So far I am liking the patch

[wolfpost]

It certainly is challenging trying to buy enough small coal mines to power my city. I have 3 now and thats barely enough to keep everything powered. The only other option I have at this point is the wind mills. But the problem I have is the wind in my starting area really sux. I built like 10 of them and none of them were working more than 33%. So, I built 3 small coal plants over time and destroyed all the wind mills to save money. But thats turning out to be a mistake and now.

I might have to build them back. LOl. I am seriously thinking of taking a lone to buy the gas plant and destroy the 3 coal plants. but I am not sure if I can afford the maintenance. I am actually loving that this is a problem right now.

[Stealthy]

When plopping the wind mill down, it shows the predicted power amount. No point using them unless you hit above 4MW, preferrably full 5MW.

Big benefit with wind mills is no staff so they are cheap to use.

[girlaroundthecorner]

Originally posted by wolfpost:

It certainly is challenging trying to buy enough small coal mines to power my city. I have 3 now and thats barely enough to keep everything powered. The only other option I have at this point is the wind mills. But the problem I have is the wind in my starting area really sux. I built like 10 of them and none of them were working more than 33%. So, I built 3 small coal plants over time and destroyed all the wind mills to save money. But thats turning out to be a mistake and now.

I might have to build them back. LOl. I am seriously thinking of taking a lone to buy the gas plant and destroy the 3 coal plants. but I am not sure if I can afford the maintenance. I am actually loving that this is a problem right now.

Am having the same issue with three coal power plants and still importing electricity, plus my city isn't particularly windy. I've never used gas. Silly question. How is it powered - do you need a certain type of industry to make the gas?

[Bobbo662]

I'm really enjoying the new patch, it's become very challenging, which is something I like. I built a gas power plant, and water plant. My housing district is huge, enough to cover those 2 plants with full workers, and then 1-3 shops, small medical, small fire house, and police station.

[Morpheus]

Originally posted by Stealthy:

When plopping the wind mill down, it shows the predicted power amount. No point using them unless you hit above 4MW, preferrably full 5MW.

Big benefit with wind mills is no staff so they are cheap to use.

In my 2nd play after the patch, I went ahead and just used wind power and upgraded them until I could budget for coal, then when the city got big enough, I switched to the gas power plant.

[V_Cred]

Try using the terrain tool to create some elevated ground, and see if you get more wind, then place your wind turbines on top of that.

[wolfpost]

Originally posted by Stealthy:

When plopping the wind mill down, it shows the predicted power amount. No point using them unless you hit above 4MW, preferrably full 5MW.

Big benefit with wind mills is no staff so they are cheap to use.

I used the windmills to start the game because I don't like my industry or power plants anywhere near my city. And the wind is blowing in a direction, no matter where I put the plant, the pollution will blow somewhere I want to build in the future. And to be honest, I just assumed they would produce more on hill tops over lower lands and I really didn't look because I knew they would be temp. Until it became an issue and I saw they were producing under 1MW. On a hill top! LOL. I just assumed they would be at least 3 on a hill top. At first, the city was growing so slowly, it wasn't an issue and I had always planned to move away from them. When I saw how little they produced, I moved them to other, "lower lands" and the best I could do was about 3.5. I still didn't have much money but my city was growing so I sort of got trapped into a never ending cycle of placing more of them at 3.5 or less. I tried building a small coal plant but my economy couldn't support it yet.

Now, I have 3 small coal plants and when I bull dozed the wind mills to save some money, they are barely covering my electric. I mean like 1-2MW extra. I bull dozed the windmills because 3.5MW is still the best I can do with them. And I theya re in an area I am approaching I have big plans for. So it seems I have a choice of taking a loan out or just waiting until I have the cash for a gas plant and deleting the coal plants to make up some of the maintenance costs or back to lots of windmills. LOL. I am in a cycle that I want to break of build a power plant, wait until I get more pop and money but now I need another power plant again. But I am loving that I have to make choices like this.

Now if only the mods would actually install. The one I am missing the most is the one that puts different decals on the ground. Like cement or brick or whatever. I really like my downtown areas to be all cement around the tall buildings.