So... don't mess around with dams.

[Fluffy]

I had a minor "accident" while trying to play with hydro power (still haven't gotten it to work), resulting in a minor flood of my fledgling city.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3066272689

No problem, I thought. The wave will destroy a few buildings, but the terrain is sloped, and the water will pass soon enough. Boy, was I wrong.

• Water takes ages to flow downhill. Like, the tidal wave took weeks to even reach my city.
  
• Water is extremely 'sticky', and doesn't want to flow downhill, rather sticking to whatever ground it already covers.
  
• Water seems to either not evaporate/drain, or evaporate/drain extremely slowly. In addition...
  
• Pumping stations seem to either not affect the level of surface water, or do so extremely slowly. I built several fully upgraded water pumps near some of the larger sticky lakes left behind, and am exporting water at several hundred m3/s, to little effect - the surface level of the lakes has barely moved in several in-game months.
  
• Water absolutely tanks performance. I'm not sure if it's the water itself, or all of the warning floats, but viewing the sunken area of my city tanks FPS from smooth to slideshow.
  
• Flooding kills citizens. Even with the water moving at a glacial pace, several thousand residents have died in their homes. RIP, all is as it should be here.
  
• Flooding is not a disaster. The radio has multiple times acknowledged a forest fire miles away from any inhabited area, but up to a third of the city being flooded has not so far warranted the briefest of mentions.
  
• Citizens are extremely suicidal. Citizens will happily build a house on areas that are still partially flooded, or about to be flooded, and I suspect in some cases are currently several meters under water. The fact that this is suicide does not seem to bother them. This is worse because...
  
• Flooding victims and suicidal citizens quickly overwhelm deathcare. I have had to increase my deathcare facilities by over 400%, and they are still unable to keep up with the flood (heh) of suicidal citizens.

All in all, my city has now dropped from 40k to ~30k citizens, and what initially seemed like a minor issue has turned out to be a much larger one. On the one hand, a hydro dam "break" (ahum, demolition) unleashing a massive flood should have a huge effect, but I would argue this should be much more destruction initially, and not this insidious city-death-by-suicidal-citizens cycle I'm currently locked in. Frankly, it's just not a fun problem to deal with.

Has anyone else had good/bad/funny experiences with hydro power plants, and/or (un)intentional flooding? Would love to hear your stories!

[edits: layout, link]

[espere.semper]

Posted a guide for 'perfect; working dam. Easily replicable, save when game hates you and wants you to suffer.

[Ango1eiro]

Beautiful

[Apples]

Originally posted by Fluffy:

• Citizens are extremely suicidal. Citizens will happily build a house on areas that are still partially flooded, or about to be flooded, and I suspect in some cases are currently several meters under water. The fact that this is suicide does not seem to bother them. This is worse because...
  
• Flooding victims and suicidal citizens quickly overwhelm deathcare. I have had to increase my deathcare facilities by over 400%, and they are still unable to keep up with the flood (heh) of suicidal citizens.

Sounds realistic, they don't have to take responsibility for their own stupidity.

[TeknoBug]

Well dam this town...

[Thargrim]

Hopefully "Noah" came to the Town and was saving 1 male and 1 female so he Humans can rebuild the city later on.