Hydro Plants

[LeChimp]

Why can't I build a hydro plant to every city that has a factory? When I build Hoover Dam, it seems to affect every city that has a factory.

[BeBro]

I may be wrong, but I think Hydro Plants can only be build in cities near river squares. And yes, Hoover affects all cities - it´s a wonder, isn´t it?

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Civ2000 hosted by CivII Universum

[Exile]

Hydro plants can only be built in cities adjacent to mountain or river tiles/squares. When you build the Hoover Dam wonder, you are provided with hydro-electric power throughout your entire continent (or maybe empire--I think the rules might have changed on this from civ1). This means that in every city you now have, effectively, a free (no unkeep costs) hydro plant, and the game won't allow you to build any hydro plants in any city you own. Check the production for the cities in question both before and after you build Hoover. You will see that their production will jump as if they now had hydro plant, even though no plant has been constructed. Not only does Hoover significantly cut costs this way, but it also reduces pollution levels in each city as if there were a hydro plant there.
You might seize an enemy city by force, however, and find a hydro plant in it. It has no effect because Hoover will do what it does. You may now sell it and use the cash elsewhere. This sale also renders the city less productive if your opponent retakes the place.

Hoover Dam is one of the premier wonders and many people see it as one of the most desirable.

Salutations,
Exile

[East Street Trader]

As you can see the answer means you need to give a moment's thought to city location. If you make getting Hoover's a very high priority then you needn't worry about giving a value to building beside a mountain or river but, as a hydro plant is the best value power plant until the very end (when Environmentalism allows a solar plant), if you don't plan on ensuring Hoover's you should.

In this respect the ability to build a hydro plant is a bit like the ability to build a harbour. You can only build that improvement in a city which borders an ocean or lake square.

Note that there are similar limitations also in that proximity in both cases means that the central city square itself must border the ocean or river/mountain. It is not enough for an ocean square or a river/mountain square to lie within the city's area. It can, however, border the city square longitudinally, latitudinally or diagonally.

Note also that if you build one form of power plant and then, when a better one becomes available build that, then you should sell off the outdated version.

If you try OCC I particularly commend locating so as to have the hydro option. In that context Hoover's is not so good a buy as just a single plant but you have plenty of pollution to deal with so that a less dirty plant is good news.
[This message has been edited by East Street Trader (edited April 25, 2001).]

[Scouse Gits]

EST - can I disagree with your OCC assessment - byt he time you are building power plants etc you should have completed all your infrastructure work and two engineers are all that is required to keep on top of pollution - hence build the cheapest nastiest power plant available ...

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Scouse Git[1] -- git1@scousers.net

"Staring at your screen in horror and disbelief when you open a saved game is one of the fun things of a succession game " - Hueij
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"A short cut has to be challenging,
were it not so it would be 'the way'." - Paul Craven

[Marquis de Sodaq]

Exile sums it up well - and it does affect all of your cities, provided they could have built a hydro plant before you built Hoover Dam.

EST, don't production improvements combine effects? I thought they did add together, just as the economic and scientific improvements do. Why sell the old one off if it still has an effect? Or am I mistaken?

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"There is no fortress impregnable to an ass laden with gold."
-Philip of Macedon

[East Street Trader]

I should probably keep off the subject of OCC. I am only an OCCasional player and am prone to make micromanagement **** ups when I do play. So I expect you're right, SG. Two engineers working together clean up a polluted square instantly so you lose no production. And, like you, that has (IIRC) generally allowed me to keep up. I think that one city can only spawn one polluted square per turn. But I suspect one of my failures of micromanagement lies in less than optimum land improvement. And there is the possibility of having to repair pillage from barbs or the A1. Plus you might get away with not requiring two engineers if pollution was kept down.

Perhaps one of the OCC experts will tell us if this is indeed a factor or not.

Marquis

Multiple power plants don't produce cumulative shield increases. Only one counts at a time. If you maintain two or more in any city you are throwing away maintenance cost and tying up capital for no benefit.

Another city improvement which overlaps is the re-cycling plant. That reduces pollution from shield production but if you subsequently build a solar plant (which eliminates such pollution) you should sell off the re-cycling plant.

While on the subject, IME mass transit (which acts on polution caused by population) does more to control pollution - as well as being cheaper and coming earlier - than any of the improvements which act on pollution caused by shields. When playing out a game in which I am rush buying every improvement every other turn I have sometimes built a solar plant before mass transit. It sometimes hardly touches pollution when mass transit almost eliminates it.


[This message has been edited by East Street Trader (edited April 25, 2001).]

[Marquis de Sodaq]

quote: Originally posted by East Street Trader on 04-25-2001 09:47 AM Multiple power plants don't produce cumulative shield increases. Only one counts at a time. If you maintain two or more in any city you are throwing away maintenance cost and tying up capital for no benefit. [This message has been edited by East Street Trader (edited April 25, 2001).]

That's okay, I'm usually so freakin' rich by the time electronics comes around, who needs the few hundred gold from the sale?


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"There is no fortress impregnable to an ass laden with gold."
-Philip of Macedon