A few electricity questions

[pat]

I have to believe that I'm not the first person to get to the point where I said "Ok, now it's time to start developing my electricity", then saw what logistics were required, and simply decided that I'd have to start a whole new game, planning for electricity right at the outset.

Ok, so I've started my new game, I've got a few oil springs on my starting island, but I see a nearby island with 7 springs. Should I plan on simply doing all of the oil gathering on that other island, including everything required to build a tanker?

I've read what I've found, and as I understand it, the process is:
Place refineries near oil springs. Run a railroad line from your oil harbor storage building to the refineries in a loop (trains can't pass each other).
Run another train along lines to the various power stations and industries I've laid down.

With my tanker, send oil from the source island to my main island and run trains from that harbor oil storage facility to the power plants and industries on that island.

Is that about it?

Can a refinery handle all of the oil springs it can reach? So if they're close enough together that I could place on refinery that covered all of them, that's ok? Or is there a limit per refinery?

On one video I saw, the guy preplanned for things by laying down some double-wide streets so that the rail line could be placed down on one of the streets. Can I assume that a rail offers the same benefits as a road? Once I lay that rail down there (eliminating the road), the adjacent houses are still going to be connect to all of the support buildings, right?

Even though I didn't have the oil network set up, I experimented with putting down power plants. I find it difficult to see what the range of the plant is. There is this grey haze that spreads out around it that seems to get thinner as you get further from the plant. Does this mean that you're only going to supply a "little bit" of electricity a the fringes? I don't see a good way to determine if a building is getting electricity.

[Tankfriend]

Originally posted by pat:

I've read what I've found, and as I understand it, the process is:
Place refineries near oil springs. Run a railroad line from your oil harbor storage building to the refineries in a loop (trains can't pass each other).
Run another train along lines to the various power stations and industries I've laid down.

With my tanker, send oil from the source island to my main island and run trains from that harbor oil storage facility to the power plants and industries on that island.

Is that about it?

Yes, though keep in mind to place the actual oil wells from the refinery.

Can a refinery handle all of the oil springs it can reach? So if they're close enough together that I could place on refinery that covered all of them, that's ok?

Yes. Each oil well will increase the production rate of the refinery, meaning you can easily have some 400+% productivity on it.

On one video I saw, the guy preplanned for things by laying down some double-wide streets so that the rail line could be placed down on one of the streets. Can I assume that a rail offers the same benefits as a road? Once I lay that rail down there (eliminating the road), the adjacent houses are still going to be connect to all of the support buildings, right?

I'm not sure, but it shouldn't.

Even though I didn't have the oil network set up, I experimented with putting down power plants. I find it difficult to see what the range of the plant is. There is this grey haze that spreads out around it that seems to get thinner as you get further from the plant. Does this mean that you're only going to supply a "little bit" of electricity a the fringes? I don't see a good way to determine if a building is getting electricity.

The power plant adds electric wiring to all roads that are connected to it and inside its zone of effect. So if a building is built at a road with electric wiring, the building will be powered.

[Profound]

The range of the plant is determined by the roads. Stone roads go farther too. The roads will get electric poles.

The trains really don't need a loop. They can carry 200 oil at once..so you should be okay just having a straight away.

[pat]

Originally posted by Tankfriend:

The power plant adds electric wiring to all roads that are connected to it and inside its zone of effect. So if a building is built at a road with electric wiring, the building will be powered.

Will this zone be more clear once I actually have electricity? And is electricity a little like other improvements? e.g., if a pub is way down the street, a house will show a little benefit on the happiness chart, but nowhere near as much as the house that is just a couple doors down from the pub. Same with electricity? I kind of assumed that you had electricity or you didn't. I mean, in the real world, the electricity at my house is no worse than the guy who lives next to the power plant.

[pat]

Originally posted by Profound:

The range of the plant is determined by the roads. Stone roads go farther too. The roads will get electric poles.

The trains really don't need a loop. They can carry 200 oil at once..so you should be okay just having a straight away.

Ok, thanks. The video that I saw had multiple trains on the track, and if it's true that they can't pass each other, I'd think they'd get stuck at the far end.

[pat]

Maybe I should reload that last game I had and set up electricity nonetheless, so that I can see firsthand how the electricity gets connected. I have three main islands. All three have oil springs, but not knowing what I was doing, I built up around them and made any connection to the harbor totally impossible without some immense destruction.

