Just like media-companies - there should be several types of electric companies:
- Solar-powered plant
- Wind-powered plant
- Nuclear-powered plant
- Hydro power plant (believe Dam is the word here)
- Coal-powered plant
possibly some other - biomass or geothermal
And - each type will have different costs, but make the same one final product - electricity. And will differentiated from city to city - where there's no water, you can't build dam... and so on...
Maybe government fees for the dirty power might be in order to reduce some of that good income. Also I was thinking just now that maybe based on how large the city is and with how many buildings there are then that determines our expenses in an electric company to maintain the lines, power poles, generators, bump electric stations etc. Maybe population would also figure into determining expenses of the electric company too.
As a fictitious example, maybe it would cost the electric company $35.00 per person in the population and $15,000 per business supplied with power for their expenses, that would not include any "special events" that might occur to cause unexpected expenses to the power company like storms that might damage the electric infrastructure etc.
Could also be bumped the other way with government paying little chitzes for having a cleaner electric plant, subsidies? Is that what it is called maybe.
I'm sorry, i shouldn't left it unfinished, my bad:
(for the record "capacity" means how much... electricity can be produce per month in the given plant)
(i'll use "electric unit" - coz i really don't know if it megawats... or whatever, i don't understant physics)
(you can change the prices of 1 units per day)
1. Solar-powered plant:
- electric capacity: 70
- monthly upkeep: relatively low
- state ecological fees per month: 0
- cost per electric unit usage per month: 5-10$
- city-limit for this type of plant: unlimited number
- place: everywhere on the map
- other limitations: can't be used in the polar areas, can be upgraded to get more capacity
2. Wind-powered plant:
- electric capacity: 70
- monthly upkeep: low
- state ecological fees per month: 10,000$
- cost per el. unit: 15-20$
- city-limits for this type: unlimited number
- place: outside the city and living areas
- other limitations: probably some climatical... i d k, also - can be upgraded
3. Nuclear power plant:
- electric capacity: 150
- montly upkeep: highest possible
- state ecological fees per month: 100,000$
- cost per el. unit: 50-60$
- city-limits for this type: max 2 in the whole area
- place: outside the city, far from every other building
- other limitations: banned in some contries, up to 50 years of usage
4. Hydropower plant
- electric capacity: 120
- montly upkeep: high
- state ecological fees per month: 50,000$
- cost per el. unit: 30-40$
- city-limits for this type: max 5 in the area, if there's a river.
- place: in the water or near the water of the river.
- other limitations: can be upgraded to hold more capacity - but for more upkeep fee
5. Coal-powered plant:
- electric capacity: 100
- montly upkeep: high
- state ecological fees per month: 75,000$
- cst per el. unit: 30-60$
- city-limits for this type: max 3 in large city, 2 in middle, 1 in small
- place: outside the city, close to coal mines, not upwind of living areas.
- other limitations: can be banned if nuclear plant already exist in the city, can be upgraded but for really high fee, time limitation of 100 years of usage.
6. Biomass-powered plant:
- electric capacity: 50
- montly upkeep: moderate
- state ecological fee per month: 10,000$
- cost per el. unit: 20-35$
- city-limits for this type: up to 10
- place: outside the city, close to some farms or food factories.
- other limitations: i can't think of any
7. Geothemal-powered plant:
- electric capacity: 60
- montly upkeep: moderate
- state ecological fee per month: 5,000$
- cost per el. unit: 15-30$
- city-limits: up tp 6 in large city, 4 for small or middlesized
- place: specific locations on the map, placed randomly like oil, gold, silver and so on.
Some notes:
If a plant got electric capacity of 10, this means - it can generate electricity to power up to 10 buildings, no matter their size or purpose.
Electric units is = the power one building needs for a single day. This should be different for every single type of building:
- less for mansions, stores
- more for apartments, large stores, farms, offices
- highest for factories Example?
