 1600 output. Map is called "Springfield".