[Tankfriend]

You can move buildings, you know?

[pat]

Ok, I DID continue with my original game and got electricity going. Had to bulldoze a few dozen industries to pull it off, but now I have a better understanding of how things work. AND how important electricity is. I'm not sure what the grey haze surrounding the power plant was, but it's got nothing to do with distribution.

[bewest169]

I had to destroy a few houses and plants but found this is the instead of starting over

[bewest169]

anyone hate the newspaper moron as much as me, given bad stories on shortages that are not fact,said I had a shortage of Rum but in fact the Warehouse was full talk about your fake news must be a CNN man

[City Builder]

Originally posted by bewest169:

I had to destroy a few houses and plants but found this is the instead of starting over

I've been trying to plan in advance and usually have a very strong economy so I use decorations to map out where I want railways and buildings to be placed when they unlock. Using this to determine how many 1x1 decorations I have to use (usually grass for me): https://anno1800.fandom.com/wiki/Buildings

Only problem is that I have sometimes forgotten what I was planning to build in a spot later in the game.

Would prefer just having all buildings available at beginning of game and being allowed to only place the blueprints of them until they unlock in the game, that would be the ultimate.

[Tankfriend]

Originally posted by pat:

I'm not sure what the grey haze surrounding the power plant was, but it's got nothing to do with distribution.

It's pollution from all that oil you're burning.

[pat]

Either the train method is incredibly stupid or I am. It's very frustrating.

On my main island where I need electricity the most, the oil springs (4 of them) were nestled deep in a mountain range and I had to snake the railroad line across my continent to reach the coast. It took a lot of industry and housing destruction, but I did it and it does appear to be working. But I have several issues.

Although several trains are running, they're all idiots. They all follow each other to the refineries. The first train fills up and has several tanks of oil following it back to the harbor. Then right behind it are four other trains, each pulling a tank with 1-2 oil in it, looking like a mother duck leading its ducklings back to the pond. Is there anything I can do to fix this?

I often see a warning icon over the refinery. It says something along the lines of "train delayed - track in use", or maybe "track conflict".

If I click on a refinery to bring up the details, the only useful information is if I hover over the icon on the right that looks like a cup/bucket of oil. Some info pops up including how much oil is waiting at the refinery. But at the bottom of this window is a red warning saying "No warehouse in range". Why does it need a warehouse? To try to fix this, I put a warehouse next to it and connected them. The warning is still there. Bug?

I have two power plants set up along the tracks. I'd love to put down more, but these ones aren't getting enough oil to keep running all the time. I haven't sat there and watched them constantly, but it seems they're off much more than they're on. Any thing I can do to improve this?

[Tankfriend]

Originally posted by pat:

Is there anything I can do to fix this?

No.

I often see a warning icon over the refinery. It says something along the lines of "train delayed - track in use", or maybe "track conflict".

This is because of the issue above.

Why does it need a warehouse? To try to fix this, I put a warehouse next to it and connected them. The warning is still there. Bug?

I have no idea why it would need a warehouse. As to how to get rid of it, did you also connect the warehouse to the kontor?

I have two power plants set up along the tracks. I'd love to put down more, but these ones aren't getting enough oil to keep running all the time. I haven't sat there and watched them constantly, but it seems they're off much more than they're on. Any thing I can do to improve this?

Two things only, really.
1. Give each power plant a separate rail all the way back to the oil harbour.
2. Ship in more oil from other islands, if your local production is not enough to satisfy two power plants.

[pat]

Originally posted by Tankfriend:

Why does it need a warehouse? To try to fix this, I put a warehouse next to it and connected them. The warning is still there. Bug?

I have no idea why it would need a warehouse. As to how to get rid of it, did you also connect the warehouse to the kontor?

Kontor? Not sure what that is. I did have it connected by road to the rest of my road network.

2. Ship in more oil from other islands, if your local production is not enough to satisfy two power plants.

I've since discovered that there is a ton of oil in the new world, so I'm shipping it back from there.

Thanks for the good advice.

[Tankfriend]

Originally posted by pat:

Kontor? Not sure what that is.

Your main harbor building. Not playing the game in English here, though the word was taken into English verbatim.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kontor