Geothemal plant:
I accumulate electricity for 60 buildings. Each of them is an apartment. An apartment needs 10 units per day electricity. I sell 1 unit for 20$. This means - 60 apartments x 10 units x 20$ = 12,000$ per DAY. In 30-day month this means: 360,000$ - minus 5,000$ fee for the state and some... 50,000$ fees upkeep and maintenance. The profit is 305,000$ for this month.
List for some buildings - electric units per day:
- mansion - 7 units
- apartment - 10 units, 12 for middlesized, 15 for large
- supermarket - 12 units
- office building - 15 units, 20 for middlesized, 30 for large
- farm - 15 units, 17 for middlesized, 20 for large
- large store - 25 units
- small factory - 30 units
- middle factory - 40 units
- large factory - 50 units
- media building - 45 units.
- lumber firm - 30 units
- oil firm - 50 units
- mine - 45 units
- hq - 20 units
and so on...
Power plants really should be implemented. It would also make more demand for oil and coal.
The same thing could be implemented for water.
Water as a resource would be a great addition. You could produce bottled water and have competing water providers. Later on it could become a scarce and extremely valuable resource.
There could already be some competition with government power plants making profits like there are media firms in the beginning.
It can be made so that it's viable for the player to build a new power plant only after the government ones are at full capacity - that is after many factories and RD centers spring up.
Some users have said that media firm's sliders on pricing and media content development budget is too simplified. Power plants may have the same issues and it may not be a good idea to add power plants to add to the list of firms that can shift the gameplay balance with aforementioned simplified attributes.
robinh wrote:It can be made so that it's viable for the player to build a new power plant only after the government ones are at full capacity - that is after many factories and RD centers spring up.
This.
Power plants should be more like factories than media firms - they'll take in coal or oil etc and generate electricity. A city's demand for electricity is based on the number of buildings it has, including factories, R&D, retail, apartments etc. Electricity works like other goods, but rather than being sold in retail outlets, it's sold from 'substations' which cover an area. Only property within the area can buy from a substation. Overproducing electricity will make powerplants lose cash; companies can retail electricity without making it themselves, and will form little competitive microcosms within the cityscape.
Areas without electricity will have low land values. Areas next to big, smelly powerplants (oil or coal) will have low land values, too. So ideally, you want your power plants far away from your housing developments, and substations nestled within them. If possible, we could even force substations to make chains to transport the electricity.
The same can be said for other utilities - gas and water could both have appropriate 'factories' and retail stores.
About the discussion of having 3 sliders for setting electricity prices:
And one small detail - diff price of electricity for
a) industrial buildings - farms, factories, mines,
b) offices, apartments, mansions
c) state-owned buildings - stadium, tv, radio... (like in real life) - which is... 3 diff sliders... and possibly - option to choose whether or not to sell to one of these 3 type of clients
What are you guys' thoughts on this?
Should there be a single price slider for setting a single electricity price for all types of users or 3 sliders as suggested above?
Another alternative is just to fix the electricity price (no slider for changing prices) and only allow the Government to set up power plants. In other words, private companies will not be allowed to set up power plants. But since in the city sim DLC, the player will run the government, so it means that the player will be able to set up and run power plants.
David wrote:About the discussion of having 3 sliders for setting electricity prices:
And one small detail - diff price of electricity for
a) industrial buildings - farms, factories, mines,
b) offices, apartments, mansions
c) state-owned buildings - stadium, tv, radio... (like in real life) - which is... 3 diff sliders... and possibly - option to choose whether or not to sell to one of these 3 type of clients
What are you guys' thoughts on this?
Should there be a single price slider for setting a single electricity price for all types of users or 3 sliders as suggested above?
Another alternative is just to fix the electricity price (no slider for changing prices) and only allow the Government to set up power plants. In other words, private companies will not be allowed to set up power plants. But since in the city sim DLC, the player will run the government, so it means that the player will be able to set up and run power plants.
I think there should be the 3 sliders or perhaps limit it to two. One for industrial buildings and one for offices/apartments/etc. The government could build their own power plants to supply their own power and perhaps provide a "local" price for a private company to compete with. Of course that would mean eventually the player would be able to set that price, but my understanding was that the player only took over the Government after a specific achievement.
